Day four started out interestingly enough. I packed up the tent and all my gear, loading it on the bike then getting dressed in the riding gear to suit the day's weather. One of the layers was my lovely Widder electric vest that hooks up to the bike by a long cord. This cord gets in the way when I'm not riding so I set it on top of my tent so I wouldn't forget it. I finished gearing up and take off through the maze of speed bump riddled roads in the RV/campground and a couple turns outside the grounds I realize I'm not plugged in. Shoot, where'd my cord go? It's not on the bike where I left it so I turn around and rush back to the site and retrace my steps. It's no where to be found. I was bummed to say the least. Then a light bulb goes off in my head and I remember that when I went over the first speed bump I felt something brush up against my back could that have been it? I look around and there it is dangling above the muffler dangerously close to melting and the end is dragging along the ground. It's only a little beat up from the one mile drive like that so I was ecstatic!
Now that my heart rate slowed down I continued on with the ride. My planned route changed several times through the day starting with the original route of taking I-5 into Vancouver then taking the Trans Canadian highway across to the final route taking Highway 97 into Canada at Osoyoos.
The morning was crisp and clear and took me from the coastal region of Olympia to the inner mountain ranges of the Cascades and the difference was amazing. The diversity of scenery left me wanting more, so I rode more :)
I stopped for lunch and planned out the rest of the day with the trucker's map book I found earlier, opting to take some more scenic or backroads versus the GPS's proposed ten hours of dry, flat, desert boredom. In the confusion of changing routes I put the wrong route in my GPS and missed my turn off for 97 north and didn't realize it until I was already a good ways past the the exit. I stopped to asses what to do and change layers since it wonderfully got warm.
Having shed my thermals and gone to full summer gear I turned around to take the longer but more enjoyable route. I wanted to camp for one more night in the US and there were a few campsites near Loomis and the roads I wanted to ride with a backroads border crossing too. Well as I started back on my desired route the wind started to pick up and the air grew cold, all with me thinking "only a couple more miles of this and it'll be warm again." I was mistaken, sort of. It started to rain and get even colder and the miles kept adding up with no change for the better. Finally it started to warm up around Chelan and things were right in the world again.
I stopped for a break at a hydroelectric dam on the Columbia and wandered around a bit, snapping pictures and getting weird looks from the graduation party that was going on there.
Continuing on with the ride I got to the back roads I wanted and was quite happy. It was just a little two lane road that snaked through some tiny farming and cattle towns and, like so many other things to date, it was gorgeous. It was obvious that a rain cell had just come through the area as the ground was wet and there were clouds in the distance. I was hoping to just trail behind the storm long enough to stay dry. Again, I was mistaken.
As I got to Palmer lake I could see the nasty clouds brewing over my intended path and campground so I stopped to put the wet weather gear back on and ride into the storm in hope of finding a dry campground. Aside from being a little wet things were still going well until I got to the turn off for the border crossing. Apparently the one I wanted to take was only open from 9am to 5pm and the 24 hour one was somewhere in the distance. After some more gorgeous roads and landscape I got to the border and made it into British Columbia after only a 20 minute wait at customs.
The road from the boarder was flanked by vineyard after vinyard, beautiful mountains in the background and the setting sun. Another gorgeous scene. (are you tired of hearing that yet? I'm not ;))
I made it just past the town of Oliver before deciding to call it a night and stumbled upon an amazing campground: Dean Creek Resort, a part of KOA. They had plenty of room for me (I think there were only four sites used in the entire grounds) and let me settle the bill in the morning. There were several great things about the grounds, first they had FREE hot showers and second they had a private lake yards from my site and a bluff running up to the lake's edge. Absolutely stunning!
The day ended well and here's the photographic proof...
PHOTOS of Day 4
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