I sat there waiting for a long time. It was over an hour and I was
starting to get worried. We hadn't seen a single person all day, so I
knew that if he had fallen and needed help I was the only person that
was going to be coming to the rescue. Thankfully the unmistakeable
sound of rattling front brake discs of the beemer reached my ears so I
knew he was on his way back. Ironically he crashed in pretty much the
exact same place as I did but he had found my case. Within thirty
minutes we had found a campsite next to a river and we were enjoying
some ice cream purchased from a local corner store. Fortunes can
change so quickly, isn’t that why we do this adventure riding thing?
After what had transpired in the previous section we chose to use the
easier alternative route for the rest of our journey south. The
description said that the difficult part was rutted and my shoulder just
couldn't handle anything too rough at that point. Our route followed
a twisty little mountain road that went along the side of a valley.
There was some cool basalt rock formations to see and thick forest
along the road. We passed two older gentlemen sitting at the side of
the road in their lawn chairs, beside their camper vans. They were so
friendly, giving us a wave and a tip of the hat as we passed by
disturbing the peace with our motorbikes.
The route follows a bunch of pavement through this section so we
were cruising through the twisties and then suddenly when we came
around one corner and there it was, bam! in your face, Mt. Rainier. We
had to stop for a picture. The volcano is impressive and from the
viewpoint it feels like you can reach out and touch it. We chomped
down some gourmet burgers in Packwood and then ducked back into
the forest on some dirt roads. This recreation area was kind of cool,
there are tons of back roads but also random paved sections of road.
We ended up on this really twisty nicely surfaced paved road. We were
the only ones there and I think I could hear Alberto yelling woooo in
his helmet as he negotiated the sweet corners. A few more dirt roads,
with some views of Volcanoes and then the WABDR route ends shortly
after at the Bridge of the Gods crossing the Columbia river into Oregon
State.