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AccuWeather is currently showing zero chance of rain and low to mid 80s for temperature. I hope the prediction holds.
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Thanks MidnightRide fir putting so much effort into this. Really appreciated.
I think 9am is good for kickstands up. Keeping the lunch hour in mind as good but I think it also depends on the local restaurant hours. It looks like the Farmhouse Café is the place for breakfast and they open at 7.Comment
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Farmhouse is good food, a bit pricey, but it's 10 miles (10 minutes) up the highway in Metaline Falls, where our vacay home is located. Nice ride along the river from home base. However that may indeed be the nearest place to serve breakfast. The Riverview Motel has a continental offering, and the local supermarket has a decent deli area with seating. Not sure if or what they serve for breakfast.
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Ok, was just looking around Ione and saw the Ione Public House bar and grill. Recent reviews say it is open early for breakfast. Perhaps we could give them a call and see if they are open early enough for breakfast? The meet we did in Harrisburg Oregon 2 or 3 years ago the local restaurant actually opened early for us when we explained that there was a bunch of hungry biker folks that would spend a pile of money if they did. Worked out great!
2000 Roadstar 1600 - BAK, Pumpless, Curt's manifold, Mikuni HSR42 Freedom Combat Pipes Jumbo Strong bags, PPG 'HellFire' Paint.Comment
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Jaybo we're up here now, so we can check on that. We'll be in Ione in the morning (Saturday). We did the Friday loop today and checked out all of the restaurants in Republic for our lunch stop, and they too said they'd bring on extra staff if we gave them a head's-up for the Friday ride.
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Looks like I'll be doing the ride solo this year. I'm planning on leaving Farmington Monday, heading to Challis, Idaho and staying at my brother home, then start heading up Wednesday. Not sure if I'll make it there Wednesday evening, or Thursday midday. I'll just be cruising along to save fuel and see how far I can go on a tank before needing fuel. I'm not going to do the interstate highway and I'll be stopping to smell roses along the way.
Looking forward to the ride and seeing everyone. I'm hoping everyone has a safe and fun ride, without any problems or flats.
Ya all be careful and see ya there!
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Well we survived the Day1 Friday ride today (on Friday the 8th, be it in our BMW Z3 rather than on the bike). The weather was awesome today. I wanted to prerun each route to check on road conditions, gas stops, and the restaurants. Today was a total treat in the BMW with the top down, since I rarely get to drive it (Anne's ride).
First let me say it's a terrific route. Impossible not to like, though I think I had 'sport bike eyes' when planning it. Lots of twisties over the mountain areas. All the roads were in great shape, so that was a plus. Only one small section of highway is being repaved, so they'd grooved the old road up pretty good in prepping for new asphalt. Might be dicey at highway speeds. By next week that'll be way down the road but we may still encounter it. They move quickly.
The weather looks like it may be hitting 90* by Friday, so we've got that covered. Already plenty warm by 9 AM.
The entire route was in good riding condition other than one slight corner issue on the second mountain crossing, after we get off the ferry. There's one left corner about 2/3 of the way up that has about a 3' strip of dirt and gravel washed across the road. May be gone by next week, we've had some heavy rain this week, but if someone's charging through the twisties, this one can put you down.
We did run across three separate deer encounters in the first two hours of the drive. Let me say this now so everyone can get this into your head. NEVER assume these deer won't be a problem simply because they're 15' off the roadway. Right now the new fawns are widespread, young and dumb, and they are unpredictable. Half our group may have passed them and suddenly they're certain they're supposed to run back across the road through the middle of our pack. We learned the hard way a while back, we slowed heavily in our van for a young deer standing in the opposite lane, and as we got close we were doing around 25 mph. Sure enough, just as we got to it, it decided it had to dart across our lane in front of us, doing a total bonsai into the left front fender, mirror, and door of the van. Anne had a similar incident with the Z3 while returning home at night, with that buck taking out the hood, grill, and mirror of her car, which has yet to be replaced. And keep in mind that we do this ALL THE TIME. As a former firefighter I was on the scene of more than one bike vs. deer accident, and it's not pretty. Now imagine that it's an 800 lb. elk. We also have a lot of turkey and they're DUMB, and they'll do some damage as well.
Just wanted to get that in everyone's head. Deer will ruin your day, and they're unpredictable, even when they seem calm and settled. One deer group really surprised us today while rounding a tight corner up high in the hills. This is a pretty wild area, we even have Grizzly bears.
So we timed and measured the trip. First gas stop is 68 miles in and an hour and 15 minutes into the ride. That should get everyone another 90 miles to Republic for lunch. I'll probably wait and fill up in Republic, depending on what's in the tank when we head out.
We had to wait 20 minutes for the ferry, yet we were in Republic at 3.5 hours into the ride, exactly. With a 9 AM start, that puts us there at 12:30 PM. FYI, there's a public bathroom at the ferry landing. I wasn't sure.
We were hungry so grabbed food in the first place that looked good in Republic, actually a coffee roasting business that served good food. The good thing about Friday's is that seating is available everywhere. This restaurant held 23 people, 8 of which would be on an outdoor patio. Good food but not the best for a large group.
We found about five restaurants that could seat us all comfortably. One of them has a group area in the back which they said they'd reserve for us exclusively, holding up to 35 people. We liked the restaurant, but the menu averaged $9-22 which seemed a bit steep on average. Good variety though, and nice looking restaurant. Very accommodating. If not for the prices, we'd have just booked it. We have their number.
We next hit a Mexican restaurant that was fine too. Outdoor seating for 12, but indoor for many dozen. Problem was that the place was really hot and muggy inside, and no apparent A/C. I asked the guy about it and he basically sloughed it off as no-big-deal. It was. Uncomfortable.
Next were a couple of others but one comes to mind, a restaurant/bar combo with tons of seating front and back, and pool tables and such. I thought it was the best overall fit for us, but Anne wasn't impressed. They also had outdoor seating for around 15-20. Shaded seating outdoors was great today. With 90*+ temps next week, maybe not.
All of these restaurants are on the main drag within a couple of blocks of one another; easy walking.
But there's a place there called the Republic Brewery or something, but the business is in the old Fire Hall and that's what the building sign says (Fire Hall). To me it looked like a great fit for everyone, pretty cool place with tons of seating. This is right next door to the pricey place, with the same owners. But let me tell you what's unique about this. Because they don't have a vast menu of their own, but do have a vast variety of beer, they ENCOURAGE YOU to bring in food from the other restaurants and eat inside their place. That's a first for me.
Seemed like an ideal solution for us in some ways. They could reserve a section for us and we could all hit our favorite place and bring the food back to that place. That would avoid long lines and waits due to a single understaffed restaurant. Just a suggestion. What do you guys think?
Not sure if any of you guys have a beer over lunch, I generally don't drink if I'm riding. Give me some feedback on that one. Maybe one beer for me...
Though there's no reason to be in a hurry, with that plan we'd be out of there in just over an hour. But it's a cool little town with places to see so I don't know, maybe we should give ourselves 1.5 or two hours to be in town? You all will know better than me.
There's a 76 gas station just as you enter town. That may be the place to meetup before leaving town. You leave town the same way you came in, heading the opposite direction for less than a mile.
From Republic, it's 90 miles back to Ione. Colville's an hour ride from Republic, the 'big town' in the area, and it has Walmart, a Yamaha shop, and much more, along with plenty of gas. We found gas for $4.99 near Republic, only two pumps and a long wait, and bought it for $5.19 in Colville. It's running around $5.50 in the Ione area.
We could run the whole thing on a single tank, but I wouldn't want to try, and I was wanting to top-off in Republic or Colville, having enough additional range to get to the first fuel stop on Saturday morning. Anne suggested we plan two fuel stops, Addy and Colville, with Republic being an option for those who needed it during our lunch stop. Colville's about 40 miles from the motel, giving everyone plenty of fuel to reach the first stop on Saturday morning which will again be in Colville or Kettle Falls (40-50 miles from Ione). Not like .30 cents really makes a difference with a five gallon tank, but just a thought.
Let me know.
It's after midnight, I crashed for a few hours after dinner, but we'll be out of here in the morning to hit our Day 2 Saturday run. Both fuel and lunch will be a challenge on that one, so we have to check it out. I'll post that later on Saturday.
Here's the revised Day 1 route because of going with the Addy fuel stop rather than Chewelah. It adds 3 miles to the trip, but the addition is also freshly paved roadway that we drive regularly. We plan to print out maps for the group, so keep your finger's crossed.
https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Ione...48.7410261!3e0Comment
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A couple of pics.
There's something else I forgot to mention. On the way home from Colville, we hit an estate sale that had a Harley trike for sale, a 2014 for $22k. This gal has her own trike but lost her physician husband several months ago so is selling his, plus has a lot of Harley parts, wheels/tires, pegs, and more. She's going to dig them out for us if anyone's interested. It's probably 30 miles from the motel. We have to pickup a cement mixer there when we have the van with us. Not sure if she can ship stuff...
I told her about our group coming through next week and she said she'd do all she could to be there in case anyone wants to stop in. There's no getting lost from there, she's along the highway in the boonies, so I could lead anyone interested in and the rest could head back to Ione. LMK next week if anyone's interested and we'll plan it out. We have the lady's #.
Pics of the BMW during lunch (top up during lunch), and while waiting at the ferry. Note the log in the ferry's path. No problem as he steered around it while docking!
Also, if anyone has to cancel for some reason, please don't cancel your room until we have someone else lined-up to fill it up. Part of the fun for this event is that we'll have the entire motel facility all to ourselves. We want to keep it that way!
Post here and we'll see if we can fill your room.
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Will we be able to meet up with Culp?Comment
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We had an interesting day today, Saturday, running Day 2's route. We started a bit late, and as we rolled into Ione to check out the restaurant that Jaybo had mentioned, right there in the middle of the morning was a lone deer meandering right down the centerline of Main St., as if it was a perfectly normal thing to do. See the pic.
The Ione Public House bar/grill was indeed open for breakfast, so we stopped in to check it out. They serve breakfast from 6-10 AM. There was one server and one cook, and maybe 12 people inside eating. The cook suggested a 7 AM meetup to take advantage of limited seating on a Saturday morning. Probably not so much on Friday. However, look at the picture, this place is definitely a dive bar in ambiance; very old and plain-looking inside. The food looked good and the customers seemed content. It's right in the center of town.
The cook asked that we inform them if we're going to be in so they could prep in advance. The cook told the waitress she'd have to be in early to accommodate us. I figured I'd run it by you all before committing to any number of mornings, though it's clearly the closest. They serve specials each Friday night as well, with this Friday's being Italian night. I didn't ask, but they may be severely understaffed to keep up with a group like ours.
We'd forgotten about another place near us for breakfast, a 50's style diner called American Pie that's ONLY open for breakfast, and ONLY on weekdays from 6-10 AM, so we'd have to hit them on Friday if we want to try them out. This is 9 miles up the highway (9 minute ride), then back south to Ione to start the ride.
The Farmhouse in Metaline Falls has ten times the appeal of the place in Ione, and it's a mile past American Pie, heading north. See the pics. We're probably fine with any of the three as far as the food, but I can't speak to the service of any of them since we've never had breakfast there.
Regarding the ride for Day 2 that we ran today, let's just say it's kick-back, highway peg territory. The first day's technical and keeps you focused, while Day 2 is wide-open in places and offers a ton of beauty mixed with a little of a bit more mundane rural jaunting. Not nearly the curvy ride of Day 1, but enough to keep it fun. Also a mix of scenery, from burnt-out forests to gorgeous rivers and lakes. We'll have options that we can talk about after the first day's ride.
For fuel, we've just decided to hit gas in Colville to end Day 1, and start with the same on Day 2, a 40 mile ride from camp, so 80 miles between fill-ups. That way guys can run around home base a bit if they want without worrying about fuel, though there's plenty there in town. We do have to stop early because lunch and fuel are about 150 miles from home and that's pushing it for some. This way we'll stop at 40 miles and then run 111 more to gas and lunch in the town of Suncrest.
We have three main options for lunch there, all on the same corner and within eyesight of one another with the fuel island between all three. A Zip's drive-in (glorified fast food), family Mexican, and an awesome deli inside the upscale grocery store, which is where we ate today and which we both felt we could highly recommend. Large variety of GOOD fresh food, plenty of seating with great A/C, and a large eager and helpful staff dishing out the food over the counters. Today, five of us could have been getting food all at once, not to mention the awesome grocery store itself. I've posted some pics.
From there we head to Newport, on the border of Idaho, and then along the river back home for another 40 miles.
Overall it was a great day for us in the Beemer, top down, and warmer than yesterday. Great sightseeing along the way. Very much looking forward to running it on the bike!
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A few more pics. Again, fun jaunt in the Beemer. Long overdue for me. Anne has all the fun. Don't feel sorry for me, it was a blast. Hours seemed like only minutes as the miles rolled by.
Once we get through Colville and Kettle Falls after running over Tiger Pass and past a number of lakes for the first 50 miles, and then turn left to head south along the Columbia river for 40 miles, it's totally git-er-dun wide-open-riding, with nearly no traffic and awesome scenery. For the guys who like to challenge one-another's big-bores, this is a great road for doing it, and Day 2 in general, keeping eyes open for wildlife while leaving the group behind. No getting lost. Simply wait for everyone 40 miles south in the tiny town of Hunters, which sits in a bit of a hole. Wait at the flagpole there at the park, on the main drag. Can't miss it. We did see a deer crossing that highway, so heads-up. Also, this is the same road that we run for a couple of miles before jumping on the ferry on Day 1, but we ride right on by on Day 2.
After that it's a bit chilling to run through an area where a forest fire took everything out. We go through the town of Springdale which has a single card-lock fuel station, the first after leaving civilization, and then down past an area that had a massive forest fire last year, in the area of the town of Ford. Those guys were hit hard, but the burned forest is most of what you see. I went through last year while it was still burning.
We then dead-end into the Spokane River, and head east before we're under water, just shy of a 100+ year old dam and power plant which forms Long Lake, aka Lake Spokane. There's a dam overview just after we turn, so we stopped in for a hearty overlook. An Osprey had made its nest there at the parking lot. This is a great place for a photo-op and to stretch the legs before running the final 30 minutes before lunch.
Law enforcement is nearly non-existent throughout these entire rides, but they're there. Tribal police on some of the reservations that we'll be riding, but they're scarce. Keep in mind that, if like me, you carry a firearm while riding, and get pulled over on reservation land, you'll want to remain on the state shoulder section of the roads, since the roads are state/federal but the land is reservation. My 2A buddies have assured me that you're under USA protection as long as you stay on the shoulder right-of-way. Firearms are normally forbidden on Indian reservations. Indian reservations are sovereign nations, and they make the rules on their own land. You don't get a vote. We cross a lot of remote forested reservation land on Day 1.
Oh yeah, one last thing. At the end of the day we grabbed our gear and ran across the river from our vacation home and got a line in the water. The river is finally dropping below flood stage so this was my first stab in the river for the year. I only got one bite, a 23" 2.25 lb. Kokanee! Dinner! Nice start to the season... I don't recognize the guy in the photo, but the fish is mine.
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Last thought, a question for you.
There are some awesome short rides in the area of our motel that I was wondering if anyone would want to make, either after our day's ride or on Sunday morning, for example. I can put together a touristy sightseeing run that'll go around two hours if anyone wants to do a little riding before heading home. We'd be back to the motel before checkout, and some of the sights are awe-inspiring, including a few hundred yards of easy walking overall.
I've posted pics earlier in this thread. LMK and we can plan something out.
Time for bed on my end!
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We ran home for a day so I can pick up my bike and more. Less than three hours each way.
On the way down Anne and I suggested that maybe we could all split up and hit all three places the first morning, and choose one or both on the second. The one is only open on Friday morning, but we're not sure about staffing. If we're going to go large, we need to give them a head's up ASAP so they can gear up. Honestly I'm not sure how big any of the staffs are on a normal morning. 3 hours would suck.
Do we really know how many we'll have there for breakfast? The Riverview has food as well, though it's not fancy, but maybe if someone oversleeps?
We also talked about if we do this again next year then maybe we could host breakfast at our place, if we still have it, LOL.
A couple more things. Mosquitos. During the last daylight hour of each day, you're going to need an extra pint of blood or some good repellent. We don't use repellent, but we can escape inside during the witching hour. A screen porch would be nice. Maybe next year.
I wanted to let you know that I'll have my mobile tools up there, not fancy but normally gets me out of trouble. I'll also bring along my bike lift just in case anyone needs it. We had talked about bringing a chase car, but Anne refuses to drive it since she wants to be on the back of the bike...
But we'll have the SUV and trailer at the house should we need to make a run.
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Sunday morning ride. Actually measures about 60 miles, with two points of doing a little walking to see the actual sight.
First stop will be above the Box Canyon Dam, about 4 miles up the road from the motel to the overview.
Next will be back to the highway and then down to the bottom of the dam. Both have their own appeal. The water's flowing pretty good right now through the dam.
3 more miles up the highway to the Sweet Creek Rest Area which has a paved hiking trail to the falls (last 50 yards is gravel). Maybe 200 yard walk each way?
(Reached my photo limit, continued below)
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Through the town of Metaline Falls, where much of 'The Postman' was filmed, and up the twisties to the highway above, about another 10 miles to the Boundary Dam Overlook. This one's maybe another 200 yard walk from the parking area. Extremely impressive as long as heights don't terrify you. There's a vista overlook building at the parking lot if you can't walk the trail itself. You never know how much water is being released over the dam, but impressive nonetheless. The Tom Petty scenes in the Kevin Costner movie 'The Postman' were filmed here.
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2-3 more miles to the Canadian border where we'll flip a U and head back down. They're paranoid about folks stopping for photo ops; came out and ran us off last summer...
10 miles back down to the Sullivan Lake turnoff. Parallel Sullivan Creek (river) up to the lake, then along the lake and back down another canyon set of twisties to the main highway below the motel. Around a 15 mile loop along the lake and then back down.
I think this should be labeled a 2-3 hour loop, depending on how much time we take at each location, but only about 60 miles in all. Every mile of this ride is gorgeous in itself!
Time to get the bike ready for my ride back up to the cabin tomorrow!
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Here's the map of the Sunday morning tour:
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Garrett canceled last week or so. Got a text from Eric today that he is also canceling. There should be another room available.Comment
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"Riverview Motel, how can I help you?"
"Do you have any rooms for a family of four, with two young children?"
"Yes, we have one room. You'll be sharing the motel with a group of bikers. Would you like to reserve a room?"
Long pause... "Thank you very much, have a nice day!"
Click.
Eric had a long haul from Minnesota! Was looking forward to riding with both him and Garrett. Hopefully we'll have some last-minute riders wanting to join up?Comment
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I rode the bike up today so I'm ready to go. It's a 2.5 hour ride and it seemed like 40 minutes. Gotta love riding up here.
Is anyone coming in before Thursday? I remember that someone or two had mentioned it. I saw two bikes at the motel when I rode by, but they were venture-style, not baggers.
Anne will be flying to Chicago in the morning on assignment, but plans to head back up early Friday morning (flies in after midnight Thursday night). I'm not happy about that but it is what it is. Nearly two hours to the airport from up here.
I may get some riding in around here on Wednesday or Thursday though, just to stretch out a bit. I've barely gotten any riding in this year.
Hit me back if you're up here early and want to get some side-runs in. There's a loop over into Idaho that I want to run but maybe next week.
The weekend's coming!
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