| Windy Ridge Ride - 6/12/2009 |
Windy Ridge Ride Synopsis |
| Chapter 154 - Windy Ridge Overnighter - June 13, 2009 After breakfast, 12 bikes departed Bob's Burger and Brew in Burlington around 8:30 AM to travel to Bruce and Debbie's place in Arlington, WA where we were graciously provided with cinnamon rolls, homemade by Debbie S as well as some very delicious scones provided by Lenny's wife, Debi. After more eating and socializing Bruce and Debbie joined the group for a total of 12 bikes on the first leg of our trip to Windy Ridge on Mt. St. Helens. We broke up into two smaller groups and headed south. Frank had other obligations and headed out on his own. We toured many fine and twisty back roads on our way south including Burn Road, Menzel Lake Road and Woods Creek Road and Zippo's GPS came in handy on one stretch between Arlington and Monroe where the printed directions were a mite confusing and difficult to follow. At Granite Falls, the two groups rejoined and, with Zippo and Jackie leading the way, the pack made it to Monroe, WA where we took a break and topped off out tanks. Of course, the group can't stop without a social session so we managed to do some chatting as well. John and his passenger Jamie O, and Mark C had to head home at this point to take care of other business so we were down to 9 bikes From Monroe we traveled south to Enumclaw where Jim P, our tailgunner, left us to go visit his daughter. We stopped here, briefly, for a break before carrying on south. The weather changed dramatically from almost too hot to very cool shortly after this stop and Zippo and Jackie took over as sweep for the last stretch of the ride to Packwood where we planned to spend the night. Out planned route took us southeastward on SR 410 around the spectacular Mt Rainier which, unfortunately for us, was shrouded in fog and cloud. Eventually, the clouds became too heavy and began dumping their load on us. Jon A found a turnoff to a campground and we quickly parked and began pulling on raingear. It's surprising how quickly a group of bikers can get into raingear when the need is great! We continued south on SR 410 with only a brief stop as Zippo suggested that we might have missed our turn just a little bit ago (GPS saved the day again!) and we were quickly back on the right route. SR 123 is a very pretty ride and if you get a chance to ride around the east side of Rainier I highly recommend that you do so. Hopefully in better weather than we experienced. Fortunately, we only had to endure a half hour or so of rain before the skies again lightened up and our face shields cleared. We reached Packwood about 4:30 PM where we refueled and decided to go check into the motel and get dinner. Our motel, The Crest Trail Lodge, was very clean and biker friendly and is highly recommended should you need a place to stay in Packwood, WA. The owner is also a rider, we were told, and last year did some riding with his wife in Africa. He's planning on adding a covered BBQ area as well as replacing the canned "motel" pictures in each room with pictures of their Africa ride. I look forward to seeing them. We had dinner at Cruiser's Pizza in Packwood where we saw some Elk grazing across the street. Packwood also sported some nice wood carvings along the main street. Dinner was delicious and most of us headed back to the motel where some of the riders availed themselves of the hot tub. Lenny, his son, Danny and Jon A with his daughter Emily decided to head 15 miles down the road to Randle and get the latest scoop on the road to Windy Ridge which we planned on riding in the morning and it's fortunate that they did as they returned later to inform us that our planned route had a bridge washed out and we would need to ride around to the west side of Mt St Helens to be able to see anything. In the morning, after a delicious "Continental" breakfast (which included fresh waffles, sausage and many other goodies - love this motel!) we headed for Johnston Ridge on Mt St Helens. The weather was threatening and we all had our rain gear quickly available. We rode through some fog and clouds but, fortunately, the weather cleared and we were treated to a pretty nice ride. After a visit to the Johnston Ridge Observatory where many of us watched a presentation on the eruption of Mt St Helens we again packed up and headed westward where we stopped for a meal at the "49er Café" which, interestingly, is located at Exit 49 on I-5! After another delicious meal we broke into smaller groups for the ride home. Some planned on staying on I-5 to get home fairly quickly as the time was getting late while Lenny, Danny and Jackie and I decided to head west at Olympia and then turn northward up Highway 101. Always a scenic and twisty route and we made a very quick trip out of it. We pulled into Port Townsend, WA and headed to the ferry where we cut to the front of the line (man, it's nice to be able to do that) and were quickly assigned a lane to wait for the ferry. 5 minutes later we were loaded onto the ferry and shortly after that the ferry headed out. Great timing! After we reached the other side Lenny and Danny turned for home (only a couple of miles for them) while Jackie and I headed northward up Whidbey Island. Traffic was light and it was only an hour or so before we were home - around 8:30 PM. A long day indeed but a nice end to a great weekend. Total mileage for Zippo and Jackie was about 550 miles. We home you enjoy some of the images from the ride, below... The following Chapter #154 members and friends attended all or part of this ride: Bruce and Debbie S Zippo and Jackie John G and Jamie O Lenny B - Road Captain Danny B Kem and Sherrie S Steve O and Sandy W Jon and Emily A - Road Captain Don C and Andrea R Jim Poore - Tailgunner Mark C Frank C |
