Central Washington Adventure Ride 2013 – Route Overview

Now that Rob and I are back from our late-winter Central Washington Adventure Ride, I thought I’d write-up details on our route (this post) and publish a video (next post). The loop we covered totaled 350 miles for the 3 day ride. The first day was more like a half day since Rob and I met at lunch time and spent quite a while packing and re-packing our bikes.

Here you can see the blue route in the middle of Washington state:

Central WA Ride 2013 Track WA State All 1200
Image courtesy Bing Maps

Zooming in on the route, you can see the varied terrain that we covered, a mixture of farm country (green) and desert (brown). We started the ride in Peshastin (ouside Leavenworth) and followed a somewhat-circular route that took us to Waterville, Jameson Lake, Coulee City, Moses Lake, the Palisades, Wenatchee, and back to Peshastin.

Central WA Ride 2013 Track 1200

Here in red you can see our day 1 route: Starting in Peshastin, having lunch at my Cabin in Cashmere, eating dinner and fixing Rob’s bike in Waterville, and finally camping at Jameson Lake off HWY 2.

Central WA Ride 2013 Day 1 Annotated 600
Image courtesy Bing Maps

Our ride on day 2 Started at Jameson Lake, and then took us to Coulee City where we fueled up the bikes, had lunch, and planned the rest of the day’s riding. We headed due South down to Moses Lake, toured the sandy ORV park, explored some access roads around the Potholes, and setup camp West of the Potholes Reservoir. After our 30+ MPH wind issue at camp we packed up everything and headed back to Moses Lake to stay at a hotel for the night.

Central WA Ride 2013 Day 2 Annotated 600
Image courtesy Bing Maps

For day 3, we were hoping to make up for the troubles we had on the previous days (mechanical issues, area restrictions, wind, etc). And the ride on day 3 certainly did “redeem” the trip from these prior troubles. Rob identified some great areas and roads where we could see new country and cover some good miles. We headed west on I-90, then turned North to head into farm country. We rode double track quite a ways, went through Ephrata, and found a field to sit by during lunch. Following lunch we descended into a marvelous canyon ride, and then rode up and over some hills that yielded an amazing back-country ride that included about 6 creek crossings. We rode North towards HWY 2, then West towards Waterville, and finally back towards Peshastin via Wenatchee.

Central WA Ride 2013 Day 3 Annotated 600
Image courtesy Bing Maps

The ride was not what we expected, and that’s really what we had hoped for (an adventure that would unfold as it happened). The challenges we faced along the way were really part of the fun (because it all worked out :)) and we had a great time. For our next ride, Rob and I will have better perspective on where to go, what to bring, and what to wear. Can’t wait for the next trip!

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