Tag: WABDR

WABDR: prologue

WABDR is short for the “Washington Backcountry Discovery Route”, which is a series of forest roads that run along the eastern side of the Cascades between the Columbia River and the border with Canada. The plan was to start from the south and get as far as we could across a long Labor Day weekend. In order to start at the beginning, we first have to get there.

1200GS moto dashboard
Entering Mt. Rainier National Park

 

Climbing to Chinook Pass
Climbing to Chinook Pass as Mt. Rainier rises on the left

 

Mt. St. Helens from Windy Ridge
Mt. St. Helens from Windy Ridge - use the parking lot on the lower left to get a sense of scale.

 

Windy Ridge
Windy Ridge: one of my favorite rides in Washington

Let’s get rolling

Here’s our total route for the southern half of the trip…


 

Start of the trip
Southern start of the WABDR: WA side of "The Bridge of the Gods"

 

Pavement ends
Pavement ends. And say hi to Mike as you go past.

 

Forest road
Typical forest road on the southern section

 

Mike in motion
Mike in motion

 

Dust nap
Time for a nap. I have, ah, 5 of these across the trip.

Timberwolf Mountain

Based on a tip from southbound WABDR riders, we followed the “easy” path around Bethel Ridge and took the side trip up to Timberwolf Mountain. It was spectacular.

Timberwolf Mountain
We went to the mountain top.

 

Timberwolf Summit view
360 view of this.

 

Glider flying
A father and his son were flying radio controlled gliders in the thermals...check out the glider on the left.

 

Glider transport
Glider transport

 

Timberwolf summitt
Timberwolf summitt

 

Morning view from Timberwolf
Morning view from Timberwolf

 

Craig on Timberwolf
Craig on Timberwolf

 

Mike on Timberwolf
Mike on Timberwolf

 

Outhouse on Timberwolf
Outhouse on Timberwolf

 

Sunrise on Timberwolf
Sunrise on Timberwolf

Timberwolf Meadow

We camped in a meadow just below the summit at 6000 feet.

Meadow through the trees
Meadow through the trees

 

Parked on the edge of the meadow
Parked on the edge of the meadow

 

Upper meadow at Timberwolf
Upper meadow at Timberwolf

 

Meadow road
Meadow road

 

Biolite charging a GoPro
The Biolite stove is slick - great for warmth, and it will charge a GoPro.

 

Upper meadow on Timberwolf
One more meadow picture

 

Dust nap

We were climbing a rocky section just north of 410 when my front wheel slide to the right and the bike decided to take a short cut up the cliff.

dust nap
I have 5 dust naps across the trip, accumulating minor scratches to the bike, nothing serious.

 

Let's get this bike up the hill
Let's get this bike up the hill

 

Mike captured this recovery on video, which I’ll share at the end of the trip report. The first photo above doesn’t quite share the exposure of the hill to the left of the trail, it’s a significant drop.