Cont.....
Meeting new friends along the way...
As the excitement of the Northern Cascades ride began to fade in my mirrors I had a decision to make about coast. At this point I'm less than an hour away, but that means at least 2 hours to get back to where I'm sitting, and I have a lot more that I want to accomplish today. The coast is cool, and I've done it lots before, but today the appeal of fighting the traffic does not out-weigh reversing my steps over this awesome road and working my way much further down the road to places less traveled. With that, the Viffer and I turn around for another run at biking nirvana....
Once I get back as far as Twisp I take a right down #153 in the Methow Valley....
Sometimes it's difficult to look forward to the road less traveled when the main event is quickly disappearing in your mirrors. In this part of the northwest however there are pockets of awesomeness spread out between the sometimes flat and sometimes rolling prairies. Anything with a river valley is usually interesting and often, just when you think you have headed 50 miles away from anything fun you end up seeing something that you never expected.
Another spillway along the way....
Damn - there are allota dams along the way....The view overlooking the Grand Coulee Dam
Once I left the Grand Coulee Damn I made my way down route #174 and took a left up route #21 back to Roosevelt Lake. Out here, it's flat lands only and my hope was that my experience with other pieces of Roosevelt would mean that I am in for something good. As it turns out I wouldn't be disappointed. The road suddenly takes a sharp turn in to a canyon and my ride is about to take a BIG turn for the better
5 minutes ago I was staring at flat prairie...
If a Honda could smile then this one would be sporting a big dodo eatin' grin 
Business at the Keller Ferry crossing Roosevelt Lake on Route 21 is a little slow. The Operators were basically waiting for someone to arrive. That someone was a Cannuck on a red VFR. Thanks for the lift guys....
The view across Roosevelt Lake from the Keller Ferry
Coming off of the ferry, I had a straight shot north back to the town of Republic down a nice, but narrow two-lane highway. It's the kind of road where you stay off of the throttle, waiting for wildlife to add a sudden surprise to the party. In this case however the "wildlife" was more tame than wild. Just south of town I stumbled upon a cattle / horse drive. After a slight time-out I am on my way........
......but not before a short conversation with one of the locals....
Things were lining up for a nice supper at the pub in Republic before retiring to a motel for the evening....except there were no rooms available. This had been a nice big day of riding but it was about to get bigger. On I go to Colville where I set up for the night and prepared myself for a long ride home tomorrow.
Heading east from Bonners Ferry in the morning after leaving Sandpoint there is a decision to be made: Take the road more traveled and catch Libby and the Libby Dam, or gamble on the Yaak Valley / East Libby Damn road and see what adventure brings
. The past few times I have taken this gamble it has been a several hour detour through rough, single track decaying pavement that beat the hell out of bike and rider. After so many years though they have had to have improved it...... wouldn't they? I'm about to find out....
As it turns out, the single track trail description is still valid, however many of the bike swallowing pot-holes have been repaired or even sections of road repaved. It's the chip and tar kind of pavement, with gravel in random turns for good measure but at least it doesn't torture a good sport-touring bike. Now that the surface is better I can get down to enjoying this anomaly of a road. You can literally ride up here for 2 hours and not see another vehicle. With such low traffic it makes you wonder why it ever got paved at all, but I am thankful that it is, because this is the type of place that you would never see without a couple of day hike or a dual-sport bike. You can never hang it out here and ride hard or you will almost certainly find yourself over one of the guard-rail-free embankments, or in the grill of that one-car-per-two-hours that might happen to be coming around that blind turn on the single track road. What you can do is take in the view when the high mountain road breaks through the trees and enjoy it in total isolation for as long as you like. I must make a point of getting back here much more often....
The Viff sits on one of the more civilized sections of the down hill grade on the way off of the mountain. Pictures do not do justice to the grade!
And finally I hit the end of the line for this drawn-out, three part tour update
. As I reach the east end of the Yaak Valley / East Libby Damn road, I am only moments away from the place where Jennifer hit the deer just the week before, and the beginning of my long push back towards Calgary. Right at this point however there is a breathtaking viewpoint overlooking the Koocanusa lake bridge that I stop for a final picture.
The end of the day draws closer and I start to feel the steering of the VFR get slightly heavy as the sun is going down south of Longview Alberta. It's the kind of feeling that you get when your bike drops 5 psi in tire pressure, and I made a note but kept on moving at relatively high speeds as the sun was setting and I had almost two hours to go. When I finally reach home, the bike goes quickly in to the garage and is fast forgotten as I catch up with Jennifer and get some much needed sleep. It is only the next morning at the car wash that I discover that my "wonderful" Bridgestone tires have gone completely off in a way that i have never experienced with any motorcycle tire. I get a sick-to-my-stomach feeling when I think about how quickly I have ridden on this tire, and how I would have corrected if I had only realized. A quick check of tire pressure revealed that at over 36psi - everything was in spec. It was only two days earlier that I had taken a close look at this very tire, and noticed that it was beginning to show so significant wear, but I never imagined this:
The guys at the bike shop said that they had never seen a motorcycle tire, let alone a sport-touring front tire worn this badly. I am embarrassed to say that I let it get this bad, however at 6800km total on the new bike at this point I was clearly not expecting it! The lesson here is check your equipment and check it often! And NEVER EVER buy Bridgestone tires for your motorcycle.
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