Start Location: Mountain Home, ID
Ending Location: Everett, WA
Miles Today: 572
Trip Miles: 6777
States Visited: 20
National Parks Visited: 2
Low Temp: 55.6° F
High Temp: 96.3° F
Min Elevation: 22'
Max Elevation: 4192'
Route Map:
LA or Bust-Day 21
If anything today was better weather than yesterday. We
didn't see a single cloud in the sky until almost 5:00 PM. On top
of that, another day with no rain. We got a good start this
morning and the roads were pretty clear since it was a Saturday.
There
was a lot of construction both in Oregon and then around Snoqualmie
Pass. The construction east of the Pass is definitely needed.
The roads on I-90 around Snoqualmie Pass were some of the worst
on the trip. For a very long stretch, the road is down to just
one lane. I can't imagine what that must be like during high
traffic times.
The scenery in eastern Oregon and eastern
Washington is very similar. The land is very arid and the only
green is mostly where there is irrigation. It's always
magnificent to come over the Pass. We have been almost 7000 miles
and several mountain ranges and this is some of the most unique scenery
anywhere. Unfortunately we didn't get any pictures over the Pass
this time because of the winds.
We did another 500+ mile day
today and decided that 4 days that long is just too much. What
made today especially bad was some extremely strong winds we
encountered from about 20 miles east of Ellensburg all the way to the
Pass. The gusts were very strong often moving us over 2 or 3 feet
in the lane before I could react and correct for the gusts. Then
the gust would end and we'd move back in the other direction.
We're talking 1200 pounds of motorcycle, riders, and gear - so it
was very stressful. The reason we went that far each day was that
we knew we were getting near the end of the season and the last thing
we wanted was to be riding in snow or sleet.
So we are home
now and the final step will be getting the motorcycle cleaned up -
there are bugs everywhere - and then doing a final wrap-up with
statistics for the complete trip. Keep an eye out for that some
time this week.
