August 18-20, 2006
685 miles

Once again my friend Doug asked the unnecessary question: “Want to go riding this weekend?” It was a silly question indeed. I changed my original plans because he specifically dangled an enticing carrot in front of me: the Kettle Valley Railroad (KVR). I have wanted to take this converted railroad trail for over a year now but had trouble finding sufficient resources on just where it was and where it went. Doug had been on part of it recently and was up for exploring more of it. We made arrangements to meet Friday night and get an early start to our weekend.

Read the rest of this entry »

Castlegar 2 – April 30th, May 1st, 2006
Total Miles: 1022 miles, 2 days

Jim, my riding friend in Castlegar, BC, wanted a specific bike accessory that was currently unavailable in Canada. What better excuse to take a ride than to drop it off for him? After all, it was only 1,000 miles and I didn’t have any other plans for the next two days. Read the rest of this entry »

An early spring ride to Castlegar, BC

April 8-9th 2006
Total Miles: 884 miles

The winter hadn’t been that bad. Heck, I had been on a couple of a big day rides on Christmas and New Year’s Day, plus riding to work every day. But that doesn’t quench the desire for a multi-day trip, a trip that lets you get further from home and revisit old stomping grounds and find new ones. It was time to make one of those trips. Read the rest of this entry »

Today was a day of discovery. New roads discovered, abandoned roads explored and known roads enjoyed. Sometimes the best plan is to have no plan at all.
________________________________________
September 30, 2006
Total Miles: 378 miles, 1 day
Seattle, WA to Entiat, WA

I had considered going hiking today, but the idea of exerting physical effort wasn’t appealing to my lazier side. Instead I hooked up with Steve (my riding partner on the return trip from the BMW Campout) with the promise of exploring dirt roads on the east side of the Cascades. He swung by the house on his 1200GS, I hopped onto my “streamlined” (bagless) 1150 and we headed east. It was almost 9am and the morning was heavily overcast and chilly. I wore my heated jacket but something in the wiring wasn’t making a connection, so I was only able to enjoy it for its natural warming effect. I led us up I-90 towards Snoqualmie Pass and just a mile shy of the summit an amazing thing happened: we passed out of the bowl of cloudy soup and into clear blue skies. While the temperature gauge at the Pass read only 47 degrees and a stiff wind was blowing, the clear skies were a welcome change to the threat of rain that I was anticipating previously. Steve took us on a short detour through Cle Elum and stopped across the street from a bakery where we indulged on some tasty and more-than-likely unhealthy treats. With the wind steady from the west we got back on our bikes and headed for Blewett Pass. But not the standard fast sweeping corners of Blewett Pass that everyone else is familiar with. No, we were going to explore the Old Blewett Pass Highway, the one that originally carried miners and supplies over the mountains before the State came along and made the road wider and faster and safer. Read the rest of this entry »

For as long as I’ve lived in the PNW (10 years) I’ve wanted to see the Pacific when it was anything but “pacific”. I wanted to see wind! Waves! Weasels! Ok, maybe not weasels. But I wanted to see an angry ocean, not the placid sea of blue that usually greets me on trips in the northwest. So when I heard that the weather forecast for New Year’s Day included lots rain and high winds I was set!

A riding friend of mine commented that he was up for a ride and while I didn’t want to make this a group ride, I figured that another rider would be fun to have along. Silly me though that I might actually get some pictures of me if there was someone else to hold the camera. After staying up to watch the New Year roll in (yay) the alarm went off way too early so that I could catch the 8:35 ferry and meet Dave at Denny’s over in Port Orchard. Or Shari’s. Or someplace that served food 24 hours a day. We eventually met, we ate and then we headed west. Read the rest of this entry »