Met Tim part way down and he waved me on down to help him. He had nearly made it but dropped the bike with the wheels on the uphill side (see picture in far right corner - that's about where Tim was at), so we got it righted and he walked it up until he could get on it and ride it out. Dave meanwhile was at the bottom where he fell trying to do a little short-cut. Tim walked down to help him get the bike upright whereupon he decided to take a 10 minute break and collect himself.
Once he did that, he made it right up with no problem. We were there for about 45 minutes all told. But that turned out to be the last really hard part for the whole route.
Tim: I had more of the same problems as Baby head hill but also got to add in several deep ruts. I thought I had it figured out. As I went up the hill I was trying to find a route through the ruts and navigate the rocks as well. I ended up trying to keep my speed up and I think I ended up in third gear rather than second. Down I went again. Dave to the rescue! We got the bike straightened out and up the hill I went. Then down I went. This time I had popped out of the rut and buried the front wheel in a big old sage brush . I tried for a while to get it out and finally got it loose only to have the front end facing the opposite side of the road but laying downhill. Standing it up on my own wasn’t happening. Tom to the rescue.
The rest of the ridge was no problem, especially after all the rocks we had to ride through. So we rode into Ellensburg for lunch which we had at Perkins where we each had breakfast. It was really good. We talked things over and realized we’d never make Leavenworth that night which was our goal. So we decided to skip the section for the day and take US97 straight to Bill’s house, which we got to at about 3:20pm. We took showers, did some laundry, and waited for Bill to arrive which he did fairly soon after we got there. We were pretty beat up and Bill’s house was an oasis for us. We grilled hamburgers, made plans for the next day, had a great time catching up with Bill, met Polly, then finally got a great night’s sleep in actual beds. Hallelujah!
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.
