August 11, 2012 – We did a little tour of the US Pacific Northwest today, and what a fabulous day it ended up being! We are both fighting an almost identical knot in our backs, but both decided it wasn’t going to stop us, we’d just take a few more stretch breaks than normal. We headed for the border and approaching Peace Arch, the sign indicated a 50 minute wait for both border crossings. When we rolled closer that line was more like a 2 hour wait and even the Nexus lane was backed up as long as the regular lanes. So we did an about face and headed for the Truck Crossing instead. . . . which was also backed up. We tucked into the Duty Free to grab a few Power Bars and that helped us duck around the bulk of the line. The fellow manning the line was chatty with us and said “You’ll be pleased to know that we now have over 200,000 Nexus users on both sides of the border!” My reply was “No, that doesn’t please me at all! Have you seen that line?” Oh well, it’s still faster, and they have some nice stuff in there too!.
When we arrived at the border booth, the border guard was pleasant and chatty with me, so as I pulled away I asked him to harass Kirk, and then I pulled aside and waited. He told Kirk I’d said to throw him under the bus, and then laughed when Kirk said “That’s normal, but I still married her!”
We stopped in Blaine to pick up a package containing some motorcycle cleaning products and a new visor for my helmet, then we headed on a circuitous route with the goal of lunch in Edison. We made a few stops to stretch our aching backs, enjoying the views from Lummi over the waters towards Bellingham.
As we passed through Fairhaven and towards the start of Chuckanut Drive we landed behind a little silver car with three seniors out for a sightsee. In other words, traveling well below the speed limit and swivelling their heads and pointing in all directions while braking at random moments. Excellent time to pull into Fairhaven Park for a break and let them get well ahead of us!
Chuckanut Drive wasn’t terribly busy, and we managed a good pace through all of it. We did the short run down into Edison where I’d planned lunch at a fabulous looking place next to the Longhorn Saloon. The Longhorn looked like an “interesting” place, it always has packs of Harley’s out front and wasn’t my first choice. But when we pulled in behind looking for parking we realized we were in their parking area, and felt obligated to at least go in for a beer and look at the menu. Chicken gizzards? Not something I’ve encountered on a menu before. Pass. It’s a somewhat sketchy looking place, but it has a patio out back and the tables had umbrellas to shield from the sun, and the menu didn’t look bad. Kirk always says you can judge a pub by the quality of its Club House Sandwich. I tend to agree. That and the chicken wings.
So we ordered up a pair of Hefeweizens (No clear beer for us!) and two Club House sandwiches. WOW! Everything was great. The bread was from next door where I’d intended to eat (Breadfarm), and it was easily in the ranking for the best bread I’ve ever eaten. Tangy, moist and chewy, a fabulous texture, and a crazy crisp crust. The rest of the sandwich was equally great. Half a perfectly grilled chicken breast, a slab of tasty fresh tomato, perfectly cooked bacon, and fresh crispy lettuce. And the curly fires were pretty good too. So there we stayed, two sport riders with full gear and a bar full of HD riders. All heads swivelled as we rode out on the “wrong” bikes. A definite do-again!
From there we kept on down the road out of Edison and across the farmlands to pop out on the road to Anacortes. Along the way we passed three riders – one cruiser, followed by a sport rider. Both waved as we passed. Moments later a scooter rider went by in the opposite direction, he also gave a low wave. I will never NOT wave at a scooter rider. Love that he gave the wave and I gave a wave followed by a thumbs up. Again we decided to avoid the traffic and somewhat boring stretch that way, and opted instead to turn left and ride through Burlington and into Sedro-Woolley, passing through and heading up Highway 9 towards Acme. Just before Acme we turned in on Mosquito Lake Road for a long detour. When we emerged at a defunct gas station we pulled over and took shelter from the sun under the old pump roof where we lay down on the concrete platform and tried to stretch the knots out of our backs before continuing on.
When we reached the junction of Routes 9 and 542 we stopped for fuel and another rest break. We pondered whether to head for home or head up to Baker for one more leg. Baker would add an hour each way, but it’s a lovely ride and I wondered if the upper lot had been opened yet. It wasn’t when I was there a month previous. I had still entertained the possibility of managing to get back to Vancouver in time to catch the tail end of a karate BBQ that was on today, and Baker would kill any chance of that happening.
In the end we opted to go for Baker since we were so close, and rode through Glacier and on up the mountain. The traffic was crazy light going up, lots coming down, and we only passed on other motorcycle on the way. We stopped a couple of times on the way up, both to stretch and enjoy the amazing vistas.
When we came around the corner at the lower lot I could see the gate open to the upper picnic area and was thrilled. But not so thrilled as when we arrived at the upper area and saw that the gate was down for the road to Artist’s Point! That hadn’t been opened in two years!
What a road! Never above second gear on the way up, watching for rocks littering the road, and making oh so certain to take perfectly lined corners since there was no shoulder and only one corner had any kind of barrier. Where the pavement ended, so did the road. Straight down from there in places.
As we made the final corner we were flanked by massive snowbanks and rode into the top parking area to the vision of huge sheets of snow. It was awesome!!! We parked next to the wall of ice and snow and took some fun photos that looked like we were parked on a sheet of ice rather than just meltwater. Another ride showed up and did the same. “How’s that for a calendar shot?” he said?
There was one more really great detour we considered, but opted to save it for another day as we were both hurting. So we headed for Sumas to cross back into Canada, and I had a fabulous chat with the border guard there. We missed the new Nexus lane by a mere 8 minutes, but luckily for us, they opened two new lanes just as we got in line so we were through in a jiffy. When I rolled up to the booth he asked where we’d been and I gave him a rundown. He asked how busy Chuckanut was and when I said not very, he said he hates riding it when it’s busy. I asked him what he rode and he told me he has a VFR800! I LOVE that bike, and that launched us into a motorcycle conversation. When Kirk finally came through he pulled up and shook his head at me and called me a chatty Cathy.
We opted out of the freeway and rode through Mission and Maple Ridge. In Maple Ridge I had to pull over and take a shot of my odometer as I passed 20,000km. I don’t know why, just because I suppose. I suggested we take the Mary Hill bypass and run the HOV lane for the last bit just to stay away from all the lights through PoCo, Coquitlam, and East Vancouver. Turn out that was a poor idea. The construction on the freeway changes the traffic patterns weekly, and tonight was horrible. Lanes ending randomly and without sufficient warning, traffic being squished to one lane and drivers trying to jam in rather than merge properly, and aggressive drivers galore. It was an unpleasant end to an otherwise great day of riding.
A final stop at the Pemby for some of the best chicken wings on the North Shore, and a couple of pints of Hefweizen, rounded out the day, cooled us off, and wound us down. As we enjoyed our refreshing beers, two young guys in their twenties came in and asked if those were our bikes parked outside. Yes. One of them started gushing on about Kirk’s Triumph and how fast it must go being a 1050 and all. He said he had a CBR600 and had had it up to 220km/hr, but could only imagine how much faster Kirk’s bike must be. We didn’t entertain him much further and after he left, we shook our heads at how some people really get hung up on the numbers game. That CBR could probably wipe the road with Kirk’s bike simply based on the horsepower to weight ratio, and the nature of the bike. But who cares anyway? People seem to get so hung up on cc’s, horsepower, megapixels, and anything else that has a number attached to it. So many never seem to figure out that it’s not all about the numbers, or even the ratios, it’s how you use the tool. He probably rides in Pumas and shorts too, and with a $1200 helmet that could have paid for some real gear. He just acted like a squid.
We finally came back through the door at around 11:30 pm and collapsed.
What a great day! I think tomorrow we will sleep in, lounge, wash the bikes and lube the chains, and maybe, maybe, do a short ride up the Sea to Sky. Maybe….
Today’s route is here on Google Earth. The GPS shows 477km, my odometer said 485km. The actual mileage lies somewhere in between. Regardless, it was fun.
8 comments
Much cooling down with the snow pack!!
Love the reflections too!
Happy Sunday!
They also added this photo to their favourites
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