Washington Trip: 3 Riders Started, 2 Riders Finished

[Lightcycle]

In 2010, two motorcycle enthusiasts in the US endeavored to map out/create an off-road route to traverse the entire state of Washington from the Oregon state line in the south, all the way to the Canadian border in the north.

Although the overarching goal was to ride as little pavement as possible, there were other benefits to mapping out and publishing the route. As the burgeoning network of blacktop, interstates and paved roads continue to threaten the existence of smaller, unpaved routes and trails, the Backcountry Discovery Route (BDR) organization was founded based on this Washington route. Its aim was to promote and justify the usage and maintenance of smaller trails. The BDRs also create a positive economic effect in rural areas, boosting traffic and income to gas stations, general stores, inns and restaurants whose towns have been bypassed because no highway or interstate runs through or near them.

Each year since 2010, a new BDR has been created through different states. The beginning of each riding season sees off-road enthusiasts eagerly awaiting whatever trails the BDR organization has uncovered for them. As of this writing, there are currently 11 BDRs through the states of WA, UT, CO, AZ, ID, NM, NV, the Mid-Atlantic (the Virginias, MD and PA), Southern CA, the North-East (NY, VT, NH and ME), and WY.

However, the Washington BDR remains the first and the great-grand-daddy of all the BDRs.

We originally moved to the BC Interior to be closer to all the great motorcycle roads in the west. Although the global pandemic has slowed our travels over the last two years, 2022 has seen us resume our two-wheeled, wandering ways once again.

So how wonderful is it, that the WA BDR begins literally two hours south of where we live?

Since we live so close to the WA BDR, Neda and I decide to take our fun bikes, opting for lightweight enduros instead of porky ADV motorcycles. Rounding out the cast of characters is Kevin, who is riding in from Vancouver. And he is taking his porky heavyweight 1290 Super Adventure R.

Most of the BDRs are designed to be completed between 5 and 8 days. The WA BDR itself is divided into 6 sections, with each segment terminating in a town with amenities for moto-travelers: food, gas and accommodations.

Touratech, based out of Seattle, WA, is the primary sponsor of the BDR organization, which is the reason why WA is the first BDR created and published

Most people ride one section per day, but if you start early enough or ride fast enough, it's possible to combine two sections into a single long riding day. Due to the intense heatwave that's currently rocking the north-west, we're only tackling one section per day, choosing to end our riding in the early afternoon before the mercury skyrockets and high temperatures on the trails overwhelm us.

Plus, we ride slow...

How many days are we taking to ride the WA BDR? My bike has the answer written on its side...

 

[Lightcycle]

The BDRs are designed to be ridden south to north. I have no idea why.

Initially we had planned to slab down to the Oregon state line and start the BDR from the border-town of Stevenson, WA. It's over 800 kms on the tarmac, which is *NOT* an appealing task to complete on an enduro.

But talking to some other folks who've tackled the WA BDR, they said that it's actually better to run it north to south, as the views get better the closer you get to Oregon, and there are sections that are easier if you go N->S. Also, we get to hit the dirt a lot earlier, and as for the 800 km ride back to Canada... well, that's FutureGene&Neda's problem!

Day 1: Canada to Conconully

Day 1 is actually Section 6 of the WA BDR, since we are running it in reverse

Our first day has us slabbing to the US Border. Instead of crossing at the larger Customs & Immigration office at Osoyoos, we cross at the recommended smaller crossing at Nighthawk, WA. People tell us that the border guards there are much more relaxed, since they don't get as much traffic.

Our departure time from the Okanagan is 7AM. This is unnaturally early for me, as I'm usually going to bed around 3AM in the morning. I got less than 3 hours of sleep the night before. Ugh.

But we're doing this so we can finish the section before the afternoon heat wave hits, and also if there are problems out on the trail, we've got enough time/daylight to troubleshoot it.

We've done the ride to the Osoyoos area tons of times. It's a great ride through some twisty roads, but all pavement though. Both Neda and I are running some pretty worn out knobbies, so we don't mind wearing them down a little bit more on the pavement. We'll probably need new rears when we get back.

Tires. Not our butts...

Meanwhile, Kevin is super-comfy on his big dirt-couch-rocket, but I think he's a bit worried about how big and heavy his bike will feel once we leave the tarmac.

We reach the US border a bit after 9AM, which is when this smaller crossing opens. The office is a small, non-descript shack out in the middle of the Okanagan desert. It's the only building around for miles.

We expected a laid-back border guard and got the complete opposite.

It started when both Neda and I, pull up to the crossing together. The border officer yells at us, "ONE AT A TIME!"

"But I have both our passports" I reply.

"I SAID, ONE AT A TIME!", his face was getting red already. Not a good start.

Okay, I'll leave Neda's passport with him when she pulls up. At the stop, I turn off the bike and get off to get our passports out. They're buried in my backpack.

"STAY ON THE BIKE!!!!" I didn't think his voice could get any louder or his face any redder than it already was.

I was wrong.

Jesus. Okay. I get back on the bike.

"PASSPORT!"
"It's in my backpack."
"SO GET IT, THEN."
"I have to get off the bike."
"STAY ON THE BIKE. I WILL GET THE PASSPORT FROM YOUR BACKPACK!"
"Ok, but it's buried pretty deep in there"

Also, my backpack has a million pockets in it, so of course the officer can't find it.

"GET OFF THE BIKE AND FIND YOUR PASSPORT!"

omfg. That was what I was about to do when I first got here. I don't say this, because I'm sure he'll shoot me right there and then if I point this out to him.

I leave Neda's passport with him, and when she pulls up, I hear him yelling at her as well. "STAY ON THE BIKE!"

Right. Real relaxed crossing here...

Kevin flashes his Nexus card and he gets away without any yelling. Lucky him.

Alright! We're in the US. Let's ride!

It's a short paved section around Palmer Lake till we get to the start of the BDR at Chopaka Mountain Road.

We stop to air down our tires and take some snapshots. Kevin is keeping his air pressure high because of all the weight he is carrying. And also the bike is heavy... har har...

Too much risk of a dented rim with that much weight on the bike.

The road climbs high above Sinlahekin Valley, and we ride slowly at first, getting our dirt legs beneath us. We each take turns leading, but soon we have to politely argue about whose turn it is up front, because the other two riders behind get swallowed inside a cloud of sand and dust.

This riding order also reveals a lot about each of our riding styles. Neda has a very conservative throttle hand and hardly kicks up any dust at all. Kevin's big bike throws up a bit more of a cloud. But me? Nobody wants to ride behind me because apparently I only have two throttle positions: off and WFO. I'm riding like gasoline and rear tires are free of charge, and as a result, there's a frickin' spray of not only sand, but gravel and small rocks that hang in the air forever behind me...

What...?!?! I'm just having a little bit of fun...

The trail goes past a forest of burnt trees from previous years' forest fires.

We're a bit worried because we're traveling right in the middle of forest fire season. This isn't by choice. Initially, we had planned to run the WA BDR in late June. Temperatures are a lot cooler, and no forest fires as well. But this season has been particularly wet and cold, and the snow up in the mountains has lingered well into the riding season. Late June saw the snowpack at 250% of normal. We're members of a WA BDR forum where riders give updates on their latest attempts on the BDR, and everyone of them had to turn back in the southern sections 1 and 2 because of snowpack.

Because of this, we've had to push back our BDR ride a couple of times. That's why we ended up going to Spain instead at the end of June. Ride report here:

Ride Report: Two Wheelin' through the Canary Islands

¡Hola! from the Grand Canary Islands! We're currently hanging out just a couple hundred kms off the coast of the Western Sahara in Africa. However, these islands are autonomous communities of Spain, so technically, we're in the land of matadors, tapas and Antonio Banderas! Flying into the main...

www.gtamotorcycle.com

Based on the latest intel, the WA BDR only became rideable by mid-July. However, by the time we had re-organized everyone's vacations and time-off, we're now traveling through the worst heatwave this season, and the risk of wildfires is very high. The situation is not optimal.

The temperatures up in the mountains turns out to be not bad at all: mid-20s and very comfortable for trail-riding. But the forecast calls for 40°C+ later on in the afternoon in Concunully, our first stop for the trip. Good that we're getting most of our riding in in the morning. If this keeps up, I see a lot of 5:30AM wake-up calls over the next week...

Riding is fun. But riding with friends is super-fun!

We get along well with Kevin. We've known him forever and he's a rare combination of being good company both on and off-the-bikes.

Lunch consists of a couple of Cliffs Bars. We've brought a couple dozen for this trip! It's good not to ride on a full stomach - less chance of falling asleep and riding over a Cliff, Bar none...

Looking back where we came from

As the first riding day continues, Neda and I get more comfortable with the trails and our speed picks up. Kev, on the other hand, is struggling with his big pig and he doesn't seem to be enjoying it as much.

This is the problem I've found with the big ADV bikes. You may be comfortable on the pavement getting to the trails, but then you suffer a bit when the going gets gnarly. Opposite problem with the enduros: super-fun in the trails, torture on the tarmac...

This ride is 90% dirt, hence our decision to take the fun bikes. I hope Kevin finds his dirt-legs on the beast soon.

Another break, another picture!

The scenery around us is gorgeous, but nothing too different from the Okanagan. We're only a couple hundred kms away from home, so this isn't surprising.

The trail isn't very demanding. We were told that the hardest sections come a bit later (earlier if you're doing it S->N). If this is true, then this makes more sense doing it the way we're going, since we ease slowly into it and the difficulty level increases day by day.

Section 6 is over very quickly. We spent a little over three hours in the dirt, even with all the stops and picture taking. I can totally see how some people do two sections in a day, especially if you're starting as early as we're doing. We then descend into the small town of Cocunully, which we jokingly call "Coconut Alley" because we can never remember the name. The town is literally 2 streets and then we're on our way to the larger town of Omak, where we've booked a hotel for the night.

The minute we leave the trails, the heatwave hits us like a truck. Kevin's display reads 44°C! Initially we were going to camp, but because we're taking the enduros, there wasn't any space for our tent and camping gear. Also Kevin hates camping, so that kind of cemented it.

In retrospect, this was a good decision, because now we can crank the AC all the way up and it's only hunger that forces us to leave the frigid comfort of our hotel room.

Ugh, we gotta put on our sweaty helmets to go get dinner?

We ride squid to the restaurant, which is only 5 minutes away. But the intense sun beats down on our skin and I wonder if we'd be cooler wearing our gear instead.

Every day, each of us gets to pick where to eat for the evening. Neda's choice is Mexican food. Delicious, but we forgot how large the dishes are in the US. OMG, we had to waddle out of the restaurant and crank up the preload on the rear suspension of our motos...

Just a little bit round symmetry with the last photo. The mirror, not us!!!

Before we headed back to the hotel, we visited the AT&T store and picked up a SIM chip for the trip. It's always nice to have data and local calling in case we run into any sort of problems. Also, the AT&T store was air-conditioned...

Despite the heat in the afternoon, the first day of riding the WA BDR was a huge success and very fun. Looking forward to the next five days!

 

[slowbird]

Awesome! Great ride report so far.

Keep it up.

 

[Lightcycle]

Day 2: Concunully to Chelan

5:45AM.

All three of our smartphone alarms go off in unison just to increase the odds that one of us will actually wake up and not hit snooze repeatedly for the next two hours. Surprisingly, that person is me - the Night Owl/GrogMonster in the morning... Neda and Kevin are a bit slower to wake, a bit tired from yesterday's ride. C'mon! Just five more days of this, guys!

Wow. I've become the kind of person that I want to high-five in the morning. In the face. With a chair...

Good thing our hotel includes breakfast, so we're able to hit the road early - around 7:30AM. We're very eager not to ride in that same heat we experienced yesterday afternoon.

Because we stayed in Omak, we have to double back about 30 kms to Coconut Alley to pick up the WA BDR from there. This added stretch of pavement has given me a bit of range anxiety due to our peanut-sized gas tanks. I know for sure we're capable of riding 200 kms on a single tank while on the highway, but I worry that trail-riding will reduce that mileage. Both Neda and I are carrying a couple of extra liters which should add 20% more range. Also I brought a siphon hose so we could steal gas from Kevin's tank. He's got three times the fuel capacity of our enduros and the range to match!

We've stopped calling his bike the Big Pig. It's the "Exxon Valdez" now...

The BDR picks up again at the ghost town of Ruby. The slopes of Ruby Mountain once held rich deposits of silver, which led to a Silver Rush, but that quickly died down once the Panic of 1893 saw silver prices plummet. When that happened, the town of Ruby was quickly abandoned.

The trail climbs steeply up Ruby Mountain, and the road switches back on itself to make the ascent more moderate. Neda is leading the charge, and I'm right behind her. Not five minutes into the trail, we both hear over the intercom, "Ofuk!"

I look back in my mirror and Kevin's gone down after one of the switchbacks.

I walk down to where he is and help him pick up his bike

We survey the damage. A broken plastic cover lies on the ground beneath the bike, the crash bars took most of the brunt of the fall, but now they've shifted a little bit and the left crash bar is resting against the lower fuel tank (the SAR carries its fuel under the engine). Kevin tries unbolting the crash bar and repositioning it, but the bar itself is bent and won't move back to its original position.

The bike is rideable, but the biggest dent is to Kevin's confidence. He's been struggling a bit with the weight and heft of the bike all of yesterday, and he didn't need this drop first thing in the morning.

I'm curious as to what caused the fall, because this was a strange place to lose footing - after a turn and not in the middle of it. He told us that he was too enthusiastic with the throttle coming out of the corner and the rear tire spun out from underneath him and spit him off. Yeah, I've done that before.

I rode with Kev last month, we did the Highline Road out of Lillooet together, ride report here:

Riding with Bears: A Highwire Act on the Highline Trail

The riding day starts out like any other riding day - with a trip to the dentist to fix a cracked filling... My appointment is at 7AM, which is perfect, because it allows me to get a head start after my little procedure, beating the morning rush hour and getting as much riding done before the...

www.gtamotorcycle.com

On that ride, I was trying to dial in the Traction Control on my R1250GS. Even with the Enduro Mode on, the TC was waaay too intrusive and would cut power too often on rocky terrain when the rear hopped over rocks and lost contact with the ground. I tried turning it completely off, but the wheelspin was unmanageable. Kevin, on the other hand, had no such issues with his SAR. But now hearing how the KTM TC failed him in a turn, I'm starting to think maybe the BMW Nanny-TC is not that bad...

We continue on.

While Neda and I are getting faster as we get comfortable with the trail, Kevin's pace has dropped as a result of his fall. I feel bad that he's not having a good time, and I try to encourage him at every stop, but I'm sensing this is something he needs to overcome himself.

Neda strikes a pose

Gun show... with a little help from Alpinestars Bionic Armored Shirt

Most of the WA BDR runs through the beautiful Cascade Mountain range, and when we climb up the peak of each mountain, we're treated to fantastic views of the valleys, rivers and lakes down below.

"Do you dab while riding?"
"Only when the terrain gets rocky..."

You can see Lake Chelan in the distance, that's where we're headed to.

Section 5's route crosses through different forests, and there's a small pavement section following the Methrow River, that links the Loup Loup State Forest to Thrapp Mountain. I think they should totally rename it BRAAAAP Mountain... We make a small detour to a gas station in Carlton to refill our gas tanks. Despite having traveled the same distance, I have to pour an extra liter of gas in my bike compared to Neda. Is there a hole in my tank somewhere...? Or maybe I should tame my throttle hand?

Nah. Definitely a hole in my gas tank!

Anyways, this alleviates my range anxiety. *phew* Good to go for another 200 kms!

Gold Creek Road

Neda motoring up the mountain

Bio Break. And Battery Break as well - replacing the batteries in my GoPro

Kevin jokes that he needs to go into the bush often because all this off-road anxiety has shrunk his bladder. So every time we stop for a bio break, we proclaim to the rest of the group, "Nervous Pee Break!"

A little bit of trail maintenance

We came across this downed tree and we all stop and assess whether we can jump the tree or whether we'll have to move it. As Kevin and I are trying to decide how heavy it will be and who's got a saw, etc etc., Neda hops off her bike and drags the tree out of the way by herself. LOL!

Schwartze-Neda!

That's what I love about my wife. She's a no-nonsense, get-er-done kinda gal. You'll never hear her say: "Oh, I broke a nail"...

The downed tree must have happened quite recently, as the BDR is well publicized, quite popular and well-traveled. However, we haven't seen any oncoming traffic on the trails at all in the last couple of days. Strange...

I'm relegated to Sweep Duty because no one likes riding behind me...

Love this shot! As the trail hugs the side of the mountain, we get terrific views of the valley just off to our right. And from this vantage point, we can see the route ahead for miles and miles, so we get a pretty good idea where we're going to be 5-10 minutes from now.

Towards the end of the section, there's a small, steep trail that runs off the main route to reach Cooper Mountain Summit. Neda and I turn off to head up to the viewpoint, but Kevin opts to stay behind and wait for us. I think he's still a bit spooked from this morning's off and the trail looks too steep and narrow for the Exxon Valdez.

The view from Cooper Mountain Summit viewpoint, Lake Chelan is looking a lot closer now

Hanging out at Cooper Mountain Summit

We ride back down to pick up Kevin and head back towards Chelan for the afternoon.

Tarmac run past Lake Chelan into town

Chelan is a very quaint, boutique town. It reminds me of cottage country in the Muskokas. Seattle is only three hours away, and I can imagine this is where all the rich people from the big city come for the weekend. Kinda like the Hamptons for New Yorkers.

It's my turn to pick a spot for dinner, so I find a place that served the most delicious lamb burgers. So good!

We're staying in a small motel just off the main strip. Not as ritzy as the hotel we stayed at last night, but the AC works which is all we care about. Despite having the largest luggage setup between all three of us, Kevin only brought 2 changes of clothes, so today is laundry day for him. So we all pool together our dirty laundry and hit the laundromat, which is just around the corner from our motel.

We also scoped out a breakfast spot that opens at 6AM tomorrow. Neda and Kevin both groan at the wake-up time. Hard to believe that I'm the Night Owl and both of them profess to be Morning People...

Day 2 is on the books, and yet another fun day on the trails of the WA BDR!

 

[Lightcycle]

Day 3: Chelan to Cashmere

5:45AM. Again.

I slept poorly last night. There's a big dip in the middle of the mattress and I had to sleep all the way at the edge of the bed to avoid waking up with a bad back.

Still, I'm up and I have to kick at my riding buddies to wake them up. We shuffle, bleary-eyed out of the room and we're the first (and only) ones in line when the diner around the corner opens for breakfast. We're only eating two square meals a day, plus Cliff Bars for lunch, so we try to shovel down as much food in the morning before we climb onto the bikes. It's been a pretty good strategy so far, since we don't suffer that afternoon post-lunch circadian dip.

We're tackling Section 4 today, and things could get interesting because for the first time this trip, the WA BDR is offering us an alternate bypass on the route:

Usually, the alternate-route bypasses a tricky segment on the BDR. In this case, it routes around an uphill climb up a section called "The Jungle". Ooooh... sounds ominous. Neda and I are looking forward to hitting this section. Kevin... not so much...

But he's game for it, which is awesome!

We're on the road before 8AM, rounding the southern shores of Lake Chelan on the way out of town. We turn off the pavement at Twenty-Five Mile Creek State Park and head into the bush. The trail turns sharply up and gets super narrow as we climb higher and higher. Neda and I are up ahead and we hear Kevin over the intercom behind us cursing. He's gone down in the silt so I dismount and help him right the bike. Nothing too banged up, it was just a slow-speed tip-over.

As Neda blazes ahead, I let Kevin ride in front of me, just in case I need to help out again. The ground is like baking powder and the SARs rear tire is leaving behind a silt cloud in the air, which rises slowly as if a fog machine has suddenly been activated.

Can't see a damn thing!

This is the section they call, The Jungle. Very aptly named. Because I can't see the ground beneath me, I have to react to wherever my front tire is pushing me towards, letting the bike do it's own thing as I try to aim straight, or around a switchback.

The ground finally becomes firmer and I see that we're on the side of a mountain with a great view of Lake Chelan in front of us!

Neda has been up here for a while waiting for us. She takes a video of us passing by her

That was a fun climb, but I sense that Kevin's anxiety level is through the roof. I'm glad he attempted this portion instead of the bypass, the payoff was huge as the views up here are spectacular!

This should be the most challenging part, so after the Jungle, Neda and I ride ahead and practice our cornering. We stop every once in a while to wait for Kevin, and then race ahead again.

The trail leads back down to Entiat River Road, which is paved. Kevin breathes a sigh of relief when we reach the tarmac. That's not a good thing. He's clearly not enjoying himself.

There's a General Store here that serves food, so we decide to take a longer break here, instead of snacking on our Cliff's Bars.

Neda and I grab burgers and Kevin opts for a chicken burger. He looks defeated. I don't know what to say to help him out.

We spend a bit longer at lunch to cool down. This is our third day of riding and we're all feeling a little bit sore. Me, mainly because of that damn bed last night. But we need to get out there before the heat of the day becomes unbearable. Back on the bikes and we're out on the trails again.

Neda and I are once again up front, and we stop and wait for Kevin at each fork in the road. However, we don't seem to be waiting as long as we did in the morning. That's a good sign. At one of the stops, I ask Kev how he's doing and he's sounding very positive. He told us he's feeling much more comfortable on the bike. I guess with all this seat time, he finally found his dirt legs. I'm both glad and relieved.

Kevin's happy, Neda's happy, Everyone's happy!

The scenery is gorgeous up here!

There's a side-trail here that's runs off the BDR, we get off to scope it out, it seems to descend

I wonder if it meets up with the BDR again, so I decide to hop on my bike and check it out myself. It doesn't take long for me to realize that it deviates a lot from the main trail, so I turn around and then we all head down the BDR route once again.

Another picture opportunity

Did I mention how photogenic everything is up here?

We ride a bit further, and close to end of the trail there's a turn-off to Chumstick Mountain summit. Although Kev is feeling good on the bike, I don't think he wanted to chance another spill, so he stayed behind as Neda and I did another tight and steep hill-climb.

It's only a short climb. This is the summit

"I'm Queen of the World!"

Today we finally saw some traffic on the WA BDR. A couple of motorcycles coming in the other direction. This makes some sense. We left on a weekend from the north and because most people ride the route from the south. Because they're also leaving at the start of the weekend, of course we'd meet up somewhere in the the middle of the 6 sections of the BDR.

We reach our destination for the day in the early afternoon - the town of Wenatchee. We seem to be arriving at around the same time every day - around 2-3PM. The folks who mapped out the BDR seem to have done a very good job equalizing all the sections in terms of riding time. I'm very impressed at the work they've put into it!

Our hotel has a pool which is a plus! But it also has special motorcycle parking as well. That automatically earns it five stars.

Since we had a big lunch, we just have snacks for dinner. I just broke my favorite pair of flip flops, so we walk down to the shopping mall down the street to pick me up a new pair, and we also stock up on some refreshments for the evening before we call it a night.

As we're walking around town, Kevin tells me that he was contemplating packing it in and heading home during lunch today. I'm so glad he decided to stick it out. Everyone was in such good sprits on our ride this afternoon. The mood seemed lighter and we're all joking around. It feels like the rest of the trip is going to go quite smoothly!

Day 3 on the WA BDR. Done and dusted! Literally!