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Posts Tagged ‘Winthrop’

The hotel room is cozy, but the road beckons. Today promised to be a very memorable ride.

I head south from Grand Coulee on SR 174. The landscape rolls gradually. It is scenic, but I was hoping for more excitement to pull me from the no-coffee fog I was in. The sun rises quickly in the eastern skies as I point the bike directly into it on Jurgensen Road. Luckily, I’m only heading east for two miles until I head north on SR 21.

Highway 21 switchback. One of many.

SR 21 is exactly the excitement that I needed. The short 12-mile ride take you from the rolling fields to steep cliffs that ocerlook the Columbia River. I didn’t count switchbacks, but they are plentiful as the road carries me down to the Keller Ferry. This stretch of Highway 21 will make motorcycle riders of all types very happy.

The Keller Ferry is a 12-vehicle vessel that crosses the 1.5 miles across the Columbia River, which is known as the Franklin D. Roosevelt Lake in this area. The river isn’t naturally this wide in this area. The Grand Coulee Dam is just 15 miles down stream from here and creates the easy-going pool of water known as Franlin D. Roosevelt Lake. This is the only way to connect Hwy 21. Luckily, the ferry is free.

With blue skies overhead I watch the Keller Ferry, also known as the Martha S., approach the southern shores. The basalt cliffs across the river are so big and beautiful that they don’t appear real. It is this kind of view that my meager photography skills can’t do justice.

Silver Creek Road winds up, up and away.

The ferry is light with my Suzuki V-Strom being the only vehicle onboard. We make the short crossing and I climb up from the river on Hwy 21. About 10 miles from the ferry dock, I turn east onto Silver Creek road. This is a gem of a road. Some riders may shy away from the dirt surface of the road. It undulates and wraps around and over itself. The road is loose and requires a slower speed for the hairpin turns. That is completely fine with me. The slower speeds allow more time to enjoy the incredible scenery that fills the valley below. This is yet another scenic route that Washington state hies beyond the reaches of pavement. Everyone looking to make time and simply get from point A to point B misses the splendor hidden in Eastern Washington.

After a few stops, the motorcycle finds pavement and begins to burn it up. The surface heaves and swallows from its age. The V-Strom’s suspension soaks it up as I lean from peg to peg in a dance high above the Columbia River.

The road descends to the Gifford-Inchellium Ferry that carries vehicles across the upper Columbia River from Inchelium to Hwy 25 and the town of Gifford, Washington. This one is slightly larger than the first ferry. It carries several cars. The ferry jostles out from the dock. The moving water pushes the boat sideways almost as fast as the captain can power across the wide river. A skilled captain he was, as I sat on the bike and it hardly moved as he docked on the east side of the river.

From here it is just 25 miles up Hwy 25 to Kettle Falls. Kettle Falls has gas, food, coffee and most amenities that a rider may need. I fill the gas tank on my motorcycle, buy a cup of coffee and eat a peanut butter and jelly sandwich before continuing out of town. US 395 takes me the short distance north to FR 61 or Boulder Creek Road.

The ride along Boulder Creek Road slices through the northern tip of the Colville National Forest. The scenery is again spectacular. There are ample dirt roads that branch off of the paved Boulder Creek Road for additional exploring. This area certainly whetted my appetite. I’ll have to journey back to explore Little Boulder Creek Road and other Forest Service roads around the Deer Creek Snopark and Green Mountain areas.

I continue my westward journey to the small community of Curlew, Washington. It appears that this is a former railroad stop town, but now lives on the few farmers, loggers and miners that remain in the area.

There isn’t much to explore in Curlew, so I leave town on West Kettle River Road following the snake-like pattern of the Kettle River. The river provides ample drink for plant life. The river, trees hugging the shore and mountains combine for an easy place to enjoy being alone on a motorcycle. Some roads are easy to daydream and drift off on. This is yet another road on this ride that demands attention to the quickly changing details.

Along a short straight-away is a historical interpretive sign. It talks about Ronald McDonald. No, not the clown of restaurant fame. This is the Ronald McDonald who happens to have been the first person to teach the English language in Japan. This Pacific Northwestern-born man grew up near Oregon and apparently met some shipwrecked Japanese sailors as a young lad, which sparked an interest in their homeland. Eventually, he travelled there teaching actual samurai the English language. The sign says that his final resting place is just north a mile or two. I head in that direction but soon after crossing a river the road comes to a “T” intersection. A few teenagers swimming at the river didn’t know which direction the burial site was in. I get back onto the main road and chase the sun instead as time didn’t allow for too much added exploration if I was going to make my destination before dark set in.

Black and white treatment seems fitting for the ghost town of Bodie, Washington.

West Kettle River Road connects with Toroda Creek Road which makes a large curve and begins heading south. Just as the sun begins to warm the right side of my body, I notice several old weather worn buildings just off both sides of the road. The Okanogan County historical society is nice enough to place information boards to keep the curious traveler informed of the areas rich history.

The old buildings are the remnants of Bodie, Washington. It is a ghost town now, but it was once the nearest town to the gold mine of the same name that was established in 1896 and helped spur the Okanogan County gold rush. In 1902, the Bodie Mine was purchased by the Wrigley family. You know, the same Wrigley’s of chewing gum fame. They actually started what became the Bodie Mining Company in 1903. At the time, the mine was worth $1.5 million. Here we are, more than a century later and all that is left are several run down buildings that make for incredible photo opportunities right next to an incredibly fun motorcycle road.

The Ghost Town of Bodie, WA is easily viewed and explored from the road.

From Bodie, the road passes through Old Toroda before connecting with SR 20 in Wauconda. My wheels push up and over the great North Cascades Highway and don’t stop turning until I reach home on the wet side of the mountains.

This trip included viewing the largest concrete structure in the United States, climbing dirt switchback mountain roads, two small ferries and finding a ghost town and mine once owned by a famous gum manufacturer. How’s that for a weekend well spent on two wheels?

The North Cascades Highway is a very popular route for motorcyclists seeking curves, scenery and small towns to eat in. Relatively few riders from the west side of the mountains venture off the Cascade Loop route. That, my fellow riders is a shame.

This article is part of the BestScenicRoutes.com effort to get people to explore the great areas near and along SR 20. The series is called North Cascades Connections.

Sign says "leaving" however, I was just entering the Okanogan National Forest for moments of motorcycle zen

The ride starts in the town of Winthrop. This is a motorcycle destination for most riders. The North Cascades Highway terminates here, but SR 20 continues on for many miles. We follow it south through Twisp, WA passing many food, lodging and fuel options. In Twisp, the road turns east and meanders through the Okanogan National Forest. As soon as it turns east, it begins climbing to 4,020 feet in elevation at Loup Loup Pass.

On most days this would be superb riding. I was not that lucky. Rain that started back on Rainy and Washington Passes had gotten heavier and turned to marble-sized hail. The every frozen marble that hit me at 60 miles per hour felt as I would imagine being hit by machine guns wearing some sort of bullet-proof vest. The Aerostich Roadcrafter performed well, and allowed me to duck in behind the windshield to keep moving. From time to time the hail would let up. My spirits would rise and I found joy riding through the moderate condition of the paved roads through the Okanogan National Forest.

A soaked leather riding glove with melting hail. Not perfect riding conditions.

There are a few places where the road winds near Loup Loup Pass inviting Zen. Luckily the hail let up to allowing me to enjoy these stretches of road. Highway 20 is wider in this area than you’d expect. It is actually nice because it allows a view into the healthy forests for searching for deer. The four-legged creatures with a vengeance for motorcyclists are thick through this area.

In Omak, Highway 20 continues north while I shoot onto Highway 155 heading east and then south. The road twists, turns and climbs up to Disautel Summit. The hail returns. It dumps on me until I can’t take it anymore. The sign for the summit approaches. A pull out allows me to rest my wet, tired and cold bones. The rain has soaked through my worn out boots and summer leather gloves. I tried to catch the hail in the photo, but it melted rapidly and only a small portion remains sitting on my soaked glove.

The plan was to find a camp spot for the night. With this weather, those plans to rough it turned to a desire for a warm and dry hotel room. That was found at the Coulee Inn and Suites at the base of the Grand Coulee Dam. It is pure happenstance that I find the room. Their no vacancy sign is lit up the same as all the other hotels that I have passed for many miles. I stopped in to the office to see if they would help me locate an open room nearby. It just so happened that someone had cancelled their reservation for a single king room. A bit of negotiation knocked the price from $96 to $70 for the night.

My riding gear was soaked and my camping gear was damp. I was happy to be in a warm dry room.

Grand Coulee Dam

The Grand Coulee Dam is the largest hydroelectric gravity dam on the Columbia River, the largest electric-producing power plant and largest concrete structure in the United States. Also according to Wikipedia.org (the always correct online encyclopedia) it is the fifth largest producer of hydroelectricity in the world.

It is quite the site to take in. The structure is as the name says, grand. The nearly mile-long spillway holds back an enormous amount of water. The giant spillway provides a backdrop for nightly laser light shows. Since there is little else to do in Grand Coulee, it would be worth taking in. I opted for sleep instead.

It is only 100 miles (two hours) to Grand Coulee from Winthrop. It is an easy addition to a ride over the North Cascades Highway.  Be prepared for all types of weather. Riding up the North Cascades drops the temperature 20 degrees. On the east side of the mountains the mercury climbs to 90 or more degrees. As my ride exemplifies, this convergence of air temperatures often cause summer storms.

The next article will cover a loop from Grand Coulee to Kettle Falls and back to Omak. This ride hit dirt roads high above the Columbia River, two ferries and roads as close to Canada as you can get without a passport.

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