Daughter Jenny has expressed some interest in learning to ride and getting her own bike. During a recent visit by her and the grand-kids we got a chance to give her a taste of what it's like to ride. I don't have a motorcycle that is really her size to learn on, but the kid's XR 70 is easy to ride (no clutch), and pretty un-intimidating. First some basic instructions:
Then she is on her way:
She likes it!
Then a couple of days later I got a chance to introduce her to road riding, as a passenger. We rode the street bike up to Mt St Helens while Carolyn took the kids in the van. Jen and I got a head start because we took all the back roads:
I thought that by the time we got up to the Johnston Ridge visitor center she would have had enough and would opt to ride back in the van, but no, she wanted to ride back too. Here we are getting ready to leave the parking lot::
It was riding at it's best: good weather, Good Roads, and a safe ride. The helmet intercom didn't work for awhile and it made me realize how much it helps to make rider and passenger feel less isolated from one another. Once it started working we yakked away.
The next step for Jen is to take the Motorcycle Safety Foundation Basic Rider Course, which is taught quite often in her home town of San Francisco.
To recap, the WBDR is a mostly off road tour of Washington from the Oregon state line to the Canadian border. It goes generally through national forests and state lands at high elevations. A good map of the route can be seen at this website: http://www.backcountrydiscoveryroutes.com/WABDR. It is promoted as a six day ride, but I knew that by traveling light on an off-road oriented bike and staying in motels, it could be done in four days.
I have been obsessed with finishing this ride. I also have felt bad about skipping one of the so-called "difficult" sections on my ride last year, when I was riding by myself and was hot, tired, and out of water before I got to the section. I found a riding partner this summer who I knew was an excellent rider, who also wanted to do the ride, so we made plans to do it. He had not done any of the route, so he wanted to start from the beginning and do the whole thing.
Since I have already described the first day in the post mentioned above, I won't spend too much time on that part. However, the area covered in the first day's ride has become very familiar to me because I often take day rides over there and have been exploring and finding more good roads. I included some of these roads in modifying the official route, and we also started from our houses instead of the official start in Stevenson, so that the first day to Packwood was 210 miles instead of the official distance of 110 miles or so.
Here is a pic of me getting ready to leave......all clean and spiffy:
We had several fortunate things happen on this trip, and one of them which benefited us the whole way was that it had been raining across central and western Washington in the week before we left, and that made for a pretty dust-free ride for the following rider. Here is a short video of a part of the first day's ride that shows the mud puddles had plenty of water:
So, the first day was pretty uneventful, but tiring to my riding partner who was on a KTM which have notoriously hard seats, so it was a long day for him. Here is a picture of him, by the way. Jim is 75 years old, so at 72, I may still have some riding time left:
Jim McCllelan
Notice the DIY hand guards made from bleach bottles.......an $8000 motorcycle with redneck accessories.
The second day out of Packwood started poorly. We had a long road ride to the start of the dirt section, but shortly after the first graded road we began a section of really gnarly jeep trails that seemed to have many optional paths to get around bogs and ruts. It was in this section that Jim apparently took one option while I took another, and we got separated. I ended up following a marked trail that may have been a snowmobile trail as there were few tracks and I was sometimes riding through tall grass and mud. However, I could see on my GPS that the planned route was just off to the side a little ways and I felt I would soon merge back onto it. When I did, though, Jim was nowhere to be seen. I assumed, since I was going so slow through the bogs, that he was ahead of me. I kept going and kept going and began to wonder if somehow he was behind me, but had no way to know for sure. I stopped for awhile but worried that if he was ahead of me we would be getting even more separated. Eventually I got to the first section marked "difficult" on the WBDR map. It was a loose, rocky uphill that I had done last year and this time it seemed easier. I was riding a long time by myself and approaching the second difficult section which I knew was worse and was the one I bypassed last year. I stopped at a section of paved road and spent some more time waiting and also called Jim's wife to see if he had checked in with her, but he had not. Then, just before the hardest part, Jim caught up with me. Turns out, he had waited for me when we first separated, and he was behind me the whole time. He had met a guy in a truck who had seen me so he knew he had to hustle and catch up. We ended up riding the difficult section together, which was a big relief for me. It turned out to be not so bad and I made it with no problems. I guess the reputation of the section is based on the experiences of less skilled riders or riders on bigger adventure style bikes with camping gear. My little KLX 250 is perfect for that kind of riding, though.
BUT, after getting by the hard stuff I was storming along heading into Ellensberg when I hit a rock I didn't see at high speed and got a pinch flat in the rear tire. I should have stopped and patched it, but Jim was ahead of me and he had a can of flat fix that he swore would fix any flat. By trying to continue on, I ended up spinning the tire on the rim and ripping the valve stem out of the tube. The bike became un-rideable. I have ridden on flat tires on dirt bike before, but this was much worse......probably because the tire had more flexible sidewalls, or maybe because I had no rim locks in. Here is a pic of me slewing sideways at 5 mph trying to stay upright:
I was hoping to make it to Ellensberg, but the effort of riding on that flat was wearing me out. And it was hot. I finally asked Jim to ride into Ellensberg to get a new tube while I worked on getting the wheel off. The first problem to solve was finding a way to get the wheel off the ground far enough to remove it. There were no trees or logs around, but I found a couple of rocks and managed to hoist it up enough.
Meanwhile, Jim was having some luck. He got onto pavement and found a guy on a road bike at a stop sign who volunteered to lead him to the local bike shop. Then when he pulled into the shop parking lot, a sheriff deputy pulled in behind him. Jim has faked his street legal-ness by putting the plate from his Suzuki road bike onto the KTM. If the sheriff checked the plate numbers Jim's bike might have gotten confiscated, but the sheriff just wanted to talk about bikes. The next lucky event was that Jim decided maybe he better get gas before heading back out to meet me. He ended up putting 2.3 gallons in his 2.4 gallon tank. Had he run out on the way back to me we would have both been stranded.
When he got back to me, we installed the new tube and aired it up enough with the bicycle pump I carry for me to ride the rest of the way into Ellensberg. It was about 95 degrees there, and this is what i looked like when we checked into the motel:
Hot, tired, and very dehydrated, but after a cold shower and a cold beer and I was good to go. The second day was only 135 miles, but the hardest day.
The third day, which was all new territory to me, was from Ellensberg to Lake Chelan. It consisted of great tracks through lots of burned-out forest, wonderful views and high altitude. It even had a water crossing:
There were still some forest fires around and the air was a little smokey as can be seen in this pic. The backpack carried my after-ride shoes and clothes for four days. Just like last year, I ended up hating that thing because it tended to close up my jacket vents and made it hotter. You might wonder why I wear the jacket if it is so hot. The reason is that the jacket is armored in the elbows and shoulders and normally vents well enough when moving.
Shortly before we got to Lake Chelan we came to another section where there was a bypass route. This one was due to the route being "overgrown but passable". That's a good description. Here is the video:
There was a Lexus 4WD SUV that we passed before this section and they claimed they were going to use it. If so, they probably flattened a lot of the bushes and would make it easier for the next bikes.
We took a break at a scenic stream crossing shortly afterward and maybe you can see the bloody right hand from getting smacked by one of the branches:
And this is Jim's new helmet decor:
This pic shows Lake Chelan in the distance. The day ended with 188 miles:
The last day between Lake Chelan and the Canadian border was cooler with some rain towards the end. One of the interesting places we came to was the town site of the town of Ruby. I'll let the sign tell the story:
Looking up and down main street now, this is the view:
We had some route following difficulties on this day. Jim claimed it went one way, and I thought it went another. The first time it happened, we followed Jim's route and this is what we got into:
There are probably 100 people or more who travel the WBDR during the summer. Does this look like the route they follow? I was ready to turn around, but this is no problem for a rider of Jim's capability, so we went around this deadfall and came to another which had us doing some true off roading:
The next time we disagreed, Jim's route led us to a gated path that looked like it hadn't been used for years and I balked, so we went my way, which was more like the roads we had been on. Then it happened one more time, and this time I admit Jim was right. I would have missed the section of road called "skull and Crossbones", which I had read about on the official route map. The name sounds ominous, but the road was not difficult. It might have been named that for an abandoned ranch we passed which perhaps had had a tragic event.
By this time Jim was spending a lot of time standing on the pegs to avoid that hard KTM seat. In one smooth section with no dust, I got a chance to ride very close to him and take this video:
Eventually, after passing through some rain showers, we got to the Nighthawk border crossing, but of course we didn't actually go into Canada because it is such a hassle getting back nowadays.
The day ended with 187 miles for a total of 720 miles. A great ride on Good Roads, and a memorable adventure.
And how did we get home? Jim had a friend waiting with his van and trailer in nearby Oroville, so thankfully we didn't have to spend two days droning down the highway on dirt bikes.
A couple of days ago while on the KLX I came upon a road that looked like just the sort of road I like to ride......more like a jeep trail. Unfortunately, after a mile or so I came upon this:
Someone was nice enough to explain why the barrier was there:
I turned around and headed back out to where I had come upon a logging operation and took this video of part of the road:
Here is a video of a more typical forest road. Speed is much higher and I have to keep to the right in case of oncoming traffic, but I didn't encounter anyone in the whole time I was off pavement. The higher speed causes a lot of wind noise in the microphone built into the camera and I can't figure a way to prevent it.
The lighting contrast between the bright sunlight and the deep shade is just about as bad in real life as it is in these videos, and can make it difficult to spot rocks, sticks, dips, potholes, washouts and water bars. But, that's all part of the fun.
I seem to have lost my inspiration for blogging lately, but I have been riding. Last week I took a 217 mile dual sport ride over the mountains to Trout Lake. The route was basically the first part of the WBDR with some modifications I have invented. The only picture I took was this panorama with Mt. Rainier barely visible in the background, and Mt Adams in the near distance. As usual, I started from my house. There is a whole lot of forest in my "backyard".
I have made several other day rides on my street bike, but nothing that hasn't been seen or written about on this blog. Today, Orv, Ross, and I finally got together for a first ride up to Windy Ridge on Mt St. Helens. This is an epic ride and I often read about it on other people's blogs from all over the country. The only problem is the roads are falling apart in spots and with the Forest Service apparently having no money for maintenance, they will just get worse and worse. There are parts already that used to be great, but now you have to go slow or you might get kicked in the ass and bucked over the handlebars. I did manage to get a few pictures at Windy Ridge viewpoint.
The Loyal Ninja; approaching 95,000 miles
Mt. St. Helens Crater
Telephoto
Spirit Lake. Still full of logs from 33 years ago.
Ross arriving on his modern Triumph Bonneville
We went on to Randle for lunch and then rather than go back the way we came over the busted up pavement, we headed west and then paralleled Hwy 5 on back roads towards home. I took my Ipod and helmet intercom along to listen to music and a cool thing was I figured out how to make and receive phone calls from my new smart phone while riding along. The intercom has a phone button that interrupts the music and makes a bluetooth connection to the phone. Then you voice dial the contact you want. When receiving a call, the music is interrupted and a series of beeps lets you know to press the phone button. I practiced with a call to and from Carolyn. All in all, a fun day and 240 miles.
Edit: I forgot to add this picture I took at a gas station in Castle Rock. There is a gunsmith in the same building and he had this display of machine guns.....two .30 cal and one .50 cal M2 ("Ma Duce"). I assume they were for sale, but I didn't check. Just a little touch of Americana......gotta love it!
Brian and the boys were down for the weekend and Brian brought a few parts he had bought from his local Mustang shop in Auburn. Then we took the car off the jack stands and rolled it over to the equipment shed for summer storage.
Brian was goosey about installing the rocker panel molding as he was afraid it would be too much bling, but we all decided it looked good.
The final little touch was a new gas cap.
Now she's covered up in the shed for the summer. It's nice to have my shop empty and I have several jobs lined up on motorcycles and my pickup truck where the shop space will be handy.
My plan was to put the Mustang away for the summer, but after getting back from Ireland we have had a period of rainy weather, so I thought it would be a good time to install a new steering wheel. Having the instrument cluster in, and needing a steering wheel to steer the car over to the tool shed was the logic behind that plan. However, parts supplier and Mustang expert advised me that it would be best to install the dash pad first. There are some chrome trip pieces that fit closely around the instrument cluster and the steering wheel would just get in the way of doing that job. The dash pad cost about the same as a new steering wheel, so I have spent my parts allowance for the next couple of months. Here is how the new dash looks; I like it.
The arrow points to the trim piece that would have been hard to install with the steering wheel in place. There is one like it over the glove box. They hold the bottom of the pad in place.
It has again been a busy few days and the internet has been a hassle. If there has been anything disappointing about Ireland, it has been the inaccessibility and slow speed of the internet. I had been led to believe that Europe was ahead of us in terms of both availability and speed, but that has not been the case. It may just be the places we have been staying. At any rate we are not here for the internet connections, so "no problem" (one of the favorite saying here). Which leads me to thinking about the Irish accent of English. We had a tour bus driver who ended most sentences with "itself", as in "There is no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing, itself" Sort of like the Canadians put an "eh?" at the end of a sentence. Then there was the tour of the Isle Of Man by Phillip McCallen. He kept referring to "Air Pacs" as reference points for the riders on the roads. I thought he was talking about the crash cushions that are put against the walls, trees and telephone poles along the route. He would talk about "looking for the air pacs". It wasn't until the end of the tour that I realized he was talking about the "apex" of a turn.
No "th" in the language either, so eight thirty becomes "eight dirty".
At any rate, tomorrow we head for home. It has been a fabulous trip. I don't look forward to the flight back, or the amount of work it will take to catch up with things around the house, but we will get through it, and I have done the visit to the TT, a trip of a lifetime. I do look forward to getting back on my own bikes.......all of them, both motorized and not.
I will try to summarize the highlights of the past three days with some pics:
Thatched roof cottages in the village of Adair
Desmond Castle outside Adair
Our very modern apartment in Galway
There has to be thousands of miles of rock walls in Ireland. This is a type of "dry stone" wall made without mortar. This one has vertically stacked rocks, but many are horizontal or even a mix.
We took an all day bus tour to the cliffs of Moher. Spectacular scenery:
A motorized two-wheeler of a different kind. There was evidently an organized tour of these things.
The Irish used to heat and cook with peat, or what they call "turf". They cut the peat out of bogs and dry it.
It becomes quite light and waterproof after it has dried. They still use it, but it is a non-renewable resource so there is some effort to preserve some of the bogs. Also, we were told that the last few years have been so rainy that it is hard to get it to dry. There still seemed many miles of bogs.
After we left Galway we headed for Kylemore Abby and walled gardens. At last Carolyn got to visit one of the gardens that were on her list of 'must see' items. There had been another one, but it was closed due to labor problems. Here is a pic from the Kylemore garden:
And here is the Abby itself:
On our way to our next two nights lodging we passed many sheep, some of them on the road itself. Most were obviously relatives of Shawn:
The roads are really narrow and curvy and usually lined on both side with rock wall. Karen is often startled when it looks like Jon is getting too close to a wall or parked vehicle on the left, but Jon says he feels he is hanging over the center line on his right. These roads often have a speed limit of 100 kph (62 mph), and it seems almost impossible to go that fast.
Monday night we arrived at Ballynahinch castle, where we are now. It is first rate:
Kicking back in the lounge
Today we took a three hour guided walk around the 300 acres of the grounds of the "castle":
And had a final fish and chips with a Guiness at a small village nearby:
Right now we are waiting for dinner after which it will be time to pack and get ready to end this "trip of a lifetime". I have nothing left on my bucket list except riding the Washington Backcountry Discovery Route, which I hope to do this summer.
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