My lifestyle, travel and motorcycling blog, focused on places to go and rides to try, with Michigan as a starting point.
Big blue on the backroads.
Not every trip needs to be a long one. I specialize in making the routine trip to the grocery store take about 2 hours and cover a 100 miles or so. Especially in Spring and early Summer, the Palouse is pretty magical. Sometimes I don’t even remember to go to the store.
May 12
Down along the Snake River, while the canyon is still green.
If you think about the normal patterns of most people today, a large chuck of each day involves staring at an LCD, whether it be a smart phone, computer or TV screen. For me, a simple roadtrip offers an escape from that pattern. Staring off into the distance brings a certain peacefulness and a chance to reduce the noise and just breathe.
Door to door, GNP is about 300 miles from my house. I chose to use a bit of I-90 on the way towards Montana to shave some time. I quickly crossed into the Mountain Time Zone, and immediately lost that advantage. Oh well. Otherwise, the drive through the mountains of North Idaho and the NW corner of Montana offers many interesting routes. I had never driven through the Flathead Lake area, so I decided to give that a try. I also skirted alongside the Mission Mountain Range of the Rockies. Even the smaller ranges in Montana are impressive.
Since my timing was very near the end of the season for the park, I was hoping to see some vivid color changing of the leaves. That turned out to be an unfulfilled hope. Maybe I am jaded by too many blindingly bright seasons of color changes in Wisconsin. There were a few stray colors, but it seemed to be mostly the invasive trees at the edge of the forest, rather than any primary section of the forest.
The last time I visited the park, it was in mid-July and the weather was perfect. Still plenty of snow on the peaks and a perfectly blue sky. This time, not so much. A thick band of storm clouds settled in right on top of the park, hiding most of the view about 6000 feet. Visibility was about 25 feet on the road. With the huge cliff alongside the road, it was a bit un-nerving. Work crews had already been through adding 20 foot tall poles to the edges of the road to aid the snow removal crews in the Spring.
By the time I reached the bottom of the Road To The Sun, of course the sun was out, the rain had stopped, and the weather around Lake MacDonald was just fine. I had no intention of trying to wait it out and head back up the mountain. I figured I’d spend the rest of the evening seeing what Whitefish nightlife is like.
Call this the last gasp of summer. The weekend before Labor Day, timed with a burst of cool air from somewhere, made for a perfect 3-day getaway from Pullman. Getting to the Cascades is always a bit of a slog, but by taking an extra scenic route though the John Day Wilderness, hundreds of miles of mostly deserted mountain 2-lane twisties stretched out in front of me.
Sisters, Oregon is a nice little town to use as a home base for some mountain road touring. Plenty of restaurants and coffee shops in walking distance from an old school motel. A bit off the busy main road in town, which I think has just about reached capacity, at least on weekends. I'm sure the locals have figured out an alternate way around town. The climate in this high desert area is pretty nice. Even in August, the morning temperature was just 37°! It warmed right up by the time I was ready to ride, but the crispiness sure felt nice at the end of a hot, smokey summer.
Maybe with a running start and 4WD...
Usually it is very warm in Eastern Washington in the summer. So recently, when I saw a break in the heat, I decided to use the opportunity to dash across the desert into the Cascades, with a visit to Mount Rainier National Park. I visited the Paradise Lodge area for some hiking on Sunday. The weather was nice, the parking lots were overflowing, and the trails, at least for the first mile or so, were quite crowded.
On Monday, the story was quite different. I was able to be in the park much earlier, so I drove up to Sunrise and was on the trails a little after 8:00am. The weekend traffic is quite thin by comparison, so the parking lot and trails were quite empty. Sunrise is the highest elevation entry point at the park at 6400 feet. Thankfully, that elevation was above the wildfire smoke that blanketed almost the entire state, especially the East side.
The hiking and scenery were awesome and after several hours out on the trail, returning to the Sunrise Lodge area meant that it was late enough in the morning that the lodge was open, so I could grab some coffee before heading out to visit other parts of the White River valley.
Sunrise Ridge, almost back to the lodge.
Each year Touratech hosts a late June rally for ADV riders in Plain, Washington. Just outside of Leavenworth, Plain is a nice launching point for a few days of riding around on the dry side of the Cascades.
This year I decided to attend again, since I had not been since 2015. The ride from Pullman to Plain crosses most of Washington's version of the Empty Quarter. Not straight-up desert like Saudi Arabia, but several hours of space to cross that can either be awful or sort of refreshing. It all depends on which way the wind is blowing.
Thankfully, on the route West, there was very little wind, and on the return trip, a fairly nice tailwind. And temperatures well below 100, which is always nice when crossing the state.
Since I would be camping two nights, I decided bring the full kit - including the big Redverz Solo tent, chair, table, and cooking gear. If it was moto-camping gear and I owned it, I loaded it up for this trip.
A word about Redverz tents. These things are awesome! The solo model is a bit shorter than the flagship Expedition model, and a bit lighter to carry. Mine fits nicely in a Wolfman Dry Bag that straps on top of a 38 liter pannier. Once set up and staked in, the tent handles the wind of an open field very nicely. The best feature of this tent is the enormous vestibule. Large enough to park a big ADV bike inside, but also very nice for things that are just not possible in a pup tent - such as standing up to put on your motocycle gear or setting up a table and chair for breakfast. The location was quite warm in the afternoon sun, so the vestibule also provided a shady spot to rest after the riding was done.
In addition to the greating riding and friendly folks, the weather cooperated and was not nearly as scorching hot as a few ears ago. Any excuse to ride in the Cascades is a welcome reason to make a journey across the state. I'm already looking forward to next year. With a little advanced planning, I think I can combine a few nights in Winthrop to make this an even better trip.
Central Washington, near Odessa.
Silver PowerRanger, ATGATT.
I don't need much of an excuse to head for Western Montana. Not too far away, yet a world away in terms of scenery.
Time for a fresh start for Washington Rider. What started as a simple website to help document a charity bicycle rider along the Columbia River, has morphed into a hobby site to share and showcase the beautiful Pacific Northwest, experienced via motorcycle touring.
That mission will continue. Over the years, the destinations have grown in distance, and the bikes have grown as well. A long time ago, I said that someday, maybe, I would have a stable of bikes, each best suited for a certain types of riders or trips. As of 2018, I am much closer to that goal. But the basic joy of riding remains. Finding the best route, to the best scenery, and to the best destinations in the PNW, is still the goal.
To the road ahead...
