This day’s views weren’t really bad yet, but we could see it coming. The road we’re on is 325 which continues along the ridge and at one point is more or less in the trees. Ruts, rocks, and roots are what make up the road. It was along this part that my back pain started to assert itself. It should have been fun but most of the time during this section I was in a fair amount of pain. We stopped in several
places to take some pictures of the views but I think we may have missed the one that most people stop at which sticks out a bit from the canyon below. Anyways, we made our way down from the ridge eventually arriving at highway 410 where the Nile gas station is at. We filled up and backtracked to a camping spot not far from where we came off the hill, finally stopping at 6:30pm after 143 miles. Though it was never my intention to camp down low, the temperatures were not that bad down in the valley. Maybe because the sun sets earlier due to the hill west of us. In any case, we set up camp and cooked up our dinner that we bought in Packwood that morning.
Bratwurst, sweet corn, and mashed potatoes made up a very tasty dinner – and cheap to boot! We sat around and talked for a bit before hitting the sack. All afternoon my back was really killing me, but I seemed to have found a way to ease it a bit in my chair. However, when I went to lay on the cot in my tent I had excruciating pain all through my legs no matter what position I was in. Finally unable to take it, I pulled my chair into the tent and gathering my sleeping bag around me, slept for a bit. I don’t know how long I slept, but I felt a little better so I eased down to the cot and spent a restless night sleeping.
Monday, July 31, 2017
The night before we decided to get an early start because we had a long way to go. We wanted to get past Ellensburg and be camping in the mountains. So we were on the road by 7:30am. We zipped back down to the Nile store to get rid of our garbage, then headed back the way we came until jumping on to highway 410 to get to 1701 and our start up to Evans Canyon. This part of the morning wasn't too bad. A few switchbacks, riding past some pretty nice homes here and there. Up on the ridge itself the views were awesome as we rode past the microwave towers or whatever they were. Just past that we turn left and head up hill again. Up and over the hills until we meet up with North Wenas Road.
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.
