When it stops raining, it's a fine day for motorcycling

Hooray! This morning it dawned bright and clear with not a cloud in the sky. We decided to change our route based on advice we received from Tony yesterday. I had planned taking a grand loop from Cashmere to Marblemount, a trip of about 200 miles. Tony advised there was no accommodation there, and that we would either have to continue on 30 miles further to Sedro Woolley, or stop much earlier in Winthrop. By choosing the latter we also had the chance to make a loop further into the semi-arid, yet very beautiful parts of east Washington state.

We chose the latter, and after starting along our original route for 20 miles turned east to the very smart town of Waterville where we stopped for a late breakfast at the Coyote Pass Cafe. This has an impressive table setting, the wine glasses giving it a classy finish. The ladies there are very up to date with their surroundings giving us advice on where to go. We gave them details of our future travels saying that we hoped there will be a solution to the oil spill in the gulf by the time we reach it. Julie muttered under her breath, “If they don't we'll be plugging the holes with Members of Congress.” Our imagination reeled.

After climbing out of town through Pine Canyon the run due east to Coulee City was fast, at times windy,and straight across the rolling plateau covered in wheat fields and dotted with silos.

A short distance before Coulee City we turned south for a couple of miles to see Dry Falls, where a waterfall 3.5 miles wide and several hundred feet high was carved out of the hard basalt at the end of the last ice age by the Great Missoula floods, a series of catastrophic events that each resulted in 500 cubic miles of water draining across the land in just 48 hours. Rushing at over 90 mph the water carried huge boulders along and deposited them across the landscape.

Our ride took us from there along the east side of Banks Lake to the Grand Coulee Dam that holds back Lake Roosevelt, a body of water several hundred miles long and stretching almost to the Canadian border. A little further on we stopped in Nespelem for refreshments. There we met a lovely old Indian man with a fantastic hat, who had had a leg amputated and was cheerfully making the best he could of life from his wheelchair. He commented that he had frequently seen eagles flying through the nearby trees but they had not returned these last two years.

No sooner were we out of Nespelem than the landscape changed to woodlands covered in pine trees. From here it looked like Roy Rogers' country with horse farms nestled in partly rocky areas with only a few trees, but still very green and far into the distance, snow-capped mountains. The road was fast and open all the way across Disautel Summit and down into Omak and we covered the 34 miles in about 30 minutes. We stopped for coffee (the pinch of cinnamon gave it a delightful flavour) in a Mexican restaurant before tackling Loup Loup summit at 4020 feet. We then descended into Twisp and continued 9 miles further into Winthrop, a town that has been thoroughly made over as an Old West town. Like Leavenworth yesterday, it is a tourist centre, and motel prices reflect that. We decided to head back to Twisp where we found a motel room that was $30 cheaper than any in Winthrop. A couple our age had settled in the camping area nearby. They had just cycled over the snow covered North Cascades and described rain, cold and camping in the middle of nowhere. A soul enhancing (or “character building”) experience.

We walked into town, about three quarters of a mile, to have dinner. As we walked over the bridge we admired the fast running Chewuch River flowing over the rocks like silk. We found a number of galleries in the main street had exhibitions opening tonight, so we enjoyed wandering through those before enjoying a well earned beer over dinner. We met a couple at dinner who had driven 4 hours throiugh the North Cascades in their BMW Z3 sports car just to have dinner in Twisp, and were then going to drive home immediately afterwards.

There are two huge metal orbs in the town made by a famous local sculptor that are well worth seeing.