Are we in Bavaria yet?

Once again we awoke to a rainy day. We got dressed into our wet weather gear to ride out of Packwood a small green village surrounded by large pines. We went east on route 12 which had a few fast moving trucks. There was rain and fog as we climbed towards White Pass, a winter ski area that still had some snow around but not enough to use the lifts. They remained abandoned until next winter. At times visibility dropped to less than 100 feet and from the few glimpses we got when the seeing was better, we knew we were misssing stunning views of pine covered mountains across a very deep valley.

Once over White Pass, we descended into better weather. As we rode along the edge of the milky-green Rimrock Lake (formed by the Tieton Dam) the rain stopped and cloud began to clear away. At the same time, the landscape began to change, and we soon found ourselves riding through a gradual change to semi-arid countryside, very similar to that we found at the eastern end of the Columbia River Valley - which should not have surprised us because we were about 50 miles north of there.

By the time we got to Yakima (72 miles from Packwood) we were ready for a coffee hit. We stopped at Mel's Diner where we had a belated breakfast, before turning north on 821 up the scenic Yakima River valley towards Cashmere.

We stopped for lunch in the very elegant town of Ellensburg, at the trendy Dakota Cafe. As we went in a bunch of ageing cowboys were just leaving. Wanda rounded 'em up and got a photo of them before they got away.

We left on 97 and made quick progress once we got out of the 30 and 35 mph zones that exended way out of the town. Fifty four miles from Ellensburg we turned right onto Highway 2 and 2 miles down the road crossed the fast flowing, green Wenatchee River into Cashmere, our destination for the night. We checked into the Village Inn Motel at 2:30pm, rather early considering we had covered 170 miles from Packwood. Cashmere is a well presented, pleasant and tidy town. We were delighted to hear a regular train hoot through the town on a regular basis, only a few blocks from where we were staying. Train tracks have followed all the rivers we have travelled on and have obviously been an imprtant part of the life and history of this area.

We left most of our bags and baggage in the motel and rode to Leavenworth, a drop-dead gorgeous town that thinks it is in Bavaria. Nestled at the foot of some rugged mountains still capped with snow, the central part of town has been successfully modelled on a Bavarian village.

The accordion dance music, the murals, grapevines, the flowers hanging from pots off balconies or windows, large glasses of boutique beers and a backdrop of high, snow covered mountains, all made you feel as if you were transprted to Europe. A sunny afternoon added to the pleasure even though you could see grey clouds clinging  to the summit. We hoped the biker we had met earlier would get over that pass quickly tonight,

We spent some time there, photographing the buildings before having a beer and pretzel at a pub - complete with a piano-accordionist playing for the crowd.

We stopped at the Safeway store on the way back to Cashmere to buy dinner for the night. There we met Tony, a fellow motorcyclist. He was riding a BMW R1200GS, and we quickly made friends. He was keen to tell us about the best rides in British Columbia, but since we didn't have our maps with us he invited us back to his house so he could show us on his. The short ride took us through lush green blocks of land, and a river with a backdrop of huge snow tipped mountains.

There we met his young son Simon and wife Jill, and checked out his other bikes, a BMW R60 and a Ural (Russian-made BMW copy) complete with sidecar. He and his son used it to have an adventure on one or two of these beautiful roads. Jill seems to prefer the ride on mower, one of the most manoeuvrable machines we have seen.

Tony and his family were just so welcoming, but we eventually managed to head back to Cashmere to do such exciting things as wash our laundry and have a cold dinner in our motel room.