st paul to washington

[luke1645]

ok so me and a friend are leaving st paul, mn on wednesday august 4th for chelan washington. we plan on getting there on saturday the 7th. i will be on my gs and he will be on his 95 cbr 600 (i know, he will want to commit suicide riding that bike that long) and his 16 year old brother will be in a ranger following us. first night we will be at sioux falls, sd koa.  second day we will ride through sturgis and stop to look arround a little and maybe do some riding. we will stay at devils tower koa that night. from devils tower we will ride to the butte, mt koa on friday and from butte to chelan on saturday. round trip about 3300 miles. keep in mind were 18 and the longest ride i have ever been on is about 200 miles.

so with that said i have a few questions......

1. along the way who is available to meet up with us at any stopping place? mainly washington or sturgis to show us a few fun roads to ride to get us off the freeway?

2. i am taking my digital camera along and plan on taking video with it. after i download it to my computer how can i send the video to some of my friends or anybody for that matter. will instant messaging or e mail allow me to do that?

3. we will be in chelan for 5 days and i'm sure we will want to do some riding. so does anybody live close to show us arround? or does anyone know any roads that are close that we could hit up on our own?

4. while i am posting i may as well as ask if these items fit...

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=2485520575&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=2485565399&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT

if they do i call dibs, shotty, yoink or whatever other terms we use here to call an item.

[Rema1000]

i will be on my gs and he will be on his 95 cbr 600 (i know, he will want to commit suicide riding that bike that long)

OK, start planning now... does he have any cool stuff?  CDs, laptop, whatever?  Start planning for what you'll ask for, in return for letting him ride the GS for a while .

Seriously, if you can get some practice on his bike, and vice-versa, it could come in really handy.  For example, if you both get really sore riding your normal bikes, then it will help (sorta) to switch.  But if you don't feel comfortable on the 600, DON'T... see next tip.

his 16 year old brother will be in a ranger following us.

Get the Ranger ready to haul two bikes.  I'm not saying that you want to haul them, just that things can happen to interrupt a trip.

Obvious stuff: take good rain gear you can ride in.  If you don't have that, I find that my $12 raincoat doesn't puff-up, if I wear a webbed belt (like a waterbottle carrier) around it and tuck the sleeves into the glove gauntlets.

Get crash bars (like Srinath's), then add highway pegs to them.  No, it won't look cool.  

Get a throttle lock (preferably not just a rubber circle, and not a throttle rocker) and practice how to use it.

Take 2 pair of gloves in case the stitching from one gives you blisters.  Or one pair gets wet.  Aerostich in Duluth sells some cool waterproof glove covers.  

Wear Smartwool or other hiking socks.  Take two different brands, with the stiches in different places.  In fact, just dress like you're going camping/hiking: no cotton at all.  Wear bicycle shorts and keep them clean.

[Gisser]

Little travel tip...

Pull a U-Haul trailer behind the Ranger and put the bikes in it.  Save the riding for when you reach your destination.  You have 5 days.  Spend a couple memorable ones riding in the Cascades.  Chelan to Seattle to Ranier.  Mt St Helens is highly recommended.

Minnesota to Washington state is a hardcore endurance ride--Spokane to Chelan is a moonscape.  Think it over.

[Kerry]

ok so me and a friend are leaving st paul, mn on wednesday august 4th for chelan washington.

"ROAD TRIP!"  

round trip about 3300 miles. keep in mind were 18 and the longest ride i have ever been on is about 200 miles.

Hey, if an "old man" like me can ride about the same number of miles in about the same number of days, you youngsters should be fine.  Just don't fall asleep heading west on the dreary freeway into the sun & into the wind.  (I'm serious!)

1. along the way who is available to meet up with us[...]?

Not I; I'm a few hundred miles off the path, unfortunately.

2. i am taking my digital camera along and plan on taking video with it. [...] how can i send the video to some of my friends

Do you already have the camera?  Give it a test!  If it's like mine it will store the video as a .MOV (QuickTime) file which you can attach to an email, or transfer via an IM program, or upload to a web host, or send on a CD, or....  Careful though - those video files get big fast!

3. we will be in chelan for 5 days and i'm sure we will want to do some riding. [...]does anyone know any roads that are close that we could hit up on our own?

I can't say that I know the area, but my brother and I rode through there a couple summers ago.  We rode up 97 from Wenatchee (actually, from the KOA Kampground in Ellensburg, WA) right past Chelan and on to British Columbia.  I don't remember that particular section very well, except for riding along the Columbia river.  But one thing we had to skip because of time was a visit to the Grand Coulee Dam.  With 5 days to hang around, you could easily make it a day trip; it's only a couple hours each way.  Or you could return on 155 along the lake and then west on 2:




Have you thought much about the return trip?  My Streets & Trips program picked this as the shortest route (160 miles shorter than your outbound trip).  Not that I recommend it!




By adding another 70 miles you could take the "Going To The Sun Road" across Glacier National Park (point #2 on the map below), and avoid many of the freeway miles.  Taking this route WILL reduce the miles per day and increase the total time needed for the return trip, but I'll bet it would be worth it!

[Roadstergal]

I did Chicago to Seattle when I bought my Miata - in mid-winter.  It's a gorgeous ride - well, once you get past North Dakota.  I have to agree, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and North Dakota are cool places in their own way, but a snooze to ride through.  But Montana!  Montana is just stunning, stunning, stunning.  As is WA state.  Be sure to ride through those!  I took 94 all of the way, and would recommend it; it has less traffic (and less truck traffic!) than 90, typically, while still keeping the speed high.

North Dakota - yawn.




The Badlands - not to be missed.




Montana.












Eastern Washington.  Mmm.










Don't worry about staying connected!  Get away from the Internet and all for a couple of days, enjoy the scenery, take many pictures, and savor them when you get back.

[luke1645]

wow thanks for the great tips and responses. i like that idea about taking his stuff in return for letting him ride my bike. as far as the u haul goes, we planned this trip (or at least i did) so that we could say we rode the whole way. i have this big nasty windshield that i plan on using. i have used it before but here's some rookie quotes that the cbr kid used on me...
" dude dont put that thing on your bike, its just a little wind it wont even matter"
i about shat myself laughing in my head at him. another good one was,
"dont worry about me, i wont be the one getting sore"

i like the riding shorts idea and have thought of that as an option. also i think i can fab a pair of highway pegs to mount to the frame. man i cant wait for this. with sturgis going on almost righ when we are passing through it make for some good times. thanks again for the pics and it looks like we have a very scenic and fun trip ahead of us.

[luke1645]

wow thanks for the great tips and responses. i like that idea about taking his stuff in return for letting him ride my bike. as far as the u haul goes, we planned this trip (or at least i did) so that we could say we rode the whole way. i have this big nasty windshield that i plan on using. i have used it before but here's some rookie quotes that the cbr kid used on me...
" dude dont put that thing on your bike, its just a little wind it wont even matter"
i about shat myself laughing in my head at him. another good one was,
"dont worry about me, i wont be the one getting sore"

i like the riding shorts idea and have thought of that as an option. also i think i can fab a pair of highway pegs to mount to the frame. man i cant wait for this. with sturgis going on almost righ when we are passing through it make for some good times. thanks again for the pics and it looks like we have a very scenic and fun trip ahead of us.

[davipu]

all you need to know is; saddle bags will not hold everything you want to take, but will hold everything you need.  now quit being a girlie man and ditch the ranger and get on your bike and ride.

[Steve-C]

"dont worry about me, i wont be the one getting sore"

How many times you gonna remind him of that one?!  :lol:  :lol:

Good luck with the trip, hope everything goes well!

[Rema1000]

He'll have a different kind of sore.  Maybe his suspension and seat will be kind to his posterior, but his lower back may not be up to it.

[werase643]

i think you friend will do better than you think.  The F3 is/was one of the best all around sports bike made.  while endurance racing one...it was noted....a Barcolounger on wheels.  Very comfortable to ride all day.
you might be the one wanting to trade.... :mrgreen:

[Kerry]

I just looked through my 2002 trip photos again, and found this one that I took just before coming to Pateros -- about 18 miles north of Chelan on US 97:



The top of the sign says

NORTH 153 TO 20[/list:u]  That sounded interesting, so I zoomed in on the area in my

Streets & Trips program:



The photo above was taken right at the bottom edge of the map, where US 97 disappears below Pateros.  Hwy 153 looks like a nice curvy road, and taking Hwy 20 up into the Cascades would sure tempt me!

[Roadstergal]

I've done that route in a roadster, and it's popular with the sport bikers.  Luuuvely scenery!

[luke1645]

now quit being a girlie man and ditch the ranger and get on your bike and ride.

originally we planned on it just being us on the bikes but since his uncle in washington wants to see both of them we had to think of a way to get the younger bro out there. he wanted to drive his trans am out there but its kind of hard to fit a bike in the back of that thing. logically we choose the ranger. we would get rid of it but neither of us wants to ride 2 up with him.

hey kerry or anyone in that area. i see that road that runs up to stehekin and meets up with 20, does anyone know the condition of that road? if its in good enough condition we could ride that one til its hits 20, take 20 to that 153 and then back home.

i'm not a girly man davipu  :x

[Kerry]

hey kerry or anyone in that area. i see that road that runs up to stehekin and meets up with 20, does anyone know the condition of that road? if its in good enough condition we could ride that one til its hits 20, take 20 to that 153 and then back home.

Are you talking about the finely-dotted line on the map above?  That's no road!  It is the county boundary and, judging from how the rivers all run away from it, it's the ridgeline of the mountain range.  (Which would explain why they chose that as the county boundary.)

I just snapped some more close-ups from Streets & Trips.  It looks like the only way to get to Stehekin is by a ~50-mile ferry ride up Lake Chelan, or by airplane.  Here is the start of the ferry route ...


... and here is the end of it:



If you really want a "wilderness adventure", you can take the Stehekin Valley Road (probably dirt / gravel) another 22 miles into the woods.  Along the way you can take your pick of the following campgrounds:

Harlequin Group Campground
Bullion
High Bridge
Tumwater
Dolly Varden
Sandy
Bridge Creek Group Campground
Park Creek
Flat Creek
Cottonwood:[/list:u]