The BC - Washington Loop: Phase Three: Nelson to Omak - Scenic Route 20

Click to enlarge

OK, might as well come clean.  You'll notice two routes, one red, and one green.  The green was the route we had planned to take. The red was the route I mistakenly took, despite clearly seeing a sign showing me the border was imminent, and my iPhone screaming at me to turn left...I veered right.  As it turned out, it was great.  We met the Columbia River for the first time this trip.  I've crossed the mighty Columbia at its estuary in Astoria, Oregon, but I have never seen the headwaters.  Trail was a really interesting ride, and Rossland, wow, what a climb on an excellent twisty four lane highway with a ridiculous speed limit.  Needless to say, I decided to ride it as if it was in miles per hour rather than kmh in order to pratice for the upcoming border crossing...

1 Paterson Boarder Crossing: Well that was easy.  Basically from Rossland (very cute) you are descending a 7% grade for many clicks...  You think this is great and blast along, with no other cars.  A few questions pop into your head and one of them is, "Why is this road so deserted?   It's an excellent road!"  You see a large semi in front, and pull over the double yellows, down hill to pass the truck (which is hauling).  As you sweep around the subsequent bend, your question is answered.  This is the only road out of Rossland south, with no turn offs and that, right ahead, is the Paterson US Border station.   And they're watching you overtake this truck at twice the legal limit.  Welcome to the US, son.  Is that a graduated slow down series of 70, 50, 30 kmh signs you've just blown through?  The truck, it appears is just as surprised at the abrupt border station, and has to pull into the oncoming lane as his brakes are overheated from the 10km of down hill grades and he's not sure he can stop before he smears you into the border guard's bollocks.  But the American border guard is standing outside his booth, facing you with one hand on his hip and one palm up, legs apart, daring you and the truck to nudge his tackle.  Prepared for the worst, he directed us to remove our helmets.  Thank Christ my wife has a nice smile.  He held out his hand for our passports and directed his attention to what he referred to as "my little cookie on the back".  Works for me.  We were waved through in less time than it took to slap our helmets back over our chops and in the land of the free, home of the brave, and more importantly, cheap goods and services.  

2 China Bend: There's no reason to stop here, except to change your bike's computer to MPH and MPG (imperial or US).  But the Columbia takes a significant turn here, and there is a rest area.  We decided to walk out on the huge metal dock next to the boat launch.  The signs warn you not eat more than one each kind of fish you catch here per month as the river is contaminated with heavy metals: copper, mercury etc...  I thought back to the smelter right on the river in the middle of Trail.  No wonder the Americans think we're cheese-heads.  Why would you continue to run a smelter mill adjacent to a river that serves as drinking water for hundreds of thousands?  Who would build a mill in down-town Port Alberni?...But I digress.  

As we walked back to the bike, that same Beemer rider we had seen in Nakusp whisked by with a wave.   It must have been the air.  Did he know we were only riding a Vstrom?...A 73mpg (imperial) Vstrom that is...

3 Kettle Falls: Whisking along the Columbia for a few miles you get to the small community of Kettle Falls.  Gas - yes.  Cafe - yes.  Cheap, hell yes!  Big bowl of soup, large fully loaded sandwich, served with coffee, apple pie and a smile.  $4.99.  Plan to eat here. 

As you see, the rain gear is going on.  Too bad we were about to hit one of the big reasons for the whole trip: SR20

4 SR20: It stretches east to west right across Washington State.  It is an amazing road - very light traffic, with large sections closed in the Winter due to its altitude and the snow cover.  Mostly it is two lane, extremely scenic, curvy, with elevation changes and, remarkably, excellent surfacing.  In fact, I have to hand it to the Washingtonians, they know how to pave and engineer their roads.  This one is exceptional - banked and smooth.  And the signage is amazing.  In Canada, we post things seventeen times, caution riders/drivers up the ying-yang, and post yellow signs that seem geared to myopic octogenarians with palsy driving a Model T in a tempest.  The contrast, on this road, at least, was refreshing.  There's a sign.  It tells you there is a sharp left or right hand corner ahead.  Not miles ahead, but now.  It suggests a speed limit, and you quickly learn that unlike in Canada, you don't triple it, but double it.  It's almost as if they realise you're going to push your limits on this road. Unless it rains.  

5 Sherman Pass:  The rain passed, and by the time we reached Sherman Pass, it was drying nicely.  I was surprised that we were basically at the same height as Mount Arrowsmith back on the Island.  There was no hint in the bike's performance or the air temperature, perhaps because we were approaching desert...

Ignore the date and time...it's wrong... We chatted with this guy for a while about the local conditions and the forest fires we had been hearing about.  He was not going through to Twisp, saying he would stop at Republic.  Gassing up in Republic later, I couldn't see the draw, except for the 3 gas stations.

6 Wauconda: We didn't stop. Heck we didn't even notice it really.  But it has the curious reputation of being one of the few towns actually sold on Ebay.  Sorry no pic...it shot by quicker than Spuzzum going over Niagara Falls.

7 And just like that, you fall into desert heat.  The temperature rocketed from 70 ish to, well, very hot.

Wow it looks like the Cache Creek, Lillooet area, only the road surface is perfect.

8 Tonasket and the Bean Trees.  I started to wonder if everyone was called Jack around here.  The trees are curious - I've never seen them before - large leaves with what look like very long runner beans hanging down.  I'm told they not edible.  Right though to Grand Coullee, they are everywhere: a desert-tolerant deciduous perhaps.  Anyway, it was late afternoon and time for a coffee and apple pie.  

9 Desert...hot...: The scale of this land stood out.  We ran beside sage brush covered ridge for a while, with oasis like green patches snaking beside some unknown river off to our left. Pictures don't do this landscape justice - it's too big, too grand to be caught and adequately rendered by a micro-lensed camera.

 Desert Sampler...Between Tonasket and Omak

10 Omak: If there's a recurring theme of this ride, it's that we would have rather stopped somewhere else.  The Royal Motel was excellent - very good value, spic and span, a real mom and pop operation with nice touches and excellent value $49 a night...try that in Canada (no don't - you'll likely wake up with bed bug bites and the clap).  The Mexican restaurant was the best we've eaten at bar none (and I include San Diego venues, Mexican venues etc...): Rancho Chico.  Wow.  The food was excellent, no dross, real Mexicans, serving real Mexican cooking.  High quality ingredients with a smile.  Again the price was out of this world...The same meal at Gina's would have been three times the cost, and half the quality.  But the town itself is fairly devoid of any aesthetic or cultural attractions.  Now Winthrop.  That's a town!

Phase Four: Omak to Oak Harbor

Track available here

A Pictorial Biker's Guide to the BC - Washington Loop: 2000 km of Heavenly Curves.

What do you do when the dirt roads are off limits because of forest-fire danger and you need your riding fix?  Well one possibility is to explore some of the best black-top you can find in this province and south of the border.  So, together with my wife, and with reference to DHBC and DHW we headed out on Siouxsie 2, a 2013 VStrom 650 to unwind the curves of some of BC and Washington State's best roads.  Because there are so many maps, pictures and vids of this trip, I have taken the liberty of splitting the route into 4 phases, referenced above by the white, blue, red and green routes.  

Overall this is a 2100 km route, including 3 ferries (one inland cable ferry, one BC ferry, and one Washington State Department of Transport Ferry).  You might baulk at the cost, but inland ferries are FREE (yes free...) and the Washington State ferries are half the cost of there overpriced BC counterparts.  Of course if you're not a native of Vancouver Island, then this is only a one free ferry ride to enjoy!

A note on my riding experience and the bike:  I am a long time rider, but I have only undertaken multi-day bike trips on dirt bikes, never on a road bike.  This trip was a first for me in many ways: the first 2 up trip; the first long range multi day trip; the first cross border trip; and the first on my Vstrom.  We packed light - incredibly light, and planned to stay in motels, rather than camp, as I initially wanted to, but a happy wife is a happy life as they say!  It was a smart move for many reasons, not least the big storm we encountered, and the forest fires...  

The bike is a 2013 VStrom 650.  I have never owned a Vstrom before; in fact, I had always looked down my nose at the pre 2012 iteration as as ugly, boring and cheap.  I've ridden lots of bikes, and it was a ride on a friend's 2012 Vstrom which converted me.  I was seriously worried about many aspects of 2 upping a 650 on such a long trip, both from power and suspension aspects.  I needn't have worried, adjusting the rear suspension and inflating the tires to specs put paid to any worries about the handling.  The stock seat is unusually good for a Jap bike.  The stock windshield isn't: get an 18 inch adjustable Madstad and your life with the Strom will become serene.  This ride is nothing but curves and hills as you will see, and the bike was light, easy and safe feeling during all kinds of road surfaces, weathers and speeds.  The engine is a gem.  More like turbine than anything else, it had plenty of legs to whisk us along at between 100-130kmh easily with guts to spare for passing (with a gear change, of course). 

Because we were packing so lightly, I had the stock tool kit, plus a can of chain lube, no inner-tubes, plugs, oil or spares of any kind for the bike.  Potentially stupid yes, but given the Vstrom's reputation as reliable and easy to live with, and the fact that it is used in places as far a field as South America and Africa by commercial tour outfits we felt pretty secure in trusting it to get us back. Needless to say, the bike was perfect and neither of us would have any hesitation crossing the continent on it after this.  If you want character and cachet though, get something else; they're the Ford Truck of bikes.

Over the next few days, I will post the following and update the links:

Phase One: Horsehoe Bay to Vernon (BC) via Pemberton, Cache Creek, and Kamloops.
Phase Two: Vernon to Nelson (BC) via Fauquier, Nakusp, New Denver and Kaslo.
Phase Three: Nelson to Omak (WA) via Trail, Kettle Falls, and Tonasket.
Phase Four: Omak to Oak Harbor (WA), via Grand Coulee, Bridgeport, Pateros, Twisp, Winthrop, Washington Pass, and Sedro-Woolley. 

Finally, we did this trip clockwise, but it would be just as enjoyable the other way around...perhaps a future ride for us, we liked it that much.

Editor's Note: This is my first post on The Real Motorcycle Diaries Blog: Andy any me have decided to amalgamate our blogs rather than duplicate on separate sites, so DR SIOUXSIE'S Travels will no longer be updated.  The posts will stay as an archive, but from now on, I'll be posting with Andy, on this blog site.