Brad wanted to do Wallowa Lake and Palouse Falls this year. It had been many years since he had been to Wallowa Lake and he had never been to Palouse Falls.
While I waited for him to show up, I did some prep work to be ready for the concrete guys that are supposed to be by on Wednesday.
Oh, look, here he comes now...
Brad got to my house at 8:42, but we didn't leave right away.
I had him help me move a heavy chair, then I did a last couple things that I didn't want to do until right before we left.
(i.e. get the water bladder of ice out of the freezer and top it off with water)
Once the last minute things were complete, we headed down the road at 9:00. First, down Bryden Canyon and taking the first exit as we got across the river to head to Asotin.
As we got through Asotin, I fought with the Drift camera to record the ride up the grade. Turns out, it kept stopping the recording and I would have to get it to start again. Unfortunately, none of the videos it did capture turned out that well. That said, it was a good ride up. We didn't push it as hard as I normally do, but that's the reason we put Brad in the lead, to keep me out of trouble.
Continuing on, we made it to Rattlesnake grade and began our descent. It is always slower going down vs coming up, but I did still give Brad some lead in a couple spots so I could take some corners a little faster. The road wasn't the best and had quite a few sunken spots and/or repairs that made it a bit squirrely. We were soon at the bottom, passing by Bogans Oasis and beginning our ascent on the Oregon side.
We stopped at the Joseph Canyon overlook.
After taking a couple pictures and Brad reading the signs, we headed to our next stop just a bit down the road.
Before we got to said destination, a deer decided it would cross the road in front of us. It wasn't near a dramatic as the time Scott and I had to slam on the brakes for the deer back in 2006. There was plenty of room ahead of us, but we did slow way down checking for other deer.
A few more miles down the road we arrived at the Trost Homestead, admiring the work they have completed and guessing at what might be next.
Before leaving, Brad was trying to decide if he needed to go that bad. :-)
Scott, you need to train the birds to lift the seat first.
Back on our way, we stopped for just a minute at the north end of Wallowa Lake before continuing down to the south end of the lake.
We pulled into a couple parking spots and almost immediately Brad made a new best friend.
Brad noticed the chipmonk begging from some people parked a couple spots over.
When they didn't have anything, it ran off.
Brad quickly found his ziplock went searching.
Notice how he can feed himself and his friend at the same time.
After the feeding was done, we wondered around a little a took a couple more pictures.
We then meandered our way back to the bikes.
As we were heading out of the parking lot, I gave the throttle a little (very little) goose as I turned. It was apparently enough with the thin layer of dust to give a bit of a slide. Contrary to what some might believe, I was a little surprised... Not that it didn't put a smile on my face, but still.
Before heading back north, we road around some of the small road around the inns/resorts and other buildings in the immediate area. Stopping for just a moment to check out the tram from the seat of the bike. We then headed out.
Once again reaching the north end of the lake, we pulled off at the Old Chief Joseph grave site.
Again on the road, and not finding a location with Non-Ethonal fuel in Enterprise, we headed to Wallowa. Finding and filling up at the one pump station, Brad asked inside about places for lunch while I pumped. We decided on the Brick Bar & Grill. Brad had a sandwich and I had a Philly Cheese Stake (hold the mushrooms) with the days special Taco Season Tots. I would highly recommend! The food was very good.
Heading north again, we only got 0.5 to 1 mile or so before Brad pulled over with fuel flowing out the top of his tank. I pulled up next to him and we investigated. We couldn't find any reason, but thought that there may have been a presure build up in his tank as it sat in the sun while we were eating. I did pull out my water bladder and tried to rinse off the gas best I could.
We were soon moving again heading north by north west. As we would ride through the small towns, I noticed they had signs saying "Congestion". Apparently, my sinuses took the suggestion seriously, which made it difficult to breath. It wasn't until we were leaving Milton-Freewater before they opened back up.
We continued on through Walla Walla and north on 125. When we reach Harvey Shaw Road, we pulled on to it and stopped to debate if we were going to take it. Ultimately we decided not to, but I do believe it would have been a short cut and did appear to be popular. Instead we continued up 125 until 124, turning back west until Lyons Ferry Rd, which is where the Harvey Shaw Rd would have taken us. Following this road, we went until 261, north west of Starbuck, right before the big bridge.
It didn't take us long to reach the Palouse Falls road, which was very washboardy. Brad had to take it pretty slow. For me, being on three wheels, it wasn't as tough, but it even pushed me around a bit.
Once in the parking lot, being very warm, we shed our outer layers before heading over to the falls. I pulled out my water while Brad had wandered to the facilities. As I walked over to where the path leads down to the overlook, meeting back up with Brad, it was clear that he was unaware of the point of view. He was very hesitant and mentioned several times how high up, or how far down, it was. I was able to get him to stand next to the fence a couple times to get a couple pictures. I wasn't aware that was afraid of heights. He says that he is afraid of jumping. I insisted that he shouldn't be afraid of jumping, or even the fall, it's that sudden stop at the bottom he should be afraid of.
When time came to leave, Brad was ready first and, since he had to go slower than I, he started off. I got the rest of my stuff put away and was soon on my way as well. Reaching the highway again, we turned north to 260. When we got to it, Brad stopped and was unsure where we were. He was thinking that the road would bring us right to Washtucna, but 261 puts you 6 miles south west of it. As I'm looking at the map now, I see that where 260 and 261 meet, they kept the 261 highway even though one would think it would have continued on with 260.
We tried to fill up in Washtucna, but the machine wouldn't take our cards. Best guess, you need a specific card type (not Master Card or VISA). So, we continued on to Colfax.
My bike said I should be able to make it the 50 miles and still have enough fuel to get another 20 miles.
However, I noticed that as my GPS counted down the miles to Colfax, the bike was counting down the miles to empty much faster.
It wasn't long before the low fuel like came on, but I thought based on the numbers... "I should still be able to make it."
But then, at about 13 miles outside of town, the bike said, "LOW RNG" aka:"You're going to be out of gas in less than 10 miles".
Last and only other time I got LOW RNG was in 2019 and I was already pulling into town.
We kept going, telling myself that I would pull over when the engine started loosing power due to lack of fuel and put my spare fuel in.
Luckily, there was a station right as we pulled into town and I didn't run out, but I'm guessing I was pretty close.
From Colfax we made our way down 195 until Pullman, then cut across to Moscow and finally arriving and the Anderson Ranch at 19:37. Brad pointed out that his bike showed a trip of 432.7 miles. Shelly was working in the garden.
We hung out and chatted about the day and a few other topics while we all rested. Eventually, Brad decided it was time for supper and got stuff out for burgers. Shelly got out some side dishes, however, she wasn't hungry and was warn out, so while Brad and I went out to the grill, she retired for the evening.
When we were done eating, it was late and I began getting ready to head for home. I thanked Brad for joining for the day, climbing back on the bike, and started out at 21:16.
Once in Lewiston, I made my way through town arriving home at about 21:56.
My GPS showed a trip of 411 miles. I'm sure Brad's bike is more accurate.
It was a really nice ride and a wonderful day for it.
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