Big Mike and I have been trying to get a ride going for a couple of years. Between Covid, forest fires, heat waves, running out of summer, and Mike taking on a new job and having to move, it just hasn't happened. This Spring, we vowed to try again. We set aside the last week in April or the first week in May as the potential ride times. I have learned that pre-planning to the extent of getting motel reservations weeks in advance can result in getting locked in to riding in some bad weather. This often has to be done when riding with people still working and needing to schedule their vacations ahead of time. Mike has more flexibility with his new job, so we left two weeks open. Still, this was not good enough as April turned out to be the wettest in Portland history and the first week in May was no better. We moved the ride to the second week in May, which was the last week I could go, as I was scheduled for skin cancer surgery on the 19th. Still there was rain in the forecast, so we just resigned ourselves to a rain ride.
The plan was for me to meet Mike at his house near Corvallis, Oregon, stay the night, and then proceed south with the intention of riding some of our favorite roads around Weaverville, California. The day I was to leave I knew there was going to be rain, so I suited up in my garage with full rain gear plus rain covers on my tank bag and tail pack:
Sure enough, I hit some pretty intense showers on the way down to Mike's, but by keeping to back roads I avoided the spray from trucks on the freeway. Over the years I've narrowed down my selection of rain gear until I've got some that really works and I can stay perfectly dry, but it's still not my favorite type of riding.
The week prior to this ride our neighbors had invited Carolyn and I to come to their beach house in Ocean Shores, Washington to go clamming. This was a new experience for us and it was fun. We were taught how to get them, clean them, and cook them. Below is a pic of us with our clam "guns" and collection bags.
The clams are razor clams, and the disturbed sand behind us is where we have stuffed the guns into the sand after observing a slight dimple that indicated a clam below. You put your thumb over a hole in the top of the gun so that a vacuum is formed that draws up the sand and the clam with it. The four of us got our limit of 20 clams each within about an hour, which was the most success I've ever had "fishing".
The reason I mention this is because when Mike found out we had got some razor clams he got all excited as that was one of his favorite seafoods. He has not been able to get any for a least a year due to his move and then an injury to his knee. So Carolyn agreed that I could take some down to them and Mike prepared them for our evening meal.
Here is Mike making fried razor clams:
His recipe was slightly different from our neighbors mainly in that he used ground Ritz crackers for the breading, but they were yummy. Here's Mike and wife Annie chowing down with salad and corn on the cob side dishes:
Before we left the next morning I asked Annie to take a picture of Big Mike and I. I'm not a very big guy, but you can see that Big Mike is big in every way and makes me look like a dwarf.
One of the things I like and admire about Mike is that he is such a talented maker and fixer of things mechanical. I have a post here from a couple of years ago where he made me a motorcycle trailer, and this time he showed me a remote control lawnmower he has been working on. A basic rotary push lawnmower is mounted in a steel frame he constructed with battery power to wheels steered by a remote control joystick:
This is more than just a toy for Mike, as his knee injury prevents him from easily walking behind the mower.
The first day of our ride together our destination was Grants Pass, which was not too far away via freeway, but we never go by freeway if we can help it, so we chose a route that looked pretty curvy. The problem was that our route planning software doesn't easily provide elevation data, and the route ended up going over 5,000 feet. With the cold, rainy Spring we have been having this meant we got into snow and cold temps. The picture below was taken when we first started getting into some snow, not realizing this was just the beginning and later on we would be riding in temps as low as 36 degrees with solid snow on both sides of the road and snow still in the trees. By then we were too cold to stop and take pictures.
Since the pavement was wet, there was a degree of pucker factor in not knowing if we would be going even higher to the point where there could be ice. It didn't happen, though, and eventually we got back to lower elevations and relatively warm (mid to high 40's) temps. I had my grip heaters and heated jacket liner turned up to near max in that 36 degree section.......thank god for those.
As we were approaching Weaverville it was time to get gas. Now we were in California and paying California gas prices. Nice time to be on a motorcycle getting 70+ miles per gallon.
Our third day of the ride was to be a big loop east and west of Weaverville, including a stretch of hwy 101 through Eureka. The chances for rain were pretty high towards the coast, so we modified the route to stay more to the east towards Redding. This had us going over one particularly curvy road twice, and it went through the town with two names. This was a bit confusing the first time through, but by the second time we realized it really had two names.....Igo and Ono. These may have originally been separate towns, but they are so close together with such small population (103) that they were combined. We took a break the second time through at the local market:
This picture of my gps shows why we chose this road:
We took another break to admire the scenery. Note the lack of rain gear. It was supposed to be a real washout, and that's why I still had on my rain pants, but turned out to be a completely dry ride. We really lucked out, and it was the best day of the trip and made it all worth while. We ended up riding over 260 miles of really curvy Northern California roads with little traffic.
The next day we headed for Klamath Falls and part of our route was over the old Applegate Trail. This was a route the pioneers used to get to Oregon from the south, unlike the Oregon Trail which brought emigrants in from the east, into the Columbia Gorge. This sign explains the origin of the Applegate Trail:
This is Tub Springs today:
The last day of our ride was to be a slog for home with no exciting roads. At first I was going to go up hwy 97 through Bend and then catch hwy 14 across from either Hood River or the Dalles. The shortest route, though was to cross over the Cascades back to Interstate 5 at Eugene and head north. Carolyn happened to be visiting a friend who lived in Eugene so I decided to go that way and see if I could meet up with her. I did and we rode back home together with her following me in the car.
It was great to take a long ride again. Some of the friends I used to take trips with are either dead, no longer riding, or not up to multiple days in a row. Jenny and Big Mike are about all that are left.
The weather wasn't great, but it was a lot better than predicted, so I feel fortunate for that. I ended up with 1,644 miles on the ride and was just shy of 80,000 on the bike.
