The road from Colville to Republic is well known to local riders as the best riding in the area. Although the loaded down KLR 650s do not handle particularly well the ride is so much fun that I do not want to stop for pictures. Also, a picture would not properly capture the moment of doing what I love, the beautiful driving weather, and amazing scenery.
In order to get to Coolie Dam we have to go down a fairly steep hill covered in extremely loose round gravel. Nothing exciting happens. When we arrive at Coolie, I am in a fairly foul mood for some reason and while I could appreciate the amazing feat of engineering I definitely was not living in the moment.
Coolie Dam
As we started to ride away from Coolie I gave myself a little pep talk and was back to my usual self within half an hour. At this point we have a cliff on one side and a large lake on the other.
Nothing much happens until the last leg from Othello to Yakima, Washington. The road we are driving on is surrounded by a vast desert plain with substantial hills in the backdrop. It's an extremely lonely place especially with the sun beginning to set. That's when it starts to go pear-shaped. I begin to notice a wobble in the back on of my bike so I start to slow from our usual 130 kph to 100kph. Something causes my back end to fishtail (probably a strong side wind) since there is loose gravel strewn across the road. My bike is directed into the ditch on the righ-thand side which wouldn't have been fun but not that dangerous since it is filled with soft sand. However, as I hit the soft shoulder my back end kicks out again in the other direction but from all my driving courses and time driving a truck in Edson I know that I should still be aiming for the ditch. By this point I am already out of control with no idea what to do since my offroad experience is minimal and my bike is top heavy. I fishtail for a bit and then I get high-sided (I am launched into the air over my bike) onto the road into the other lane of traffic. I remember worrying that the bike would slam into me while I was rolling down the road. As soon as I stop rolling I jump up and run off the road. My nose is bleeding pretty hard and it is streaming into my helmet. It takes me a few seconds to regain enough composure in order to figure out how to get the helmet off. Two cars stop on either side of the wreckage to warn traffic and to see if I am in alright. Disney napkins were used to stop the blood.
Jan was in the lead so it took him a minute to turn his bike around. He breaks open his medical case and passes me some pain medication. I am still painless from the adrenaline so I take a moment to survey the damage. My bike landed on it's left side. The left Givi luggage bag has popped off, and so has the waterproof kayaking bag. The left aluminum luggage rack is cracked at one of the luggage mountings. The left footpeg, shift lever, and clutch lever severely bent. The tachometer, windscreen, rearview mirror, choke lever, and plastic ferrings are smashed. After bending the clutch lever back into place and getting back in neutral the bike starts up again. These bikes can take a far worse beating than me and continue to run... After bending the luggage rack into place All the bags reattach perfectly and still work (amazing I know, since the bike essentially landed straight onto one of them). As I turn my attention to my injuries I discover a distinct lack of them. My jackets, pants, and gloves are torn in a few places, and there are long scratch marks across my helmet. My watch was torn off my wrist which left a decent bruise, and my right elbow is scraped up from the inside of my jacket. I can only imagine the pain I would be in if I was not in full riding gear. Regardless of gear, my left ankle, both knees, left hip, stomach, ribs, both shoulders, both elbows, both wrists, and my left thumb hurt a fair amount.
Still works!
We had to make it to the next town which would have some parts to fix my bike. The closest was our destination, Yakima, 100km away. Within half an hour we are back on the road... with my confidence shot and my pride in ruins. I must confess that for a few minutes I was thinking of ending the trip... Who would I be if I let something stop me from accomplishing what I set out to do? Tomorrow I will fix the necessary things on the bike to make it rideable for long periods of time. I'm sure everything will buff right out.
