Tuesday, July 17, 2012 @ 7:00 PM in 2012 Epic Motorcycle Ride
Moving our tents under the shelter last night paid off. Sometime around 3am it started raining pretty heavily. I got up and moved some of the stuff we had on our picnic table under the shelter as well so it wouldn't be soaked in the morning. It started to get light out and both Ryan and I woke up around 5:30am and laid in our tents until around 6.
We got up, ate (I had the Mountain House Granola w/ Blueberries and Ryan had the Mountain House Scrambled Eggs w/ Bacon), and then packed our bikes up. As we were doing all this we heard thunder all around us. We checked the weather and it looked like a huge cell of weather was moving exactly where we were planning on going.
We were on the road by 7:20am and headed out to Spokane via I-90. The rain finally started to hit us just a few minutes after we left our campsite and continued until we crossed into Washington. We jumped on Highway 2 just outside of Spokane and followed that until we split off onto 174 which eventually connected to Highway 97 and eventually Highway 20. We were dodging weather pretty much the entire way there. We stopped for lunch at a restaurant connected to a gas station and were really amazed with how good it was. Once you were inside the place you'd have no idea it was part of a gas station. We both ordered burgers and were blown away with how good they were. It was called the Rivers Restaurant in Pateros, WA.
As soon as we got onto Highway 20 things started changing for the better. The route takes you up to 5400 feet in elevation from about 1300 feet. The rides and views were amazing the entire time. There were some nice waterfalls off the side of the road too. We got to the tallest pass and got out to take some photos of the surrounding area. The ride down was equally as amazing. We made sure to stop at several of the pullouts and get some great photos. Eventually we made it down and fueled up for our final ride into our campsite.
After that fuelup we pushed it the last 70 or so miles to our campsite at Birch Bay, WA. The campsite is extremely cool in the middle of a forest right by the Birch Bay. We pulled in and got our tents set up and then headed back out to get something to mix with our vodka and ended up with some Country Time Lemonaid/Ice Tea mix. We came back and started up some dinner. I had the Backpacker's Pantry Chicken Vindaloo which was really good. Ryan had the Mountain House Rice and Chicken.
Since then we've just been sitting around drinking and thinking about the ride report. We also walked down to the bay and got some photos at sunset. Our original plan for tomorrow was to head up to Whistler and down to Vancouver but after doing as many miles and hours on our bikes as we have our new plan is to cross into Canada tomorrow morning and then head up to NW Vancouver near the ferry station, find a hotel and then go see the Capilano suspension bridge and relax for the day before crossing over into Vancouver Island.
My laptop is about to die and my phone doesn't have great coverage here so uploading this ride report will have to wait until tomorrow when we're at the hotel.
Teaser photos:
Tags: motorcycle
Posted from: United States