Rainier Loop

Took a vacation day to do a dayride with Joan (Mrs. RedTigre) up around Mt Rainier via 3 mountain passes (Blewett /97, Chinook/410, and White/12).  Had a great breakfast at the Liberty Cafe on Blewett Pass and then wound down into Ellensberg with the winds, wound down the Yakima Canyon road to Selah, a shortcut between Selah and Naches, and then up the 410 to Chinook pass.

They are still doing the road repair on the 410 from the big mudslide there, so the detour was interesting, and the pass beautiful! There are quite a few campgrounds spread throughout, but my favorite one to take a break in is called Lodgepole.  The air is so fresh and the water so clear...

Further up the 410 you get to the summit of Chinook Pass.  I have been by there many times this time of year but have never seen so much snow still sitting around, tomorrow is the last day of June!  

So, as I started the bike we heard a rumble and the mighty roar of precision engineering brought down tonnes of snow and caught Mistress in an avalanche!

If not for the sheer awesomeness of Teutonic technology, this could have turned out much worse...

Here we are after overcoming the challenge all safe and ready to continue our ride!

So off we wound down the West side of Chinook to the Rainier State Park Highway 123 that links State highways 410 and 12.  It was BEAUTIFUL!  Waterfalls galore, and sunny yet still a cool 65°. Speed limit is way too fast to enjoy the beauty, slow down and savor it. 

30 minutes later we connected to the 12 and headed east over White Pass where we stopped at Clear Falls, another place we have driven by dozens of times but never stopped.  On up over the pass, down to Naches and then a backtrack of the route we came down. We hit the Ellensberg winds again and I have yet another reminder why I dislike that area so, but we took the cold harsh winds at 50 mph until Blewett and then back over a most favourite run.

A great day trip, 370 miles,  Joan with me.

Life is good.

Ride West

So I planned a day (Friday) to shoot over to Seattle and put new shoes on Mistress (she always dances better with new shoes) and the morning looking west to the Cascades make me think the heavy skins are best suited for the ride today.  Having coffee and standing on my lawn at a comfortable 62°f  where the pool used to be while looking at the clouds form had me thinking it was going to be clear once I get near the summit.

Heh...

It is June, right?  Not just June, but June 25th... Summer, right?

How about 50°f and raining???





So the water is streaming off the windscreen, and the fog (at 4000 ft is it still fog or really high clouds?) slows me down to 40 mph and I decide to pull over and change my glasses to my night ones (it is Summer, Summer at 9:00 AM to boot!) and I realize that it isn't raining, it's just what happens when you are in the middle of a really wet cloud.

Ok, off I go, and pretty wet (now REALLY glad I wore my heavy waterproof skins) where it does turn into light rain and continues as such until the Monroe turn off.

I am the kind of rider that unless my wife is taking my attention to the right, I will wave at any rider I pass oncoming on the left, I must have passed 20 bikes coming over the pass before and after the pass and of the group, were roughly 2/3rds HD and the rest a couple of beemers and rice bikes.

Those HD purists were the high count today, and judging from the look on their half-helmet faces I know thay were looking forward to getting into Eastern Washington and the warmth.

Road maintenance in Bothell slowed things down (like traffic isn't bad enough, you have to do your arrow painting at 10:00 AM?) but I made it with 10 minutes to spare.  Dropping my bike off at the Ride West BMW service area, I wen't down to visit with my daughter Jacqueline who lives a couple blocks from the dealership (here is a photo on the left of her and her bike, a Suzuki Boulevard S40) and as we are talking I get a call from the shop that the bike is done!  Under 40 minutes to mount new rubber and valve stem, check the brake pads front and rear, quick safety inspection, and come get the bike!

WOW!

I had this shop rebuild a final drive for me last year that is currently on Mistress... I like their work, and never feel gouged when they recommend any work done.  I do all my routine maintenance and services except valves and clutch's, they can have that side of the German engineering until I retire and start my new life as a BMW mechanic (they have all the factory tools).

So I pick up the bike and Jacqueline and I head off to see her new place she is moving to and then down to the U-district for a bowl of Vietnamese noodle soup.

Wenatchee needs more restaurants...

Good time together, run her back up to her place and then head back before the traffic get's thick.  New tire gets worked a bit before hitting the pass and then as I am leaving Startup heading East I hit it... the caravans.  45mph a good bit, pass when it's safe biding my time until the passing lanes come and when the passing lanes open what do they do?  Every time a lane opened up the caravan (travel trailer) doing 45 mph was passed by the caravan doing 47 mph.  What is wrong with these people, it like a retired Death Race 2010!!!  Why they can't just stay in their convoy lane is beyond me, must be a guy thing. At the climb to the summit where it is a constant 2 lane climbing all the full size SUVs now want to race to see who can empty their tank first, and I let them plow the road until I get my shot to wind up the pass at 65 mph and pass them again, low banking now that the tires are broken in and roads are dry, nothing like sparking off the pegs to keep the kids in the car's you're passing entertained! Coming down the Tumwater Canyon and Wenatchee River is gorgeous, one of my favorite places to ride year round. Still in my heavy skins, 58° at the summit eastbound, 86° in Leavenworth at the lights.  Sheesh... NOW it decides to be summer!

Home as quickly as I can and it's Miller time after I doff the gear and give Mistress a loving caress.

She is such a good bike, I guess good looks and sex-appeal can get you far in life after all... and she's all mine.

Liberty and Coffee

What is it about a mountain pass that calls... no, begs, for Bavarian complicity.  We often use passes close to us for traveling to get to places we need to get to in a hurry, not often savoring the scenery because we have passed through them hundreds of times and count the familiar features as stages to be checked off in the goal of a destination.

Today, I changed that.

Mrs. RedTigre was working all day and others were off doing their thing and not returning my texts so I went off on a morning to not just ride Blewett Pass, but to know Blewett Pass.  Between Wenatchee and the "Big Y" (intersection of Hwy 97 and 2) is the time to listen to the bike, feel for irregularities, and watch in amazement the level of the Wenatchee River as the runoff kicks into overdrive this time of year.  Top off fuel and hop onto the 97 South at the speed limit until the DOT shed is behind us and the mouth of the pass in front.

Wow...

The windshield has to stay down and the helmet faceplate up... the smell of fresh pine, assorted deciduous trees, fresh mountain streams and mountain air is seductive. With nary a soul behind me, this has to be taken slowly as I come down to 45 mph and take the first set of corners.  I've hit these many times at speeds that force you to pay attention to every track way too often, no need to be a curve cowboy today so the payoff was incredible... and Mistress loved it.

Blewett came to be from the prospect of gold, and from gold came the horse trails, then wagon, then upgraded well enough for the first automobile to cross in 1923.  They actually turned the wagon trail into a state highway but went to a lower, less treacherous run in 1957.  On the North side of the pass you can see the old highway as it originally rode above the new and remains in whatever state nature has left it while unused over the years. The pass was to have been renamed Swauk Pass, for the creek and former lodge that used to cater to travelers 75 years ago, but people never used that name and Blewett stuck.

In a few weeks, I believe the Old Blewett Highway will be accessible (snow melted) and if you want an exciting ride to see what the old section of road was like, I encourage you to take it one time on any bike.  I doubt any bike would have problems, but it is a low maintenance paved road with debris on it at any given time, so relax and enjoy.

At the summit (4102 ft.) is when you first realize how quickly you have climbed, and then the drop down the South side begins. Through Mineral Springs (the original Swauk Lodge) and down to the historic mining town of Liberty. People still live up here year round and even take gold from the hills from time to time.  Mining was an incredibly hard life and success was the only way you stayed.

Down to the Liberty Cafe for a cup of coffee, and then the same relaxed trip return.  I would often see a string us cars coming up behind me in a hurry, so I'd grab the next pullout, let them hurry past me, reluctant to share, and then have the next 5-10 miles to myself as I made my way again up and over.  I took one turnout and as I was waiting for traffic to pass looked to my right to see a WSP trooper tucked back 20 feet shooting radar.  We smiled to another as I took off and within the next few seconds the next stream of cars I encountered coming my way had a car ripping in the outside lane that gave the trooper a purpose in life and off he went with lights flashing.

As my friend Ferris said, "Life moves pretty fast. You don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it".

Bloody right.