Just what the heck is a “WABDR” you may be asking. It stands for Washington Backcountry Discovery Route which is essentially an offroad romp through the forest from the Oregon border in the south to the Canadian border in the north following the Cascades. It is divided into sections that are roughly equivalent to a day’s riding.
I’d bee interested in the route ever since I heard about it back in 2011. Every year I’d swear to myself that I’d do at least one segment. Every year I’d welcome Fall without having done any of it — until this year!
I’d taken a day off of work and had a couple plans, but hadn’t really settled on anything until that morning. I was shifting back and forth between either riding out to Bend, OR, or going on section 1 of the WABDR. In the end with the awesome weather, and the likelihood that this would be the last of the good weather I choose WABDR.
As I sat in Stevenson, WA, eating lunch I had a brief moment of concern if I should be starting out on what my GPS said was going to be a five plus hour odyssey at just a pinch after Noon. I brushed that thought aside and set out on my way. About half way through I realized that I should have brought water. That was very stupid on my part and I began ticking off the things I “should” have done. Having put together the mental list of everything I should have done I was able to focus back on getting through the first segment. I finished the first segment and popped out on US Rte 12 at about 5:30PM-ish. I stopped the GPS and had it route me back home via major roads. It estimated I had about two hours of riding still ahead of me. About fifteen minutes into my return trip the GPS gave me a low power warning message and winked out at about five minutes after that. I counted my lucky stars that I was able to make it out of the forest as I’d left my paper map at home. I added having the paper map with me to the mental list for next time. Also, I’ll make sure to ride it earlier in the summer so that I’m not riding though a swamp. Don’t get me wrong, crashing through the sizable puddles was a blast, but sliding all around in the muck on my street tires was only mildly fun.
Traveling the first segment was a blast. There wasn’t a soul on the majority of the trails. I saw a couple of campsites, but no people. The vistas were amazing. When I did stop for breaks there wasn’t a sound to be heard except for the motorcycle making the pinging noises as it cooled off. The view of Mt. Adams, snow covered, was amazing and I wish that I’d found a good place to take a picture of it at. It was also my first time riding in snow at 4,500 feet.
Next year I will be booking a weekend and doing the whole thing. I can’t wait.