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!

WaBDR and BC, Part 2 British Columbia Mainland

Day 5--Palmer Lake, WA to Hedley, British Columbia

 We started our day with a side trip to Oroville to replace the seat bolts that I lost somewhere. They also hold my rack on, the one with 50 pounds of camping gear attached to it. It could have been so bad, instead Wayne got the parts and fixed me up! We also took advantage of the location to do laundry. Then a quick back track to the official end of the WaBDR.

 The border crossing at Night Hawk.  They let Lyon into Canada, much to his surprise!

From Night Hawk we took BC 3 to just south of Keremeos where we took off on a dirt road headed to Oliver. 

Lunch at the visitor's kiosk, in the shade 

Then it was up the pavement to Skaha Lake 

 From there we went by Penticton on our way to the Apex Mountain Road.

Then it was down the other side on the very fun Hedley Nickle Plate Rd. What a hoot! 

 Hedley Nickle Plate Rd

 Hedley Nickle Plate Rd

Once we got down to the pavement we wen north through Hedley to the Stemwinder Provincial Park for the night. Unfortunately Wayne's bike decided to not start when we were trying to find a camp site, and he had to be jump started.  This is also the only night we had rain.  Nice to find out that the tent and rain fly could hold up to a rain storm.

Day 5 total was 122 miles 

Day  6--Hedley to Gillis Lake Camp Ground

We got up to wet tents, but dry sleeping bags. Don't know where this turkey spent the night, but we were all dry. Wayne's bike is still not starting, he's thinking that it is the stator but without a meter it is hard to tell. 

 I gave Wayne the choice of heading to Princeton by 20 miles of highway or 40 miles of dirt. I'm glad he chose the dirt. It was a great critter section: 6 bunnies, 3 does, a hawk and a heron.

 We stopped at the Information Center where I tried to order parts to be sent to Pemberton. Fortunately I was unsuccessful as we never do make it to Pemberton. Wayne's bike is now starting with the electric start, but we know we will have to do something soon.

Cross walk in Princeton 

From Princeton we rode to Coalmont for lunch 

This is a very old building, with an interesting owner.  When we walked up he introduced himself and claimed that he was the menu.  He then proceeded to tell us what he was cooking that day.  The food was really good! From here we headed to Tulameen and the KVR trail.

 This is where I REALLY wished I had a working camera! As the rider in the lead, I got to see the most wild life, including a black bear that was across the field from here. Everyone else just got to hear about it!

This is what is left of a railroad round house on the old Kettle Valley Railway. From here we crossed BC 5 and headed west on Murrary Lake Road.

This is Gillis Lake. I think it was my favorite campsite of the whole trip. 

Very stout picnic tables 

Beautiful view 

Gillis Lake 

Bob in camp.  We had the whole campground to our selves.  During the evening a bear came out on the far side of the lake, but he never bothered us.  We slept great until about 3 am, when the empty logging trucks started zooming by our camp, rattling load enough to wake some of us up.  

Day 6-89 miles

Day 7--Gillis Lake CG to Burnaby, BC 

In the morning we got up to the sound of loaded logging trucks going by. They kicked up enough dust to make it look like fog in camp as we were making breakfast. It was with much care that we headed out towards the on coming logging trucks.  However our luck was holding, and we never came upon any logging trucks.  We did have about 10 power company trucks come at us during the next section of road. This road takes us to Boston Bar on BC 1. From here we head toward Nahatlatch Park where we take a left on Kookipi Creek Road.

We really hadn't seen much snow before this

It's a little misty this morning

Shovel Creek Road has many cool waterfalls

Think of how high the water must have been to deposit logs that high up on the bank

Shovel Creek

Burrrrrr

For a dry summer, there sure is a lot of water in these creeks

We stopped for lunch on the east coast of Harrison Lake

That is smoke from a huge fire on the west side of the lake. For the first time this trip, fire will cause us to reroute.  Instead of going north along the west shore of Harrison Lake to Lillooet Lake we have to go west on BC 7 to an RV park in Burnaby. We plan to catch the ferry to Nanimo in the morning.

Day 7--192 miles

Day 8--Burnaby to Nanimo, Vancouver Island

In the morning we get lost in Vancouver looking for a Subway Sandwich shop.  We wanted to buy food for lunch while on the ferry to Vancouver Island.  It took us a while, but we ended up at a Safeway buying deli sandwiches.  Then we headed to BC 1 so that we could catch a bridge across Burrard Inlet on our way to the ferry.

Just as we were getting ready to get on the freeway, Wayne's stator finally gave up completely. While we were on the sidewalk calling all the motorcycle shops we could find on Google, a guy drove up and offered to help.  He had the number for a Suzuki shop and said they were great people to work with.  Sure enough we called and Arron came out in his personal truck and hauled Wayne and his bike to their shop.

We all followed on our bikes

And hung out in the park behind the shop as they checked out Wayne's bike.  It was the stator, and believe it or not, they actually had one in stock!  That would never happen at a big shop in the states. This shop has been in business since 1965 and has parts for everything!!

Once Modern Motorcycling got Wayne back on the road, we headed to the ferry dock, us and a bunch of Harley's coming back from Sturgis!

The Crew:  Lyon, Wayne, Patti, Cindy and Bob

The nice Harley riders helped me figure out how to brace up my bike so it wouldn't fall over as we crossed the sound

We spent the night at a RV Park in Nanaimo.  Lyon finnaly found himself a bear!

Day 8--41 miles and 5 hours of bike repairs!!