Oregon, 5 days - 2009

This ride had many names as it began to cultivate and during the ride itself. It was just to be 5 days of riding some old friends and some new roads. As with most of our rides, breweries and pies get front and center attention. Breweries are my specialty and I can find ‘em ANYWHERE.   Pie is Danners responsibility, but a truly good pie is hard to come by apparently. We had a brew pub tour planned in Bend – walking of course. We started calling it the Wildlife Tour for reasons you will see later. Then we considered calling it the Stimulus Road Repaving Tour.

Day 1

To get anywhere of any distance that is relatively new or a rare ride, slab riding is almost mandatory unless you have unlimited time. I headed out and met Danner in Concord and we continued on up to Williams via a little diversion on HWY 16 just to reduce as much of HWY 5 as possible.

After a gas top off we head back west on Site Lodoga Road, County Road 306, Newville Road , Round Valley Road and Pasketa Road and Corning Road back to Corning on Hwy 5.

This was an exciting stretch of road that began our Wild Life Tour. I had a front row seat watching as a deer decided to run out in front of Danner, thought better of it and turned around, only to turn around again and dive for his leg – he just barely twisted his head and body to miss Danner’s leg, then turned towards me for a head on and then dashed back into the under brush. I had managed to clamp down to near a stop, so if it did hit me, it would just be the velocity of the deer. The deer never touched either of us and made it to dive in front of some other poor unsuspecting soul.

A few miles later, I never saw a bird flying anywhere, but suddenly a dead mocking bird wings out stretched was rolling across the road. Neither one of us was totally sure where it came from, but Danner hit it with his left fork tube. No bike damage.

And then began the 5 day ground squirrel and chipmunk circus. In 5 days no critters were hit, but that was sure not from them trying their best to commit suicide.

During this section Danner also discovered there are other vehicles bigger than his. This driver was not real clear on what he wanted anyone to do so Danner just backed way up and waited as this truck slowly negotiated the corner.

We just couldn’t avoid at least some of HWY 5 and at Corning, headed north to Red Bluff for gas and the beginning of one of most spectacular motorcycle roads on the west coast. HWY 36 from Red Bluff to the Coast. Danner had never been here before and it had been a couple of years since my last run up here. I have always wanted this picture and never stopped to get it … this time I stopped.

What can I say about HWY 36 that hasn’t been said a million times? Great road. Pavement is in decent shape and not dirty. I did not take a lot of pictures here … I was “busy" :D   The road met all of Danner’s expectations and I was quite pleased how well the GT scooted down the road fully loaded.

The question on this road is … what exactly do the locals that sit around the Wildwood and drink warm beer all day actually “do" for a living and can you really do that EVERY DAY and not get bored to death?

We stayed at the Super 8 in Eureka that night … hot tip … DON’T. Every place in town is on the higher priced end and for a room for over $100 bones, I was less than impressed. It was in walking distance of the Lost Coast Brewing Company – it’s only saving grace. Dinner was outstanding (Hot Brown sandwich was great and Danner says the Fettuccini Alfredo was excellent). Beer was okay. I tried their wheat and then their Tangerine wheat which would have been good if it was about 110 degrees and the afternoon. My favorite thing was the giant spider that dropped from the ceiling as you entered the door … his sombrero was quite fashionable, too bad the camera was in the room and my cell phone took a pretty poor shot. After dinner a few rounds of pool across the street at Rags and we called it a night.

Day 1 in the bag and everything was excellent.

483 miles from Los Gatos

Day 2

On tap for Day 2 was Hwy 96 all the way up to HWY 5, a short jaunt up to Medford and then east towards Crate Lake along HWY 62.

The day started … damp. We figured the coast would be this one Friday morning, so nothing to worry about ... except the damp was not fog. It was cloudy and really trying hard to start raining. We headed out and on up to Hoopa for a gas stop and coffee. This was where Danner decided that he was going to get wet and be very cold since he did not bring his rain gear. “Um, we are going to OREGON. Rain gear is a must pack." – “But the weather reports said it would be sunny and hot all 5 days." Fortunately it did not ever really RAIN, but the cold did rip through his mesh jacket and 4 layers below.

The second unpleasantry was the enormous amount of road work going on. I guess it is not a bad thing that the stimulus money is fixing a LOT … A WHOLE LOT of amazing bike roads that have not been repaired for decades. But all of them at once … and all of them at the time we are trying to ride them? The real downside (other than SOMEONE sitting in the cold at the flaggers) was the amount of time we lost waiting at the various stops. It easily took us an extra hour to hour and a half to get through 96 because of it. The road is great as always and will be stellar when done. 299, 96, and later 36, 32 and some others in California are all being worked on.

And some NON construction pictures.

We made a quick stop because I told Danner he had to meet Sasquatch. “What are you talking about" - “Trust me, when you see him, you will understand" .. and he did. Don’t mess with Sasquatch, he might take your motorcycle.

Caught this neat old bridge out of the corner of my eye and came back to take a few shots and drive across it.

Next was Medford and looking for a deli to pick up some food for dinner. Plugged a place into the GPS and between construction zones in town and then the fact the address was not an Italian deli but a pizza joint, we lost about another 45 minutes total as we finally made a stop for food and got out of town. We starting thinking the entire rim of Crater Lake may not be doable unless we wanted to arrive at Diamond Lake Lodge at 7:30 or later, and driving around the lake in the dark sort of defeats the purpose anyway.

But that did not stop us from making a stop at Beckie’s for pie. Danner was willing to bypass and I told him 20 more minutes was not going to kill us and we drove all this way for pie ... WE ARE GOING TO EAT PIE! Okay, so pie was not the only reason we took this trip. I liked it, the Pie Aficionado gave it a B+. Worth stopping for, but he would not make a specific journey for a slice. I deferred to his pie knowledge, licked my plate and headed out.

Crater Lake was worth the drive. I will come back and just sit for a while and look at it. It touched me and was very impressive. We looked for a while, got some pictures and a young couple took one of us in front of Wizard Island. It was cold and it was almost actually raining now. We need to move on. We stopped for a few more pictures and carefully rode on the now wet and very recently repaved road (man, this stimulus road thing is everywhere) on down towards Diamond Lake Lodge.

Diamond Lake Lodge is an all season lodge. Fishing being a big deal, hunting obviously being another. Snow mobiles and other winter sports looks to keep this place busy. Decent rates, nice room, wonderful place just to unwind and hang out. We did not eat at the restaurant having grabbed some cheese, salami, bread and wine in Medford finally.   We sat at the side of the lake at a picnic table with an amazing view and watched the sun go down on another great day.

Note: I did not mention wild life today, there were many attempted attacks by suicidal ground squirrels and chipmunks, not as many as day 1. Based on the rest of the trip, they were clearly staying out of the rain and using this down time to discuss tactics.

Day 2 ends with 335 miles today, 798 miles total

Day 3

Day 3 started out fantastic. Skies were clear, crisp but not too cold – in my opinion perfect bike weather. Grabbed a cup of coffee and walked down to the lake for a very impressive view. I will be coming back here and staying for a while. Spent a while cleaning off the bugs on my windshield. This was a ritual. I thought the batwing on my Roadstar was bad, but there it was just a lot of bugs, here it is a lot of bugs squished at greater velocity if you understand my meaning. They just can’t get out of the way fast enough I guess.

As we packed up, an oldish retired guy named John from Louisiana stopped to talk for a spell. He was traveling with his wife in their toy hauler where he keeps his Suzuki (never quite got a model, think a DR-Z400 though) for going out and riding around with his wife. John has had quite a few bikes in his life and has no intention of stopping riding anytime soon. Asked how long we were out for, only 5 days – how about you. “Well ,lets see, we left Louisiana in April … and I think I might go back for Thanksgiving with my son." Yes, we were envious.

We headed out on 138 with the intention of hanging a right at Steamboat to get through the back roads to 58. I missed the hand written sign – I usually don’t pay them much attention, I will from now on. Danner stopped and when I came back he pointed out that someone had posted the road was washed out, no way to 58. Good catch. Unfortunately it meant more slab and a large chunk of time out of our day shot. The yellow line on the map above was our detour. Nice roads, super highway high speed, nice pavement big bore bike roads. We diverted up towards Wilber and had our next major wild life encounter. A herd of deer on the road. As I idled up to a stop they all just looked at me. “Well, what do you want? Can’t you see were being deer here?" A quick rev and they bolted. Then the buck, who was across the road, apparently content with us messing then the girls as long as we left him alone decided to try and pace me as I started to leave and then dove across the road in front of me. No danger but just more proof they just aren’t bright animals at all.

Slab to 58 and then back to Wesfir. A very scenic ride and it made up for the slab. We were at the start of the Aufderheide Forest Road but needed a quick divert for gas in Oakridge. Saw a sign that directed us to 58, well the GPS must be doing something stupid, the sign says THIS WAY. Moral of the story, believe the GPS. 20 minutes of driving around in circles before we decided, let’s just go back to the red bridge where we KNOW we were right and go from there. Funny, as I did that, the GPS led me EXACTLY to that point. As my daughter would say L2GPS. I will buy a Nuvi now so I can upload maps and not have to question the GPS again though.

As we left we headed across Belknap Bridge, made a gas stop at the shell station near buy. Local bikers there were not real friendly, otherwise I would have snapped a shot of the cruiser painted like a JOHN DEER Tractor and even had the name JOHN DEER on the gas tank.

Off we went for Deschutes National Forest and Hwy 242 (another amazing Oregonian road). Unfortunately as we headed east we had two complaints. First was the large amount of gravel in the corners. The road is narrow, so it is obviously cars kicking it up, but that leads to complaint number 2. Maybe the cars on the inside of the corner would not kick up so much gravel if the IDIOTS coming down the hill understood that if you come around a corner in the WRONG LANE, there may be traffic with a legitimate right to be there. One guy swerved to miss me and over corrected so bad he almost went off the other side ... he was driving a little faster than his skill set allowed. Had to wave a few cars to slow down knowing that one corner back was Danner. Once we got past the really narrow section things got better and we got to the summit with just stellar views and the Dee Wright Observatory. I expected a telescope at the top, the building built with the local lava stones that actually had portals with the name of what the portal looked towards and the range was a better find.   The ride down the back side of the mountain was less populated and more fun to ride. Even with the nitwits and the gravel, a great road and a lot of fun.

We had planned a loop up 46 and down 42, but with a late start, the detour due to the washed out road and the screwing around in Wesfir deciding the GPS “IS" smarter than I am, we were going to hit Bend around 5 PM and decided a shortened version the next morning would be better. Besides, tonight was walking tour of some of Bends breweries.

We stayed at the Fairfield Inn, cheaper than the dive in Eureka, but about 1,000 times nicer. Very nice place and located about ½ mile from the hub of the brewery universe.

We walked over to Bend Brewing Company. I had never sampled anything from here. They are a smaller brewery, laid back and not as pretentious as the “mega micro breweries" (I classify Deschutes in that category). The Outback Old Ale was very tasty. Unfortunately they were out of t-shirts to fit my beer drinking physic and since I am no longer allowed to bring “another damn pint glass from some brewery" into the house – I had to leave souvenirless. From here we walked over to Deschutes Brewery. We planned to eat here, but an hour wait for 2 people and no space at the bar, we decided we would finish off here. Off we went to Silver Moon. The tap room is a bit of a dive like bar. Staff was friendly, beer was good (tried the IPA and the ale) but not stellar. Danner was craving Gorgonzola Fries since he heard they made them so he ordered some and we got some chipotle wings and I grabbed a brat. Food was fair, about the same caliber as the beer. Not terrible or bad, but I would not tell someone they HAD to go there. If you are in the area, checking out the people that work and hang out there is interesting enough for a pint or two. Back to Deschutes. I like their beer, their Black Butte Porter is excellent and I have had their Obsidian Stout in the past and liked it a lot. We tried something called “Oh Be Joyful" that was a pretty good beer. Not sure how to describe it and don’t see it on their website.

It was late and we had “toured" enough after a long day of riding. Back to the hotel and the end of day 3.

Day 3 ends with only 297 miles, not including driving in circles near Wesfir, for 1095 mile total so far.

Day 4

AKA – The Great Kitten Massacre

(Note: "Killing Kitten's" is a euphemism for doing something naughty.  Like "every time you smoke a cigarette a kitten dies". You may be able to figure out what I was doing if you read carefully that put little kitties in danger.)

Since we missed the loop yesterday, we decided to at least go up to Mount Bachelor. Danner had gone there often as a kid skiing and wanted to take a look. After an excellent breakfast compliments of the Fairfield Inn (really a nice place, highly recommended), we headed out. Chilly, but not freezing. I wore my mesh pants and by sticking my legs in tight behind the leg cutouts on the GT, I was fine. We came back down to some very nice views of fog in the lower areas, but then we were in the lower areas. It was not terribly thick, but it was cold fog. My rain jacket and legs in tight to the fairing were fine, Danner was feeling the cold a bit. As we headed in to the Summer Lake area it cleared up and we got some spectacular vista views. Not a technical or challenging road, another big bore bike road for certain. As the fog cleared, the ground squirrels seemed content to let the chipmunks be the point for the assault. It was like watching the road grow fur that moved across the road enmass at times.

The ride was a pleasant non-stressful one. Again, I can see big bore bikes having a blast here. Oregon has a lot of those types of roads it seems. We stopped in Paisley for a coffee and butt break and then headed on down to Lakeview. I wanted to do the Lava Beds as we headed into Fall River Mills (Danner has a friend that lives there we were going to stay with) but Danner has been there and was un-impressed. He headed on down more directly and I headed across 140 to go to the Lava Beds National Monument.

And the killing of kittens begins in earnest. 140 is another one of those big bore bike roads and as I was now alone and on a big bore bike … well, let’s just say there were many kitten deaths on this stretch of road. How fast? We all know the higher you are on the speedo, the less accurate it gets so I could not accurately tell you how fast I was going … but let’s just say it was pretty close to being as inaccurate as it could possibly get. Even with the loaded giant Givi trunk it handled just dandy. I am sure my non-petite mass blocked a lot of the wind that may have wanted to hit it. When I was growing up, BMWs were slower bikes that handled well and were reliable, this is NOT my fathers BMW.

After a fuel stop I headed towards the Lava Beds and past Tule Lake. I have never seen so many ducks in one place in my life. This huge lake was wall to wall birds. My pictures did not do it justice, so I won’t post them. When I mentioned this to the ranger at the gate for Lave Beds, he said that it was an early migration and that meant a wet winter. Let’s see.

The road in Lava Beds National Monument was freshly um … something. It was like pavement with gravel all over it. This did not go on too long and then opened up into a more traditional paved road I stopped at the visitor center for a while and had I known I was going to divert my path, would have stayed for a cave tour, but I was not sure how much time I could spend since I was planning unknown roads.

I did learn about the “Modoc War". The government had moved the Modoc Tribe out of this area into another with some other tribe. The Modocs were not happy, so 59 of the warriors came back to “take back their land". Now I can understand that desire, but if you see this god forsaken lunar landscape of an area you gotta wonder WTF would you WANT this back? Anyway, these guys harassed the military and the Modoc eventually lost due to just being worn down and out of food and spirit. Sad story and as with all wars, bad things were done on both sides. I would like to go back and go into some of the many caves you can explore there.

The road I intended to travel was apparently less paved than I had researched … as in, I needed a GS instead of a GT for this road. I followed the paved road out of the park to the south and it turned into the biggest mess of a road I have seen. There were sections where the pot holes were the width of both lanes and as long. IT was a re-enactment of the lava beds, just on the road instead. I spent more than a normal amount of time dodging pot holes. There was no other traffic on this road ... imagine that. Only one moron would drive it at a time.

I hopped on to 139 south, got stuck behind some guy that had something in his cooler that the California border guards were not happy about and had to dance around this apparently arresting situation and finally got through and down the road. Pretty un-eventful … until.

As I “cruised" down Lookout Hackmore Road between 139 and 299 I came up on a truck that I passed and almost immediately came upon a cow and her calf just strolling across the road. No worry or danger, again ABS makes stopping entirely too easy and waited and slowly inched up while I waited for these cows to saunter off the road.

Off again and I see a Raven on the side of the road (some will say t is a crow, it is a BIG ASS BLACK BIRD whatever it is) is pecking at stuff on the roadside. I slow down and just as I am even with him he takes off. I can feel the wind off his wings as I duck and he flies over me. Two wild life encounters in about 15 minutes.

Off I go again and in a bit on a long straight away I see something odd in the road at the far end. When I get there, here are 3 sheep just out for a stroll I suppose. The sound of the bike and horn does nothing to deter them. I slow down and as with all animals that may bolt in some random direction carefully pass them. I see a car coming my way FAST and I wave him to slow down, in my mirror the guy almost slides his car when he finally realizes why I was waving at him to slow down. Hope the sheepies didn’t get hurt.

A little while later I hook back up with Danner and his friend and have an excellent dinner, great conversation, sip some scotch and just listen to the crickets. I slept better than any other night on the trip.

Day 4 finishes with 423 miles and a total of 1519 so far.

Day 5