As Michael worked to get his new front tire mounted, Bobby and I had breakfast and looked at his gazetteer. We decided that "Spada Lake" sounded interesting and plotted a route. Then we picked Michael up at his house and hit the road!

Click the smaller pictures to see big ones

The weather was threatening but not rainy so off we went. We sat in traffic until Monroe and bought gas in Sultan. Then, in startup, we headed north on Kellogg Lake Road. At an intersection we saw a sign that warned us that the Sultan Basin Rd. was closed to the public "while we deal with the national emergency by protecting your drinking water". Of course, we had to check it out. The road was not blocked, so up we went. Eventually we ran out of pavement (yay!) and the fun began. We took every side road we could until it ended, then back to the 'main' road. It got colder and colder and then we started seeing snow on the sides of the road, then in the road, then you couldn't see the road. At times we were riding in very narrow tire tracks and spraying snow to either side of us with our footpegs. It was slippery but LOTS of fun! The road ended right by Spada Lake and we took a break.

Just taking a Nature break

Happy me!

Since the road was blocked by snow, we couldn't ride through to the actual lake (there's a dam there and you can go through and continue north) we road back down the way we come. Bobby 'got off' his bike in some snow but no damage was done. We continued exploring side roads, aiming for every mud puddle we could find. What a blast!

Go, Michael!

Look at me, Mom!

Back in Startup, we quickly rode to Sultan, then down Ben Howard Road, where there are lots of turnoffs for logging roads. We spent a couple of hours poking around the logging roads, having a great time in the mud. We found a little lake and took another break. Then we rode up and up a curvy, wonderful logging road until we were at the top of another little mountain (2500 ft elevation) and checked out the view for while. The rode continued but there was more snow and since it hadn't been driven through, we decided to head back to Michael's house. The sun only came out a little that day but we had such a good time it didn't matter to us! I'm looking forward to a great summer of offroad fun!

Doctor Hazen

The clearcut view









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