Trip Details:
A solid week of training in Beaverton Oregon left me with a bit of
cabin fever. The temperature was supposed to be in the upper 80's so
I decided to ride east. There is a little lake called Cooper Lake I
had heard about. It's just past Roslyn and I hoped since the few days
of warmer weather, we might be able to make it up to the lake. The
location of the lake is at higher altitudes so riding it means you
really have to watch the weather and time of year. I called my buddy
and got him roped into the ride as well. After a hour of prepping
and packing I was on the road heading towards Maple Valley on hwy
18. My first stop would be at Lloyds place. It was 11 AM and it was
already getting hot.
After the stop at Lloyds we both saddled up our Goldwings and
headed up hyw 18 towards I-90. was looking forward to riding
over Snoqualmie Pass. This time of year there is usually snow on the
road side and hills. On a hot day the cooler air is welcome. As we
made our way up I-90 I was amazed at the amount of water flow on the
Snoqualmie river. We crossed over it a couple times and the air
around the river felt 15 degrees cooler. We have gotten allot of
snow fall this year and have had cooler temperatures this spring.
Now that it's heating up the snow is melting very quickly and the
rivers are very high. As we got closer to the summit we rode by many
road side waterfalls. Normally the don't have heavy volume of water
but due to the late spring and sudden higher temps they were really
flowing. Snoqualmie Summit soon appeared
 on
our right as we started down the east side of the pass. We pulled
off the road for a rest at the turn out by Keechelus Lake. The lake
still had areas still frozen. The shoreline and hillsides on
the south side were snow covered and the view was spectacular. We
snapped some photos and I cleaned a few bugs off my screen and we
continued on our way. After seeing the amount of snow up and down
both sides of the pass I was starting to wonder if we were going to
be able to get up to Cooper Lake. As we approached Lake Easton I
could feel the cooler air coming off the lake. I was getting a bit
warm so the cooler air was just what I needed. There is a little
park area next to the lake called Lake Easton State Park. It looked
like a nice place to stop on a hot day. We rode on to the Bullfrog
Rd exit. We turned left on to Bullfrog Rd. and headed north.
Bullfrog Rd took us about 4 miles to where it intersected with hyw
903. It has been some time since I have been on hyw 903 or since I
have been to Roslyn for that matter. As we rode into Roslyn I
thought it was just like I remembered it. There is a Tavern/Eatery
on the left side of the road. The parking in front of the building
was lined with motorcycles so it looks like Roslyn was a popular
ride today.
 4.5
miles past Roslyn we came up on Cle Elum Lake on our left. We pulled
off in a view point rest area to check out the lake. The lake had a
green tint to the water. It also was a popular place as the east end
was ringed with cars, trucks a boat trailers. As we rode on we
encountered several camping areas near the lake. I also noticed
several new homes going up. Not a bad place to live if you can
handle the snow during the winter months. We followed hyw 903
another 9.8 miles to our next left turn on to nf-46. As we crossed
the bridge over the river a guy let us know we were heading for
snow. I was afraid of that! We pushed on to see how far we could
get. As we climbed in altitude we maybe went another 3 miles or so
and we encountered a large patch of snow covering the road. I could
see clear road on the other side so I navigated through a rut in the
snow from someone's truck tire. I had to drag my feet like skis to
remain up. Lloyd however, didn't remain up. His engine guard dug
into the snow on the left side and caused the rear tire to kick out
and he went down. It was a soft graceful dump if there is such a
thing. His wing landed on its left side with the rear tire in
one rut and the front in another. We took a few minutes to laugh
about the little mishap and take a few pictures for historical
purposes... :-) Then we picked the 900+ lbs. bike up to then deal
with the awkward position it was in. Now this looks allot worse then
it is.
 Goldwings
will land on two small areas under their two crash guards without
the road touching any other part of the motorcycle. In this case we
did have snow touching the luggage but we were in snow not on a dry
road. There was no damage to the bike! I have seen these bikes tip
over before and they are fairly simple to pick back up. Just turn
your back to the bike and grab the bar and handle on the seat and
then lift with your legs. It's a bit more difficult in the snow as
traction is at a minimum. Once righted we ended up with a wheel in
each rut and very little traction could be made on our part. I
climbed on his wing and began feathering the clutch and throttle and
started rocking the bike back and fourth spinning the rear wheel as
he pushed the rear end over to the center section of snow and soon
we had both tires in one rut and were able to get his wing out of
the white cold stuff. We tried to press on by navigating through another patch just
like the last one. Soon we approached solid snow that was fairly
deep. There was a truck stuck in it and an jeep trying to get him
out. It was clear as day light we were not going any further. We
turned our wings around and headed back without getting to see
Cooper Lake. We came all this way and were stopped exactly 2.2 miles
short of the lake. That's ok because I now have a reason to return
soon. We made the journey home riding the same roads we came over
on. The view of the snow covered hills and waterfalls that lined the
hillsides crossing the pass was even better then the trip over.
Another great ride and another opportunity to see some roads I have
not seen prior. Note to self... "Turn around on first site of snow
on the roadway!" |
