US 395, Part 30: The End of the Road (Ferry County to International Border)

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As we cross the Columbia River for the second and last time, Ferry county is our final county along US 395. Formed as a cast-off from the formerly much larger Stevens county (as we mentioned in Part 29), it returns us to our country roots with a small population of 7,260 [2000]. Named for Elisha Ferry, the first state governor of Washington state, its county seat is at Republic, with only 954 inhabitants [2000].

US 395 maintains nearly exactly the same alignment to the international border as it had originally. We will follow it without further preamble. I hope you've enjoyed the US 395 exhibit as much I have enjoyed traveling and writing about it. Please send me your comments at ckaiser@floodgap.com.

	Crossing Lake Roosevelt into Ferry county. Entire original image (142.9KB)
	The lake stretching west along the Columbia Basin. Lake Roosevelt was named for President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who established the construction of the Grand Coulee Dam as part of his massive Depression-era public works projects. A bust of FDR sits at the visitor's centre at the dam. Entire original image (100.8KB)
	East along the basin, which stretches northeasterly into British Columbia. Entire original image (141.2KB)
	The old railroad bridge parallel to the steel span we crossed on. Entire original image (162.9KB)
	Ferry county line just past the bridge. Entire original image (152.9KB)
	Here, WA 20 will finally diverge off towards Republic. We veer right to continue towards Laurier and the international border. Entire original image (182.9KB)
	Looking east across Lake Roosevelt. Entire original image (122.9KB)
	28 miles to the border. Entire original image (141.6KB)
	Mile 243, going around the northern banks of the Lake. Entire original image (110.1KB)
	Some of the houses and terrain on the other side. Entire original image (113.9KB)
	Distance signage leaving WA 20. Entire original image (158.8KB)
	Boyds, a small outpost and railroad stop. The railroad tracks cling pretty closely to US 395 almost all the way to Canada. Just south of here, the modern mouth of the Kettle River begins and for some miles it will also parallel US 395. Entire original image (136.1KB)
	NB US 395. Entire original image (145.1KB)
	The Kettle, beside us. Entire original image (165.9KB)
	Some very dense forest in this alignment of a quantity not seen since we were in Oregon. Entire original image (108.3KB)
	Crossing one of the small side tributaries of the Kettle. Entire original image (134.6KB)
	And right next to us is the railroad with its own small bridge. Entire original image (219.3KB)
	Canada or Colville, the Lady or the Tiger? Amusing use of a country as a "control city." This side road feeds WA 21 at Curlew, although it is itself not state road. Incidentally, if you continue west of Curlew, you will reach Ronald McDonald's Grave. Seriously -- look it up on your map. Entire original image (169.4KB)
	NB US 395. Entire original image (147.2KB)
	Orient, another small outpost between the river and the border. Entire original image (172.2KB)
	Most of the habitations in Orient are closer towards Pierre Lake, a name whose derivation is unknown to me. Entire original image (169KB)
	What habitations there are, though, are few, and it didn't look like the gas station ever recovered from the OPEC embargo. Entire original image (157.1KB)
	Mile 263. Entire original image (141.1KB)
	A little ways on, the railroad tracks will jump back to the west and separate for their own trek to the border. Entire original image (150.1KB)
	Continuing on parallel to the Kettle. Entire original image (151.3KB)
	The terrain here is considerably less friendly now as we get deeper into the Kettle River Range. Entire original image (201.5KB)
	Hemmed in by the mountain range, the forest gets a little thinner this far in. Entire original image (113.6KB)
	Approaching the international border at Laurier. Entire original image (123.4KB)
	Mile 270, last milepost before the Canadian border. Here I got pulled over by the Border Patrol for photographing near the border crossing. When he saw my pictures, he just waved me on also. Entire original image (118.8KB)
	Border Inspection Station warning. Entire original image (121.8KB)
	Allegedly last US gas, but it's just the Laurier post office now. Entire original image (112.4KB)
	Plus, the Homo erectus guys just have the worst road rage you could ever imagine. Entire original image (150.1KB)
	Laurier, last stop in the United States and named for Canadian prime minister Rt. Hon. Sir Wilfrid Laurier (1841-1919), Canada's seventh Prime Minister and its third-longest serving to date from 1896 to 1911. The first Francophone prime minister, his legacy is in his attempts to lay the groundwork for unification between French and English Canada and his efforts to establish Canada as independent within the British Empire. Although defeated over his support of trade reciprocity with the USA in 1911, he remained influential in politics up until his death and his face graces the Canadian five dollar bill today. Entire original image (131.6KB)
	The border and the official end of US 395. In 2005, this was just a temporary modular (at right), but by 2007 they had a proper building built. The building reads Cascade, the official name for the border "community," which we talk a little bit about in the Epilogue. At this point, you have a choice -- you can continue into British Columbia. Otherwise, we end the trip here and turn around, becoming ... Entire original image (129.4KB)
	US 395 South Going back, we'll begin at the beginning, the northern terminus of US 395. On the other side of the road is this, the very first and northernmost (and quite possibly largest) US 395 shield as of this writing, in front of the Customs checkpoint. The Customs agent on duty scanned my American passport on my first trip in 2005 and found that I had been in Canada exactly 45 minutes, which caused him to search my car figuring the only reason someone would be in Canada for that short a period of time is to pick up something illicit. Naturally, he discovered my doctor's bag and resuscitation kit which necessitated me explaining my profession. After about a few minutes of this, he gave up and waved me through. Entire original image (157.2KB)
	It's really disappointing that a major north-south route like US 395 doesn't have some sort of "miles to San Diego" or even miles to Los Angeles. In fact, there's not really any fanfare here at all. Entire original image (107.2KB)
	Watch that milfoil, boaters. Water milfoil such as parrot feather is a major aquatic pest and has managed to infiltrate just about every state somewhere. It is difficult to eradicate completely because of its hardiness and its ability to grow back even from small fragments, and being an imported plant from South America (Amazon River, naturally), it has no natural controls and tends to overgrow furiously wherever it takes hold. Entire original image (126.5KB)
	Distance signage heading back to Spokane. Entire original image (117.5KB)
	First "actual" southbound shield. Entire original image (139.3KB)
	And just a little something for the Canadians. Entire original image (119.9KB)
	As a postscript, I won't bore you with the trip back as much of what's worth seeing on the southbound side I included parallel with the northbound. I would, however, like to take a minute to talk about what I learned not to do on this trip. First, I learned that my photographic habits limit me to a hard cap of around 300 miles a day and that for some of the more curvy alignments I had badly undercalculated (combined with an inopportune traffic closure, this caused me to roll back into Burns on the return trip at 4am tired, badly dehydrated and extremely sick). Second, the body can't take doses of caffeine much over 300mg and above that one might observe palpitations/irregular heartbeat and nausea and vomiting. Well, the cardiovascular symptoms of toxicity weren't a big deal but between Reno and Coleville on what was supposed to be the final day of driving back, I was seriously ill and had to make an unscheduled overnight stop here in Bridgeport where I vomited about seven times (see Part 9). I should be glad, as this probably rid me of the rest of the No-Doz before something worse happened. Please, don't overuse caffeine (let alone use something stronger or illegal). As a physician I should really know better. This may sound weird but I was really quite tearful on the return drive in 2005 because, as I've said, this was something I'd always thought about as a child -- to actually get to the end of the one highway I knew every city and curve of and the road that I still drive every day to work and back home! Yeah, I cried quite a bit. You have to be a roadgeek to understand the kind of perpetual, wistful longing for open road in my heart, but once you've been there and back to places you've only read about on maps and lands you never believed you'd actually see, you'll know why then. Since my original 2005 trip, I've made another all the way to Canada in 2007 and a third as the long-suffering Saturn's final long run in 2008. I'll be redoing US 395 in widescreen hopefully in 2011. It's worth it on your mother road. Thanks for coming. I'm glad I got to share the experience. Get out of the car (and ride down the river home) Entire original image (79.2KB)

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