Thompson Falls (part 2)

Yaak Falls

Lake Kookanusa

Anticipating the rain I had encased my saddle in a plastic bag so at least it was dry. We departed about 8:00 and as it wasn’t raining I didn’t don my rain gear. I will add that Rob, one of our younger and most experienced and skillful riders, acted as our tour guide and unofficial leader. He did a fantastic job as usual in guiding us along while encouraging us to make the decisions when there were route choices. We reversed directions and headed west on Hwy 200 past the Noxon and Cabinet Gorge reservoirs before turning northwest on Hwy 56. Cloudy but no appreciable rain yet. We continued north to Hwy 2 before turning north past Troy and along the Kootenai River. All of this was scenic riding in forested country. We eventually turned northeast on Hwy 508 along the Yaak River. We had great riding as 508 turned east near the Canadian border still along the Yaak River and East Fork of the river. 

Libby Dam

The road eventually turned southeast and back on the main fork of the Yaak River where we encountered the most fantastic riding of the whole trip. The narrow twisting road was shrouded in forest with absolutely no traffic or even lines on the road. I believe this road became NF road 92 as it turned south along the west shore of beautiful Lake Koocanusa. When we came to the Kootnai bridge across the lake we split into two groups.

After I had viewed the weather radar I thought the rain was most likely to be on the east side of the lake. It did look that way, so Clint and I decided to take the west side down Forest Road 228 along with Joe, Leslie and Smitty.  Rob, Carl, Ron and Roy took the east side up to Eureka and back down. This was a new road for me anyway. However, in spite of my opinion about the rain it soon began raining hard enough for me to stop and put on my rain suit. This was a fun road and the rain wasn’t too bad. This road took us back down to Hwy 2 where we jogged west and back down Hwy 56 to Hwy 200 where by now it had begun to rain in earnest. I stayed fairly dry except for my helmet shield in spite of treating it with rain deflector. Too late I discovered that moving my adjustable windshield to the top position took care of the problem. We stopped along the way, I believe in Trout Creek, for some delicious ice cream. I think it was about 5:00 when we got back to the Lodge shortly followed by the other group. We had a great time at dinner in the Lodge restaurant that evening.

Avery Break

Continental Divide

We got an early start the next morning with Rob and Carl heading west (I suggested over to Okanogan) and the rest of us east on Hwy 200 and over to Hwy 135 south down to St. Regis. From there we took the gravel road up to the Continental Divide and down the great scenic and twisting road on the Idaho side to the St. Joe River Rd. Joe, Smitty and I had tried this route the previous year only to find the road at the Divide closed due to a slide and we had to return back to the Interstate and make the freezing trip back to Rose Lake. We had a nice break at Avery and after passing through St. Maries took the White Pine Drive down Hwy 6. Before reaching Potlatch we took Hwy 9 over to Deary and then Hwy 8 down to Troy. We turned west toward Moscow and took Old Hwy 95 to Genesee where we parted with Smitty, Joe and Leslie. Clint and I had a final fun ride down the Spiral Hwy and by the time we reached my place in Clarkston we lacked two miles having traveled 800 for the trip. In spite of the rain part of one day it was a fun and memorable trip. M/W