Taneum Twist

The first part of June brought more good riding weather so like any good motorcycle enthusiast, I accepted Chuck's invitation to go on a ride over in Eastern Washington. We hauled the bikes over to the Cle Elum area and started from there. We actually staged at a campsite along the Taneum Rd and hit the trails from there.

Getting ready.

We picked a trail almost at random and just started heading up the single track and let it lead us to wherever it went. Truthfully though, Chuck had a map of all the trails and so we really did have some idea of where we were going.

The trails were not too difficult but had an occasional challenge that made it more interesting.

A brief rest.

Thankfully, I found a squirrel that knew how to use my camera.

We generally had no trouble during the ride. It was a beautiful day and we had the trails mostly to ourselves. We found a couple patches of snow that caused us to change course but overall we rode the whole day without issue.

Beautiful views abound.

A great place for a quick rest.

Then he "shook it all about".



The snow drift that caused us a bit of grief.

The narrow trail that we had to turn around on.

This is as far as I could make it in the snow before getting stuck.

Needed to cool off a bit.

A tree fall that blocked another trail.

Another vista.

We had thought we might make it to Quartz Mountain at some point but eventually we came to the realization that since we only had a few hours of daylight left that we'd have to start heading back to camp soon. We picked another trail that took us back to the truck and had a nice ride to complete our loop.

One of the water crossings we encountered.

One of the few bridge crossings.

Chuck was technically the "ride leader" but somehow he ended up following almost the entire day. Consequently, Chuck ended up eating more dust than I did.

Chuck wiping the dust off his face.

To date, this was the most fun ride I had done. We just rode without a destination and the trails were just a blast to ride on. I definitely plan on riding there again.

Miles: About 40

Riders: 2

Alcohol consumed: 2 beers