Part 23: Bellingham, WA to Palouse Falls, WA

20090808-15

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The Trip

We spent several days in Bellingham, WA with our friends George and Randi. We got some minor maintenance actions completed, did laundry and general re supply. From there, we headed east over the Cascade Range toward Palouse Falls in eastern Washington state. Along the way, we suffered another mechanical failure that required several days to repair.

The Photos

The photos below are what we saw.

George and Randi treated us to a BBQ with all the fixings.

George made pizzas on the grill and they were great. The smoke from the fruitwood coals added a great flavor.

On the way to Palouse Falls, we went to Snohomish and visited friends Tim and Linda that live in the area. Then we passed by the home of another mogger Scott, who coincidentally had a buddy with this nice old Studebaker. This thing was in cherry shape and still runs fine.

Scott's 404 was in nice shape as well and had a powerful winch on the front.

Scott also has this nice Haflinger.

From Snohomish, we traveled into the Cascades on U.S. highway 2 and decided to camp at Money Creek. The camp was nice, but it was overcast and later did rain quite a bit.

The creek next to the camp was running strong. It was a good camp despite being next to the highway AND the BNSF main line. Yes, we did get a number of freight trains that came through at night, but they were not that disruptive. From the Cascades, we continued east over the mountains toward Wenatchee, WA. On the downgrade into Wenatchee, my clutch pedal started going to the floor and not returning during shifts. Since this happened many years ago, I was prepared to refurbish the slave cylinder portion of the hydraulic clutch. So, we went directly to the auto parts store and got a big selection of metric O rings expecting to replace the O ring and be on our way. After we bought the parts, we got back in the truck and the pedal went to the floor and that was that. We spent 6 hours in the parking lot attempting to effect a repair and did finally get the truck functional enough to get across the street to a motel.

The issue was not the master or slave cylinder, but rather a flex hose where the cab meets the frame. The balance of the plumbing was hard lines, but to allow the cab to tilt for service, a flex line was needed. That line, after 30 years, gave out. This is a high pressure line, so getting the right kind of hose was hard. I managed to get one end of the line undone and insert a hose barb and hose clamps, but the line was still leaking.

The other end of the flex line was deep inside and was very hard to reach. In the end, I had to remove the fender and a number of clamps that held the hard line to the body to gain access to the other fitting to allow me to remove the flex line. When I did remove it, I realized that the hose was totally shot without any chance of repair. I had already ordered a replacement, but it took several days for the part to arrive.

When the part arrived, we were ready. The part showed up at noon and we had it fully installed by 1400. Above, the new line can be seen. The new line is all flex line and should last for at least another 20 years.

The old hard line comes through the fire wall right in the center of the photo.

The replacement line has an angle fitting at the firewall that connects to the flex line.

This shot was looking up from underneath the slave cylinder. We cut a finger off a rubber glove to keep dirt out of the old hard line in case we wanted to use it again. I doubt we will but at least we have that alternative open to us.

The old flex line with the ad hoc repair. What I could not see was that the other end of the hose was violated as well.

The real reason that the fix would not work - the hose was broken in more than one location, so no matter what, I was destined to replace the entire line. Of course, that was the correct solution for many reasons. So, after four days in a motel in Wenatchee, WA, we headed out to our original destination, Palouse Falls.

Our first view of Palouse Falls. The falls are nearly 200 feet in height and cut through the Columbia River basalt flows.

Looking downstream from the falls, the layer-cake aspect of the Columbia River basalt flows is clearly visible. There were many flows in this area that at some points were 3 miles thick. Note the scree slope on the left of the river bank from the collapsing material.

The river was not at full flow, but I was told that in the spring the falls are awesome. Note the large circular eroded area at the base of the falls.

At the upper end of the falls is this large lava dike. Look at the photo above closely and you can see that the dike is separate from the scree slope in the background. There is another photo of this dike later in this set.

The BNSF has a main line that runs next to the falls. To meet their grade requirements, they had to run the tracks in a trench that stretched for miles.

At the other end of the trench, the trench turned into a tunnel through the basalt flow.

From a lookout point above the falls, the dike is clearly visible.

We spent one night at Palouse Falls and met a great couple from the area, Kent and Laura. We got pretty drunk and I was a bit worse for wear the following morning. After we became sane again, we broke camp and headed east toward Pomeroy, WA and the Tucannon wilderness. From there, we would head to the Snake River.


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Photos and Text Copyright Bill Caid 2009, all rights reserved.
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