I doubt there are many Northwesters who don't already know this road - it's the #1 biking road in the NW according to 'Destination Highways'... so I figured I'd better ride it before they close it for the year (late October).
Left my house around 8AM, headed for Sedro-Woolley, where I was meeting some friends coming down from Vancouver BC. Took I-5 for a while, then cut over to Hwy 9, which is 2-lane and has some nice twisty sections. The first 50 miles were nothin' but flat/straight, with one 2-mile slice of curves... which I spent stuck behind
three double-long open container trucks... full of manure... no, I'd not kidding
:razz: But the last 20 miles had some nice curves, a good warmup for the day to come.
Hit Sedro-Woolley around 10, gassed up, then waited (and waited...) for my riding companions. They finally showed at 10:45 - dang lazy Canadians! :-D John on his '93 Honda F2, Stuart on his '94 S3, and Scott on his V-Max. We grabbed some greasy grub at the closest diner, then got on Highway 20 and headed East.
The weather started out overcast, but the sun soon broke through, and we were treated to a spectacular fall day. Not terribly warm - I was glad to have long underwear on under my leathers. The first part of the ride is fairly straight, and there was a brief section of road repair where I wished I was on a Tiger. After that you get into the heart of the ride.
You can see why its the #1 destination highway. Packed with twists, from tight technical turns to long fast sweepers. The road climbs through the mountains to a pass at 4800 ft, and then down again. Posted speed limits are 50 on the West side and 60 on the East. It addition to fantastic riding, the scenery is magnificent - Washington at it's finest. Tall mountains, evergreen forest, alpine lakes - amazing in the fall. And to top it off, the pavement itself is great -the Hwy is closed for 4-6 months of the year, so it is (for the most part) nice an smooth.
The only downside is the lack of overtake lanes... there's one on the whole 110-mile stretch. The rest of the time you have to rely on passing in the on-coming lane. Fortunately, this late in the year, traffic was fairly light - only got stuck behind campers 2 or 3 times
I've heard that in the summer this road is packed with cars, bikes, and cops - but we more-or-less lucked out.
On the East side we pulled into the gas station at Mazama and filled up - for $3.50 a gallon! As is typical of Washington, the one gas station in a remote town off a small state hwy had a full espresso bar, so we all gassed up as well for the 110 back to Sedro (and the 70 home after that). The ride back was possibly even better, now that we knew the road a bit. Probably averaged 70-80 the whole way, while trying to avoid any overly-squid-like behavior. I spent most of the trip watching everyone's tail-lights disappear around the next curve... my Legend was definitely the slow one of the bunch. Or maybe it was the rider
We were back in the flat, 40 miles from Sedro, when disaster struck: one of the bikes broke down. Wouldn't you know it, it was one of those unreliable, finicky Japanese bikes - John's F2. His power just... disappeared, and the bike started backfiring something fierce. When we pulled over, it was making a weird high-pitched whistling sound, and smelled awful. The sound turned out to be coming from the battery - it was whistling like a tea kettle! Hmmm... maybe that explains the lack of power as well. Either the battery was bad, or the voltage regulator was shot... or so we think. We waited about an hour and a half for a tow - they had to drive 40 miles just to get to us - suffering the indignity of standing around a broken-down rice-rocket while Harley-Davidsons laughed at us as they drove by... :-D
I have to say, the people around those parts are some of the friendliest I've met - stopping off to see if we were OK, checking with friends to see if they had a spare battery, offering us beer... right down to the tow-truck driver, Herb, and his wife Sue. It made the wait a lot more palatable.
Once we got John's bike loaded, I was headed for home - it was 30 min past my dog's dinner time, and I had 110 miles to go. And it was a looooong 110... mostly 3-lane highway, in the dark, in all-black leather, tired, hungry and cold. Not the best way to end the trip. But I made it, fed the dog, ordered some Chinese, drank a beer, and fell asleep on the couch. And woke up
sore... :razz:
The total trip was around 375 miles... about 75 more than I like to do in a day, at least on the Legend. I have to say, though, it performed like a champ (even if it can't keep up w/a V-Max and an S3...). It pulled hard, even at altitude, and my new suspension kept me rooted to the road - never felt squirrelly, turned in nice and easy. Made me glad I did that track day last year, it definitely helped as far as riding turns at that speed goes.
Some photos in my album
here, but they hardly capture it - the best part was the riding, not the stopping! If you live in the NW, and you haven't done the North Cascades Highway yet... don't wait. Awesome.
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