Headed over to Eastern Washington yet again to explore some new terrain. Aside from some unkind drivers, I had a great time!
Albums from past adventures in the area:
More after the break…
Outbound
I started this right at about 7 AM and took the normal route around the north end of Lake Washington to get to the outer reaches of SR-522, then US 2. As I headed east out of Monroe on the latter, there was a slow, loaded logging truck in the left lane as traffic approached the narrowing to two lanes. Following the lead of the cars in front of me, I zipped past it at the last minute.
When I rolled into Sultan, I hung a left and slowly meandered through town in search of food options other than the local gas station. As I did so, I saw a sign for a bakery, but I didn't have a way to easily get to it from the wrong side of the highway, so I went all the way to the east end of town and hung the requisite right. Much to my surprise, the Sultan Bakery featured a full-service menu in addition to the typical cafe fare, so I ordered a Belgian waffle with eggs and bacon. It didn't take long for someone to bring the food to my table, and he asked if I was a professional photographer with my nice camera. I said I wasn't one, but he thought that I should be. The food itself was quite good, tasting more like homemade food than that from a restaurant, and while I ate, I noticed a middle-aged Asian-American man with a strange looking car. I had to look around for a bit to track it down, and it turned out to be a Mazda RX-8, complete with suicide half-doors at the rear. I certainly wasn't expecting to see anything like that in Sultan!
After leaving Sultan, I headed straight over Stevens Pass without making any stops. When I did stop, it was for some quick photos at the pull-out adjacent to Nason Creek.
After rolling by the open 59er Diner (which I'd hope to stop at during a past ride), I stopped in Cole's Corner for gas just as a dual-sport rider left the gas station. This stop confused my GPS, which then told me to go straight to Leavenworth via US 2, so I had to ignore it for a while.
As I headed along SR-207, I started seeing signs for Lake Wenatchee State Park, but I missed the turn-off for the south entrance and resigned myself to the north entrance. The northern half of the park unfortunately turned out to be mostly campsites without easy access to the lake, so I simply rolled through, then headed back the way I came toward the south entrance. Along the way, I stopped for photos at the Lake Wenatchee Village that I'd seen on my way north. While I was there, a woman walking along the side of the highway went up to the village store's entrance, peered through the glass, then went on her way since it was closed.
After taking photos, I headed straight for the south entrance of the state park and parked in the lot not far from the lake's shore. Shortly after I arrived, a rider on a dual-sport parked a few spaces down and we acknowledged each other. Before walking away from my bike, I dug around for my Discover Pass to make sure that I wouldn't get fined, and thankfully I had one.
Lake Wenatchee itself was so beautiful! I was taken aback by the strong blue tones that flooded my vision as I stood at the shore, and the clarity of the water.
After wandering around a while for photos, I headed back to the highway to continue my journey, but made one quick stop for photos at the Midway Grocery for photos (and an energy bar as "rent" for entering the property).
After passing through farmland for a while, I noticed a collection of larger buildings in the distance. These turned out to comprise the town of Plain's shopping district: the usual general store, but also a fairly large hardware store, a hotel, and a restaurant.
Rather than miss the chance to eat at one of my favorite kinds of restaurants, I headed over to the Old Mill Cafe for lunch. The menu was much larger than I expected, with barbecue, diner food, and more! They also had a sign above the register that was a parody of Lake Wobegon's slogan. Unfortunately, they were plagued by their credit card reader not working. The woman working the till was not happy about how the company providing their credit card service told them to just key in the credit card info manually until Monday.
I ended up getting a pot roast dip sandwich with fries. The pot roast itself was one of the best I'd ever eaten, and the dip looked like it was the broth from the pot roast. Yum!
Outbound
To leave the Old Mill Cafe's parking lot, the usual route seemed to involve crossing a ditch. Since I was on a sportbike and not something ideal for such a stunt, I headed down the paved part of the supposedly one-way parking lot to see if I could find an easier way out. Sadly, I was met with a dead end and had to go against the arrows in the parking lot to get back to the highway.
My route sent me along Beaver Valley Road, which wound around on itself more than I'd ever expect a road to do. Instead of taking the straight route though the flat lands, it chose a much more difficult path through the mountains, which made me wonder what the civil engineers were thinking when they platted it. These thoughts went away as I found my groove on the Ninja and I didn't slow down too much through the bends. (I guess the California Superbike School training I did last Autumn paid off!) Despite staying above the yellow advisory speed limits through the curves and sometimes going a little over the normal speed limit, the guy driving a black Subaru Impreza behind me apparently thought I was too slow! The road straightened out as it descended, and as I speed up to the higher 50 MPH speed limit, he zoomed past me on the left with his arm out and a middle finger directed at me, which he kept up for at least 10 seconds. After giving a "what did I do?" gesture and shaking my head until he stopped, I ended up behind him for the length of the Chumstick Highway. (I chose this route so I could check out Chumstick, but there was nothing of note to stop for there.)
I finally was rid of the guy as I made an unplanned left turn onto North Road to avoid the traffic in Leavenworth, and enjoy some rural scenery. This had me climb up to a ridge that gave me a beautiful view of the Wenatchee River Valley, which made the detour fully worth it.
After passing through Peshastin without stopping (I wasn't really feeling it), I rejoined US 2 for a short while before hanging a right on US 97 to head towards Blewett Pass. When I saw a pull-out on the right, I decided to stop to get some quick photos and take a break from traffic. (This required a fairly quick stop from freeway speed.)
After rejoining traffic (and a long line of it!), I headed over Blewett Pass. It didn't take long for me to end up behind a Harley rider who was out also enjoying the highway. After the highway descended back to the lowlands, I ended up passing him at about 100 MPH since he had slowed down quite a bit, and the car behind me did the same.
After passing through familiar scenery in Teanaway, I stopped at the Safeway in Cle Elum for a break. It had been a long day riding at high speeds and I definitely needed it!
I then stuck to I-90 over Snoqualmie Pass to get to North Bend, and ended up among the faster traffic on the freeway. Once I got into town, I looked around for a grocery store near the freeway. Seeing what looked like the back side of one, I hung a left…only to find myself in the North Bend Premium Outlets without a grocery store in sight. And when I got back to the main road and saw a sign for a Safeway in the distance, I was forced to hang a right, go through the roundabout for the freeway's junction, then hang another right. I was worried when I only saw a Safeway gas station, but found relief in the Safeway grocery store on the other side of the road. I got a Diet Coke to cool off.
Once back on I-90, I avoided the I-405 and SR-520, deciding to take I-90 all the way back to Seattle. This left me with a very short jaunt through downtown to the SR-99 tunnel and a quick path home. However, as I signaled that I was taking the exit at North 45th Street, a white pickup truck zoomed past me in the bus lane to my right immediately before the exit…only to end up stuck behind a sedan that was trying to move left from the exit's right lane to make the left at the light. The sedan didn't register to me since it didn't move, and I ended up going past them as the truck honked at them.
I was definitely relieved when I got home at about 4 PM, well before my wife would get home from work so we could enjoy the evening together.
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