Riding the WBDR in Stages

Last year Orv and I did the first day of the Washington Backcountry Discovery Route (See Blog entry for Aug 26, 2011).  The first three days of this week I did the first day, the second  day, and then rode home on the third day.  My nephew Jon wants to do at least two days of the route and I wanted to see what it was like and make sure I could do the first two days without getting lost, since Jon has no extra days in his vacation to spend wondering around lost in the Washington Cascades.

From several sources I got the impression the second day was going to have some difficult sections.  For one, the official WBDR map labeled one section as difficult, and had two different places with alternate easier routes provided.  I also saw pictures on a website that showed some very steep rocky sections and provided a third alternate easy route.  All of these could be relative to the ability of the riders and the type of bike being ridden, but I also had a first person account from someone who I know from personal experience to be an excellent rider, who said it was rocky and he wouldn't want to do it again.  So, with that information in hand I entered all the alternate routes into my Garmin Zumo and planned to attempt the official route and use the easy routes as backup.

The first day was all on the West (wet) side of the Cascades with lots of lush forest and cool shady roads.  Here is a one-minute video of one of my favorite sections:

I actually met three other riders on this section.  They were riding big BMWs and having a bit of difficulty with the potholes and water filled ruts.  I passed two of them and as I was approaching the third he hit a pothole and his soft luggage broke off and tangled in his rear wheel.  So I stopped to have a chat while they worked on a fix.  Two of the three planned to ride the whole thing, but I never saw any of them again.  They should have gotten ahead of me when I got lunch and gas at Trout lake.  On the way back to the trail from Trout Lake I stopped at an ice cave, but without a flashlight I couldn't do any exploring.  I did take this picture of the sign explaining the history of the cave:

There were some spectacular view of Mt. Adams on this day and I took several pictures:

I stopped in at Takhlakh Lake and took the following picture.  There were lots of people camping there, but even with all my gear on, including helmet, the mosquitoes were bothersome.  I can't see how camping would have been fun with that hassle.

I arrived in Packwood after about 220 miles for the day and checked in to my room at the Packwood Hotel.    I wrote about this hotel in the post from last August and how it was not the most pleasant of nights due to trucks going by on hwy 12 all night long.  It was also hot, so we had to keep the windows open (no air conditioning), which made the truck noise worse.  This time the Packwood Hotel was fine.  The temps were much cooler.......I actually had barely enough blankets to keep warm, and I heard no trucks at all.  I set a  new record for cheap motel too, $31 for the night.  However, the room was really small.  I had to open the door and stand out in the hallway to get the first of these two pics (bath was down the hall):

When I arrived at the hotel, there was a guy sitting on the porch having a cigar and a drink who turned out to be waiting for some friends who were also riding the WBDR.  After I cleaned up and we talked for awhile, the guys had still not showed up, so Bill and I went to dinner together.  As we were walking back to the hotel the rest of them arrived.  It was after 7pm.  They didn't start out from Carson until after noon, and one of the riders had not been on a bike for 15 years and was going slow.  They turned out to be an interesting bunch.  Two of them were Catholic priests from Southern California, one was the brother of one of the priests, and was a physician, and the fourth guy was, I think, from Utah.  They were planning on riding the whole WBDR and were taking turns driving the support vehicle which was a pickup with a trailer.  The priests were amazingly regular guys and had ridden dirt bikes for many years in most of the same haunts I had ridden when I lived in SoCal.  If I had had a pastor who was a dirt bike rider when I was a youngster I might have stuck with religion longer than I did.  We chatted late into the evening and they invited me to ride along with them the next day.  It sounded good to me as I was heading alone into some uncharted territory that was supposed to have some difficult parts

The next morning we got started around 9:30 and headed west up hwy 12 towards White Pass.  We had a 31 mile road ride before we took off north on the next unpaved section.  We got out of town and the speed limit went to 55, but the lead guy was going 50.  I thought maybe he was relying on a typically inaccurate motorcycle speedometer (mine was showing 55)), but my GPS was giving a true speed of 50.  So I passed the lead guy and tried to indicate that we could go faster, but he didn't get the hint and they slowly faded into the distance.  After awhile I stopped at a viewpoint and eventually Bill came by and said the other guys had stopped to put on warmer clothing.  We waited for awhile and they didn't show, so I took off and told Bill I would be waiting at the start of the dirt section.  While we were waiting, Bill took this picture of me:

That was the last I saw of any of them until about 7pm when they finally showed up in Ellensburg with tales of woe.......bike problems, wrong turns, running low on gas and water, and bike drops.  I waited for them again at the turn off of hwy 12, and then again before the section that had the "difficult section" marked on the map.  This was about 29 miles from Ellensburg and I was hot, tired, and out of water.  I didn't want to tackle that section without backup, so I lay down in the shade for an hour waiting for them before I decided to take the easy alternate route and not risk it.  I got in to Ellensburg about 3:30.  My total mileage to that point was about 320.  After the guys showed up I went to dinner with them and we "bench raced" late into the evening.

The second day was definitely more technical than the first.  There was one section of rutted jeep trails that I took the following video of:

For the most part, though, the difficulty was due to rocks and heat and they kind of went together.  The rocky parts would slow me down and cause more exertion, which increased the heat and decreased the airflow.  Wearing the backpack made it worse because the straps closed the vents in the front of my jacket and the pack itself blocked the exit vent in the rear.  My jacket normally vents very well, but not with a backpack.  When I got to Ellensburg it was over 90 degrees.  It didn't help that all of the route was on the east side of the mountains with fewer trees for shade.  Still, though, it was a good ride.  I sort of got in the go mode and  didn't stop much until I took the lay-down waiting for the other riders.  However, when I'm in the "go mode" I don't stop for pictures.  I had no drops and never got lost.  The Zumo worked perfectly.

The next morning I got an early start to avoid the heat and took off on what promised to be a tedious road ride on a 250cc dirt bike.  The bike was perfect for the off road parts of the WBDR, but not so much for the paved parts.  I'd rather have it that way than try to muscle a big GS BMW over the rough spots.  By the time I got back to Packwood after 120 miles or so and was eating breakfast, I had had enough pavement.  I got the brilliant idea of riding the WBDR route into Packwood backwards to hwy 90, rather than stay on 12 to Randal.  Only problem is, the Zumo doesn't seem to be able to reverse a route, so I tried navigating a new route and got directed to a couple of dead ends and some roads I had never been on before.  I got home at about 2pm with 552 total miles.  All in all, a good ride on some good roads.  

Bare Bones Mustang

I took some parts over to the paint and body shop today and got a look at the Mustang after sand blasting.  It doesn't get more deconstructed than this.  From now on it should be all improvements.

This is the color of bare metal

I thought it might be shiny, but I guess the sand blasting makes it this dull color.  Exterior parts will be hand sanded to get them back to smooth and ready for paint.

The car had more damage than I expected.  The left front had collision damage, which Brian and I suspected because the fender was blue under the maroon paint, but the body guy said the whole front was pushed over towards the passenger side and would have to be pulled back to get the fender to fit properly.  

The sand blasting removed bondo that had been over this damage to the rear.

A bit of rust was revealed on the left rear fender. 

Despite these problems, the restoration guy said the car was in very good condition for it's age.  He said the last classic Mustang he worked on you could see through it everywhere.  

Italian Exotica

Ray sent out an email checking to see who wanted to ride yesterday.  It being a Sunday I would be violating my "no ride on weekends" rule again, but it has been a long time since I rode with Ray and with his current job status he can't take off during the week, so I went for it.  His friend Jeff came along also:

Jeff on the left, Ray on the right

I first met Ray maybe ten or more years ago.  Ross and I were out working on trail maintenance and Ray came riding by and stopped to have a chat.  We told him we belonged to a local club that adopted the trails in the area, and were two old retired guys who spent a day a week working on them.  Ray sounded interested and said he would like to help.  Ross and I had heard that story before, but Ray meant it, and began working with us and riding also.  At the time his private business allowed him to take off work pretty much it seemed whenever he felt like it, so it was a perfect match.  It wasn't long before he really got into it and would often even come up to the woods by himself to do some work.  In fact, as Ross and I got older and weaker, Ray was the guy who got the job done.  At first it seemed we were also pretty evenly matched in riding ability, but I think he got better and I certainly got worse, so that by the time I quit dirt bike riding it was no contest.  We had some good times on the trails while it lasted, though.

Ray is also meticulous in his choice of equipment and his care and maintenance of it.  He also seems to avoid Jap stuff and goes for the high-end bikes like KTM, Triumph, and Aprillia  (and a Polaris quad, once).  Yesterday he and Jeff were both on Aprillias, an exotic Italian-made sport bike.  Only other motorcycle enthusiasts are familiar with the name.  Here is a picture of Jeff with his:

Weather conditions at the start of the ride were crappy, and I mean really crappy!  It was misting at my house when I went to get the newspaper before breakfast, but by the time I was ready to leave home, it was just heavy overcast and I figured that down towards the Columbia gorge where we were going to meet  up it would probably be dry and maybe even sunny.......wrong!  It started raining as I got about 10 miles south of my house and rained off and on for the next two hours.  Even as we headed east through the gorge, it continued to rain until we got to Stevenson, and since none of us had rain gear on, we got soaked.  As they say in the Northwest about summer, though, "at least the rain was warm".

East of Stevenson it dried out and eventually became sunny and warm, and ended up being a nice day and a great ride.  One of the Good Roads that was our destination was the Appleton highway.  I love this road for its curves, good pavement, low traffic, and good sight lines.......it has it all.  There was a post last year on this blog where I had a video of Joe and I riding the Appleton highway, and I have another one from yesterday:

These videos probably all look the same to people keeping up with this blog, but the thing to notice about this one is how fast those Aprillias accelerate away from me after each turn.  I was flogging my little Ninja as hard as I ever had, but the only time I could get close was in braking for a curve.  It was great fun!

After we had lunch in Glenwood we rode back down to highway 14 where I split off to go to Hood River to a bicycle shop to get a new headset bearing.

In the past week I have ridden three of the best street rides in the area.......Cougar to Randall, Longview to Tillamook, and Klickitat/Glenwood.  That's over 600 miles of Good Roads. 

Mustang Deconstruction......Final Push

Brian came down for the weekend and our objective was to get the car ready for the paint and body shop.  First job was to finish up some interior work, which included removing the windows on the passenger side.   I had done the driver's side, so Brian gets to see how it goes on the other side:

Vent window out, now the main door window

He had an interested observer (for a few minutes)

Rear quarter window next.  These windows are going to be great fun putting back in.

Every bit of chrome trim has to go.  This one can be unbolted once the window is out.

Brian compares the right and left windows to do some re-assembly before storage. 

We removed the hood and now the hood hinges are unbolted

Back to the inside, the clutch and brake pedals are removed

Now we get ready for some serious underside work; loosening the bolts holding in the transmission and the motor mounts.  The parking brake cable is also removed and proves to be our only real sticking point. 

Front and rear shocks removed

We lowered the car back down and rolled it over to the shed, where I have a chain hoist installed in the rafters.  A lifting chain is attached to the engine and the chain hoist hook lowered.

With the engine secured, the trans is removed using my ATV jack as a transmission jack.

Just to show it wasn't all Brian doing the work with me twiddling my thumbs;  I got dirty too. 

The engine is free of the car.

After removing the bell housing, clutch and flywheel, Brian bolts the engine to the engine stand.

Engine on the stand, waiting for a time in the distant future when it will either be rebuilt or replaced.

At this point we were pretty much done, and it was only noon on Sunday.  Still to do, however, was a massive amount of cleanup (including the coolant spill in the picture above), and calling the body shop guy to come and look at our work.  He said it was good to go, so he and Brian went over the contract that Brian had written up (being the construction manager that he is).

Steve the body shop guy is signing the contract, while Brian's checkbook waits alongside ready to be ravaged. 

We also had a shop floor full of new and old parts that would be installed by the body shop. In the foreground is a new right front fender.  This is not a junkyard part, but a new part made using the same Ford dies that stamped out the original parts. 

Steve had not brought his car hauler trailer (was he doubtful that we would really have the car ready?), so he left to go get it.  Meanwhile, Brian had to leave to get back to Tacoma, so he missed the bon voiage of the car

Steve attached a winch from his trailer to the car and we proceeded to load it.

Look, I'm driving the Mustang again!

All secure and ready to go

Mustang heading for its makeover

All in all, it was a good weekend; a bit of hard, hot dirty work, but Brian and I worked well together.  I think he appreciated my knowledge and tool collection, and I appreciated his strength and agility.   We solved problems together and got the job done ahead of what I expected.  

New Roads New Places Days 4 and 5

No blog last night due to us visiting old friends in Richland, WA.  We ended up yakking late into the night (well, at least until 10 pm). 

On our way to Richland we passed some wind turbines close to the highway with the access gate open, so we went in to take a look.  I knew these things were huge, but when you get really up-close and personal with one, it's kind of creepy..........like ET's ship landing:

Then we headed for Palouse Falls, but on the way we passed the namesake for Carolyn's favorite place:

One would think there would be a Starbucks there giving away free lattes, but no such luck.  In fact there wasn't much of anything in Starbuck. 

We have been to Palouse Falls before, but it's still worth another visit, and this time we wondered around the area a little more.  The falls are 198 feet high and were running at high capacity:

The down stream canyon is pretty impressive too:

As we walked along the edge of the canyon we noticed what looked like a trail on a ledge about halfway down.  I believe you can see it here on the left side (click on the picture to make it bigger):

We couldn't figure out how you would get to that trail, or who would have the guts to hike it. 

Then it was just acres and acres and acres of wheat in varying stages of ripeness: 

Eventually we reached Tom and Olga's house in Richland, but not before riding through some fairly significant rain.  At least it was warm rain, since we didn't bring any rain gear, but still, it's not supposed to rain in the desert. 

We first met Tom and Olga back in the early 70's.  Tom worked at the same place I did, and Olga was a Special Ed speech therapist which meant she had a lot in common with Carolyn.  Tom eventually quit in order to work on getting a doctorate degree in Statistics and then moved on to bigger and better things.  He ended up working at Battelle Labs near the Hanford Nuclear Site on some really interesting projects.  What we were unaware of was that both Tom and Olga had just retired within the last month.   A new life is ahead for them and we wish them well:

After a great dinner and breakfast and lots of catch-up talk, we said goodby to them and headed for home:

We had navigated to their house using the Zumo, and today I used it to navigate from their house to  Bickleton, which was on the route we wanted to take to get to Goldendale and then down to the Columbia gorge.  What I forgot to do, however, was check the box that said "avoid unpaved roads".  Suddenly we ran out of pavement and had no idea where we were:

Looking at the Zumo screen is like looking at a map through a keyhole.....it's hard to get the big picture.  So I broke out the map and tried to figure it out:

After about 8 miles of gravel road we got back on the pavement and headed for home.  There was a lot of wind in the gorge after we got past Lyle and it was stressful and tiring until we got past the Carson turnoff.  We finally got home around 5 pm, pretty tired puppys.  Total mileage for the ride was 1228.  It was a good, safe ride and the bike ran great.  It is now almost at 85,000 miles.  Carolyn, as usual, was a great co-rider and enjoyed the trip.