2025 PNW Trip 2 - Day 9

October 1, 2025

I rained a lot over night.  By the time it began to get light it was coming in 30-minute waves with 30- minutes of rain and 30-minutes of light drizzle.  During the lighter moments I got up to stretch and get some photos.

I got my breakfast going and with more rain I ate in the tent.

I started getting packed and getting the bike loaded while also watching the weather.

It finally looked like it was going to be clear so I got on the road and had a pleasant ride to the state line at Lolo Pass.

The ride to Lolo and Missoula was quite nice.  I got passed by some Harleys along the way but other than them I didn’t see much other traffic.

When I got to Missoula I pulled over to check my map and find where the county courthouse was located.  When I started off, I was in front of Sentinal High School and it was lunch time as students escaping.  I had to stop for pedestrians and was coming up behind several other cars, going very slow, when a car to my right backed out of her diagonal parking spot WITHOUT looking.  She missed the back half of my bike by a foot.  Hopefully I caught that on the cameras.

I found the courthouse and can add that to my collection of my bike in front of county courthouses.

Now it was a straight ahead and nice ride to Helena and then to Townsend where I stopped for gas and a snack.  From there I rode east and instead of doing the “shortcut” which misses White Sulphur Spring, I headed north to that town.  I’ve done the shorter route which goes to Martinsdale, but I am not fond of one section of that road which is a bit rough.  The other roots only adds a few minutes, plus I get another count courthouse photo, Meagher County.

I stopped in Harlowton for a rest stop.

I’d like to say that the remaining 90 miles to Billings was uneventful, and it really was, except for one rude dolt from Texas.  I was in a short line of cars following two cattle trucks.  As is done, starting with the first car behind the trucks we were taking turns passing them.  When it became my turn, I signaled and was getting ready to go when a car passed me at a very high rate of speed.  It had a Texas plate and I’m getting he was doing about 95 mph.  It’s a good thing I check my mirrors.

While it really had nothing to do with that guy, I did open it up to pass those trucks and when I glanced down at my speedometer as I pulled back into the right lane I saw it read 103.  That’s a personal record.

The remaining ride back to my driveway was swift and it felt good to pull into the garage.

It was a 414 mile day and about 9 hours.  The totalk miles for this trip were 2.208.

2025 PNW Trip 2 - Day 8

September 30, 2025

It was a riding day.

I got up and went for a walk to loosen things up and to see the sun come up.  Some photos:

I slowly got things packed up as I was eating my oatmeal and having a cup of hot chocolate.  The weather was clear and comfortable.

It was 9am when I got on the road and the same issue I had last May when leaving this site plagued me again.  I didn’t have my phone on the charger overnight and had left the Wi-Fi and hot spots on so the battery was dead.  OK, no navigation aid BUT I’ll do like I did last time: head south and look for Hwy 12.

I stopped at Roza campground to get a closer look.  Nope, I am not impressed.  Too exposed just like the one back up the road at Big Pine.  When I was walking back to my bike I heard some rumbles and a car club had parked near the entry to the campground.  They were in line, side by side, and the occupants were up on the adjacent hillside taking photos. The cars were all newer and it looked like Porsches and Corvettes.  I figured that my bikes cameras grabbed a photo as I went by and I’ll try to paste some in here later.

I rode south through the west side of Yakima which looks a lot nicer than the east side.  I found Hwy 12 and headed east on it.  It’s also I-82 so qualifies as “slab.”

I stayed on this route and knew it wold take me to the Tri-Cities but after a but, and some daydreaming, I realized I’d missed a turn.  I turned around at the next opportunity, Coffin Drive, and headed back.  That’ll add 20 miles or so to todays’ ride.

In one of those cities I stopped for gas before heading east again.  My phone had charged and I was back being directed to the Jerry Johnson Campground.

It was scenery I’d seen before so I just enjoyed the ride without thinking about taking photos except for this one of a grain elevator.

The crops along the way are varied.  LOTS of apples, hops, and grapes with, of course, wheat.  Most every possible patch is cultivated in one way or another.

In a small town, the name escapes me, I stopped at the city park to update the blog.  I had a fig newton and called that lunch.  There was a food truck nearby and I was tempted but wary about having strange food while traveling, plus, I am not sure what vegetarian options it might have.

In Pomeroy I stopped at my usual city park but not for lunch or a blog update but to fill my water bottle.

The next stop was a rest stop in Slaterville, one I’ve used before.  

Then it was on to Kamiah where I got gas and a can of beer to go with my dinner.  When I came out the guy putting groceries in the car parked next to me wanted to talk motorcycles so, of course, we did.

Then it was pedal down for the next 90 miles to the campground.  The sun was going down and I wanted to get there before dark.  It appeared that I was following a storm as all the roads were wet.  I’d had a sprinkle or two earlier but not much and it looked like they had a pretty good wetting before I roads through here. 

I did stop for this photo:

I arrived at the campground and it appears to be mostly empty.  My preferred site, #7, was available so while it was still light, I got the tent set up and the bike unpacked.  After registering ($7.00) and fired up the stove for tonight’s dinner: lasagne.

It was a 421 mile day, about 9 hours.

2025 PNW Trip 2 - Day 7

September 29, 2025

When I write that date I remember that it’s my maternal grandfather’s birthday.  Don’t quiz me on how old he’d be as I have no idea.  He passed away when I was 14 or 15 (probably about 1967) and I think he was probably in his early- or mid-60s.  Here’s a photo of him with me from September 1952.

I started packing after I showered and was pretty much done in time to have breakfast with my mom.  We had fruit bowls and oatmeal.  It was drizzling out side but just a bit.  I got the bike loaded and we did our goodbyes and off I went.  For the upper body, I zipped my rain liner into my jacket and worn long sleeve shirt and a sweat shirt.  Lower body was Levis, riding pants, and rain pants.  My cold weather gloves were in order.   I felt pretty good.

The drizzle turned to rain a ways down the road and then got heavy before Bremerton.  No big deal as I am VERY experienced riding in the rain after the last 2 years of adventures.  I stopped for gas in Bremerton.  It lightened up after that and the next adventure was the Tacoma Narrows bridge.  I had $20 ready to go in my tank bag and the transaction to give me change for the $5.50 toll didn’t take long.  I pulled over to the side and got my tank bag’s rain cover back in place before continuing on.

(Not a lot of photos today and I’m hoping that I can pull some from my dash cams when I get back.)

I stopped in Federal Way to use the rest area and then dove back into the traffic. 

I was using a combination of freeway and two-lanes today.  Avoiding the freeway means stop and go through Tacoma and Auburn and I’d rather ride the slab.

I continued south and only got the occasional sprinkle.  I finally got on Hwy 410 that would take me through Mount Rainier National Park and over Chinook Pass.  The traffic was from very light to non-existent.  The temperature dropped to 50 as I went over the pass.  With the cloud cover I never saw Rainier so just kept riding but did stop on the way down from the pass for a photo or two.

Once I went over the pass, the atmosphere changed dramatically: smoke and lots of it.  I saw signs indicating that there were many closures due to the fire in the area.  My eyes burned and my throat felt raspy.

I stopped along the way to look at a list of closure in the area, posted on a fire road.  I didn’t see my campground listed.

However, every campground I passed was closed and when I arrived at mine, Sawmill Flat, it was closed as well.  I pulled in to the Mather Highway interpretive exhibit across the way and took a break.

No problem.  My backup plan was to ride to Yakima and go up Yakima Canyon and camp where I did on the way out here.  Once out of the mountains, the speed went up into the low-60s and I just cruised through the big sweepers along the river.

In Yakima I stopped for gas and that was a pain.  The first station appeared to be abandoned and taken over by the unhoused.  The next one seemed OK but I couldn’t get it to dispense fuel.  It had one of those vapor recovery nozzles and even though I drew it back, it wouldn’t deliver unless I inserted it flush to the tank.  However, by then the nozzle was in the fuel already in the tank and it shut off.  I gave up and went down 1st Street a ways and found a station without those nozzles and all went well.

Now it was just a matter of riding up Yakima Canyon to the Umatanum Recreation Area and choosing a site.  There are only two other campers here and I chose site #5, paid my $7.50 and got the tent set up and the bike unloaded.

It was a hot and dusty trail and I’d brought along a nice IPA I picked up in Sequim to wash that dirt down while I wrote this blog entry. 

I took a walk to check out the bridge and the river.

It was a 257 mile day and about 7 hours.

2025 PNW Trip 2 - Days 4-6

September 26-28, 2025

The 3 days in Sequim were mostly about just visiting with my mom.  She lives in a very nice independent living facility with her own apartment.  The services are great: room cleaning, shuttle to take residents on errands, day trips to local venues, recreation room, exercise classes, etc. They serve 3 meals a day in their dining room and the food is quite good. I tended to skip breakfasts and go out for a run instead and even though they have some vegetarian options on the menu, I was quite satisfied with their expansive salad bar.

I did two really nice runs while there, a 7-miler and a 5-miler.  The 7 was out to the railroad bridge as I’ve done in the past when visiting.  It is an actual railroad bridge that’s been converted into a pedestrian path and is part of the Olympic Discovery Trail.

The 5-miler was to a very nice city park that had large playing fields, a huge bandstand, a Japanese garden, pickle ball, a skate park, a dog park, and a botanical garden.

Most of the time was just visiting or eating but I did find their recreation room and practiced my pool gave a couple times.  

I took one side trip on my own while I was there.  I rode my motorcycle to the Olympic National Park just south of Port Angeles.  The road goes up to Hurricane Ridge and is full of twists and turns.  Once on top, there is a spectacular view of the mountains.  I did this ride for the first time when I was here last May and, like the Beartooth Highway, it never gets dull.

On the way back down I remembered that there was a brewery nearby so I stippled for an oatmeal stout.

That pretty much sums up my 3 days there.

The ride to Hurricane Ridge was a 75 mile outing.