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[Bill_Anderson]

Weather forecasts to the contrary, the last day of the year dawned sunny in much of the Seattle area. Based on my No-ride November, I was determined to get in one last ride for 2006. I waited until noon before starting out, as I did not want to deal with black ice.

There is a wide spot on Hwy. 9 north of Sedro Woolley between Wickersham and Acme where if one pulls over and looks east, the Valley of the South Fork of the Noosack River is in the foreground and Twin Sisters Mountain is in the background. For quite some time I have had my eye on this location for a photo shoot with my Duc after the peaks get snow. I took the quick route via I-5 to Burlington as I wanted to get there before the low lying winter sun hid behind the ridge on the west side of the road.

The clouds timed their arrival to coincide with mine, so I did not get a blue sky behind the mountain that would make the snowcapped, jagged peaks really stand out. In my previous ridebys, I failed to notice the telephone line which was impossible to avoid in the photo. I took several shots and posted what I think is the best of the lot. I will have to return in sunnier weather but before the snow melts from the peaks.

I continued north on Hwy. 9 to the Sunset Hwy, then headed west to join southbound I-5 at Bellingham. At the last Bellingham exit I got off I-5 and took Hwy. 11 over Chuckanut Drive on my way to La Conner for a late lunch. I passed through the picturesque little town of Edison, which I will have to check out another time.

The sun broke out in La Conner long enough for me to take a photo before lunch of my ST4s parked beside two Harleys. After lunch I had hoped to photograph flocks of Snow Geese and Trumpeter Swans which arrive from Alaska and Siberia to winter in the fields of the Lower Skagit Valley, but it was already getting dark by the time I approached Conway. I saw one field of white birds with hundreds of their brethren flying in circles above them like a living blizzard.

It was a good 185 mile winter ride with the temps in the low to mid 40's. My gas consumption averaged 47.69 mpg, which was not bad considering my engine temp seldom got above 158F the entire day.