Pilgrimadge To a Good Road

Every fall I like to make a long ride before winter shuts down the riding season.  Although I do ride during the winter to run errands or to take day rides with friends when the weather is dry enough, I don't do multi day trips.  This fall ride was going to be a pilgrimage to one of my favorite roads, the Old Spiral Highway out of Lewiston, Idaho.  It might be possible to get there and back in two days by riding a lot of freeway, but of course that is not my style.  Plus, there are a lot of good roads on the way to the Good Road, and I even rediscovered one that I had forgotten was so excellent. 

Here is the bike ready to go:

I left on Monday morning, not too early, because of sunlight problems that I will talk about in a moment.  There were predictions for some rain moving in late Wednesday evening, which I hoped would be after I got home, but I took rain gear just in case. 

One of the problems with a fall ride in the Northwest is the low level of the sun in the mornings and evenings.  If you are heading into the sun and there are no trees for shade, the sun can be blinding because there is nothing like the sun shade in a car for a motorcyclist.  There are various tricks, like putting electrical tape across the top of the helmet visor, but I haven't found anything that really works well.  So I try to avoid leaving early when heading east, and riding late when heading west. 

And, if you are heading into the sun, and there are trees for shade, it can also be a problem.  The forest in the Cascade mountains can be so dense that shade is really dark, and in places where the sun shines through, the contrast between the sunny spots and the shady spots is more than my eyes can deal with.  Here is an example from my ride Monday morning.......this was at about 10 am:

You can see that it would be very difficult to recognize a deer in the road in the shaded area, or potholes, moss, gravel, or even which way the road turns.  So I slow down a lot, and sometimes even hold my left hand out to shade my eyes. 

I stopped for a break at the McCllelan overlook, where Mt St Helens was standing tall and topless waiting for the next blanket of snow:

Later in the morning I crossed the Columbia river at the town of Hood River and shortly after got on the old Columbia Gorge highway so that I could ride the Rowena Curves.  This is a relatively short section of road that is popular with Portland/Vancouver area riders.

I struggle to show what makes a good road.  I've tried videos and still pictures but both have their shortcomings.  How about seeing what I see on my Garmin Zumo gps?

When you combine those kinds of curves, with smooth, clean pavement and no traffic, you have the definition of a Good Road.  But if you haven't ridden a good handling motorcycle at a speed that is in control, but invigorating, then you still don't know what a good road means to a biker. 

Another picture:

It's a strange trend in this country that, while generally, it is getting more and more crowded, there are some places that are losing population.  Usually, these are rural areas (Detroit is an exception), where agriculture has been taken over by big ag business, or where some primary resource like timber or mining has declined.  You find a lot of these communities in central and eastern Oregon and Washington.  Lots of vacant homesteads like this one:

Inside this old home I found evidence that it might be a hangout for some of the more seedy locals:

Patrick Henry would be turning over in his grave at what has been done to his famous quote. 

I ended the first day's ride in Enterprise, Oregon; 414 miles.  When riding by myself, I like to eat a big breakfast and then skip lunch.  By the end of the day I am ready for a couple of beers and a full size meal at a restaurant within walking distance of my motel.  This day it was Mexican food. 

The next morning I headed out for the Old Spiral Highway.  To get there I first had to ride up what is called Rattlesnake Grade on highways 3 and 129.  I've done this road twice before......once north to south on a motorcycle, and once south to north in the Miata with Carolyn, but I had forgotten just how good it was.  This ride was south to north, which I think is the best way as it is mostly uphill.  Uphill always seems a little more comfortable to me, I guess because it is easier to stop quickly if you need to.  Here is another Garmin shot of some of this road:

The pink road with the blue center is my track, and the straight blue line heading off to the northwest is a Garmin glitch (I didn't take flight). 
Here is what it looks like in real life.  Note the lack of vegetation, giving a better view around turns:

If you look closely you can see the road down in that canyon. 

Shortly before noon I got to the Old Spiral Highway.  This used to be the only way to head north out of Lewiston, Idaho, but now there is a major four-lane road that bypasses it.  This is great, because it eliminates most of the traffic on the good road.  Here is the Garmin view:

Here is another way to look at it; Google Earth:

After the Spiral Highway I headed north along the Idaho/Washinton state line, following a route I had planned in my gps.  The program I use to plan these routes is Garmin Mapsource.  It is an older program no longer supported by Garmin, but it is easier to use, so I stick with it.  One of it's shortcomings, though, is that it does not distinguish between paved and gravel roads.  So I ended up on six miles of washboard gravel like this:

Eventually I headed west back into Washington through Moscow and Pullman and got on hwy 26, which is the Palouse Scenic Byway.  I stayed on this road almost all the way to Ellensburg where I spent the night.  The Palouse is an area of Washington where over centuries wind blown volcanic ash has created a soil that, combined with the climate, must be perfect for growing wheat because.....there...is...a...lot...of...it.  Miles and square miles of nothing but wheat.  A sample:

I wondered what kind of tractor could till along such a steep side hill without rolling over.  Later I saw someone actually doing it.  The tractor was a tracked vehicle, which meant it probably had a low center of gravity and a wide stance.  It was pulling a rake or harrow that might have been 50 feet wide. 

I got into Ellensburg fairly early, but didn't have to worry about riding into the sun anyway, as it was already clouding over.  The prediction of rain late Wednesday was proving to be a bit off, and now they were saying rain by morning.  I stayed at the Motel 8, which I think is the third time I have stayed there; the previous two times were when riding the Washington Backcountry Discovery Route.  Tuesday was 363 miles. 

Shortly after I got underway on Wednesday it started raining, but I had already put on my rain gear so I was ready for it.  It was pretty much rain off and on for the entire ride home.  Needless to say, I didn't search out the curvy roads, but tried to stick to two lane roads to avoid the truck traffic and road spray of the freeways.  I found that riding a full day in the rain was something I could get used to as long as I had gear to keep me warm and dry.  The bike, however, was a filthy mess by the time I got home.  The total for the ride was 1027 miles. 

10,000 Miles!

No, not on the motorbike.........on the pedal bike. 

I got this bike for my 68th birthday, so a little more than six years to get this mileage.  For the first year or two after I started riding this bike I was doing 2,000 miles, but I have tapered off a lot in the past few years.  I have become less comfortable with riding on the local two-lane roads with no shoulder, as traffic has increased and my bravery has decreased.  Before this bike, I was riding an old mountain bike that I put road tires on.  I might have done 10,000 miles on that bike also, but I didn't have an odometer on it.  And before that I was commuting three days a week on a different bike that I racked up 26,000 miles on.  Despite all those miles I don't consider myself a dedicated bicyclist........it's just the best way I have for staying fit.  My joints are pretty creaky when it comes to walking or running, but when on the bike I still have the flow. 

Day Ride To Mt. Rainier

Every year we try to do at least one day ride to Mt Rainier, and last Thursday was the day.  It's not a particularly curvy ride, and we often get stuck behind motor homes and travel trailers, but the scenery is worth it.  It was probably just as well it was not too curvy as I had put a new front tire on the bike and it felt like I had power steering. It took me awhile to get used to it, but when I did, I really liked the improved handling. 

At the altitude of the lodge the mountain was in full autumn splendor:

L to R, Leo, Mike, me
Orv is behind the camera

 

I turned 9,000 miles on the bike, which I bought in April.  The end of the real riding season is coming up, but I will probably have over 10K miles before winter.  



A Ride Report

I've been lax in making ride reports lately.......partly due to the good weather which makes it harder to sit inside at the computer, but mostly due to laziness.  I have actually got Orv and Ross to do a couple of two-day rides with me so that we could expand our horizons a bit with different roads.  The dry, warm spring and summer has meant that all of our normal one-day ride routes have been done, and done again. 

Before I get into writing about our second two-day ride, I want to mention a one-day ride I took with Ray and some of his friends that Carolyn and I met at his "end of summer" party.  I only have one picture from the ride and that is of the group before we left:

Ray and his girlfriend Ellen are second from the right and the guy to the right of them is a Canadian acquaintance of Ellen's who was passing through the area and attended the party.  The guy standing behind the immaculate red Triumph Sprint managed to drop the bike at an intersection during the ride and cracked the fairing.......it's going to be an expensive day for him.  We started late and rode a long way, which meant I didn't get home until around 7:30.  I actually would have been home earlier were it not for an incident that would have made for some interesting pictures for this blog had I had my phone with me to take them.  However, my phone was in my jacket on my bike while I was locked inside a service station.  It happened this way:  Ray and I had split from the Portland contingent of riders and had stopped to get gas at a station in Stevenson, Washington.  After I paid with my credit card I went to go into the station to use the restroom.  Just before I went inside a guy pulled up in a pickup truck and went in ahead of me.  I thought he was going to beat me to the restroom, but he went into the service bay part of the station instead.  So I did my thing, and when I came out the door was locked.  I guess the guy was the manager of the station and he was closing the place and didn't notice I came in behind him and went into the restroom.  I banged on window and got Ray's attention but other than laughing at me there was nothing he could do.  In desperation, I used the station's phone to call 911.  I didn't  really consider my situation to be an emergency, but couldn't come up with any other ideas.  The 911 operator sent a Sheriff's officer to the station and she called the owner who came and let me out after about a half hour delay.  I always had the final solution of throwing a car battery through the window, but I didn't like that choice either. 

So, on to the two-day ride with Ross and Orv.  Our plan was to ride some back roads up to the Olympic Peninsula and around counter-clockwise to an overnight in Forks.  These were not very curvy roads, but the scenery was great and the weather was about perfect.  At one stop along the Puget Sound I got this picture which is a good shot of Orv's new Ducati Scrambler in front of my equally new Honda CBR.

We took highway 112, which runs alongside the Strait of Juan De Fuca:

Eventually we arrived at our motel in Forks.  What a dump!  I had searched all the motels in Forks and this was the cheapest one, but it was not cheap.  Still, the pictures of the room on their website made it look pretty nice........LIE!  I should have known when talking to the manager on the phone, who was obviously not a native English speaker, that things might not be so great.  It was a kitchen unit (with no utensils), and the sink had a massive and strange looking spider that had Ross freaking out.  That was just before he ran into the flying bugs of unknown origin in the bathroom.  Here is a pic of the room:

No, we didn't all sleep in the same bed.  There were two more beds to the left of this picture. 

There was a grocery store next door, so we went over and got a six-pack and some popcorn and had a post-ride snack on the porch:

I thought the unpainted patch of siding was a repair, but Carolyn thinks it had been a window that became too much trouble to maintain, and I think she might be right.  We did get to park the bikes under cover so they had no dew on the seats in the morning:

Oh, and the TV didn't work so I got the manager to come over and after a half hour or so of rebooting the satellite feed he got it going. 

Another view of the joint:

Despite everything, the beds were comfortable enough and the shower had plenty of hot water with adequate pressure, so things could have been worse and I got a good night's sleep.  Next time, though, somebody else picks the motel. 

We continued on down the coast, passing the Olympic rain forest park, and riding through some really lush, forested area right on the ocean:

I got home with over 600 miles covered and a good ride with good friends.  I tried to talk them into a three-dayer I have planned, but I don't think it is going to take. 

Mustang Handover......The Do Over.

After I got back from my ride with Jenny, I called Pertronix and verified that they had found the igniter had failed and were sending me a new one.  I decided to go ahead and get one from the local Napa auto parts store just to have a spare handy.  I also got Napa to replace the voltage regulator for free (the second one), and bought another one of those for a spare.  I installed both parts and the car started fine, so I set the timing of the distributor and then did several test drives with no problems. 

My daughter Karen was up from her home in South Pasadena for a long weekend as part of her annual birthday/father's day visit, and it seemed like a good opportunity to take her for a ride in the Mustang to take the car to Brian and see her brother and his family.  We started out early to beat the heat:

Everything was going fine and we even had time to take a little side trip on some two lane roads just to get off the freeway for awhile.  Then after we got back on the interstate, and still south of Olympia, we came to a complete halt with a closed freeway due to an accident.  After awhile they opened up a detour around the accident and we began to creep ahead, but the Mustang didn't like the slow going and the temp gauge needle began to rise.  So did my anxiety needle.  However, the engine temp seemed to reach a steady state that was high, but not boiling over, and we eventually got past the jam and reached Brian's house, so I guess it was actually a successful test of the car handling a traffic jam on a hot day. 

I went over the procedures for replacing the ignition igniter and the voltage regulator, should those ever fail again:

Then Brian took us all to lunch, after which we drove to the Amtrak station for the return home for Karen and I.

Then Brian and Colin drove off..........the car was his, finally:

Listening to this video, I hear a little bit of fan belt chirp, but hey, it's not my problem now!  It sure has a beautiful exhaust sound. 

After Karen and I got home I went to my shop and reveled in the emptiness of it.

 

The Ride That Almost Wasn't

Jenny and I had been planning a ride for months.  I had scoped out a route that would take us over four passes in the Sierras and had it entered into my Garmin Zumo, but first I had to get to San Francisco.  Carolyn and I can drive there in one day by staying on Interstate 5 most of the way and taking turns driving, but no way can I do it in one day on a motorcycle.  So I had planned a two day route that would use I5 to Yreka and then some more interesting roads through the Trinity Alps to Weaverville where I would spend the first night.  Then I would head over to hwy 101 on some classic motorcycle roads and on in to San Fran.  Jenny was taking Friday off, so I planned to leave on Wednesday, June 17.  Tuesday night I carefully packed the bike and had everything ready for an early start to see if I could beat the rush hour traffic through Portland.  Wednesday morning at 0630 Carolyn took this pic of me about to push the starter button:

Then I pushed the starter, the gauges powered up and then............the screen went blank and nothing......no crank, no lights, nothing. 

It seemed to me that I had blown the main fuse.  I knew there were some fuses under the seat, so I took off the tailpack and side cases to get the seat off.  The fuses under there were minor fuses for lights, horn, instruments, etc, and they were all good.  I knew the main fuse had to be a much higher amperage, but where was it?  Out came the service manual, where I found the main fuse was under a side cover on the right  side of the engine.  Trouble was, the great Honda fit and finish meant that all the plastic body panels are held on with many types of hidden fastening devices, and it took further study of the service manual to find out how to remove the cover I needed to remove.  Eventually I got it done and the main fuse was.........good.  Just to be sure, I checked the battery and the voltage was 12.8 volts; plenty good.  Panic was beginning to set in.  By now it was about 0830.  I called Pro Caliber in Longview where I bought the bike and which is the only Honda dealer in Southwest Washington.  They opened at 0900, so with Carolyn's help I loaded the bike into the truck and headed up to Longview, hoping they could take a look at it right away.  No such luck; they were booked in the service department and would not be able to look at it until the next day.

I figured the trip was screwed. I knew Jenny couldn't change her vacation day to Monday. Despair, depression, anger, you name it, I felt it all.  I texted Jenny and told her the trip was off.  I felt terrible.  Remember from my previous post that the Mustang had quit and had to be towed home the previous weekend, so now I was disappointing another one of my kids.   I unloaded and put away all my stuff for the trip and proceeded to split firewood as a way to work off my frustration. 

Then, at 2pm I got a call from Pro Caliber.  They had had a cancellation and knowing I was anxious to get going, the mechanic took a look at the bike and found there was a short in the battery.  Sometimes it would test good (like when I tested it), and other times it would show only seven to nine volts.  He replaced the battery and the bike was good to go.  Despair turned to hope.  It was late, but I had to go for it.  Carolyn had left to visit her sister in Gig Harbor, so I couldn't get a ride up to Longview, but I repacked all my stuff and tried not to forget anything, and loaded it into the truck and headed up there.  By the time I got the bike and loaded my stuff on it, it was 3:15.  I headed south and promptly got stuck in the Portland evening rush.  Eventually I got through that and had clear sailing.  I planned to go as far as I could before it got dark.  It began to look like maybe I could make Grants Pass, which gave me the opportunity to take hwy 199 over to the coast the next day and avoid the worst of Interstate 5.  Fortunately, it was near the longest day of the year, so I rode until about 9:30 pm and covered 311 miles.  I estimated the next day was going to be 440 miles.......long, but doable.  I was back on the ride.  Dinner that night and breakfast the next morning was at this place:

Some of my old dirt bike riding buddies will recall eating at the Black Bear diner in Madras, until somebody got disgusted with the manager. 

The next day was familiar route over hwy 199 to 101 and then a little side trip through the redwoods:

I got to Jen's house just as she was getting off her bike after riding home from work.  The next morning we were loaded a ready to roll:

We headed south and then east across the San Mateo bridge, eventually getting to our first pass road, which was hwy 108.........destination Markleeville.  One of the features of Markleeville is a state operated hot springs just outside of town.  We were not too interested in a dip in a hot pool as we had been plenty warm all day, but we thought we would give it a look.  It was not too savory, but we walked up to the source of the hot water and Jen gave it a test.  It was supposed to be 140 degrees at the source and it certainly was too hot to keep your hand in it for very long:

The next morning we had a really nice breakfast outdoors at a little local market:

Then we headed down hwy 4.  What a road!  Surely I had been on it before when I lived in California, but I don't remember it.  A lot of it was too narrow to have a stripe down the middle and was basically a wide one-laner.  And curves! Some so sharp you had to look over your shoulder to see around them.  Combine the narrowness of the road, the sharpness of the curves, and the altitude of about 9,000 feet meant we were not going very fast.  But some of the scenery was outstanding:

Eventually we got down to the bottom of hwy 4 and then went north on 49 for a ways to catch the next pass road, which was hwy 88.  This leads to hwy 395 and the 89 over Monitor pass.  Here are some pics from that pass: (edit: this section was actually on the way to Markleeville)

I expected traffic to be a real hassle, since it was summer vacation time and a weekend to boot, but it wasn't bad at all. 

Now we headed down again, on hwy 50.  At some point Jenny had had to go onto reserve on her gas.  We had gassed up in Markleeville, but that was beginning to be a long way back.  We had both been getting about the same gas mileage (around 70 mpg) and with the same size tanks we were very compatible in when we needed to stop for gas.  I was keeping an eye on my gas gauge and when it was showing I still had about a quarter of a tank, I got a call from Jen over the intercom that she was running out of gas.  We were going slightly down hill and had just passed an off ramp.  I looked over and saw that there was a gas station at the bottom of the off ramp, but Jen was already past the exit.  She couldn't go back and the slope of the hill was not steep enough for her to coast downhill, so she got off and started pushing down to where I was near the on ramp.  It was probably close to 100 yards and with her helmet and riding gear on plus the warm weather, there was a lot of heavy breathing in my helmet intercom.  We ended up going backwards down the on ramp, which was steep enough for her to coast, with me leading with hazard blinkers on.  When we filled up, Jen's bike took the full four gallons and got about 60 mpg, while mine got 85 mpg!  I'm not lying, I checked it twice.  Here is my explanation:  My bike is fuel injected and the ECU compensated for the high altitude by making the mixture leaner and getting me the great mileage.  Jen's bike is carburetted and would have been running extra rich at altitude.  Whatever the cause, that was our only "incident" of the whole ride and it was lucky the gas station was so close. 

We stayed that night in Jackson, and because the day kept getting hotter and hotter as we descended, we were cooking by the time we stopped.  A quick dip in the pool got the core temps back to normal. 

The next day was our last on the ride and I had planned for it to be a short one so we could beat the traffic coming back into San Francisco after a weekend.  Since we were early, and Skyline drive didn't seem too far out of our way, I suggested we have lunch at Alice's restaurant.  It's always fun to check out the bike scene at Alice's.  I just missed getting a pic of a guy doing smoky burnouts in the parking lot:

More of Alice's:

Lunch.  First time either of us had actually eaten inside.  They made a good burger. 

After lunch we rode a curvy road with a bunch of slow traffic down to hwy 1 and home to Jen's house:

The next day I headed for home, while Jenny rode off to work.  She keeps her work clothes in the backpack and is probably the envy of all her cubicle mates:

We washed both our bikes the evening before and mine was looking spiffy too:

The route I took back home was some of the route I had originally planned to take to get to San Francisco, but reverse order............101 to 36 to 3 to Weaverville for overnight.  I had my only real scare of the ride on the section of 3 leading into Weaverville.  It's a great road, with lots of curves and very little traffic, but it has tar snakes.  While banked over on a sharp down hill right hander I crossed one of these that caused my front wheel to slip and I was instantly in the other lane.  Had there been a car coming it would have been real bad news, but I lucked out again. 

After my overnight in Weaverville I decided to head over to hwy 1 rather than go up I5, because it was predicted that temps would reach 100 degrees in Redding and I wanted no part of that.  This meant I would need an extra day, but that's the benefit of retirement, right?  That night I stayed in Newport, Oregon and got this privileged parking right outside my room:

I got home on Wednesday shortly after noon, with 2,659 miles on the trip odometer.  It was a safe ride on a lot of Good Roads with a fine riding partner.  And best of all, it actually happened.