Wednesday, August 2, 2017
We tried to get up and get an early start, but I suppose we shouldn’t be too disappointed with hitting the road by 8:30am. But we had breakfast with Bill again, got everything packed and were dressed for the ride. I had forgotten my USB adaptor at home (DOH!!) but I was able to borrow Bill’s for the remained of the trip. That meant that my phone stayed charged and I could recharge both the Sena bluetooth on my helmet as well as the GoPro camera.
We headed down US 2 to Cashmere and turned north on Nahahum Canyon Road. The paved section lasted about 5.5 miles before turning to dirt. We split off to NF-7415, then NF-7400. Somewhere in here we caught up with the guys we helped the day before. We followed them for a bit through some pretty rutted road, then they let us through after a short chat. Dave ended up talking to one of the guys after the trip. They finished a day behind us, but with only three. Half of them left after they got to Chelan, but I don’t know the reason. It’s possible they had time commitments, but the road from here on was much easier than what they had previously covered.
We eventually split again on to NF-5200 which led us to Chumstick Mountain. This was a planned stop originally, but with the smoke from the Candadian fires, there just wasn’t anything to see so we kept riding. This was really the bummer about the week – lot’s of great views to be had if the smoke hadn’t been there. But you know, you choose the week and you take your chance. We could have been riding through rain,
which would have been a completely different ride.
Tim: I think this was the day I struggled with the deep ruts. No rocks this time but sand was the issue this time! I had gotten used to the rocks but now the problem was deep soft sand in the rocks. These ruts were three feet deep (seemed like the grand canyon) In and out I went and down a couple of times. I was pretty frustrated by the end of this section.
All the way through this day’s ride, my bike felt like it was skipping a tooth on the sprocket. Turns out I had a mis-aligned rear wheel. We stopped at one point to try and get it lined up, but it didn’t make much difference. This bugged me most of the 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.
