Day 14 - WA-20 Omak to Concrete WA

We must be getting better acclimated to the time change because we actually slept until 6:00 AM local time today! We loaded the bikes as the sun came up to reveal a heavily smoky sky. While eating breakfast, we watched the local news - the primary story was the local wildfires, the road closures (US-12 - Lolo Pass included), and the air quality status - Hazardous! We were also watching the weather, with a rain front mowing in from the south west we would have a close call getting out of town on I-90 to the west before the rains came in.

We got 40 miles down I-90 before we started to see some drops of rain, and decided to stop and don the rain gear - not only for the potential of rain, but also because the temps had dropped to 54 degrees and the rain gear would help keep us warm. As it happens, putting on the rain gear scared away the rain, but we kept it on and were more comfortable for it. Now normally interstates aren't too much fun for motorcycling, but there was a stretch on I-90, just before we reached the Idaho border where there was a really nice set of high speed sweepers (wide sweeping turns that can be run at the speed limit). That provided about 5 minutes of entertainment, and then we crossed into Idaho and climbed over a descended a couple of passes which also made for some fun riding. We also gained another hour when we crossed into the Pacific Time Zone at the Idaho border. We decided to stop for a break in Couer D'Alene having some coffee at a Burger King where we also removed our rain gear as it had warmed up some.

Back on the road and soon we were crossing into WA at Spokane. The speed limit drops to 60 here for about 15 miles - and we saw a Police ST1300 enforcing the limit with a driver from the eastbound lanes so we minded our speed well through here. We finally exited the interstate onto US 2 just on the western edge of Spokane.Eventually this turns into a 2 lane road through the grain fields - exactly what I think of when I hear the "amber waves of grain" from the National Anthem.

Note the "amber waves of grain" as far as the eye can see on either side of the road!

Soon after the above photo, we turned more northerly, still on US-2 but the road starts to stop being so flat and we get some steep descents and a climb as we approach the Grand Coulee Dam, where we stop for fuel. After fueling we off again and the road begins to really be fun, with hills and valleys and twists and turns. We were stuck for a few minutes behind a group of three Harley riders, but as soon as we got to a passing zone we left them behind and pretty much had the road to ourselves. It was just another 50 miles to the start of our target for today - WA-20 from Omak, WA to Concrete, WA - AKA the Northern Cascades Scenic Highway.

The road from Omak to Mazama WA, about 60 miles, includes on mountain pass of 4000 ft which was a nice ride p and over, but the really best part of the days ride starts just after our fuel stop in Mazama as we run up and over two Northern Cascades mountain passes, Washington Pass at 5477 ft, and Rainy Pass at 4875 ft. After cresting Rainy Pass, we start a steep descent dropping over 2000 ft in less than 20 miles, and then, after a brief ascent we drop another 1767 ft in just 16 more miles.

This section of road is by far, hands down, the most fun stretch of road we have run on this trip. And whats really amazing is that this same road was CLOSED a few weeks ago due to landslides from heavy rains. We saw the remnants of the cleanup in several places along the road, but I have to say a Big Hats Off to the WA state DOT for getting the road cleaned up and re-opened in such a short time.

There's a lot more information about this road on Wikipedia at the link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_State_Route_20

I ran my GoPro Camera for much of this route, but today it was in video mode, and because of the size of the videos I just can't post them here at this time. Stay tuned and I hop to post some of them in the future.
Here is one video of our run up to Washington Pass:

We finished the required route in Concrete WA, and then continued on to Burlington WA where we found a hotel and are in for the night.

Today's stats: 512.1 miles in 9:00 Hrs moving time, 10:47 Hrs elapsed time

Added GPS Track for the day: