Central Washington Adventure Ride 2013 Part 3

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Early this morning I got out of bed looking forward to the start of my adventure ride, and saw something on the weather forecast that didn’t look so good- 1-5” of snow for Sunday on Stevens Pass – that meant no riding over the pass because I didn’t want to get stuck on the East side of the mountains. Smile

So the day started finishing my pack up, sticking the bike in the truck, and meeting Rob in Peshastin (near Leavenworth Washington). When I got to to the meet up point, I found Rob re-packing his bike so I thought I should do the same: figure out exactly what I needed to bring and leave everything else behind!

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Rob (left) packing up his 2004 KTM 400EXC which he made street legal in Idaho

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Me (right) with my 2009 Husqvarna TE-610 ready to go (still too much gear!)

After the pack-up the following items were reduced from my mobile inventory:

  • DSLR camera and tripod
  • Propane cylinder and stove (who needs that when you have a fire right?)
  • Backpack
  • Extra riding gear
  • Other small items that wouldn’t fit
  • Rotopax 1 gallon gas can (I kept the Rotopax water tank in my inventory)

That was a HUGE weight savings exercise, but the bike is still very top-heavy with all of my tech gear (and I’ll re-pack to put more weight lower down for tomorrow’s ride)

We had a great ride to Cashmere where we picked up sandwiches at a country store before heading up to my cabin which is up in the hills South of Cashmere. Rob and I had an “interesting” ride up the muddy road getting used to our bikes with all of the weight onboard. I found out real quick that I shouldn’t stand like I normally do in mud due to my high CG. At the cabin, we hiked up to a giant rock and sat there while we ate our questionable pre-packaged “sandwiches”.

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From the rock, we had a great view of the surrounding hills.

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After lunch it was time to head East. We passed though Wenatchee, and then on up North paralleling the Columbia river. Looking back West we had a great view of Wenatchee, and also some ominous clouds that were shedding rain nearby.

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This was a “seat of your pants” navigation experience. Rob and I had a general idea of where we were going, but we had to traverse dirt roads, two-track, open ground grass land, and even wound up boxed in on a private ranch (without passing any no-trespassing signs Smile).

After quite a bit of improvisation we ended up intersecting Badger Mountain Road- which was actually on the “planned” (if you want to call it that) route. We rode over the top of Badger Mountain (which was quite snowy) and back down the other side. On the way down we saw a totally different terrain (flat) looking towards Waterville, Washington.

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This was a new view for me, and I really enjoyed the ride towards Waterville. Rob and I had planned (from the lookout view) to ride to Jameson Lake and camp for the night. When we hit Waterville, we decided to stop at a small store to pick up some dinner items before heading to our campsite. When we stopped, we saw something horrible:

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Rob’s bike was leaking oil like crazy! Had we not stopped, his motor may have seized! In a classic small-town turn of events we met someone that knew the owner of the NAPA auto parts store that we were standing next to (it was closed!). Joe at NAPA met us and sold us the items we needed to perform the road-side fix.

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Rob scraped the old gasket and applied a thin film of Permatex Ultra-Black sealant to the side cover that was leaking. We had to wait an hour for the sealant to dry, so we headed off to dinner.

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The food was great, and we had a chance to write up this blog as well!

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Reuben time!

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So as I write this, we’re finishing dinner and hoping that when we fill the bike with oil that it will be leak free! What will happen? You’ll have to check back later!

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