WaBDR and BC, Part 1 The Washington Backcountry Discovery Route

Day 1--Cascade Locks OR to Rimrock Lake WA

** Many thanks to Lyon and Cindy for the use of their pictures. My camera finally truly bit the dust, literally. The lens won't come in or go out, due to dust caught in the mechanism. Bummer... The up-side is that I'm actually in some of these shots! 

The Washington Backcountry Discovery Route is a primarily dirt road route that starts at the Bridge of the Gods on the Columbia River and ends at the Nighthawk Border Crossing into Canada. The tracks are available on www.backcountrydiscoveryroutes.com and as a Butler Map from various retailers.

 Group photo at the Bridge of the Gods. The bridge is a very long, metal grate type surface. Very freaky to ride across, especially on a fully loaded bike, twice!  We had to do it the day before too.

  We took dirt roads through the Gifford Pinchot NF. Most were nice wide car type roads, but the word of the day turned out to be "Potholes". Yep, some seemed big enough to swallow my bike!

 We stopped at the Ice Caves located on FS 20, for lunch.  After lunch we continued north to Packwood where we picked up supplies and then headed east on US 12 to Rimrock Lake.  

We stopped at Indian Creek CG on Rimrock Lake for the night

Day 1 ended with 153 miles and 2 small issues.  Lyon's tent fell off his bike, just before lunch.  He managed to go back and find it!  The other issue wasn't quite so easy to solve.  Bob managed to smack his head on the ceiling inside the ice cave and sliced open his head.  He and Cindy spent the next few days dealing with that!

Day 2--Indian Creek CG to Wenatchee

We started Day 2 by running about 10 miles of pavement on US 12 before turning north onto dirt to go up to Bethel Ridge

Views from the ridge

 Wayne with Mt Rainier on a clear day

 Bob and Cindy

 Lyon with Patti (me) and Bob in the background

 Wayne and I take off in the dust

 Today's roads are a bit more challenging

 Three little bikes in the distance

 Here I come!

 Why is it that hills never look as steep or knarley in photos as they are in real life?

 Wayne makes it look easy

 So does Lyon. Yes the word of the day today is "Rocks"!!!

 Lunch was near the Wenas River, on the way to Ellensburg

 Cindy and I both ride yellow DRZ's

After lunch we went up and over the ridge, dropping into Ellensburg. A quick trip to Fred Meyer to buy Wayne another layer of clothing.  I told him it wouldn't stay 90 degrees, but did he believe me??? 

 The section between Ellensburg and Wenatchee was really fast and very fun. We had to take a quick stop near Table Mountain

We came across these dirt bikers on their KTM's above Wenatchee.  They were out after work for a quick ride in their Big Back Yard. As all 5 of us have KTM dirt bikes, we had to stop and chat.  The boys gave us a recommendation for dinner at the Badger Mountain Brewing.  The pizza and beer were great.  

Day 2 ended with 154 miles and a night at a motel due to high winds.

Day 3--Wenatchee to 25 Mile Creek State Park, Chelan

We took advantage of being in a town, and started our day at Walmart. My hydration pack was leaking and needed to be replaced. Then we got on US 2 to Cashmere (home of Aplets and Cotlets candy) where we turned north and headed back into the dirt. We would stay in the woods for most of the day as we head to Lake Chelan, where some of the forest is on fire.

 Biker gang takes over parking lot

 No Wayne! Wrong way!

 We stopped for just a moment at an intersection and this little buck ran between me and Bob, then darted up the hill.

 We spent some of the day on little two track roads

 The view of Lake Chelan in the distance. The smoke is from a fire to the north of us.

 Bob and Cindy with the North Cascades in the distance

 25 Mile Creek State Park looked like a good place to camp. Grass for the tents and hot showers for us! The word of the day today was "Dust"!

 Kicked back and relaxed

Smoke over the lake

Day 3 was the shortest so far, only 98 miles. We managed to avoid the fire closures, but not the smoke.

Day 4--Lake Chelan to Palmer Lake near Nighthawk

 Day 4 started with another pavement run as we went down the west side of the lake to the town of Chelan, then up the east side where we got back onto dirt roads.

Wayne near the Foggy Dew riding area. We have certainly been near or through many of our old riding areas. We lived in Washington until 2007, riding in the mountains almost every weekend during the riding season.

 A quick stop near Gold Creek and Foggy Dew. Then it was down to the Methow Valley. That is pronounced Met-how.  Go figure! there we hop onto SR 153 north to US 20.

 We follow US 20 into Okanogan for lunch. Trust Wayne to find the local Taco Truck. From town we followed the Salmon Creek Rd up to the town of Conconully (Con-co-nully).

 There was a fire in the area 2 years ago.  The fire weed is making a big come back. Although the photos don't show it, the hills were covered in purple

 Seemed like we rode for ever through the fire damage. The word of the day today was "Burned"!

 Bob and Cindy

 We were reaching the end of the WaBDR. We decided to stop for the night on the US side of the border, but all the parks at Palmer Lake were full.  We found this BLM river access spot and decided to spend the night.

 Setting up camp in the trees for some shade, but it wasn't a very big flat spot

 No picnic table tonight, but that was ok

 because this was the view! This is the Similkameen River

Day 4 was in the books.  We are now about 5 miles from the Canadian border. Today we added 197 miles and have down the 600 mile WaBDR in 4 days.  And this is just the beginning. We are headed into Canada tomorrow!