Moto Mountain Man 2023, part 2

The ride through the rest of Montana and Idaho, as we headed west, was pretty uneventful. We stopped at Riley Creek to camp in Idaho. While there was no fire restriction, the firewood station was empty and the local gas station (and only store) didn't carry any, so we had another dark camp.

We left the next morning, had a nice breakfast in Priest River where Ranger Rick payed for our meal (it was fun chatting with him - had no idea he was going to do that!). We continued on through Washington along a really great (and mostly empty) highway, making our way to Klipchuck Campground in the North Cascades National Park.

The highway was still open, even though there was an active forest fire; we rode through a good bit of smoke, saw the firefighters headed to work, and Jason saw actual flames in the trees. We eventually cleared that and then continued to the western part of the park to Diablo Lake - which (to the right of the photo, below) had another still active forest fire that had closed the highway for a couple of weeks prior. Thankfully, no smoke while we were here and the sunlight lit up the glacially-fed lake beautifully.

We then made our way along a gravel road for a short period of time and then on to Leavenworth, WA. We had a small cabin to sleep in - and a laundromat to do laundry. While we were waiting for the clothes to dry, I spotted a bear working its way along a river.

That night I walked down to the bear-infested river and took some photos of the Milky Way.

We got an early start the next morning, since we had to get to a first come-first served campground (White River) in Mt. Rainier National Park. We rode through the Yakima River canyon, which while pretty, was a river through high desert - sage everywhere, some trees along the river.

We got to the campground and got one of the last two remaining spots (we know, because unlike previous campgrounds, we didn't settle for the first available!). We got our tents set up, had a nice little dinner, and then rode to Sunrise Point to catch the sunset and watch the stars come out. 

Jason had so much fun on the road that we rode it again on our way out the next morning.

We continued through the park and made our way home. Hot showers, good food, and another round of laundry for the win!

Cheers,

Marc