4 Corners of Washington

[lonewolff]

I just came back from a 4 1/2 day trip that 6 of us did going to the 4 corners of Washington. We had 5 of us meet up and leave Bellingham last Thursday at 1:30 and rode to the keystone ferry to go to Port Townsend and ultimately stay in Port Angeles for the night. The 6th guy met us later that night after he got off and came over from Edmonds. Friday we got ready for a rain day but it turned out to be not too bad. We hit some rain for a couple of hours that ended before Aberdeen. The next rain we hit was after we crossed the Astoria bridge and were about 1/3 of the way to Long View. It rained the rest of the time until we reached out hotel at the Best Western at the Cascade Locks on the Columbia. We got up and it was raining hard but it looked like we would be in it for a 1/2 hour or so and then be in the clear or atleast between weather cells. This was true for the first weather cell but then we needed to stop for gas. It was cloudy,getting warmer and no rain. By the time the "quick" fuel stop was done (40 min later) we were toast! The whole area was getting socked in and black clouds came rolling in along with the very high wind. We rode in that for about 1 1/2 hours. I realized something for the first time. I have no problem riding in the rain, cooler weather, etc. Of course nobody really likes it but it is what it is. What I really don't like or want to ride in again is the very high winds like we had riding East on the Columbia! We decided to ride the Oregon side since it was going to be faster (especially after riding the Washington side from Long View / Camas and crossing over at the bridge of the gods to the hotel the night before in the rain) in the morning and then cross over close to the Washington/Idaho border. The wind was blowing so hard the huge trees on the tree farms were laying over and it was a true nightmare of a ride. At one point I thought I was going to suck the back seat up with how hard I was gripping the seat. It didn't matter how fast or slow you were going. My tank bag was lifting off a little and a couple of times I was wondering how big of a dip down and out of the grass / rock ditch dividing the East and West bound lanes was or how bad it would hurt to get blown into it! I remember Jason saying one time when he was coming back from Mardon that he had high winds and it was bad. I had no idea. We eventually out ran the storm and got into blue sky. We stopped at a rest area to change gloves and really have a quick bathroom break. We then realized we didn't out run the storm and it was coming on us fast and the wind picked up again at the front of it! We rallied up quickly and again boogied to beat the storm and the wind. We managed to be ahead of it the rest of the day. We eventually would up in Spokane where we stayed the night. Then one of the guy's that rode a big Harley cruiser had issues. Eventually we called AAA and it was loaded up on a flat bed and hauled to the dealership. Yep, lots of pictures of that and they will show up in his emails every once in a while for some time to come. Luckily the dealership was open on Sundays with the service department open too. He felt bad but I said it doesn't matter who's bike or make it was and it could have been any one of us with an issue. The next day we waited for word on the bike and eventually left Spokane at 3:30 in the afternoon headed for Twisp. We arrived at 9:00 or so at the hotel with a lot of deer looking at us from the side of the road. We got up and moving for breakfast knowing this was a short ride day at 180 miles left on the trip. The weather was perfect and sunny for the final day. We took a brisk pace and glided through the twisty roads in sunshine headed home. We had about 6 hours of rain for the whole trip that was spread out over 2 days and not too bad. My trip meter on the GPS shows 1,302 miles for the long weekend of riding. This is a fun ride around the state and not too long in the saddle each day. I would recommend you did what we did and have the last day or leg of the trip the shortest.

Scott

 

[charon76]

Sounds like a good ride. Were the high winds constant or gusty? Where did you stay in Port Angeles? Did you head out Highway 112 or did you stick to 101 when heading west?

 

[lonewolff]

We stayed at the Olympic Lodge Hotel. Pretty nice and they let us park all the bikes under the covered check in area. We rode out 112 instead of just going down 101 and around Crescent Lake. The winds were constant to a point, swirled around a lot and had a lot of strong wind gusts. There was one stretch where the water was swirling around the ground like you would see in a dust storm like it was lisfting off the ground. True lane changers and at one time I almost lost my tank bag.

 

[RadioHowie]

par·a·graph

   [par-uh-graf, -grahf] Show IPA

noun

1.

a distinct portion of written or printed matter dealing with a particular idea, usually beginning with an indentation on a new line.

2.

a paragraph mark.

3.

a note, item, or brief article, as in a newspaper.

 

[SacramentoMike]

I just came back from a 4 1/2 day trip that 6 of us did going to the 4 corners of Washington. We had 5 of us meet up and leave Bellingham last Thursday at 1:30 and rode to the keystone ferry to go to Port Townsend and ultimately stay in Port Angeles for the night. The 6th guy met us later that night after he got off and came over from Edmonds.

Friday we got ready for a rain day but it turned out to be not too bad. We hit some rain for a couple of hours that ended before Aberdeen. The next rain we hit was after we crossed the Astoria bridge and were about 1/3 of the way to Long View. It rained the rest of the time until we reached out hotel at the Best Western at the Cascade Locks on the Columbia. We got up and it was raining hard but it looked like we would be in it for a 1/2 hour or so and then be in the clear or atleast between weather cells. This was true for the first weather cell but then we needed to stop for gas. It was cloudy,getting warmer and no rain.

By the time the "quick" fuel stop was done (40 min later) we were toast! The whole area was getting socked in and black clouds came rolling in along with the very high wind. We rode in that for about 1 1/2 hours. I realized something for the first time. I have no problem riding in the rain, cooler weather, etc. Of course nobody really likes it but it is what it is. What I really don't like or want to ride in again is the very high winds like we had riding East on the Columbia! We decided to ride the Oregon side since it was going to be faster (especially after riding the Washington side from Long View / Camas and crossing over at the bridge of the gods to the hotel the night before in the rain) in the morning and then cross over close to the Washington/Idaho border.

The wind was blowing so hard the huge trees on the tree farms were laying over and it was a true nightmare of a ride. At one point I thought I was going to suck the back seat up with how hard I was gripping the seat. It didn't matter how fast or slow you were going. My tank bag was lifting off a little and a couple of times I was wondering how big of a dip down and out of the grass / rock ditch dividing the East and West bound lanes was or how bad it would hurt to get blown into it! I remember Jason saying one time when he was coming back from Mardon that he had high winds and it was bad. I had no idea.

We eventually out ran the storm and got into blue sky. We stopped at a rest area to change gloves and really have a quick bathroom break. We then realized we didn't out run the storm and it was coming on us fast and the wind picked up again at the front of it! We rallied up quickly and again boogied to beat the storm and the wind. We managed to be ahead of it the rest of the day. We eventually would up in Spokane where we stayed the night.

Then one of the guy's that rode a big Harley cruiser had issues. Eventually we called AAA and it was loaded up on a flat bed and hauled to the dealership. Yep, lots of pictures of that and they will show up in his emails every once in a while for some time to come. Luckily the dealership was open on Sundays with the service department open too. He felt bad but I said it doesn't matter who's bike or make it was and it could have been any one of us with an issue.

The next day we waited for word on the bike and eventually left Spokane at 3:30 in the afternoon headed for Twisp. We arrived at 9:00 or so at the hotel with a lot of deer looking at us from the side of the road. We got up and moving for breakfast knowing this was a short ride day at 180 miles left on the trip. The weather was perfect and sunny for the final day. We took a brisk pace and glided through the twisty roads in sunshine headed home.

We had about 6 hours of rain for the whole trip that was spread out over 2 days and not too bad. My trip meter on the GPS shows 1,302 miles for the long weekend of riding. This is a fun ride around the state and not too long in the saddle each day. I would recommend you did what we did and have the last day or leg of the trip the shortest.

Scott

par·a·graph

   [par-uh-graf, -grahf] Show IPA

noun

1.

a distinct portion of written or printed matter dealing with a particular idea, usually beginning with an indentation on a new line.

2.

a paragraph mark.

3.

a note, item, or brief article, as in a newspaper.

Happy?

 

[RadioHowie]

I just came back from a 4 1/2 day trip that 6 of us did going to the 4 corners of Washington. We had 5 of us meet up and leave Bellingham last Thursday at 1:30 and rode to the keystone ferry to go to Port Townsend and ultimately stay in Port Angeles for the night. The 6th guy met us later that night after he got off and came over from Edmonds.

Friday we got ready for a rain day but it turned out to be not too bad. We hit some rain for a couple of hours that ended before Aberdeen. The next rain we hit was after we crossed the Astoria bridge and were about 1/3 of the way to Long View. It rained the rest of the time until we reached out hotel at the Best Western at the Cascade Locks on the Columbia. We got up and it was raining hard but it looked like we would be in it for a 1/2 hour or so and then be in the clear or atleast between weather cells. This was true for the first weather cell but then we needed to stop for gas. It was cloudy,getting warmer and no rain.

By the time the "quick" fuel stop was done (40 min later) we were toast! The whole area was getting socked in and black clouds came rolling in along with the very high wind. We rode in that for about 1 1/2 hours. I realized something for the first time. I have no problem riding in the rain, cooler weather, etc. Of course nobody really likes it but it is what it is. What I really don't like or want to ride in again is the very high winds like we had riding East on the Columbia! We decided to ride the Oregon side since it was going to be faster (especially after riding the Washington side from Long View / Camas and crossing over at the bridge of the gods to the hotel the night before in the rain) in the morning and then cross over close to the Washington/Idaho border.

The wind was blowing so hard the huge trees on the tree farms were laying over and it was a true nightmare of a ride. At one point I thought I was going to suck the back seat up with how hard I was gripping the seat. It didn't matter how fast or slow you were going. My tank bag was lifting off a little and a couple of times I was wondering how big of a dip down and out of the grass / rock ditch dividing the East and West bound lanes was or how bad it would hurt to get blown into it! I remember Jason saying one time when he was coming back from Mardon that he had high winds and it was bad. I had no idea.

We eventually out ran the storm and got into blue sky. We stopped at a rest area to change gloves and really have a quick bathroom break. We then realized we didn't out run the storm and it was coming on us fast and the wind picked up again at the front of it! We rallied up quickly and again boogied to beat the storm and the wind. We managed to be ahead of it the rest of the day. We eventually would up in Spokane where we stayed the night.

Then one of the guy's that rode a big Harley cruiser had issues. Eventually we called AAA and it was loaded up on a flat bed and hauled to the dealership. Yep, lots of pictures of that and they will show up in his emails every once in a while for some time to come. Luckily the dealership was open on Sundays with the service department open too. He felt bad but I said it doesn't matter who's bike or make it was and it could have been any one of us with an issue.

The next day we waited for word on the bike and eventually left Spokane at 3:30 in the afternoon headed for Twisp. We arrived at 9:00 or so at the hotel with a lot of deer looking at us from the side of the road. We got up and moving for breakfast knowing this was a short ride day at 180 miles left on the trip. The weather was perfect and sunny for the final day. We took a brisk pace and glided through the twisty roads in sunshine headed home.

We had about 6 hours of rain for the whole trip that was spread out over 2 days and not too bad. My trip meter on the GPS shows 1,302 miles for the long weekend of riding. This is a fun ride around the state and not too long in the saddle each day. I would recommend you did what we did and have the last day or leg of the trip the shortest.

Scott

par·a·graph

   [par-uh-graf, -grahf] Show IPA

noun

1.

a distinct portion of written or printed matter dealing with a particular idea, usually beginning with an indentation on a new line.

2.

a paragraph mark.

3.

a note, item, or brief article, as in a newspaper.

Happy?

Can't tell...vision hasn't returned fully after first read.

 

[blufjr]

Hey, lonewolf, what were the 4 corners that you went to? I kind of think of Washington having 5 corners. 1. Point Roberts, 2. Neah Bay or Cape Flattery, 3. Ilwaco or Fort Canby or Cape Disappointmet, 4. Boggan's Resort at the bottom of Rattlesnake Grade, 5. Metaline Falls at border crossing.

 

[lonewolff]

Half day and final meet up location for everyone.

We rode from Bellingham, took the ferry across to Port Townsend and on to Port Angeles.

First full day of riding

We rode from Port Angeles out toward Neah Bay on hwy 112 and then down and cut over to Ocean Shores, went down the coast to cross the Astoria Bridge, rode hwy 30 and crossed back over at Longview, rode to I-5 and took the Camas exit, rode along the Columbia to the bridge of the gods and crossed over to the Best Western at the Cascade Locks.

Second day of riding

We rode hwy 30 on the Oregon side to Pendleton, Walla Walla, Kennewick, Ritzville and on to Spokane.

Third day of riding (shorter)

We rode from Spokane over to Coleville, hwy 20 over to Omak, Omak over Loop Loop Pass to Twisp.

Fourth day of riding

Twisp over Hwy 20 to I-5. From I-5 most of us went North and one went South back to Edmonds.

If we were really picky we would have gone from the Blaine and all the way out to Neah Bay, etc. But we decided the ride we did was close enough for us. Pt Roberts is OK but it can be a hastle to go in and out of the borders just to go. Plus there is nothing in Pt Roberts.