My Second Non-Commute Ride of the Year

[Daboo]

My riding is primarily commuting. To and from work, church, the local jail and a nearby prison. I enjoy riding to these places, so it isn't drudgery at all. But once in awhile, I get to ride somewhere just for fun.

Last weekend, I decided when I left the prison at Monroe, WA, to ride the Ben Howard Road. To the locals, it is a motorcyclists dream with it's twists and turns, up and downs and 90 degree corners. The scenery is great as you follow the Skykomish River in a farming valley with the foothills of the Cascade mountains rising up around you. Unfortunately, it wasn't a pleasant ride. The road was still so covered in sand that you had to concentrate to stay within the narrow tire track where it was clear. Let your eyes wander, or push the speed a bit too much, and down you'd go. So that was my first non-commute of the year.

Friday, I took the day off from work and decided to venture out. The weather was pretty clear with just some fog in the forecast. Temps would be from freezing to about 38F. My plan was to ride to the lower half of the Mountain Loop Highway till I reached snow.

I left late in the morning to give the roads time to thaw, if needed, and to let the temps climb a few degrees. The Road Trip Planner on Weather Underground showed I'd be riding in temps around 37F near the house, climbing to around 41F around Granite Falls, and then falling again as I got closer to the destination. I didn't see 40F, but I was comfortable which makes a trip like this fun.

I headed up I-5 from south of Everett till I hit US2, then went east to Lake Stevens and caught up with Hwy 9, which used to be the main highway to British Columbia till I-5 went in years ago. From there, I headed to Granite Falls and the Mountain Loop Highway.

There's something I find very relaxing in riding. My mind doesn't really venture onto anything other than the road, the scenery and the bike beneath me. Once I was on the back roads headed towards Granite Falls, the area is totally different. Homes are quite often small and built decades ago. People here don't get caught up in the things city folk find important. I sometimes wonder how they make a living. I also realized something anew on this trip. Smells that you wouldn't notice in a car, can bring up pleasant memories. The air was crisp and cool, and once in awhile I'd catch this smell of someone's wood stove fire.

Mountain Loop Highway follows a valley floor carved out by glaciers (probably) years ago with the South Fork of the Stillaquamish River flowing alongside. You can get an idea from this Google Maps Terrain view.

Below are some of the pictures I took on the way up of the river (and this being a motorcycle forum) the bike. It was cool to listen to the water when I stopped.

This picture below was interesting (to me at least) in the way the current was running. The main body of water is in the distance, but the current breaks off and flows towards the road in places.

Here's one that just shows what the mountains looked like. Not much to see, but they are there.

 

[Daboo]

Water was everywhere. When I took my oldest daughter cross-country skiing a month earlier to the Big Four Ice Caves, there were warning signs of collapsing snow. In other words, you'd see what looked like snow ahead to walk on, and find that under a foot or so of it, was water. Ice cold water. You can get a feel for that with this picture of a pond on the side of the road.

This was just an interesting shot...

I love these kinds of signs...

I stopped on an old red metal bridge for this picture. If you look, you'll see a small creek running in from the left side, then the main body of the river, and in the upper right corner, another creek feeding the river.

 

[Daboo]

This was as far as I got.

Mountain Loop Highway is a "loop" only in the summer and only when the road is passable. To get this far, you ride a few miles on what the Forest Service considers unpaved road. I think what that means is that as the road deteriorates, they won't do any repairs. A few miles further though and you have about a 16 mile gravel and dirt road that connects the southern portion of the loop with the northern side.

I found out something on this trip...the bike's tires don't grip well in snow at all.

There's a tiny little town on the road here with little published history. It's called Silverton. This is one of those towns that if you blink twice as you're driving along, you'll miss it. Apparently, it was a mining town back in the good ole days. All that's left now is a sign along the road and a few homes. People live there though. The place below had the gate open, and one on the other end of town had smoke coming up from the chimney.

There's only one sign. Apparently they didn't feel it worthwhile to put one up a few hundred yards up the road for the other end of town.

 

[Daboo]

One last picture...

Chris

 

[Rocker66]

Those views certainly look worth getting cold for

 

[Daboo]

And the nice part of it all...I didn't get cold.

I wimped out this last December and bought myself a pair of Gerbings T5 gloves. I wish I'd done it sooner. For the rest of the body, just some layering was all that was needed.

I've learned you can have as much fun riding in the winter and rain as you do in the summer. You just need to dress for it.

Chris