Passing on turns in a construction zone. The officer had mercy on us and spared us the $300 tickets.

Helicopter landing by the Hwy, picking up military troops that were helping law enforcement searching for pot farmers in the local hills.

Allan

Radek

Paul and John

John’s Day 1 ride report:

Radek, Paul and I met Adam and Allan at The Eatery in Rockport and the headed out to Winthrop and then NW to Tonasket and thru Sherman Pass. In Tonasket we met a Border Patrol officer with a horse and they patrol the border so that was our
first horse experience of the trip.

We encountered some road work so we stopped and waited. As we were let thru we had a few cars in front of us and some trucks. There was no double yellow line and the vehicles were not using the turnouts so we started some slow passes up the ridge. At the top was another stop but with a unmarked Ferry County Sheriff pulling in behind us. We thought we were cooked especially me since I was in the lead. The sheriff was calm about explaining to us even without double lines and no one using the turnouts we shouldn’t have been passing. He ran our licenses and the only thing that popped up was that incident in Oregon where I passed
the unmarked trooper with Paul and Greg (did really happen in 2004 but was not brought up by officer friendly) Anyway he let us go with a warning and about the same time a huge Chinook came into the pass and landed on the road in front of us with the turbines and blades in motion. They were picking up troops and deputies who were clearing pot plants in the forest. We thought they were there to give us a lift with the bikes to the jail or up to Schweitzer to our condo! We headed off and later as I was in the back of the line I had a close call with a logging truck when he was coming around a turn and I was leaning into the turn and one of the logs had a big branch sticking out of it with leaves. I could had a choice straighten the bike up and go off the road or flick out of the way and then lean into the turn to make it. I did just that but didn’t panic with the brakes I just let off some gas and leaned more.

Whew!!!. After slipping on some circular stairs at the condo at Schweitzer Mountain but not breaking my neck I figured my guardian angel was watching.

We had a nice dinner where Radek wanted a bucket of soup which wasn’t quite available so he had to settle for a bowl then it was off to the Jacuzzi for some rest.