Back in the Saddle again!!!

Before I get started on our new adventures, I have to address the obvious! I can't believe that it has been an entire year since I have posted anything.  It's true! After Wayne broke his leg last year, I just dropped the ball.  Yes, my camera broke. Yes, my phone's battery won't last long enough to make it through a whole ride. Yes, we were in places where we have been many times before.  But that shouldn't stop me.  I promise to try to do better! As a bonus, I am going to go back to our big summer ride and start this back up with a bang. We hope you enjoy the trip!

August 2015

In August Wayne and I, along with our friends Lyon, Cindy and Bob took our Suzuki DRZ 400's through Washington and British Columbia for a 2 week back country camping trip. We decided to meet at the Washington/Oregon border, to start on the WaBDR (AKA the Washington Backcountry Discovery Route). Cindy and Bob would come up from Redmond OR and Lyon would come over from the Portland area.  Wayne and I started in Monroe WA, where we left the motorhome, and the cats! For us this would be a 16 day 2268 mile Big Adventure!

To start, we had to travel south to the Columbia River. We had planned on doing the 250 miles in one day, but just weeks before we were due to leave, I spent a week in the hospital fighting an infection in my knee and Wayne decided to do a nose dive off the top of a friends van.  Amazingly he didn't break anything or do any major damage to himself, however I thought my heart was going to stop.  It was the single most scary thing I have ever had to watch. But after lots of massage and chiropractic care, he decided that he could ride. So I broke our first day into two, and we took it easy on the way south.

Packed up and ready to go. 

We left Monroe going south on State Route (SR) 203 to Snoqualmie. We then took SR 18 to Hobart, then headed south to Enumclaw. There we headed south on SR 410. We stopped at Crystal Mtn Ski Area just to see how much it has changed since my last trip there about 35 years ago. Look at all the 'stuff' we have on those bikes.  

 We took SR 123 south to the Mt Rainier National Park road, and went out to where we could finally see the mountain. It had been so cloudy we hadn't really seen him all day. Then it was west on US 12 to Packwood.

 We stayed at the Cowlitz Lodge, I figured that Wayne should have one last night sleeping in a bed, with that bad back. There was a heard of small elk that were grazing through town and napping on the front lawn.

 Day two of the trip south had us going through the Gifford Pinchot National Forest with occasional views of Mt St Helens. We have spent a lot of time in the GP over the years camping and riding our off road motorcycles. This would be a different kind of ride for us.

 We arrived at the campground in Cascade Locks OR to find that we were the last to arrive. That's pretty typical...

 It was a very pretty campground, but nice views did NOT make up for the fact that 80 trains go right by the campground each 24 hours.  Nobody got any sleep that night.  What a way to start our trip!

 Bob, Cindy and Lyon joined us at dinner at the Brewery that was located right next door.

 What a view!

The Bridge of the Gods, the official start of the WABDR. Tomorrow we will begin our two week long camping trip!

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!