Return to NE Washington

Last year when our planned ride to the Canadian Rockies got snowed out (see blog http://thegoodroads.blogspot.com/2017/09/the-fickel-finger-of-fate.html), we ended up riding some Good Roads that Big Mike found up in the north east part of Washington.  It was still pretty rainy or with wet roads, so we had to cool it most of the time, but we vowed to return and explore the area more thoroughly. 

After another hot and smokey summer, Mike and I planned for a September ride to that area and Mike did the planning for a three-day ride with staging each day out of Republic, Washington.  One advantage we had over last year was that we had some flexibility as to choosing the dates that would give us the best weather, rather than being locked into pre-set and approved vacation schedules. 

I spent some time talking to Orv about the ride and he got enthusiastic about it and decided to give it a try if he could trailer his bike up to Republic rather than ride the extra day or two each way.  Well, if he was going to ride in a comfortable air conditioned car instead of riding boring roads to Republic, than so would I.  I asked to ride along and share the gas expense and enjoy the company. 

Loading two street bikes into his utility trailer was not nearly as easy as loading dirt bikes.  I realized that loading a 450 pound street bike is like loading a 250 pound dirt bike with a heavy rider already on it.  Nevertheless, with help from neighbors and wives, we got it done with no drops.  We did have a minor problem with the front brake rotors on the bikes contacting the wheel chocks that were designed for dirt bikes with much smaller rotors.  If you look closely you can see where the rotor is making contact on my bike.  It wasn't much, but with the bouncing around that a bike gets in a trailer there was a fear that the rotor would get bent, causing some real problems on the ride. 

The temporary solution was to jam a chunk of wood in front of the tire to get the needed clearance:

Here is a pic of the loaded rig at my house where I loaded up my riding gear and clothes for the trip. 

I must admit I felt a little guilty trailering my bike.  It's the kind of thing the Harley riders do and that I make fun of.  Oh well, I guess I will be more tolerant and understanding in the future. 

About 50 miles from Republic we had to cross the Columbia river on a ferry (Keller Ferry), and the approach road to the ferry had us drooling.  I just had to come back on my bike:

The ferry was free and we were the only rig on it:

We got to the motel in Republic shortly after Mike and his friend arrived.  Mike's friend.....we will call him Mr X.....didn't want to have a picture of either him or his bike to appear in this blog.  He was apparently playing hooky from work and did not want to be identified.  Since only a few dozen people ever read this blog, I don't think the chances were great that he would get caught, but I will honor his request. 

The next day we rode our first loop, which went into Canada up the west side of Lake Okanogan  and then crossing the lake at Kelowna and back down the east side.  It was a scenic, but not particularly curvy route except for one short side route that Mike found.  Still, it was a good way to get started and see how compatible Mr. X would be riding with us.  The total distance was around 300 miles. 

Before I left on this ride I had agonized over replacing the rear tire on my bike.  It seems like every time I plan a long ride I have a tire that has tread left, but not enough to go the distance, so I put on a new one and waste some of the life of the old tire.  This time I knew I would have to replace the tire if I was going to ride up to Republic and back, but thought I could get by since we were trailering the bikes.  Bad decision.  When we got back from the first day's ride my tire had a spot that was almost down to the cord:

That faint diagonal line in the center of the tire is where the tread was almost showing.  No way could I ride another 700+ miles on that tire.  It was weird, because you can see just below that the tread was just down to the wear bar. 

This was a potential disaster, but by using the internet I found a few motorcycle shops between 50 and 100 miles away that might have a tire.  The only one that was open late in the day did not have a tire, and the rest would not open until the next day.  The next morning, after striking out at one shop, I found another one in Coleville that had the right size.  Orv decided to accompany me to go get it while Mike and Mr. X started on the planned route and would meet up with us later. 

I was very thankful that the shop had the right size tire as their business seemed to be mostly in selling quads to the local ranchers and hunters.  Still, the cost of buying a tire from a shop and paying them to mount it reinforced why I buy my tires online and mount them myself.  They wanted over $50 just to take the wheel off the bike, and then another $50 to change the tire.  I had the tools with me to remove and replace the wheel, so with Orv's help we did that and saved the $50. 

Removing the Wheel

Waiting for the shop to mount the new tire

Ready to Ride

It was a good thing we had two of us who knew what we were doing and that Orv was along to help get the spacers lined up and the axle inserted.......a job I often ask Carolyn to help me with when I do the job at home.  It was also a good thing that I had added a center stand to my bike that allowed us to remove and replace the wheel.  The total cost was $250, but I was happy to pay it.  

We did meet up with the other guys and got in about 250 miles.  

The third day was the best.  We hit all the most curvy roads, including Flowery Trail road: 

Bridge Creek Road: 

And Cache Creek Road: 

This was a long day.  I started around 8am and got back to the motel about 6:30 pm and went over 400 miles.  But it was a great ride on really good roads. 

The whole area we were riding in was very scenic, but we were in the go mode and didn't stop for pictures except for one time I convinced Mike, who was leading, to take a picture break: 

The drive back home was pretty uneventful except for a range fire along the freeway just before we got to Ellensberg: 

Fortunately, the road wasn't closed, but slowed down to one lane.   

A Different Kind of Ride

Every year the Vancouver Bicycle Club puts on the Ride Around Clark County (RACC).  The ride starts near downtown Vancouver and offers various ride lengths from 20 miles to 100 miles.  The 100 mile ride usually came by our house in the opposite end of the county.  I often thought about doing this ride (not the 100 miler), but the traditional date for it was in May, and it was often raining.......not the most fun way to ride a bike.  This year they wised up and changed the date to August and I decided to give it a try.  I have been riding my bicycle almost every other day, which is my summer exercise choice, but I haul my bike to Woodland and ride a level, traffic-free route mostly on dike roads that protect farm land from flooding by the Columbia river.  My route is about 18 miles and pretty much the same thing every time.  I was ready for some change.  I decided to do the 34 mile route, which is pretty wimpy, but still twice my normal ride.  One of the attractions of the ride was a barbecue at the end, including beer. 

Carolyn and I drove the van down to the start at the Pierson Air Museum, which is on the Fort Vancouver historic site.  Here I am getting ready to go:

It was a case of start whenever you feel like it, and I ended up riding with no other riders around for quite a ways after I got going.  There were markings on the road that indicated when to make a turn, and periodically there was a "reassuring" marker for continuing on in the same direction.  I found that without other riders around me I got the feeling of anxiety I used to get when desert racing and wondering if I missed a course marker.  And, in fact, I did miss one, but the road dead ended shortly so I didn't go too far out of my way. 

At the half-way distance they had a rest stop with all kinds of goodies to boost your energy.  Quite an upgrade from the bike rides I did in California where they would provide only water and some mushy warm bananas.  Here is a sample:

The course had been pretty level up to this point with a lot of dedicated bike lanes.  Still, it has been a long time since I commuted by bicycle and had to deal with city traffic and stop signs and stop lights.  It was a little stressful. 

After the rest stop we got into some pretty steep hills and roads without any shoulder.  Good that it was fairly early on a Saturday so traffic was light.  After the hills I was beginning to get a bit weary, and by the time I hit 30 miles I was ready for the finish and the beer and barbecue. 

Carolyn just happened to be bringing the van to the finish when I got there.  She had been walking and got in over 12,000 steps, so she got her big dose of exercise. 

The club put on a good feed; the beer was local craft brew:

And the pulled pork sandwich was delicious:

There was plenty of seating indoors in an old aircraft hangar:

An interesting thing, that you can sort of see in this photo, was that hardly anybody was less than 50 years old.  I'm not the only one who took to a bicycle when the old joints got too ruined from age and over use. 

It was a good day.  The weather was perfect and I got to ride somewhere different and stretch my effort a bit.  I was pretty mellow for the rest of the day.   

Beat the Rain

In fact, the prediction of rain might have been a bit overblown.  We've had a few sprinkles, but not much.  It is still in the forecast, though, and our gardens need it.

It was such a beautiful day with perfect riding temps that I just couldn't take the most direct route home.  I came up over Mt Hood and down a normally great curvy road into the town of Hood River, but the road was messed up by a lot of cinders left over from the last effort to provide traction in snow and ice.  So I rode backwards on the road that provided the view in my first day's blog, and then added the Vancouver area racer road from Carson to Cougar.  It was a great way to end the ride.  Today was 260 miles and I got home about 1pm.   The total trip miles was 2,353. 

I've got the bike cleaned up and on the lift ready for a bunch of maintenance, the most intensive of which is a valve check and adjustment.  Based on the comments yesterday from Mike, I checked the charge going to the battery at high rpm and found it to be normal, so I guess I just happened to have a couple of burned-out bulbs and not a voltage regulator problem.  I have been planning to install a voltage gauge and was just waiting for the valve check to give me a chance to install it.  My last bike left Carolyn and I stranded outside of San Francisco when the stator fried itself and the battery went completely dead.  A gauge will give me some warning about these problems. 

I'm thankful for a fun and safe ride for both myself and Jenny, and that Carolyn is not suffering too many after effects of the accident.  It's also good to be home. 

Doin' Miles

468 to be exact.  From Auburn to Bend.  It's not the shortest route, but it keeps me from going through Portland.  I had a good reason to put big miles in today; it's supposed to start raining at home tomorrow afternoon.  I would like to avoid riding in rain if I can.

The roads were straight freeways or two laners and in parts of I5 and hwy 97 from Weed to Bend I was doing consistent 75 mph.  The little Honda ate it up, but also ate up the gas.  I was getting down in the 60's in miles per gallon.

Not many opportunities for picture taking today, but how about a nice view of Mt Shasta from a different perspective than along I5:

And a picture of a very bug splattered bike:

I'm having some minor bike problems.  Jenny noticed yesterday that my tail light was out, but the brake light still works, so since I don't ride a night, it's no big deal.  Then today an oncoming driver turned his headlights on as he passed me.  I  thought maybe he knew bikes were supposed to have the headlight on at all times and was trying to tell me mine wasn't.  Sure enough, the next time I stopped I checked and my low beam was out.  So I solved that problem by turning my high beam on, which is a separate light on the other side.  Maybe it's a little bright for drivers I come up on from behind, but so be it. 

Tomorrow should be a fairly short day and hopefully I will get home before the rain starts. 

Local Rider Leads the Way

I regularly visit and post on a website for Honda CBR 500 riders.  I discovered that one of them lived not too far from Auburn and contacted him a couple of months ago.  He gave me his phone number and said to let him know when I get in the area.  I did that, and today he led Jenny and I on some of his favorite roads.  Since he was leading, and didn't have an intercom, I could not get him to stop for picture taking, so this post is going to be short on pics, but it was kind of relaxing to not have the navigating responsibilities.

Turns out this guy likes PMTs and one of them that he chose had several of the first ever 5mph turn advisory signs that I have seen.  I've seen lots of 10s, but never a 5.  He seemed pretty worried before we started on the road that Jenny would not be able to handle it, but she soon showed him that she is a very capable rider and had no problems keeping up.  He did include some faster, smoother roads and we all rode at pretty much the same pace.  It was a nice ride, but we had limited time, as Jenny needed to ride another 100+ miles to get home and also wanted to beat the Sunday traffic returning to San Francisco.

We did get this self picture of us at our lunch stop:

Rick actually has two CBR500s.......a 2015 "F" model and a new to him 2015 "R" model, which is what he rode today.  He is a bit younger than me at 65, but he has been riding for a long time and claims to  have done some track and road racing.  He is a good guy.

We got back to the motel about 1:30, and Jenny was underway shortly after:

She sent me a text that he got home safely around 4:30, so it was a successful ride.

One of my best ideas for this ride was to go to one location and stay in the same motel the whole time.  This meant we didn't have to pack and unpack our luggage every day, and we also didn't have to ride with it on the bikes.  For me, I notice the difference in the handling of the bike when it has the extra weight of the luggage, but it also allows me to get on and off in the normal "cowboy" way of swinging a leg over the seat.  This is much easier and more natural than the "Rocketts" high kick to get on with the side cases and tail pack mounted.

Tomorrow I start the slog back home.  I packed clothes for a three day trip, but I should be able to do it in two days.  It is actually a shorter distance than San Francisco, which I always did in two days.  There is also a forecast for rain at home on Wednesday, which would be nice to avoid.

PMT

The Butler maps have a category of road they call PMT, which stands for "Paved Mountain Trail".  We rode several of them today.  They look something like this:

Or This:

They definitely slow the pace, but are also often pretty bumpy and dirty.  Sometimes they lead to interesting places, like this bridge to bathrooms that you couldn't get to:

Jenny was her usual rebellious self and disobeyed the sign:

Today went much better than yesterday as far as navigating because there were no  road closures.  We did have a scare when a road we were on had a sign that said "Road Closed Ahead due to Snow".  Then a little later there was another sign that said "Your GPS is wrong.  The road ahead is closed due to snow".  I figured we were going to be in for another day of map reading.  I decided to continue on anyway just to get a picture for the blog of the snow-closed road.  It was a lucky decision, because before we got to the closure, we were instructed to take another road that headed south, not further east into the mountains.

In general, I followed the planned route using the GPS for most of the day, with one exception being a small loop I had planned to take off of the main general ride loop.  For some reason the GPS has a hard time with a route that comes back on itself and then continues on.  It kept telling me I was off route and wanted to calculate a new route that usually meant turning around.  We finally gave up on it, but it only cut out maybe 10 miles or so.  Still, it was another eight-hour day of riding and I was a tired puppy at the end.  Jenny seems to have more stamina than me even though she rides less.  Could it be the age difference?

Since it was Cinco De Mayo, we went out for a fine Mexican dinner:

Change to plan B.......wing it

The best laid plans of this mouse went slightly askew.  We went about 40 miles on the planned route over a couple of super good roads, following my planned route on the GPS.  Then the next road, which also looked super............was closed.  There was no option but to return the whole way, which was not a bad thing as it was such a good ride.  Here is a pic I took of the canyon with the road far below:

But now the problem was I had no GPS route to follow.  We had to resort to (gasp) paper maps:

What a pain!  We made a long detour and got back to the point where the closed road would have put us and finished at least part of the planned route, with a lunch stop here:

It ended up being a long day.  We started riding about 8:30 and finished at 5:00.

The significant event of the day was happening back home.  Carolyn and her sister were over in Portland and this happened:

Our car is totaled but Carolyn and Lynda seem to be OK.  It might be a different story by tomorrow morning.

So who knows what tomorrow will bring?  Hopefully no closed roads or accidents

HooYa!

I rode 225 miles today and all but the first nine and the last ten were on super roads in perfect weather with no traffic.  In fact, that has been a feature of this ride so far ......I have had the road almost all to myself.  Not all the roads today were smooth and fast, some were like this:

But that was fine, because it made me slow down and enjoy the scenery.

I was concerned about running into snow, and I did come on some:

But the roads were dry without even much melt water to worry about.

I took this GPS shot on one of the best roads of the day.  This one was mostly fast and smooth:

As I got to the lower elevations it got greener and greener.  I don't think I have ever seen California looking better.

Jenny arrived at the motel in faster time than Google Maps estimated due to her getting aquainted with lane splitting again.  She also got to use the carpool lane.  Bikes rule in California!

Tomorrow we start three days of epic riding.

Transit Day

Today was about getting from point A to Point B.  Point B being Susanville California where I am now.  Not much in the way of twisty bits, and it was still a bit cool, but sunny.  I think one of the reasons it was cool is that between John Day and here I was always above 4000 ft altitude.  And it wasn't mountainous, either........just high level sagebrush country.  It didn't look high and if it was not for my GPS I would have thought I was more like sea level.

I did pass by one place that brought back memories.  In the little town of Seneca there was at one time a lodge that catered to motorcyclists and only motorcyclists.  I had read about it on some website and happened by there on one of my trips.  I stopped in but it was too early in the day to stay for the night.  I did talk to a woman who was one of the owners and she showed me around.  Some time later Carolyn and I were on a trip in the Miata and decided to give it a try.  This time we talked to the husband of the woman I had talked to and he wasn't gong to let us stay because we were in a car.  I mentioned that I had stopped by earlier on a motorcycle trip and he said that was the magic word, so we could stay.  It was an interesting evening.  I must say the guy was the most self-centered, egotistical, person I have ever met.  He could be entertaining, but you had to be totally subservient to whatever he had to say or wanted you to do.  He was also a musician and singer, so we had to be entertained and convinced to buy one of his CDs.  Later I read some horror stories by people who had been told to leave because they didn't conform to what he wanted out of the guests.

The place was originally a lodge for workers at a local lumber mill.  The motorcycle lodge was called the Bearcat Lodge.  It hasn't been operational for several years.  This is what it looks like today:

It is currently being used by some forestry outfit:

One of the things I forgot to mention about my ride yesterday was that I came very close to running out of gas.  I went from home to Fossil, Oregon without getting gas and when I did put gas in it at Fossil, I put 4.0 gallons in my 4.1 gallon tank.  I thought I was going to be doing some walking.

Well, tomorrow I start on one of the routes that I put in my GPS based on what I discovered in the Butler map.  I'm a little concerned about snow, or snowmelt on the roads up high, because  could see snow on the mountains on the way to Susanville.

Going back to Cali

Every year in the dead of winter I start longing for a ride.  So I make my plans for the next riding season, which keeps me occupied for several weeks.  After last September's rain ride to Canada I decided to head for the sunshine, which means California.  Problem is, I feel like I've ridden about every curvy road down there, since I lived there and rode motorcycles for almost 30 years.  Then somehow I got wind of the fact that Butler maps makes road riding maps in addition to their Back Country Discovery route maps.  I had used a Butler map to plan my rides on the Washington Backcountry Discovery route, which I blogged about a few years ago.  I ordered a Butler map of rides in Northern California and discovered a bunch of roads I had never been on that were rated as great motorcycle roads.  I guess the reason I was not aware of them is because before the Internet I had been using AAA maps, which only show fairly major roads.  You have to get county maps, or Google Earth, to get the little squiggly ones.  I also saw that the highest concentration of these roads was in an area not too far from San Francisco.

So I hatched a plan to meet Jenny in Auburn for a three day ride with her.  By meeting in Auburn, which is about 100 miles east of San Francisco, I could avoid that tired old route of riding down hwy 5 and then 99 over to the coast to catch 101 to SF.
Another advantage of Auburn was that it was on the edge of this good riding area and we could return to the same motel each day and not have to take all our luggage with us on the rides.

Here I am loaded up and ready to ride.  I'm not getting any younger at this.

Since I didn't have to meet Jenny in San Francisco, I decided my first day would be to John Day, Oregon, which would include a lot of nice roads and good scenery.  For example, there is this spot that I often stop for the view of the Columbia Gorge.  The bridge in the distance is the one I would take over to the Oregon side of the river.

The route to John Day includes one of my favorite roads between the towns of Shaniko and Antelope.  I was vaguely aware that back in the 80's there was a cult headed by some guy from India that bought land and established a commune near Antelope, but they were no longer there.  A week or so ago there was a documentary series streaming on Netflix about this even and it was a really interesting story of a major clash of cultures.  It is called "The Wild Wild West", and I highly recommend it.  Basically, the cult took over the town of Antelope and elected their own mayor and sheriff, and taught their version of education at this school, which is now abandoned:

There is a cafe in town that is often shown in the documentary, but it too is now defunct:

Further along on my ride I rounded a turn at a brisk pace  to find a woman standing alongside the road urgently signaling me to slow down.  Good thing, because the local cowboys were herding cattle across the road:

I got to the motel in John Day about 5 o'clock after 347 miles.  After a shower I walked to a restaurant and nearly froze, as I had only brought along shorts and sandals to wear after changing out of my riding gear.  I think tomorrow I will sleep late and have a leisurely breakfast while I wait for it to warm up.

Polar Bear Run

New Year's day 2018 was dry, but cold.  Orv had asked me if I wanted to do the Polar Bear Run with him, and we decided to give it a go.  The Polar Bear Run is an event put on by the Christian Motorcycle Association every year on New Year's day regardless of the weather.  Usually it would be raining, but this was one of the rare dry January days.

Although it was dry, the roads were still damp in shady spots, and could be frosty.  I took a test drive at 9 am in the car on some of the roads near our house that I would have to ride to get to my meeting with Orv, and the car thermometer showed 29 degrees in some spots.......and there were some frosty looking areas.  We decided to postpone our meeting until 11 am to allow for a little more warm-up.

One of the essentials for me to ride in really cold weather is to wear a balaclava under my helmet.  There is enough air leakage into the helmet to get cold air above my heated vest collar and that soon hurts.

So, with the addition of long underwear top and bottoms, rain pants over my leather pants, heated vest over a long sleeve henley, and my leather jacket with the liner in, I was ready to go.
On the way to Orv's house I had my heated grips on the highest setting and my palms were toasty, but my finger tips were cold.  Otherwise, I was comfy.

The ride started from the Portland Cycle Gear store and by the time I got there I had already ridden about 40 miles.  There were a lot of bikes, even though we got there late and many had probably already started on the route.

The CMA were well organized.  This was their sign-up spot for people who had pre-registered.  I don't see any reason to do that.  You can save $5 off the $15 entry fee, but not knowing what the weather will be in advance, you could end up losing $10 if it was too nasty to ride.

This was the interesting looking guy at our sign up.

After downing a free bowl of chili (it was lunch time), Orv and I were off on the ride.  The club provided a route sheet with mileage to turns and road names.  We chose to do the longest route, which was about 90 miles.  Much of it was city streets or fairly straight country roads (I think the CMA is made of mostly cruiser riders), but we did find one nice curvy section that we had never ridden before.  It's pretty hard for us to find new curvy roads in the area, so this alone was worth the $15 entry fee.  I have already figured out how to incorporate it into one of our standard summer rides over to the coast.

By afternoon, the temps had got up to the mid 40's I guess, and it was quite comfortable.  It was a real treat to get in a ride at this time of the year, so we both enjoyed it, and maybe our entry fee did some good for the community.

You know those pins that the cruiser guys have all over their jackets (like the guy in the pic above)?  Well, this is how they get them, and I have one now too (not going on my jacket, though).