Closing the Circle

We are close to completing the large circle that we began seven days and more than three thousand kilometres ago.  Today our plan was to leave Idaho and follow Washington State Route 20 for the border to Highway 97 where we would turn north and stop for the day just south of the border.  Neither of us have ridden this highway before and rather than heading straight west like an Interstate highway, the route of this secondary road is subject to the rugged geography of eastern Washington.

 

Outside our motel in Sandpoint, ID.

 

As I was finishing packing up my bike, Jim, who was already ready to roll, was enjoying a relaxing moment on the bench outside the motel when he was approached by and an older woman who was missing a few teeth.  She talked to him about riding in the heat and mentioned that it must be hot riding in chaps and a jacket.  Jim agreed that it was.  She then commented, "You must sweat a lot."  Jim agreed and she then commented, "That must be how you keep so thin."  Jim was at a loss for words with that.  He explained later, "I had nothing to say. I haven't been called 'thin' in over forty years!" I remarked to him that considering where we were he would be considered thin, considering the many jumbo-sized people we had met on out travels over the past week.

We left Sandpoint, ID, at about 8:30 heading west.  We crossed into Washington at Newport and turned from Highway 2 to Highway 20.  The road change immediately climbing and turning and heading north to Tiger, WA, as we rode along the Pend Oreille River.  The river is fast moving in spots and it is quite broad.  In spots it broadens out and there are cabins and docks along the shore.  The whole area is quite beautiful as it is surrounded by steep tree-covered mountains.

Pend Oreille River near Tiger, WA

 

The run in to Colville was a real pleasure.  This highway is a motorcyclist's dream with constant turns interspersed with long straightaways and the miles flew by.  After leaving Tiger we crossed a pass at 3300 feet, stopping at Crystal Falls, a waterfall that is about sixty or seventy high,  before descending into the valley that is partly covered by Lake Roosevelt, the reservoir created by the Grand Coulee Dam. By the time we reached Colville the temperature was in the low 80s with the promise of going still higher as the day progressed and as we lost altitude.

 

Crystal Falls

Crystal Falls

 

Crossing the Columbia River at Kettle Falls

 

We stopped for lunch in Colville then continued west to Kettle Falls where we crossed the Columbia River and began to climb the second of three passes, this one called Sherman Pass.  The road again climbed in a series of switchbacks and straightaways.  We climbed almost 4000 feet in about twenty miles, topping out at 5575 feet.  The highway then descended to the town of Republic before again climbing into the third of the passes we were to cross today.  This pass topped out at 4300 feet before descending to the town of Tonasket where we turned north on Highway 97 to Oroville.

 

Sherman Pass summit

Looking west toward Kettle Falls, WA

Wolf sculptures at the Sherman Pass summit

 

Republic, WA

Motel in Republic, WA

 

We stopped at the first, and as it turned out, the only motel in Oroville, and just as it happened last night, we got the last room that was available.  Twenty minutes later and we would have had to either cross the border and try to get a very expensive room in Osoyoos or further north, or backtrack and head south twenty-five kilometres to Tonasket or eighty kilometres to Omak.  The gods have been smiling on us the past two days when it comes to accommodation.

 

The past two days have been wonderful riding days.  Today we covered 379 kilometres, almost all of it on roads that were a motorcyclist's delight.  We climbed three mountain passes and except for the stops in Colville and here in Oroville, we didn't meet many other people.  We really didn't see many motorcyclists today and we didn't meet any.  The day was mainly devoted to riding and the scenery, while beautiful, is not as spectacular as some that we have seen in the past week.

 

Tomorrow morning we will visit the Duty Free, cross into Canada (our home and native land!) and ride up the Okanagan Valley then on to Kamloops where we will clean the bikes and sit back and relax for a while.  As an extra treat, we'll turn off Highway 97 just before we get to Kelowna and take the Westside Road.  BCAA says that it's one of the worst roads in BC.  Jim and I think it is probably one of the best biking roads in the province and tomorrow we'll have chance to enjoy it once more.