September Weekday Overnighter???

[Stephen]

I'm thinking of a September weekday over-nighter to explore north central Washington.

Possible areas:

1. Oroville to Kettle Falls to Tonasket Loop.

2. Omak to Inchellum to Springdale to Chewelah to Usk.

Some of the best twisties in the US. Ghost towns, abandoned mining towns...

Google maps: Loup Loup Pass, Cache Creek Road, Bridge Creek Road, Twin Lakes Road, Springdale-Hunter Road & the Flowery Road.

You be smiling soon! :yahoo:

Motel/ camp???

 

[Panman]

All good stuff, my garage passes are about used up me thinks.

 

[Fjroamer]

...know the area well!!! (been riding over there for years)

add to list: Omak Lake Road (new, good pavement on Res., unpatrolled), Addy-Gifford,Springdale-Hunters.

I have access to a cabin near Lk Sacheen, or a farm house south of Colleville up in the hills.

Beautiful campground on Hwy21 a bit north of Keller Ferry, right on the lake.

A loop up into lower B.C has some nice roads as well...(Hwy 25 north out of Kettle Falls)

all sorts of possibilities..., how to condense into two days :dntknw:

Free midweek (as of now). Rode the silver FJR w/ you on the Monroe to Mt Baker ride.

(if you were to ride the Feejer, I wouldn't have to work as hard..)

 

[pawtracks]

Sounds like fun, I'm free during the week but will be out of the state until 9/11.

 

[Stephen]

When I was returning from WFO-8, I ran Cache Creek Road, Bridge Creek Road, rode on the free ferry near Gifford, and Springdale-Hunters Road (all east to west). Shizzammm!!!

The territory I'd like to cover is sort of a long rectangle... The western corners being Nighthawk & Tonasket, and the eastern corners being Metaline Falls & Usk. A Canadian loop would be cool, too.

The MUST list includes:

1. Molson to Orient via Chesaw & Curlew.

2. Tonasket to Metaline Falls via Republic, Kettle Falls, Colville, Tiger & Ione (Highway 20 & Sullivan Lake Road).

3. Chewelah to Usk via the Flowery Trail, then maybe loop into BC via 6, 3, 3B to Trail, Rossland & back via 25.

I was thinking maybe leave on a Tuesday, back on Thursday, but I'm always free Monday-Thursday.

I'd like to camp out maybe one night just to say I did it. Maybe!

I'll keep an eye on the weather. Here's the days that would be great for me:

September 15-17, 22-24

Note: cross-posted at Sport-touring.net

 

[Stephen]

...know the area well!!! (been riding over there for years)
add to list: Omak Lake Road (new, good pavement on Res., unpatrolled), Addy-Gifford,Springdale-Hunters.

I have access to a cabin near Lk Sacheen, or a farm house south of Colleville up in the hills.

Beautiful campground on Hwy21 a bit north of Keller Ferry, right on the lake.

A loop up into lower B.C has some nice roads as well...(Hwy 25 north out of Kettle Falls)

all sorts of possibilities..., how to condense into two days :dntknw:

Free midweek (as of now). Rode the silver FJR w/ you on the Monroe to Mt Baker ride.

(if you were to ride the Feejer, I wouldn't have to work as hard..)

Wow! Way cool! :yahoo: And yes, I'd take the feejer.

 

[pawtracks]

Something like this?

I'm good for any dates past the 11th of September.

 

[Stephen]

Wow! It's hard not to take off now! I was thinking of riding over there next week for a day or two just to scout out things.

How about this for September's run?

Day 1: Highway 2 to Okanagan, Omak Lake Road, Cache Creek Road, Bridge Creek Road, Addy-Gifford Road to Addy, then north on 395 to Colville for the night?

Day 2: Back south on 395, east on the Flowery Trail, across the river and north to Sullivan Lake Road, north to BC (Hwy. 6,3,3B,22A), south on 25 along the Columbia River to Kettle Falls, then to Republic for the night (Curlew Lake Campground??).

Day 3: North on 21 to Curlew, west to Chesaw, Molson, Oroville area and on home via Hwy 2 or 20.

Or whatever!

 

[pawtracks]

Sounds good to me, looks to be ~9 hours of riding each day.

Here are some maps for anyone who is on the fence.

Day1 - Day2 - Day3

As far as I can tell Colville, WA only has a few hotels: Colville Inn - Comfort Inn - Selkirk Motel

Curlew Lake Campground

 

[Fjroamer]

...just to confuse the issue more (nice routing pawtracks!)

For an all camping route option (not advocating this, just throwing it out), after Omak Lk Rd., head south toward Electric City, then cut east on Peter Dam/ Manilla Ck. Rd. to Hwy 21 (or continue over Cache Ck. Rd and south on 21)

Cross the (free) Keller Ferry for an awesome climb up out of the gorge (seriously!), south to Wilbur (Hwy 2) then east to Creston (yawn) and n.e on Miles Creston Rd (a fun descent back down through canyon to Columbia R again).

North a short ways on Hwy. 25 to Fort Spokane St. Park and campground (very clean, scenic area)

Day 2 would start up 25 to Cedonia/ Addy road, n.e. to Addy and Hwy 395 then down to Chewelah and Flowery Trail Rd.

*** suggest bkfst. in Chewelah after and 1 1/2 hrs. or so of riding.

the route rom B.C. back into Wa.. can actually cross at Boundary and follow more of the Columbia and miss a couple slow going towns in B.C.

Day 3 at Oroville, a nice loop option is out around Palmer Lake, Loomis and back down to Tonasket. (Loomis Oroville Rd.)

just suggestions on roads I've ridden a lot. Not suggesting this is the best or must do routing...

 

[pawtracks]

I'm up for any routes (they all look good to me)

Also open to camping both nights, not sure about federal parks but I know I can camp at any state park for free (and bring the park limit of guests with me) so your camping should be free too.

Revised suggestions (Fjroamer)

Day1 - Day2 - Day3

Fort Spokane

 

[Roy Epperson]

I'm up for any routes (they all look good to me)

Thanks for the route ideas. I've filed them away for our next trip North. Can't make it again this year after WFO and 2 more weeks in BC, AB, an WA.

 

[Fjroamer]

...so is this dead??? No activity for two weeks and nothing back from Stephen??? :eh-smiley:

 

[Stephen]

It's still on for me for the 22nd-24th, weather-providing.

I've been fighting a bad cold for a week... been nothing but a snot factory. :dribble:

The only thing I'm worried about is the pace. I'm not a fast pacer (except the twisties). I like to stop and ogle. I stop to pee a lot, too, or snack, or ponder the origin of the universe...........

I don't want to hold anyone up.

Also, most of you probably start off early. Not me. I take sleep medicine. It takes me a bit in the morning to get going... coffee, mostly. I don't eat breakfast either.... except coffee.

Jus' sayin'...................

 

[pawtracks]

22nd-24th work fine for me.

But I don't think this route & required pace will work well with late<r> morning starts and more frequent stops.

Day1 - Day2 - Day3

I'm open to adding an extra day/two or adjusting the route to better fit the trip.

I'm guessing with stops for food, gas and sight seeing each of these days is looking to be about ~12 hours which may not work well with setting up a tent in the dark or even finding a spot left.

Maybe a 8-10 hour day would be more realistic?

 

[KSFJR]

I might be interested in joining you guys. I am in Kansas City and hope to leave here for the states north of here working my way west along the Canadian border by Wednesday the 16th. I don't know an exact schedule but it appears to be about the appropriate time. I'll keep an eye out to see if it works for you guys also.

Thanks,

Chester

 

[Stephen]

Hey, that looks like a nice route.

FYI, we can burn it to Omak if you like. No problem there.

Or (if the weather is OK) we can deviate a little bit and take the Old Cascade Highway up to Stevens Pass instead of Highway 2. If you've never taken it, it is really a terrific experience.

On the last leg, I might stay overnight in Winthrop and return home Friday morning.

Or we can leave on Monday to add an extra day. Maybe enjoy Canada a bit more?

Important things to me: hot shower, coffee and companionship. I don't get to take vacations very often... so I want to make the best of it.

KSFJR: We'd enjoy your company.

 

[Fjroamer]

Due to recent incident I'm not sure at this point if I'll join in this endeavor. I might ride along day 1 and peel off but just not sure. I want to be in the Seattle area to be near Dennis.

 

[Stephen]

No worries.

Roamer, don't even think about coming along. You, too, could end up in some awkward position.... thinking about other things.

There will be other times. Just follow your heart.