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Old 04-04-2012, 06:19 PM
 
141 posts, read 404,417 times
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I've driven every single two-lane road in E WA and N ID. There are plenty of interesting road trips, I could go on for hours describing each one I had. Usually I'd plan a 500-600 mile loop trip (not driving back the same road ever), leave at about 8am, come back at around 9pm. I explored most of southern BC from border to Halcyon Springs too and I have to say that with exception of Glacier Park, US has nothing on BC scenery (if it comes to mountains). For desert like scenery, Palouse area and highway 129 down to Wallowa are very special. Columbia river surroundings (from the border and south to Coulee and farther on) are very tranquil too.

You gotta ride a bike or drive a convertible though to feel it. You have to breathe it in. Don't go in SUV or any other closed-in car. Open windows won't give you the right feelings a real open air experience does.
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Old 06-13-2012, 01:51 PM
 
Location: Wayward Pines,ID
2,054 posts, read 4,256,946 times
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Default The Palouse

A nice springtime drive.

Head down the 195, you go through towns like Rosalia and Colfax.




Cross the border into Idaho and you will come to this:




Here you can hop on the Old Spiral Highway, which is a lot of fun.




Woohoo!




When you get to the bottom you are in Lewiston, ID. Cross over the Snake River and you are in Clarkston, WA. I recommend a restaurant called Fazzari's for lunch. From here cross over the Clearwater River and get on Wawawai River Rd.




After a while it curves back and you can catch the 195 again to start heading back. A really cool place with a commanding view can be found in Steptoe Butte State Park (take Scholz road in Steptoe then Hume)






Mount Spokane in the distance





Good place for this sport




You can continue on Hume Rd and catch the 271 back to the 195 to get back to Spokane.
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Old 06-13-2012, 08:43 PM
 
141 posts, read 404,417 times
Reputation: 238
https://maps.google.com/maps?saddr=N...ia=1,2,3,4&z=8

or a shorter version:

https://maps.google.com/maps?saddr=N...&via=1,2,3&z=8

I find Canada scenery and roads unmatched by pretty much anything in US.
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Old 07-13-2012, 07:09 PM
 
986 posts, read 2,496,734 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Yeledaf View Post
...Somehow, I never get tired of watching these animals. I unscrew the thermos lid, pour myself a cup, and ponder the fate of the American bison, slaughtered in the millions throughout the West, first for their hides, then just for the hell of it, by sportsmen from all over the world. It was done out of ignorance, I think, not malice. Who could have predicted that they would have been driven to the brink of extinction?

There's no clearer example of the difference between the worlds of the Native Americans and the European/Americans. The former took buffalo for granted as their means of sustenance, deified their spirit, and defined and organized their lives around the movements of the great herds. The latter took them for granted, as well, and worked their will upon them with their power. Two different ways of looking at life. Now the Indians survive on their reservation lands, struggle to keep their culture alive with the tribal center, and maintain this symbolic herd. Across the big river, the white people have second homes -- lavish (and not-so-lavish) fishing cabins and docks that reach down to the water, from which they launch their boats and jet-skis. Two different ways of looking at life....
Well written stuff, though you're describing a particular white mentality that's always been morally corrupt. "Two different ways of looking at life" is too kind to those people. And they are still at it, wanting to eradicate wolves again, so their elk herds will stand around like cows for trophy hunters looking for a faux wilderness experience, for which they pay outfitters. They claim to seek frontier life (which the Spokane area reminds me of) but they really want a tamed landscape. True nature still offends a lot of people.
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Old 07-15-2012, 05:33 AM
 
Location: Near Manito
20,170 posts, read 24,247,328 times
Reputation: 15284
Quote:
Originally Posted by ca_north View Post
Well written stuff, though you're describing a particular white mentality that's always been morally corrupt. "Two different ways of looking at life" is too kind to those people. And they are still at it, wanting to eradicate wolves again, so their elk herds will stand around like cows for trophy hunters looking for a faux wilderness experience, for which they pay outfitters. They claim to seek frontier life (which the Spokane area reminds me of) but they really want a tamed landscape. True nature still offends a lot of people.
You should not express such intolerance toward people whom you have never met. That comes dangerously close to the way the worst European-Americans felt/feel toward indigenous people.

Actually, there are many more than two ways of looking at life. And each contains degrees of validity and limitation.

Keep in mind that a "white man" wrote these words:

The Peace of Wild Things

When despair grows in me
and I wake in the middle of the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting for their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

--- Wendell Berry
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Old 07-15-2012, 10:52 AM
 
Location: Washington State. Not Seattle.
2,251 posts, read 3,250,587 times
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Wow. Yel, the OP is one of the best-written forum posts that I've ever read. Thanks for the great read and for the motivation to get up around NE WA.

One point of contention however - Boundary Dam was used as a backdrop in "The Postman", not "Waterworld".
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Old 07-15-2012, 02:25 PM
 
Location: We_tside PNW (Columbia Gorge) / CO / SA TX / Thailand
34,609 posts, read 57,579,010 times
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Generic Daytrip (for those looking...)
Sandpoint on a Thursday (schedule a free tour for the airplane factory (Kodiak)). Have chicken strips or burger and shake at Dub's Drive-in. To make it a nice long weekend, Head to Thompson Falls, MT and on down to Missoula, back over the pass to Lewiston, ID (Be sure to see Kendrick, the town time forgot).
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Old 07-17-2012, 02:57 AM
 
Location: Near Manito
20,170 posts, read 24,247,328 times
Reputation: 15284
Quote:
Originally Posted by PS90 View Post
Wow. Yel, the OP is one of the best-written forum posts that I've ever read. Thanks for the great read and for the motivation to get up around NE WA.

One point of contention however - Boundary Dam was used as a backdrop in "The Postman", not "Waterworld".
Right you are.

Just guessing that you're a cycle freak, too -- have you seen the new lightweight bike from Honda yet? Check out the MSRP...and 70 MPG!

2012 CBR250R Colors - Honda Powersports
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Old 07-17-2012, 07:39 AM
 
Location: Arvada, CO
13,824 posts, read 29,803,582 times
Reputation: 14418
Quote:
Originally Posted by yeledaf View Post
when despair grows in me
and i wake in the middle of the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be,
i go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And i feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting for their light. For a time
i rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

--- wendell berry
qft.
__________________
Moderator for Los Angeles, The Inland Empire, and the Washington state forums.
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Old 01-26-2013, 06:58 PM
 
Location: Near Manito
20,170 posts, read 24,247,328 times
Reputation: 15284
Quote:
Originally Posted by elousv View Post
Metaline is a nice day trip, but going to Nelson is better for a weekend. You can do the Selkirk Loop this way. From Nelson go to Balfour and catch a ferry. You cross Kootenay Lake.





Once across you follow a nice windy road along the water. You enter the US in Idaho and continue through Bonners Ferry, Sandpoint and Priest River to complete the loop.
Thanks for the reminder. That's one of my favorites. I've taken the ride and the ferry many times since the early 1970s. I am always impressed by the diversity of that remote area around Crawford Bay (on the opposite shore from Balfour). From the Transcendental Meditation Center just east of the ferry dock, through the golf course and little A-frame rental cabins, past the Bottle House, along that highway that overlooks the immense farm-filled valley at the base of the lake, and into Creston for lunch at one of the diners. I do love what the Canadians provide as comfort food; pasties, poutines, and tepid glasses of Coke with one or two tiny ice cubes. It's so low-key, low-pressure compared to American rushrushrush grab and gulp. In some ways, the whole eastern BC scene reminds me of the old-time America that is rapidly receding in the rear-view mirror of time. Heck, after that, I might even maybe even a vist to the Kokanee brewery if I'm planning to spend the night in Canada! After all, I wouldn't want to ride my bike with alcohol in my bloodstream...

What a culture shock, though, when you leave BC and cross back into Idaho. Personally, I can't imagine two towns more different than Nelson and Bonners Ferry. I'll resist the temptation to criticize anyone, but darned if America doesn't come off poorly in that particular dichotomy! (By way of compensation, though, the Wildlife Refuge just west off Bonners Ferry is a great place to see migrating waterfowl, beavers, moose, coyotes, and a whole bunch of other critters...)

Last edited by Yeledaf; 01-26-2013 at 07:07 PM..
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