Oakridge to Home

We got a pretty early start and I was home by 3:30 pm.  What a good ride!  Found some new super good roads and also lots of familiar super good roads.  It was good to get back in the big trees and dense forest of the Pacific Northwest.  The first road of the day was the Aufderheide highway.  This is one of the first 50 designated scenic byways in the country and features lots of old-growth forest and little traffic.  It's not the most curvy road, but I have ridden it almost every year for probably the past ten years, because of the scenic value.  However, I only stopped to take the following picture:

Then after a stretch of relatively high-speed straight roads, we got to Detroit Lake and the start of forest road 46 which leads to Estecada.  This road always brings back memories of the ride that Carolyn and I did way back in about 1982.  We rode my 550cc Kawasaki two-up from Riverside to Vancouver Island and we took this highway after heading into the Cascades from Sisters, OR.  The giant trees lining the narrow road made such an impression that I think it was a big part of my wanting to live in the Northwest.  Here is a pic I took today after the road widened a bit:   It also has some neat curvy sections.

Total mileage for the trip was 2,280 in six days of riding.  Both our bikes ran flawlessly although I had a bit of snatchy drive chain that needed a lot of lube.  The bug collection by the end of the ride was awesome:

My little Ninja has almost 89,500 miles on it and still uses no oil between 5000 mile changes.  Some people get tired of a bike after a couple of years and want to try something new.  My problem is that I fall in love with them and want to keep them forever.

Redding to Oakridge, OR

Loooong day.  We were originally scheduled to overnight in Cottage Grove, but decided to push on to Oakridge.  There was a new section that neither of us had been on between Cottage Grove and Oakeridge and we were anxious to ride it, plus we were interested in making the last day shorter.  So we started riding at 8 am and got to Oakridge at 7:20 pm after 445 miles. 

We had a bunch of construction delays also.  This was sort of the theme of the day (much of the whole ride, actually):

I did take this picture while waiting at the above stop:



We had a fantastic ride from Happy Camp to Cave Junction, but then bypassed Grants Pass and hopped on I-5 for about 90 miles. 

The new section of road that we were looking forward to turned out to be pretty narrow and bumpy.  It was also getting late in the day with dark shadows in the dense forest we were riding through.  Mike loved it, but I just mostly enjoyed the scenery.  Here are some pics from the road: 

In one of the stops I saw Mike looking at his rear tire:

This is what he was looking at:

We're hoping this tire isn't showing cord by the time we get home. 

Tomorrow we head for the barn over roads I have been on many times, but they are all good.  

Reno, NV to Redding, CA

I'm going to make up for all those photos I posted yesterday by not posting a single picture today.  It was a long day, but I've lost track of the daily mileage.  Suffice to say we were riding from 9 am to 6:30 pm and were pretty tired when we go to the motel.

The surprise of the day was that the roads I expected to be great were just so-so (due to numerous construction delays and subsequent long lines of cars going slowly between flaggers), and the road we were told by a local was no good turned out to be one of the all time great roads that I have ever been on.  I think it is a forest road in the Plumas National Forest, designated highway 119.  It was on Mike's route, but running parallel to it was state highway 70, which is a AAA designated scenic highway, and we had ridden it two day ago and it was good.  So do we take the known good, or the unknown that a local said was not good.  We took the unknown, just because it was unknown and it turned out to be the best decision so far. 

Tomorrow is more known good roads over toward the coast and then up into Oregon. 

Hat Creek to Reno, NV

Monday morning in Hat Creek it was 33 degrees and we were heading UP into Lassen Nat'l park.  However, with electric vest and heated grips it was not bad at all, especially since it was sunny and warming quickly.  I've been in Lassen Park before, but always during the summer and there was usually quite a bit of snow still around.  Not so this time.  Here are pics of Lassen Peak:

At one point in the day's ride Mike routed us onto what looked like a nice curvy side road, but it was narrow and bumpy:

Then it got unpaved, narrow and rocky:

The highlight of this road was that we saw a bear.  It was a cub and ran up the road in front of us.  We scooted by in a hurry in case mom was lurking nearby. 

Eventually we got to Incline Village at Lake Tahoe and then went over the highest point on the trip so far, which was on Mt Rose highway (431) on the way to Harry and Pat Keast's house near Reno.  Mike split off from me and went on to his friends house in Minden NV. 

I arrived at the Keast residence about 4:45 and met Harry, Pat, and their daughter Michelle, who I haven't seen for many years.  Harry used to belong to the same motorcycle club (Chaparrals) in Southern California where we competed in many of the same enduros.  Harry is a retired airline pilot and a certified biker. Here are Harry and Pat (Michelle was being shy) and their two dogs:

 I'll just post some of the pictures I took at their house:

View out the back patio of Reno in the distance

View of the patio

Some of the bikes in the garage.  The one of the left is Michell's Yamaha FZ6.  The two on the right are an old Yamaha FJ 1100 and a Honda 1000 Interceptor.

Harry's streetbike, a Trumph Tiger 1050

His dirtbike/dual sport, a Husaberg FE 570

The toys aren't limited to bikes.  In another garage are two Jaguars.  This is one of them:

Both have six liter V-12 engines like this

Pat's wine selection is also in this garage.

Not pictured is the airplane and snow mobile in his hangar at the local airfield.  Maybe a motorhome, too. 

After drinks and snacks, much conversation, and a delicious dinner, we called it a night.  The next morning Harry and I walked the dogs and I took a few more pics of the house:



Then Harry led me on a ride to Virgina City, NV where we had some lunch.  Carolyn and I had been there many years ago and its a pretty interesting place which seems to have no other function other than tourism. 

View from a lookout on the way to Virginia City.  I think their house is at the base of the far mountains. 

We also saw quite a few wild horses.  Their pretty tame and hang around the houses.

I don't know anything about horses, but this one doesn't strike me as being a real fine specimen. 

Inside one of the saloons. 

This character makes his money posing for pictures.  Harry said he recently had to get a new burro when his old one died.  He got it from the BLM wild burros. 

We finished up the ride with a tour around the east side of Lake Tahoe and through Incline Village where I saw some of the most decadent, huge, beautiful houses I have ever seen.  And new ones being built.  No housing slump for the super rich. 

Tonight I'm getting my blog up to date while Harry attends a meeting of his volunteer search and rescue organization.  He uses his plane to help in the searches.

Tomorrow Mike and I will meet up and begin the return ride.  









Burns OR to Hat Creek CA

Woke up this morning in Burns to this:

Probably the first time it rained in Burns in months.  It was still drizzling when we went over to the motel office for breakfast.  I normally don't eat those "continental" breakfasts at motels as I like something more substantial to get me going, but there was not a real restaurant within walking distance so both Mike and I had a light breakfast. 

The rain had stopped by the time we got going, but we wore rain pants in case the road was wet.  Not too long after we came upon a pretty large herd of antelope.  Mike has a camera with a pretty good telephoto and he took this picture:

,

Much of the riding today was on pretty straight and flat roads (hwy 395), but they were new to me and interesting for that reason.  A lot of it looked like this:

We did come upon a very pretty lake, lake Abert:

Mike took this picture at the lake:



With that light breakfast we soon got hungry and got a recommendation to eat at this place:

We found out they served breakfast all day, so we ordered our missing breakfast.  The prices were reasonable and the food was plentiful.....and so were the flies.  After swatting at them for awhile I finally asked the waitress if they could provide a fly swatter......and SHE DID.  Mike killed two while we were eating, and I forgot to ask if we would get a discount for services rendered. 

I didn't realize until after I looked at the picture above that there was a cow on the roof.  That might have explained the flies.

Next we came upon what looked like a secret government facility of some kind and Mike just had to ride up there and take a look.  This is what it looked like:

But it wasn't a secret government facility:

After some pretty neat roads in beautiful forest at high altitudes, we came to our lodging for the night at the Hat Creek Resort and RV park.  When we got there the office was closed, but there was a note telling us which room we had and that the door was open.  Mike's credit card was already charged, so I guess it was safe for them to do that.  Here is the palace for the night:

Mike is not missing; he was out searching for something to eat.  Turns out every restaurant for miles was either closed for the season or out of business.  We eventually found a store/gas station that had some kind of food, and this ended up being dinner:  (Good thing we had that large lunch)



Mike's meal is on the left and mine on the right.  You can clearly see how my diet is much more nutritious than his.  (Mine is a breakfast burrito.)

377 miles today.  Tomorrow is Lassen Park and then on to Lake Tahoe. 

Back on the long ride

One year ago, almost to this date, I started on my Grand Tour.  Today I retraced the first day of that ride for most of the day on the beginning of a seven day ride to Northern California.  This time I was not alone, but riding with Big Mike, who is the one who actually planned the ride.  I also started the day with Ross and Orv, but they turned back after the lunch stop in Maupin, OR.  Here is a pic of all of us together at lunch:

Mike and I continued on and after passing through Spray we got into the section where I had problems with my bike last year.  It brought back some memories of anxious times, but the temps were not as hot as last year and the riding was fine.  My bike has almost 10,000 more miles than it did then and it is running like a champ. 

Shortly before we got to John Day, we took a road that was new to me.  It sort of cut the corner between hwy 26 and 395 and was one of those almost single lane roads through the forest that meets the criteria for being a Good Road.  You can't hurry, but it's nice scenic, relaxing riding. Here is a pic:

We stopped to take a break here:

There is probably some interesting history involved with the naming of this place.

However, it also had a Forest Service cabin that Mike thought was one of those you could rent.  It was a cute little place:

It was locked, but I took these pictures through the windows:

Tonight we are staying in Burns.  We passed through Seneca and the Bearcat Lodge on the way, but it looked empty and was for sale.  Some strange memories of that place.

381 miles today.  Tomorrow should find us in Hat Creek, CA in preparation for entering Lassen National Park.