The day was cool and overcast this morning, but there is heat coming again, so it made it the perfect day to put those missing kilometres on the odometer…you know, the ones that were supposed to end up on it during that week+ long motorcycle trip that I only got to ride four days of? The one where the last 1200km or so saw my bike being driven in the back of one of three trucks.
Yes, that trip.
But she’s feeling fine now, and I’ve put that missing 1200km on her as of today.
I don’t know why seeing the odometer roll over to a new big number is always a bit of a thing, but it is one of those silly thing stat I always like to take a photo of….just before, and just as, it happens.
So as we were rolling down into Sedro-Wooley today…..a stop to get 29999, another stop to get 30000…..and then an unintentional stop at 30003 because Kirk got us lost only 3km later…..and I liked that it was a palindrome.
From Sedro-Wooley, after getting unloose, Kirk led down to a new road that we’d not been on, but which our Destination Highways map/book said was a nice little twisted-edge if one happened to be in the neighbourhood. It was a little ride down Beaver Lake Road and back out Gunderson Road and onto Highway 9 just below where we’d gone in.
From there we rode back up to Sedro-Wooley for a break in the shade of a restaurant parking lot where Kirk and I were having a little disagreement …… when an odd man rolled up in his scooter and sat staring at the bikes…before launching into a stream of consciousness at Kirk for about the next 20 minutes…..while I tried to stretch my back muscles out, put in some eye drops, had a drink of water again, posted my odometer photo to Facebook…and wondered when the man might go away.
Not for a very long time.
Kirk is much more accommodating in these circumstances than I am.
He is also a magnet for conversation by strange individuals.
Must be his friendly face.
Eventually he left and we pulled things back on and headed north again. We had a destination in mind….The North Fork Brewery – Brewery, Pizzeria and Beer Shrine. I’ve been riding past it repeatedly and keep wanting to stop in, but it’s at a point that is usually too early in the day for lunch and a beer…or too late in the day because we are full from an earlier lunch and booking it back to Canada.
Today a stop at the side of the road for a protein bar and a bit of water instead of lunch, tied us over enough to make it to the pub for a late lunch at around 3:15pm. The parking lot was fill, and we circled the place thinking “popular” before pulling the bikes up alongside the building against the wall below the kitchen window. On the windowsill was a single land-snail shell sitting in a bright band of sunshine…..just waiting for me and my camera….
Inside we were lucky and caught one of two tables that opened up as we arrived. The pizza was excellent, and the beer equally excellent. I sampled the Persian Cucumber Berliner Weisse and Kirk enjoyed a Blueberry Hefeweizen…equally tasty.
When we left…there was a group of riders inside the door waiting for tables (the place was jammed), and there was a lineup out the door that doubled back down the ramp. We got there at the right times….and damn this place is popular! As I said, I’d seen it a few times and wondered about it…and when I’d had my bike at the shop before we’d gone on our Hal-trip, an American rider had been there looking for some assistance with his bike and somehow we’d ended up in a conversation about riding (not really that big a surprise) and breweries (probably also not that big of a shocker). He’d said some buddy of his owned it and he’d visited and highly recommended it.
It didn’t disappoint.
Oh, and beer shrine is an apt descriptor. The building is a 100 year old roadhouse and there is a beer paraphernalia….and hundreds of old beer bottles, everywhere. It’s a cool place…a definite do-again.
From here, it was back up Mt Baker Highway towards Sumas, then south a bit, then west along East Badger Road past Lynden, then towards the Aldergrove border crossing but a quick deke left onto H St Rd (Yes….”H” street road) and straight on towards Blaine.
“H” is straight as an arrow, but it’s pretty, it’s quiet, and it’s usually peaceful. It’s also preferable to ride it and then cross at the Pacific Truck Crossing than it is to ride the freeway back from Sumas.
Since there was little traffic the guards were down…..but I suddenly was doing a hard emergency braking (second one that day…the earlier one was when a motorhome did a left hand turn across the road in front of me) as a weasel loped happily across the road and was on an intercept course with my front wheel. It was one of those moments where there was a split second evaluation of the situation….“If I brake hard to avoid killing this thing….will Kirk run into me…and if he manages to not run into me….will the truck behind him end up rear-ending him…?!” As the front end of my bike dove down the weasel stopped and did a u-turn towards my front wheel, then (the part I didn’t see since I now had what I hoped was a clear path forward and let my clutch back out and accelerated to avoid the potential pileup) a rapid spin with a back flip (according to Kirk) before heading back into the ditch at top speed.
Road kill and road spill averted. Further down the road a truck and trailer pulled out and blocked most of the road as we were riding towards it, before moving enough to give us about a third of our lane to clear him.
Then we came over a rise and could see a large bird on the road ahead..at first I thought it was a chicken, or maybe a female turkey….then maybe a very large raven and, as I closed in on it, I realized it was a fairly large raptor…not eagle large, but definitely large hawk large. It took off slowly and flapped ahead of me for a few strokes of its wings before lifting higher and heading into the trees.
And a squirrel.
There is always a squirrel.
So much for the quiet and peaceful “H” St Rd.
And then it was across the border (which has nutty traffic southbound because apparently Peace Arch was closed, the requisite number of crazy lower mainland drivers, tailgaters, and other assorted lunatics, and safely home.
And that’s what kind of day it was….a 381km kinda day.