Day 11. Apgar, Glacier Natl. Park, Montana to Keller Ferry, Washington
   Miles today = 365
Total miles = 2645		  
     
   
     
     
 
 
The morning view from my campsite. This campground in the off season is a vastly underated National Park.
I am completely overwhelmed with the amount I have seen and done over the last week. Today was the most incredible ride yet, but I was so tired and still overwhelmed with all the new places I've seen I don't think more than 1/4 has sunk in. Highway 20 through the Cascades today was a motorbiker’s dream ride come true. It was canyon carving at its best. The clue was the sign that said no gas for 75 miles. And yes this was one time that I...well, okay, I had at least a 25 mile margin of error.
But lets start out with the day properly. I packed up and was on the road by 10 am. Though I had to think of my friend Merrith, a National Park Service Ranger, as I washed my hair in the utility sink. It’s a no no to wash up, do dishes, or just about anything else that requires more than just walking up to the faucet and turning it on and off and then walking away from it. Granted in Glacier I was able to put my wash water down the toilet—which reminds me. The sink/drain/toilet at Keller Ferry looked like a super huge toilet that flushed and everything. Well, it didn’t have hot water, but it did have paper towels. Anyway, not doing dishes there is supposedly to discourage wild animals from taking advantage of a free shower. I did wonder what would happen if I was caught. Granted, I think I could have skipped town without paying but that wouldn’t be very patriotic of me now would it?
After getting all packed up I took the actual ferry across Lake Roosevelt, which was the smallest ferry I think I've ever seen let alone have ever been on. And then it was off to Grand Coulee Dam. I figured since I was this close I had to see if I could ride across the top. Of course I couldn't but I'm not sure how long that has been the case. I know 9/11 caused a lot of seemingly innocent places to finally get tough and put some security into place. But, I did go into the visitor’s center. It was so well done that I was there an hour longer than I wanted to be and that, as you will see, led me to my usual decision making process since it was coupled with my tiredness.
Actually, the ride from the ferry to the dam was quite breathtaking in and of itself. Again it was linked on both ends by some switchbacks and hairpin curves but it was mostly pine trees and since it was a...county road at best, quite a cozy little road. Until I came out at the other end up above the dam and then it was the high desert all the way to the horizon.
The road leading to the dam went through the two small towns made it obvious that the towns were still quite young since the dam was finished in the late 40's early 50's. Kind of reminded me of Las Alamos, New Mexico, in the way that it sprung up to house employees who work at the dam.		    
My campsite on Lake Roosevelt, minus the young mule deer spying on me.
The view waiting for the ferry across Lake Roosevelt.
Again, that handsome devil of a navigator.
Grand Coulee dam. One mile from end to end and I couldn't ride on any of it, party poopers.
The Cascades...a rider's paradise, on a full tank.
The ride north out to Orca or some name starting with an O wasn't much to be remembered for other than the usual switchbacks up and the high desert. Though I seem to recall thinking about how it was that when there are no trees to hide all the junked cars from the beginning of time, why would they spread it out all over the place with every other piece of garbage in front of and around their houses? You'd think they would want to contain it so at least they could have a small corner to at least rake the dirt into a nice pattern or grow some scrubby brush or maybe even a garden of all things.
Now from Orca or Oaxaca or something, it was a whole other story. Riding out of town I got behind a string of two cars and another motorcyclist and that could have set up a recipe for disaster. The other cyclist was on a new Yamaha 1300 I think, had a passenger and probably a fresh back tire unlike mine. I could keep up, easily enough, but following too close to cars is never a good thing. There was one switchback that I got too close to the centerline and near into two cars coming from the other direction and that unnerved me enough to get me way to close to the loose gravel shoulder of the following curve. After that I said aloud to myself to slow the hell down and let them go. I was too tired to have that happen again just because I was trying to make up the time I lost at Coulee and to keep my ego up with the other rider and passenger.
After that I was lost to the scenery for a while I tried to get my head back into to the ride and the amazing scenery that was unfolding before me. But I was frustrated by the cars and the lateness and all so it took far too long and really never did completely go away.
I'll have to look at the map but going into the Cascades was a tourist town called Winthrop or W something or other, which certainly deserves some time if anyone goes through. Kind of like Stowe in Vermont but with a most decidedly Western frontier town bent to it.
After that it was up and into the Cascades. And holy moly batman! It was absolutely stunning. Crossing the Continental Divide at Glacier was nothing compared to here in the Cascades. Here the mountains were right on top of me and it was a much, much longer trip with multiples more of everything in the continual altitude changes. It was so much more wild, and the foliage tighter, that I certainly thought that it would be the place to lose yourself in if you found yourself in a situation that you needed to get lost for a long time. Granted it would take a lot of leg muscle and fortitude to live there. Oddly, I never saw any wild animals other than a chipmunk and I can't even remember if that was at the end.
I could almost turn around and go back home the same way just to hit that pass again. Of course, I would need some time to get back in the game but it was sooooo stunningly beautiful the whole way. Glacier's peaks covered in snow was postcard beautiful but this was wild and so underrated.
My body was so completely sore at the end of the 70 some miles from clinging with my whole body so tightly to my motorcycle from the continual carving from side to side as I made turns to turn to continual turn. And this time there was no missing a turn because as we all know "I don't need no stinkin' guardrails."
If anyone ever passes through this way I might recommend looking into stopping and staying at the Diablo Lake National Park. It looked to be quite a park on a lake at the base of a few mountains. I would have stopped but it felt a wee bit chilly there this time of year for it must have been about 4 in the afternoon already.
I was debating in my mind whether to find a county park listed in my campground guidebook or to push on the Burlington and stay at a motel. I was leaning towards a motel due to my tiredness, my need for laundry, and some Internet time after being off the Internet radar for the past few days.
Once I finally got into Burlington, after fighting with the setting sun’s glare, which really didn't make for a		  

safe journey in the rush hour traffic, I saw that the sign to Anacortes was only 20 miles away or so, and of course I went for it. I thought I could try and make the campground near the ferry landing to the San Juan Islands though it make it the third night in a row that I made dinner in the dark. Once I got into Anacortes in the last rays of the setting sun I knew the error of my way and finally chose this place...well it has laundry. I thought it was expensive until I saw that the room had essentially two bedrooms, a kitchenette, and marvelous wood paneling. I haven't seen wood paneling like that since...okay the folks cabin but in a motel in touristy Anacortes? I guess in my yuppie mind I was expecting more for myself but here I sit in the laundry room like a college student working on my homework while everything gets tumbled in the dryer like Joel riding through the Cascades.
This country is so big. I’ve seen so many things in such a short of time. It would be best suited for at least double the time I have if not more. A week at Glacier would have been easy to fill with new sights and activities every day, then Lake Roosevelt with all those fishies to be reeled in while gazing the sites and pondering the people that were uprooted to make way for electricity and irrigation for the masses. Then the Cascades, there isn't quite as much to offer as there was in more tourist centered Glacier but if you are a hiker there are way more trails. Though the parks, especially on the Western side really looked nice. I myself could have just ridden back and forth and contributed to the global warming that is melting the glaciers in Glacier Park. Like the t-shirt in the dryer says "Nuke and Pave."
Logistically, this really feels like a turning point in the trip. I'm on the edge of the continent overlooking the San Juan Islands but yet there is that ferry to Alaska. I fear that I'll never have the chance to get on that ferry just to weave through all the islands along the US and Canadian coast. But my planned route is in the opposite direction and I am going to the rainforest down southish of here tomorrow. I have absolutely no idea how long it will take to get on the ferry, ride around the northern edge of the Olympic National Forest. After that the trip down the coast really shouldn't take that long. I only hope this weather holds up because of all the places I expected snow it was in the Cascades and there was only a bucket full the whole way compared to Glacier and the temps were relatively toasty warm since dropping out of Montana. Again it was in the low 80's for most of the ride and not a cloud in the sky. The whole time I’ve been riding, though, there has been the snowstorm dumping snow in Utah, Colorado and in Yellowstone too, which is on the itinerary for the way back. I can't imagine my luck will hold out but I'm in a hell of a mood to be in rain right now. “Awww heck Joel, buck up camper.”
Anyway, I had clean underwear and socks on today. I'll get a hot shower tomorrow morning and maybe even tonight too, if I'm good. Plus, clean clothes for the next how ever many days. I just need to find a place to take a day or two and freshen up the spirits and quit thinking about the amount of miles and get back to the idea of not thinking about the destination and more about the ride in this unknown land. I mean really, I got to wash up buck naked last night, wake up to funny little deer with huge ears this morning about 25 yards away from my tent and not only that, it was so warm I had to take the long underwear off last night for the first time so I could sleep. All in all it has been a really good trip, knock on all the wood in the Cascades, and I have been able to reign myself in when necessary. The return trip, I hope to be able to ride the nice weather back and carve many more canyons.
Can you see a pattern in my psyche at the moment? I'm bushed.

Route: Highway 21 north to first road to Grand Coulee, east to Highway 155, south to Grand Coulee Dam Visitors Center, Highway 155 north, West Highway 20 to the Highway 20 Spur into Anacortes.
 
 
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