Coeur D'Alene to Wenatchee

Today was our second day on the bikes and it was delightful.  Which came as a surprise to me given the miserable night I had last night.  Slept horribly, stressed about not having written my blog and being completely unclear about the route we'd take today.  KC put me at ease this morning and assured me that any ride in new territory is a good ride and we ended up collaborating on our route and it turned out to be a great ride, seeing some incredible scenery.

We mounted up at 9:00AM which gave me the time I needed to write the blog, process my pics and get a rough route lined up.  I decided to take I-90 about 30 miles to Hwy 2 just west of Spokane.  On Hwy 2 we had to endure miles of stagnant traffic due to a highway line painting crew at work, but we finally arrived in Reardan, WA and turned to the north on Hwy 231 looking for the roads that Butler Maps recommended.  In a short time we entered the Spokane Indian Reservation and the terrain became much hillier than the rolling hills of the wheat ranches we'd left behind.

At Little Falls Rd, we turned west, crossing the Spokane River, which is a major tributary of the Columbia River.  Both of us remarked at what fine condition the highways were in and at how unpopulated the area was.

There was very limited traffic and the weather was absolutely perfect...blue skies, no wind, mid 50's temps and no humidity.  Navigating was a little challenging but even on the "rez" the roads were well marked and between my Butler maps and our GPS's we missed very few turns.

Confluence of Spokane and Columbia Rivers

When we ran into Hwy 25, which tracks the Columbia River for miles, we turned south, crossing the Spokane River and then tracking it as it finally dumped its huge contents into the already massive Columbia River.  At the confluence we passed by Fort Spokane, established in 1880 and closed in 1898, then serving as an Indian boarding school and a tuberculosis treatment center.

Fort Spokane

Just past the confluence we turned south on Miles-Crestin Rd and were treated to some incredible views of the Columbia from the hillside above the river.  Somewhere along this route KC decided that the highway was too confining and he took off across what looked like a billiard table smooth stubble field.  Unfortunately, the field had 6" deep furrows that were OK to traverse going across them, but once he tried to turn around he became stuck. Over our Sena intercoms I was treated to grunting, groaning, several curse words that were brand new to me (and I'm an old alter boy) and the most stupendous rooster tail I've seen come out of the rear end of a BMW R1200GS Adventure.  I assure you, there are very few (nearly) 70 year olds on this planet that would have done such a thing and I just happened to have found myself in the company of one of them.  My life is special.

KC damn near stuck in a Central Washington wheat field

At Creston, WA we stopped into a wonderful restaurant called the Corner Cafe.  Mind you, Crestin is a wide spot in the road...

with nothing but a gas station and a bunch of grain elevators, so finding a great spot to eat was a shocker.  KC said it was his best meal of the trip.  He may be exaggerating a tad, but it really was very good.

Starter home in Crestin

On our way out of town we passed the towns grain elevators (mind you we are in the nation's wheat belt...more on this in a minute).  Next to the large metal grain elevators was a massive pile of wheat, I'd guess it was 50' tall and 200' in diameter.  A front end loader was scooping up the wheat and loading it into an open trailer connected to a semi.

After lunch we got back on Hwy 2 and roared across 80 miles of non stop, huge wheat farms.  The terrain was rolling hills and the air was cool, dry and crystal clear, letting us see forever.  And the wheat fields, most of it stubble, some of it freshly plowed, some of it new wheat just poking up through the ground.  The scale of these operations is just stunning.

In Waterville, an appropriate name for a town built near a river I suppose, we turned south on Badger Mountain Rd. and were treated to more intensely beautiful scenery.  The golden wheat stubble against the now emerging Cascade Mountains to our west and a blue sky mixed with puffy white clouds was jaw dropping.

The grand finale of our route positioned us on a hillside several thousand feet above the Wenatchee valley and the Columbia River.  The view was breathtaking and KC and I stopped at a pullout and gawked.

Day Two is in the books and it was a good one.

Nighty night.