The Riding Season is ON!

We have had a stretch of summer-like weather; not typical May, and certainly not like last year where we didn't have an 80 degree day until June.  I have been taking advantage of it and have had three rides in the past week.  The first was a road ride with Ross and Orv.  We made a 150 or so mile ride down the Columbia Gorge and then up the Wind River Highway over Old Man Pass and down to Cougar.  Orv rode his Suzuki SV 650 instead of his usual Triumph Tiger.  Funny history with that SV 650.  Orv had owned it for awhile and sold it to Ross, and had just recently bought it back from him.  Like getting your old girlfriend back, eh?

Here is a video I made on the twisty part heading for the pass.  The road was just opened a week or so ago and there was still deep snow alongside the road at the top. 

The next ride was a dual sport ride through the Yacolt Burn State Forest over to Washugal.  The only picture I took on this ride was of Ross with his "new" bike.  It is actually his last dirt bike, a Honda CRF 250X that he has converted to street legal status.  This is the first year that Washington has allowed off road motorcycles to be converted over to street legal status.  It's a pretty involved process and the conversion has to meet strict requirements and pass a couple of inspections, but it's an unusual and welcome step for any state to make.  The ride was basically a test run to see how the bike works as a dual sport that can be ridden on the highway.  I think the conclusion that Ross came to was that it needed to be geared higher.  It was also a mileage check, and he is getting more than 50 mpg, which is pretty good.

The third ride of the week was a two-day ride to Eastern Oregon with Ross, Mike, and Orv.  I haven't said much about "Big Mike" yet, but I have been riding with him quite a bit in the last couple of years and we have done a couple of multi-day rides that have been in the blog earlier.  Mike took over my job that I had with the Jones Creek Trailriders club, which was dealing with the Washington Department of Natural Resources........a frustrating and difficult job that he is doing much better than I did.  Mike is also a hell of a mechanic and maintains all the club's trail maintenance equipment.  The bike he rides is an 80's-era Yamaha that had a bad transmission when he bought it, so he and Ross flipped it upside down one day and took the bottom off the engine and fixed the trans.  All in a normal day's work for Mike.  He is still a working stiff, though, so he has to make time for rides on days off or vacation.  Mike has a custom set of leathers that probably cost as much as his motorcycle, and the back of his jacket has an interesting logo:

When I first saw it, I thought Mike must be a member of Sarah Palin's "Tea Party", but that's not quite the case.  Maybe Mike can explain it better than me in the comments. 

Central and Eastern Oregon has some amazing scenery and roads, and they welcome bikers over there because we stay in their towns and spend money.  One of our favorite roads is the one between the towns of Shaniko and Antelope, and here is a video of us going down that road.  Note the mistake I made when I got a little too close to Ross, who was the rider in front of me. 

Some of the scenery along the way

We stayed overnight in the town of Long Creek.  There was one motel, one restaurant, and one gas station........all we needed.  Here's the motel , i.e. "Lodge":

 It had huge rooms, and they were clean and cheap, with hot showers.......again, all we needed. 

The town is at the intersection of two highways, with a stop light, and that's about it.  At 7 pm I took a walk in all four directions from the intersection and only saw one person outside, and only two cars.  Every house and mobile home, though, no matter how poor looking, had it's satellite TV dish.  So that is their entertainment.  On the positive side, you don't see signs like this in San Francisco:

The town also seemed to have a bit of religious fervor to it:

The restaurant opened just for us in the morning and served blueberry pancakes with bacon for $3.95, and it was good. 

On the way back through the eastern side of the Gorge, we came upon fields of California poppies.  It reminded me of some years in Southern California when there was enough rainfall to make acres and acres of these flowers on the hillsides. 

The two-day ride was over 600 miles, with great roads, good weather, and good friends........all that I need.