From the mountain we continued on down the other side and the road got much nicer. We came across some worker’s nice trailer and backhoe also. The other thing about this side of the state is that we were back into trees which besides being prettier, was also a bit cooler. It always seemed like we were up in the toolies so it felt odd to find road signs like the one we came across pointing to Ardenvoir (11 miles).
We weren’t taking that all the way of course, but we started down it. We passed a water truck with no one in it, then a dump truck coming up the road. It’s a small road so we all went in the ditch to get past it. A few minutes later we turned off the nice "highway" and on to a smaller dirt road taking the long way to Ardenvoir. We criss-crossed under a set of powerlines on our way down. We rolled through Ardenvoir and tried to stop for gas, but the only gas station was closed on Wednesdays! So to make sure Tim’s tank was okay, he and Dave emptied their 1 liter fuel bottles into the Sherpa.
After a couple of wrong turns led by yours truly, we got on the right track and headed back up into the hills toward Chelan. The roads were good and we were bombing right along. They were so good and we were going at such a good clip that I missed a turn into what used to be called "The Jungle", NF4450. I looked down at one point and realized I had missed a turn. Eventually the road we were on met back and the track and I realized what I had done. I’m a little bummed that we missed that part, but by the time I realized where we were, we were three quarters of the way past it. We decided that was the luck of the draw, so to speak. From what we had heard, it wasn’t nearly so overgrown any longer due to fires I believe. So down, down, down we went until we got to Twenty Five Mile Creek State Park and the road into Chelan and filled up our gas tanks. We stopped at the Outlaw BBQ for an early dinner or late lunch depending on your point of view. It was a nice restaurant and we all had a great dinner. Afterwards we headed over to Safeway so Tim could pick up some things and Dave and I set about straightening out my alignment with his nifty Motion Pro chain alignment tool. That cleaned up the jumpiness I was experiencing and I was a happy rider again.
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.
