A very pleasant surprise

My route today, as originally laid out, was to be a heavy dose of Highway 2. Since having to cut the north east corner off of Maine I have been going (literally) out of my way to stay closer to the Canadian border. So when I noticed that Highway 2 was taking a serious dip to the south I went searching. That was when The Girls came up with Highway 20, which took me last night to Kettle Falls, WA.

This morning, being unable to get a signal to view my map, I simply stayed on Highway 20 which I had noticed would take me most of the way across the state. The big surprise came this afternoon.

I left Kettle Falls in such a hurry (frustrated that I could not get a Wi-Fi signal that would allow picture up-loads) that I didn't even get my free cup of coffee.

The first 35 miles was a great ride, crossing the headwaters (almost) of the Columbia River, then over Sherman Pass on a scenic byway, bringing me to Republic, WA. It was there that I found a nifty little restaurant inside a gas station! 

The room was the unique thing here. Shaped in a semi-circle, the backdrop was an outdoor scene to the left of a pole that sat in the middle of the wall. That pole was a tree, and high up in the tree was a branch with a bird house resting on it. At the end of the branch was a bird.

and the food was good too!

Continuing west on Highway 20 I passed through a variety of landscapes. Ponderosa Pine gave way to apple orchards, then things leveled out and opened up into range lands.

Eventually the range lands narrowed and funneled into a valley along the Methow River. By the time I hit the end of the canyon I was climbing, and that's where the surprise came into play. 

There's a saying that people don't appreciate anything they don't have to pay for.

I had forgotten that north central Washington had a National Park, the Northern Cascade N.P. No gate, no lodge, no admission. Maybe no one ever told me about this because there's no admission!?! But scenery to die for!

After going up and over Rainy Pass, the road descended a long way down to Diablo Canyon where the green glacier fed lake was stunning.

I mention the long downhill because it turned out to be quite important. I didn't fill up in Republic and found myself calculating how far I could make it based on my (sometimes very inaccurate) range meter. As I entered the park there was only 22 miles of "safety factor" to Newhalen, WA. By the time I descended to Newhalen my margin of safety was up to 50 miles! Good thing too, because there was no gas available in Newhalen. The next station was in Marblemount, 14 miles further downstream.

In that 14 mile stretch I hit a milestone

That represents 16,000 miles on this road trip. By day's end I found myself at Interstate 5, very nearly to the far northwest corner of the U. S.

 I'm spending tomorrow heading northwest, across the 49th Parallel, to Vancouver, British Columbia. Now if I only knew how I was getting back...