Canoeing the Yakima River

The day I arrived, Chris and I prepared for our planned canoe trip down the Yakima River. We took a drive down Highway 821 to Roza Dam, our pull out point. It was a beautiful day to preview the following day’s float trip.

We awoke mid-morning on Sunday and set out. After hiding the canoe and equipment in the tall grass along the river’s edge, I followed Chris to the pull out point. The highway runs parallel with the Yakima River and offered some great twisty spots where I could lean just a bit more than I was accustomed to in Seattle. It was great practice for the many rides to come during my trip.

After we secured the truck, Chris jumped on the back of my motorcycle and we drove back north. Chris and I are stout guys and I think we were over the weight limit for my bike, but she performed admirably. The only scary thing was feeling Chris shift his weight while he was looking around like a toddler in a candy store. I had to continually nudge him with my elbow to get him to focus. Obviously, we made it back and our river adventure soon began.

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Leg 1: Seattle to Ellensburg

82 miles

On the eastern slope of the gloriously green Cascade mountain range lies Ellensburg, WA. A quaint college/farming town, Ellensburg once vied to become the capitol of Washington state, but lost out to Olympia due geographical and probably political issues. (It’s difficult to remember every hand that needs to be greased and how much grease to use.) That was just a supposition on my part, I’m not writing a history lesson here. I stopped here to visit my friends Chris, Hanni and their beautiful little daughter Elouise. It was also a chance to catch up on my sleep and acclimate myself to the daylight hours again. (I had been working nights for 5 years.)  I apologize for the lack of pictures, but I wasn’t yet in the photo taking mood.

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Leaving Seattle

I left Seattle on July 23rd to move back to the St. Louis area. I spent the greater part of ten years in the Emerald City, more time than any other place since my childhood home. Why would I leave such a beautiful city, one may ask? I’ve heard that question often during my trip and for privacy’s sake, I’ll just say, it was for family. Those of you who know me are privy to the reasons for my departure, so I’ll just leave it at that.

At first, I was planning to move the usual, boring way, but the idea of “barreling” down the highway at 55 mph in a Uhaul truck with my motorcycle in tow was not very appealing. I had done it too many times already. The idea of a motorcycle trip just felt right. In the end, I spent a month on the road. This is a chronicle of my trip for those of you who are interested. Please enjoy!

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