Pat L
TwoWheelExplorer
I'm catching up on a ride report for a little day ride from a few weeks back. It was my first day at "Harley touring pace" in quite a while, but it was fun :yahoo:
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It started a couple of weeks before. My friend Jeff, a longtime riding pal, hatched a plan to take a day off work and ride the North Cascades Loop in WA with a few friends. This loop takes Hwy 2, Hwy 9 and Hwy 20 and crosses the Cascade mountain range twice along the way.
I needed the break and hadn't been on the Hwy 20 portion of this ride for ages, so I was ready to go.
We met at a Starbucks in Monroe, WA to begin. We had four riders: J on a Harley Ultra Classic; his dad D on a Harley Heritage Softail; and J on a Ducati Streetfighter 848. I was on my FJR1300.
Monroe is on WA Hwy 2, and we rode through the early morning fog east toward Wenatchee.
We stopped at the Stevens Pass summit for pictures.
Breakfast was in Leavenworth.
We encouraged D to get a new face tattoo of this theme.
Hwy 2 from Leavenworth east to Wenatchee was incredibly smoky. I didn't realize the extent to the fires around Wenatchee till we saw this, just outside Cashmere.
We took Alt-97 on the west side of the river, towards Chelan. The fire had burned down to the road, which I later learned had been closed days before.
We rode through a tunnel at warp speeds.
We turned west on Hwy 20, and stopped for a break just outside Twisp.
Fire crews were hard at work in that area.
We pulled into Winthrop for a walk around and some lunch.
Winthrop has an interesting history.
We ate at the Old Schoolhouse Brewery in Winthrop and had a riverside table outside on the deck. Highly recommended spot.
After a leisurely lunch we headed west again and stopped at the overlook at Rainy Pass. I've seen the signs for this viewpoint but never pulled in. Do it if you're there. The road up to that pass, and then down the other side, is classic Washington alpine twisties.
We headed west again and stopped at Diablo Lake, which reminds me a lot of Shasta Lake, except that Diablo has trees all around and is Washington green.
And here's our final route, from Spotwalla using my iPhone for locations. You can see the large chunk of Hwy 20 for which there was no cell coverage.
Back to the westside, we took Hwy 9 south and meandered home. It was around 470 miles for the group, plus a few for each of us to get to Monroe from our various homes. It was a great use of a Thursday when I was supposed to be at work.
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It started a couple of weeks before. My friend Jeff, a longtime riding pal, hatched a plan to take a day off work and ride the North Cascades Loop in WA with a few friends. This loop takes Hwy 2, Hwy 9 and Hwy 20 and crosses the Cascade mountain range twice along the way.
I needed the break and hadn't been on the Hwy 20 portion of this ride for ages, so I was ready to go.
We met at a Starbucks in Monroe, WA to begin. We had four riders: J on a Harley Ultra Classic; his dad D on a Harley Heritage Softail; and J on a Ducati Streetfighter 848. I was on my FJR1300.
Monroe is on WA Hwy 2, and we rode through the early morning fog east toward Wenatchee.
We stopped at the Stevens Pass summit for pictures.
Breakfast was in Leavenworth.
We encouraged D to get a new face tattoo of this theme.
Hwy 2 from Leavenworth east to Wenatchee was incredibly smoky. I didn't realize the extent to the fires around Wenatchee till we saw this, just outside Cashmere.
We took Alt-97 on the west side of the river, towards Chelan. The fire had burned down to the road, which I later learned had been closed days before.
We rode through a tunnel at warp speeds.
We turned west on Hwy 20, and stopped for a break just outside Twisp.
Fire crews were hard at work in that area.
We pulled into Winthrop for a walk around and some lunch.
Winthrop has an interesting history.
We ate at the Old Schoolhouse Brewery in Winthrop and had a riverside table outside on the deck. Highly recommended spot.
After a leisurely lunch we headed west again and stopped at the overlook at Rainy Pass. I've seen the signs for this viewpoint but never pulled in. Do it if you're there. The road up to that pass, and then down the other side, is classic Washington alpine twisties.
We headed west again and stopped at Diablo Lake, which reminds me a lot of Shasta Lake, except that Diablo has trees all around and is Washington green.
And here's our final route, from Spotwalla using my iPhone for locations. You can see the large chunk of Hwy 20 for which there was no cell coverage.
Back to the westside, we took Hwy 9 south and meandered home. It was around 470 miles for the group, plus a few for each of us to get to Monroe from our various homes. It was a great use of a Thursday when I was supposed to be at work.
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