Jul 1, 2024
Day 1-2 of the Grand Coulee loop. We started in Wenatchee, WA on Saturday and we’re winding our way around the Columbia River basin. It’s hot, dry, and windy, but the sky and clouds are beautiful.
July 2024
Jul 1, 2024
Day 1-2 of the Grand Coulee loop. We started in Wenatchee, WA on Saturday and we’re winding our way around the Columbia River basin. It’s hot, dry, and windy, but the sky and clouds are beautiful.
Jul 3, 2024
Day 3 of the Grand Coulee Loop was a brutal gauntlet through strong wind across desert. It’s hard to imagine the irrigated lakes and reservoirs that lie so close to such a dry place. We stopped at Moses Lake before continuing to Soap Lake, where we were happy to find a pool at the RV park where we stayed.
Day 4 was a lot more fun. Traveling along Banks Lake was gorgeous. We stopped at Steamboat Rock for a dip in the lake, then made our way to Grand Coulee, where the great dam powers and irrigates the entire region. This was our hotel night, with much-appreciated showers and beds.
From here we turn back west, to ride along the Columbia back to Wenatchee.
Jul 4, 2024
Day 5 of the Grand Coulee loop started with a 1,000ft climb out of the coulee to the highway headed west. After a short while on the highway, we turned north to catch a side road that would take us 40 miles west, our longest stretch without a stop in between. The side road was gravel, and took us through some pretty farmland, but ultimately proved too much for my road bike. After repairing a tube and tire, we returned south to the highway for the rest of the leg. This was another long, hot ride. By the time we got to our campsite in Bridgeport, I was in low spirits, and went to bed at 7:30.
Day 6 was fun again. After a short 15 miles to Brewster, we refueled at McDonald’s and followed the Columbia south to Chelan. In contrast to the monotonous hills and buttes of the previous day, today we rode right along the river as it carves the boundary between the cliffs of the Cascades and the plateau to the east. At mile 40 we turned west to climb up to Chelan. Lunch, 10 more miles west, and then we found our campsite on Lake Chelan. We grilled hot dogs and watched fireworks over the water.
Jul 6, 2024
Day 7 was the grand finale of the Grand Coulee loop. Anticipating weather in the high 90s, we got up an hour early to race the sun to Wenatchee. It began with a 700ft climb over a ridge from Lake Chelan toward Entiat. The descent from the ridge back to the Columbia was fast and winding, and ultimately opened on a vista of the river and plateau beyond. We sped the rest of the way to Wenatchee, arriving 40 miles later at 10:30am, 85°F.
After recovering in the hotel, we got dinner and picked up a couple of Tony’s friends from Seattle and headed south again, this time by car. The capstone of our adventure was seeing Odesza play at the Gorge Amphitheatre. It was a spectacle that will be hard to forget. Finally, we drove back to the hotel in Wenatchee, and tomorrow we’ll be home again in Seattle.
