Pacific Northwest Dual Sport Adventure Ride

Adventure Story

THE RIDE

5 State - 3 National Parks -

Califronia - Oregon - Washington - Idaho - Montana

Mt. Ranier National Park - Glacier National Park - Lassen National Park

This is a dual sport motorcycle ride from starting in the forest of Mt. Ranier in Southern Washington across the entire state of Washington, the Panhandle of Idaho and into Montana's Glacier National Park.

I will be riding a 2010 KTM 990 R ADVENTURE and my riding buddy has one of those BMW GS1200s.

My plan is to find and ride remote roads and trails and avoid main highways, because taking the Eisenhower Interstate System is the best way to not see any of the United States.

Day 1 Friday July 2, 2010

I picked up a riding buddy at the Amtrack station in Olympia and we hauled the bikes to Mt. Ranier National Park, where we camped for the night. It was rainy and dank. I consider this a slow start, but it is all part of the adventure. It is no fun riding in rain, but it's summer...so why complain? I Hope tomorrow bring better weather, I was kind of looking foward to seeing Mt. Ranier. I was in Alaska last August and made a trip to Denali, the highest peak in North America and missed seeing that 20,000 ft. peak because of weather.

Day 2 Saturday July 3, 2010

We got rolling early down the southeast side of the park. The weather got better as we dropped in elevation. I was able to negotiate a $5 per day storage fee for my trailer & truck at a campground just outside the park, on Rimrock Lake. We unloaded and took a short ride to Yakima where we stayed the night. It's best to get settled before dark when you are riding a motorcycle, large animals tend to become very active around sunset.

Day 3 Sunday July 4, 2010 Independence Day

I found a road called Teanaway Rd that I spotted in Google Earth. It was hard to find for some reason. But we asked someone in town and they told us to follow the road we were on until we saw a red barn and then turn left. Teanaway led us out of Clu Elum, Washington into the Wenatchee Forest on some real remote, twisty stuff. This took us to a bunch of forest service (logging) roads where we eventually dumped out on to Hwy. 97. We did lots of riding and which took all day, but we only did 41 miles. We stopped for the day in Leavenworth, WA. It is a small Bavarian style town right in the middle of Washington. We spent the 3rd night in Leavenworth and went out that night and found some serious German food.

Day 4 Monday July 5, 2010

Sometimes you have to put a full day of riding in to keep on schedule, this was one of those days. We rode all day the day before and only did a total of 41 miles. We were in the forest yesterday, but today we covered most of the state of Washington. We did a real nice road that followed a river that led to the Grand Coulee Dam. The Coulee Dam area reminds me of the Grand Canyon with about 10 x more water than the Colorado River. We also rode through the interior of Washington, which consists of rolling hills and farmland. I picked some real nice 2 laners with lot of good sweepers, so the riding was interesting and a little challenging. We crossed into Idaho when it just started raining. We pulled the plug right around dark and grabbed a room with covered parking. Definitely a good day of riding!

Day 5 Tuesday July 6, 2010

Today's ride got off to a slow start with some mechanicals. Finally got everything together and pulled out of Sandpoint late in the morning. If you blink, you will miss the panhandle of Idaho. I don't know how many miles across it is, but I wish Kansas was that quick. Montana, on the other hand is BIG! The sky's were blue, blue, blue and the scenery was the most dramatic of the last 4 days. There are places in this country that no one talks about, but they are as beautiful as anything you will ever see. This was one of those places. Waterfalls, gorges, mountains, rivers, lakes, snowy peaks...very raw country. The scenery was spectacular.

Tonight we pulled into a brand new KOA campground, these are nice. This place was like a slice of 1960's Americana. I felt like I was in a Norman Rockwell painting. Paved roads in, kids playing everywhere, a pavilion with activities, a pool, ice cream shop. They do it right! I have never stayed at a KOA and I highly recommend this one. We BBQ'd some rib-eyes, with some fresh corn and a baked potato and started a campfire. Oh, saw a moose cross the road right as I entered the KOA...WOW.

Day 6 Wednesday July 7, 2010

We got up real early and loaded the bikes to head into Glacier National Park. Just as we were pulling out of KOA, my riding buddy complained of feeling weak in his left leg. He decided to call the on call nurse at Kaiser. after talking to the nurse, he felt like he needed to go to the emergency room to get checked out. The closest E room is in Kalispell, maybe like 50 miles away. So, in order to be safe, we decided to go have him checked out. We spent the late morning and early afternoon in the hospital and fortunately he was fine. I would imagine the riding and altitude were playing with his body. We decided to skip going back to Glacier and decided to hammer it back to the truck. We made our way down the state to Interstate 90 and never looked back. We stopped 3-4 times for gas and a sandwich, but that was it. We rode today from Glacier NP in Montana to about an hour past Yakima, WA in southwestern Washington. I think we left the hospital around 1:00 and we pulled up to my truck just before dark. I know we were going 85-90 mph for hours at a time. There is no reason to go slow on I-90 in Montana, Idaho or Washington. We loaded up the truck and dropped down into Portland where I dropped him off to catch the Amtrack. I decided to get a few hours in, before pulling into a rest area for a few hours of sleep. I programmed my GPS to avoid Interstate 5 at all cost and I cruised all the backroads down California until I pulled in and closed out my trip.

Adventure Tips
MAKE YOUR PLAN CLEAR BEFORE LEAVING ON A LONG RIDE. BE PREPARED AND THEN BE FLEXIBLE AND IMPROVISE.