At Shannon Falls Provincial Park, evidence of past logging and natural regrowth is very obvious. Seeds have a chance to germinate on the top of stumps without being eaten or stomped to death. They then send roots down to the soil for needed nutrients. The slots in the old stump were cut by loggers for spring boards that they stood upon to saw down the original tree.

On our last day in Squamish, the 'Bed Races' were held. It is a warm-up event held on the Friday before their Logging Days weekend. Two blocks of the main street are shut down and a race/obstacle course is set up. Each team of five people consist of four runners and a patient (there were 22 teams). All teams ran with identical hospital beds. The heats are run head to head with two or three teams, but there are no 'runoffs' and the overall winner is the team with the lowest time.

After leaving Squamish, we skirted around North Vancouver, went through Manning Park, and reentered the US at Osoyoos. While in eastern Washington, we went over to the Grand Coulee Dam. The only man-made structure more massive is the Great Wall of China!

A third powerhouse (the long building on the left in the above photo) was added to the original dam making it the largest hyrdo-electric producer in the US (by a large margin). Inside the powerhouse, the six generators are covered by a lid measuring 78 feet in diameter! It was very difficult to grasp the scale of the structure!

After the dam, we headed west back into the mountains by way of the North Cascade Highway. At Washington Pass (5,477 feet), we had a chance to stop and look back on the road we had been travelling.

And an opportunity to look at the next ridge to cross before winding our way through North Cascade National Park.

After a delightful ride through the mountains, we descended on cousins again and sat out a day of drizzle.

After saying goodbye to Margo & Bruno, we headed west toward the Olympic Peninsula by way of the Edmonds to Kingston ferry. We stayed on deck for the short trip savoring what we thought would be our last ferry ride - we were wrong.

Shortly after leaving the ferry, while passing three cars, Ann's bike lost it's throttle. Ever try to pass anything while the motor is idling? With no more than an 'I have a problem' over the radio, she managed to squeeze back in and make it to the side of the road. Turns out, the cable separated!

After a while, a trucker with a mobile phone stopped to lend a hand. With a call to a phone number listed in the BMWMOA Anonymous book, rescue (in the form of a very helpful dirt bike racer with a trailer) was on the way! He took us back to his house so we could track down parts.

The closest cable was at Ride West BMW back in Seattle. After spending the night in Paul & Maria's guest house, we rode back to Seattle on Jym's bike, picked up the part and returned to Paul's shop to install it - two more ferry rides. It was early afternoon when Ann's bike could again get past idle.

Bidding our saviors goodbye, we headed out to Hurricane Ridge in the Olympic National Park. On one side, you are looking into the Olympic Mountains while on the other, you can look out over the Juan de Fuca Strait and see Vancouver Island.

The northeast coast of the peninsula is much drier than the west, at less than 20 inches of rain a year. The further west you head, the more fog and rain you are likely to run into.

Proceeding west along the coast, the fog obscured Vancouver Island most of the time. Highway 112 along the coast is a delight when the views open up a bit. Almost all of the small beaches are littered with huge driftwood logs.

Near the northwestern tip of the peninsula, on one of the larger beaches, we came across a dedicated surf fisherman. He seemed to be doing pretty well in the short time we watched him.

As you round the tip and start down the west coast, on the wet side of the Olympic Peninsula is the Hoh Rain Forest. With an annual rainfall in excess of 175 inches (and another 30 inches of dew drip), it rarely dries out. Luckily we didn't hit any rain anywhere in western Washington!

Heading back inland, we wanted to see the western side of Mount St. Helens. The sloping valley running to the right used to be 200 feet lower. It was filled with the top and side of the mountain when it blasted itself to dust in 1980. Today large herds of elk roam the area.

We took the north road along the Columbia River back to the coast. At the southern end of the Washington coast is Fort Canby State Park and the North Head Lighthouse.

Shortly after dropping into Oregon, we stopped for a brief visit to Fort Clatsop National Memorial. There is a recreation of the fort that Lewis and Clark and the Corp. of Discovery spent the winter of 1805/06. According to their journals, it rained 94 of the 106 days they spent there.

When we got down to Tillamook, we had to stop in at the cheese factory for samples. The cooperative factory process cheese for most of the dairy ranches in the Tillamook area. The major product is a mild cheddar. Among the samples is raw curd - very good (and 'squeaky') - wonder why it's not available in stores.

Also in Tillamook is the Tillamook Air Museum. The collection is housed in a wooden WW II blimp hangar that was erected in just 28 days. It's a great museum and well worth a visit!

Just outside the museum is an outfit that will take you for a plane ride. Of the three planes offered, we couldn't resist a ride in a restored 1928 Travelair. So, after putting on helmet and goggles, we climbed into the front seat for another adventure.

For the next 45 minutes, we were taken out over the Oregon coast, and after two thumbs up and a huge grin on our faces, we were treated to some turns that had the plane standing on a wingtip! Coming back to the museum, we actually landed in the grass next to the flight line - good thing he warned us before we took off.