North County Spokane/Stevens

Lovely FALL day to be out and about...

Deer Lake:



my kind of roads:

and scenery:










Checked in here as there were signs everywhere stating to do so...


Pretty little resort:



Cabins for rent:


Mini Golf course
Groomed beaches:

Dock to play at

okay, time to explore...















Decision to make:




I had a vague idea of where I was... sort of...

Ended up in Chewelah... ... gassed up and headed up the mountain.
Always wanted to go here













Davis Lake:


Ended with Eloika Lake:




But this was where I wanted to go... next time...


....and I'll bring a map! ... or a compass! ... or a guide ...ah, it was fun without all those things... maybe a little extra fuel...

Thanks for the good pics. I used to live outside of Colville bout 5 miles from Park Rapids. Great area. Miss it dearly.

Nice pics ! It looks like you have a great place to ride .

Love the pictures.

Thanks for posting

I think I now understand why people go solo ... you set your own pace, stop when you want to... there's no worry of going too slow or too fast. I think I may do this more often!!

Solo can be very, very nice (also easy to share after)

Beautiful stuff

If you're in northern Spokane, and want to do a nice easy ~1 hour road trip, Start on Mill road (North Wall), turn west on Waikiki, follow Rutter Parkway along the Little Spokane, turn west again at the top of the hill onto west Rutter Parkway. turn left (south) at Nine Mile, go east on Francis, turn left (north) on Indian Trail, and thence back to west on east Rutter Parkway. East rutter is a nice, easy curvy two lane asphalt road. You can even stop and look at the Indian Petroglyphs just north of the bridge across the Little Spokane River. sorry, didn't mean to steal your thread Buttercup! but thought maybe you'd like to try it sometime. Let me know. It a wonderful ride this time of the year.

Okay, I'll do the "traffic" route if you come out into the mountains with me! I am still intent on finding FR2805 and taking it along that mountain!!!

My List of Places to go:

• FS 2805
• Curlew
• NF 302 up by Metaline Falls
• Salmo MTN
• Hwy 101 Washington Olympic Forest
• TTT
• Hell's Canyon
• Montana

Like LB told me.... goals are GOOD....

Great pix Buttercup! I grew up right there, a few miles to the south of Deer Lake, used to ride my bicycle up there all the time, my best friend in school lived at Julius Terrace on the lake. Looks different now, haven't been to the lake in many years, but my parents still live near there.

Good route Dale, that Rutter parkway road is very neat.

Buttercup, would really like to do a day trip or two with you yet this fall.

I'm a lot like you in that I really like doing solo trips too. In fact, just bought a used set of Happy Trail panniers and Wolfman Ranier tank bag to replace the Giant Loop Fandango and Great Basin gear I have. I'm into gravel roads and camping spots, not high speed single track stuff. Too old!

is that the impression I'm giving... Heck No! Forest service roads are my preference!

We've got to do a KLX ride HDVS... maybe meet somewhere in the middle.

hmmm... I've been meaning to get over to the Westside... maybe I just haul over next spring!

Sounds like a blast!

Still looking for that damn road! Took a little ride west first.... Beautify fall colors...





and interesting perspective.... doG I love deserted country roads!~




My quest took me back to Deer Lake....

and this did look promising... until I hit the gate.





Turned around and started looking for offshoots to the road.... lookee what I found...


A rough little logging road up the hill.


I've been watching too much Trials Competition I actually considered giving this a try......:huh


Likely would have given I had another body with me... maybe next time.

I really, really want to get up there! May have to do it horseback.



What goes up must come down... I didn't consider it a complete DEAD END, just another day... Kept looking for more offshoots and found this interesting trail.

Usually the ruts would have scared me off, but I think I'm over that now...



but alas.... a DEAD END....I didn't even consider crawling up that little path... it looked like it ended on a Kelly Hump at the top...


what goes up must come down...

..and it was an interesting trip down... I about dumped the bike four times just trying to get started... "Oh NO you don't Buttercup" "Dammit!" and a few other choice words best not repeated... idiot... park sideways on a hill... bleep bleep

The trip down kinda looked like this..... really blurry....


Stopped for a Carmel Mocha blend at a cute little coffee stand in D.L.


Cute: I wanna go to camp Run-A-Muk!!

and a few shots on the way home.....










I just love the vibrant colors of fall.... I also like it green, but there's just something about fall... maybe the fact that it's cooler and you can appreciate that -- with Winter on the way, kind of like the last Hurrah!

Observing Trials Competition tomorrow...

Buttercup: You are getting brave going out on those roads by yourself. I'd love to go with you just to see you ride up that logging road.

I'm putting every tip every rider has given me to improve my skills.... I thank you all for those little snippets of insight into riding bikes.... !!

Next year at Hell's Canyon -- I hope that you will see I have used these gems to improve my riding skills... Getting a little braver and more confident each ride....