The roads were wide and fast, Tim leading most of the day. Because of the smoke, we bypassed some scenic spots, particularly Grassy Mountain and Spyglass Peak. Just shy of Grassy Mountain around 11 O'clock I took a wrong turn. Figured it out and turned us around, then turned wrong again, taking us back the way we came from this morning. Noticed a distinctive campsite for the second time and figured out I was still wrong, so turning
around again I finally got us on the right track. Admittedly it was a 5 way intersection, but still, I was clearly not paying attention to the GPS and map.
At noon, we stopped at the historic Magee Ranger Station and took another break. They had bathrooms with nice running water so we were able to wash off some of the dust from our faces and take time to eat some snacks.
It was another 36 miles down easy dirt roads leading us into the town of Clark Fork around 2pm. There's not much here (I've been there several times) so we just fueled up, chatted with the 7 Mormon boys again and got out ahead of them for our last bit of dirt for the day, the route up Lightning Creek. This was a road that we couldn't take two years ago due to fires in the area. I don't know what I was expecting, but it wasn't a wide dirt road with very long straight sections leading gently up the mountain. There was no traffic and we were averaging 35-40mph all the way up – it was that straight. We had already decided to skip the Lunch Peak Lookout due to the smoke. But Char Falls sounded interesting.
In no time at all we were there – it was 2:45pm. Char Falls would be a great place to visit in the late spring when the water is really moving. The road is so easy to get to, I don't think it'd be a problem. The little path isn't more than 100 yards or so, but leads to a beautiful little area. The falls are a couple of drops which today had very little water over it. The drop is absolutely sheer though, which like the Dworshak Reservoir bridge, is a little nerve-wracking. I can heartily recommend visiting the falls though.
After that we continued around the road making our way pretty quickly down to the highway and rode on into Sandpoint. We decided to have our end-of-the-trip dinner at Dub's Hamburgers on the west outskirts of town. Always good burgers, we were a pretty dusty, dirty bunch and even though it was 4pm, we were hungry having skipped lunch again. Near 5pm, we all headed for home, Tim splitting off from Dave and I in Newport and then Dave and I splitting up again on the north side of town. I surprised Vicki, pulling into the garage a little after 6pm and 247 miles for the last day.
Tom Clark
I'm a Senior Software Engineer at Intellitect, living in Spokane, Washington. I also do a little development work on the side. And I love riding motorcycles all over the country with my friends.
