Sitting on my brother's bike a LONG time ago:
I received notice that a really old website that we had is closing, so I am moving some of the content here.
MOTORCYCLE TRIP 1998 Day 1 (our first "long" trip on the bikes)
On September 17 Jim and I left Baker City, Oregon, just at the break of dawn, headed for Crater Lake. We got off to a rough start. Within the first 1/2 mile we already had a small problem - our bike to bike intercoms weren't working correctly, and of course we had to blame each other while standing on the side of the road. We thought we had them working, but as we got further down the road we discovered they weren't. Whenever Jim's bike reached 3,000 rpm's or more, his intercom would quit working. After about 5 stops we finally just quit talking to each other and got on with the ride. Several times we had to slow down for deer crossing the road. At one point a car came around a curve with it's lights flashing, so assuming there was a cop up ahead we slowed way down. Instead of a cop waiting around the curve, there was 4 or 5 cows standing in the road. Thank goodness for that car or we would have really been in trouble! We got to Crater Lake at about 2:30. It was pretty cold up there so we had to break out the extra clothes. We were meeting up with Jim's Uncle Pat, who rides a Harley. We rode around the lake at a pretty quick pace due to the cooler weather, then headed out to find a motel. We were planning on camping out, but at our first fuel stop Jim informed me that he had forgotten the tent, so we weren't able to rough it (darn!). My fuel light came on and we started looking for a gas station. We passed a sign for a town, but didn't see anything there so we kept going. About 5 miles down the road we decided we better turn around and head back to fuel up. Eventually we ended up in Medford, Oregon, just after dark. We put on 457 miles the first day. That's the longest I've ever ridden in one day. I was expecting to be a lot more tired than I was, but surprisingly I was ready to go some more. The riding conditions couldn't have been better. Only once did we have to stop for road construction, and that was only for about 10-15 minutes.
The next day we woke up to a slight drizzle. Usually we ride a while, then stop for breakfast, but we decided to eat first and give the rain a chance to go away. No such luck. We were heading for the Oregon Caves, then on to Crescent City, California. The countryside around Medford is beautiful. Lots of farmland, trees, and hills. We passed a wheat field full of ducks. And when I say full of ducks, I mean full of ducks. They were everywhere. I've never seen so many ducks at one time in one place. We passed by two deer and two fawns in someone's front yard. We *thought* we were on the correct road to the Caves. We rode up a curvy narrow road. In other circumstances this would have been a great road, but the further up we went, the narrower it got, and the harder it rained and the more fog we got in to. We were only able to go about 15 mph. Finally the road split into two more roads. We parked and looked at the map. Neither road was on the map. Oops. While Jim and his uncle debated which way to go I was putting on more clothes and a second pair of gloves. Chaps only cover so much, and my seat (Mustang seat) was wet. It stayed wet for a day or two. We decided to turn around and go back. On the way down Jim hit a patch of oil or a larger than expected puddle and almost took a short cut down the hill. It was ten miles one way, so now we've gone 20 miles on a road in the middle of no where. We pass the farm with the deer in the front yard again and get into the next little town and ask a guy pulling weeds how to get to the Caves. "Well, you turn around and go back up that there road and where the road splits you take the right fork. It'll take you right there." We all just kind of looked at each other with really stupid looks on our faces. Jim's uncle finally asked him if there was any other way to get there. Sure was. The alternate route is the one we ended up taking. The final road leading up to the Caves is a great twisty road. At one point there is a sign that says "vehicles pulling trailers not recommended past this point". Sure could see why. We reached a place where they were working on a bridge. In Oregon when they're working on a bridge they install stop lights on either side and you have to wait until it's your turn to go. On this particular road they had about a 1/2 mile of road blocked off which was just a narrow one lane section and we weren't able to see if there was any cars coming due to the curves. We didn't have any problems on the way up, but on the way back we encountered an old woman who decided she didn't want to stop at the light. Jim's uncle made it through before she ran the light, I met her at a pretty wide spot in the road so I was okay, but Jim had to go off into the edge of the forest to keep her from hitting him. He said she was just staring straight forward all the way. He didn't even think she saw him. Jim said he thought about kicking the car on its way by, but since they were going opposite directions was afraid he'd break his leg or foot. The rain had really started to fall not to long after that and it rained all the way from there to Crescent City. Jim's brother and his brother's girlfriend from Los Gatos, California, met us in Crescent City. That night we decided to take a walk after dinner and ended up down at the boat docks. While we were there we saw flames coming out of one of the boats parked on the far side of the docks. The flames were about 3 feet high, and we were getting concerned, so Uncle Pat ran to a nearby boat, and pointed it out. They radioed the Coast Guard, who called the local police and fire department. All these people show up with sirens wailing and start running around and pretty soon we see someone come out from the cabin on the boat. Poor guy, I can only imagine the surprise he got just for trying to barbecue his dinner!! We quietly walked off, just in case they decided someone was going to jail for all the commotion we caused.
The next day we went from Crescent City towards Eureka so we could go into the redwoods. Talk about some extremely huge trees. If you've never been in a Redwood forest I would highly recommend it. It's almost like being in another world. We stopped and went through the Trees of Mystery and did some hiking in other areas along the road. At noon Jim and I turned around to head back up to Brookings, Oregon while his uncle and brother headed back to the Bay Area. We were meeting some friends (John and Rhoda Strode) that we met at the HSTA get together in Cascade Locks in August. We got there about an hour early so Jim took a nap lying on his bike. We ended up meeting in a lounge/restaurant/gift shop where 1) the manager was going to card me (yippee) 2) they must not have liked motorcycle riders because they tried to move us from the restaurant to the lounge, but we left instead. We found a motel and had dinner, and called it quits for the night.
Sunday we rode up the Oregon coast, stopping along the way to see the ocean view and take pictures. After lunch, John and Rhoda headed home and we continued up 101. We met a guy riding a Harley from British Columbia to Reno via San Francisco. He encouraged us to go to Victoria, B.C. and gave us his map of the area. At that point Jim and I had no particular place to go. We needed to be in Olympia sometime during the week but up until then we really didn't have a plan. We spent the night at Newport.
Monday we just rode. We decided to try out the intercoms again, and they were working okay. We decided that our cellular phone must have been causing to much interference for them the work correctly. Who knows. We crossed over from Oregon to Washington on the bridge at Astoria. Wow, that is one long bridge. I didn't think it was ever going to end. One side of it is pretty high into the air and the other 2/3's of it is right on the water. Towards evening we started looking for a place to stay. No such luck. We finally saw signs at Lake Quinault for a resort and lodge that was two miles up a road we had to turn onto from the main road. They wanted more than we wanted to pay so we decided to go up the road. It was getting dark and cold so we weren't looked forward to it. We both bundled up as much as we could and started to leave, but as we were starting to pull out, the motel manager came out and told us he'd knock the price down $10, so we took him up on his offer. We were glad we ended up there, though. The view was marvelous. The sun was just setting over the lake and it was beautiful. We were in the Olympia rain forest, which neither one of us had ever been in. It's a beautiful place. When we were eating dinner Jim asked the waitress where the closest gas station was. Oh, about 60 miles up the road, but there wasn't any guarantee it was open. That caused a slight panic. We already had 84 miles on the bikes, so that was going to be pushing it for my V45, depending on the road. The joke was on us. About three miles down the road there was gas stations and motels. We just figured the people in Lake Quinault didn't get out much.
We decided to head to Olympia for the night. Highway 101 from Forks, WA to Olympia is a blast. It's well maintained and twisty and fast. The traffic was rather heavy through the Port Townsend area, but after that it thinned out considerably. There is one thing to watch out for though: log trucks. They travel pretty fast but don't like to slow down going through the small towns that are scattered out along the road. At one point, I believe it was when we were going through Liliwaup (now I know it was Forks), we slowed down to the required speed through the city limits. The truck objected to that and was so close to me that I could see the individual bugs on his grille through my mirrors. That shook me up a little bit, but we made it through town in one piece. As we were speeding up on the other side of town, Jim pulled out to pass a horse trailer being pulled by an older pickup. All of a sudden he moved back in. I assumed there was a car coming and moved back in also. When I looked in my mirrors before moving in I noticed the grille with the bugs again. The reason Jim had moved back into the right lane was because he noticed how close the truck was to me (I think he was going to pass with us) and he thought it had hit me. I hadn't noticed it was that close until I went to move back into the lane. Finally we were able to pass the horse trailer and the truck behind us wasn't, so we escaped having to travel with him for the rest of the way to Olympia. In Olympia that afternoon we took a wrong turn and ended up in downtown Olympia. We managed to get turned around and on the right path to some friends house in Lacey.
From Olympia we were going to go to the San Juan Islands or Victoria, or both. We hadn't really decided yet. We rode from Olympia to Port Townsend and then decided to get on 20 and do the North Cascades ride to Omak, where Jim's mom lives. We had a day to spare, but we were getting to the bottom of the money allowance and decided we'd do the San Juan's and Victoria some other time. We rode the ferry to Whidbey Island (the first time on a ferry, whooppee) and were going to call on another friend, Chris, from the SabMag list, that we had met at the HSTA gathering. Jim called and left a message on his machine that we'd be there sometime that evening. We weren't sure what time he got off work and decided to ride around Whidbey Island. So, we rode around a bit and called again to see if he was off work yet. Finally we got to some town on Whidbey Island and decided to take a break. Jim went over to find out from someone where exactly Suquamish was, since it wasn't showing on the map. HA. I was looking at the map when Jim came back and showed him that we were on the wrong island. He, of course, didn't believe me, then when he did believe me, decided it was all my fault. So, he called Chris to tell him we wouldn't be there. Sorry, Chris. We ended up in Concrete, Washington.
We left Concrete on Thursday morning right behind a rain shower. Actually, we were in it but could see blue sky behind us and rode slow, then stopped for breakfast, and by the time we were finished the rain had stopped. We rode on wet roads the entire day, but we stayed dry. The Cascade Loop, or North Cross as Jim calls it, is a beautiful ride. In a couple more weeks the leaves will be changing color and it will really be a sight. I was riding pretty slow, riding close to the edge of the road looking down, down, down, into an almost dry river bed, at the huge boulders, when I happened to look in my mirrors to see two motorcycles (VFR's) closing distance pretty quickly. I caught up with Jim about the time they caught up with me. I moved over so they could pass, which they did just as we were approaching a tunnel. I don't know if Jim just didn't realize that it wasn't me behind him or if he was just being a butt, but he wouldn't move over. As soon as we cleared the tunnel they roared past him like we were sitting still. Jim made some kind of comment later about them being crazy *&^%$%& for going that fast on the wet roads. Not to long before that he had to take a corner a little wide because he started slipping in the middle of it and I think he was still a little shook up from that. We stopped at a few places to see the sights and continued on to Winthrop, where we ran across the two VFR guys again. They were parked and standing by their bikes. We goofed off in Winthrop for a while, then took off. Not to far out of town, who should end up behind us but the two VFR guys again. We were behind a slow moving truck, waiting for a spot to pass when they passed us and the truck in a no passing zone. Jim said, "wow, that's fast" as they zoomed by. He wants to ride a VFR now just to see how fast they'll go. We were expecting to see them catapulted into a tree further up the road, but we didn't cross paths again.
Friday around noon I was going to ride on to Sunnyside, WA by myself to visit my family, when Jim decided he would ride with me half way (to Ephrata) then back to Omak. Something about him wanting to end up with more miles on this trip than me, I think. Omak and Okanogan are about 5 miles apart. We didn't even reach Okanogan before we had to turn back. A storm came up and we were totally soaked in five minutes. So much for that idea. It rained for a short while, but by the time it stopped I decided it was to late in the afternoon to go, so we left Saturday morning together for Sunnyside.
We spent Saturday night in Sunnyside. Early Sunday morning (5:30) Jim got up to go watch some hot air balloons take off in Prosser, about 10-15 miles away. He kept bugging me to go, but 5:30 is *not* a good time of day for me. He got back around 10 and we got ready to take off for Baker City, around noon. We rode on the freeway to the Tri-Cities, then got on the secondary road to Walla Walla and then over Tollgate Pass and on to Baker City.
We rode a total of 2238 miles. The first day was our longest, 457 miles, and Friday was our shortest, 5 miles. We had a great time, saw some great sights, took lots of pictures. Both bikes ran great. We didn't have any problems at all. Mine is leaking oil somewhere. By the time the week was half over all the chrome was a dull black from the oil. About every other day I would need to add some. We haven't figured out yet where it's coming from. Also, I noticed it has a really bad vibration at 40 mph and 70 mph. The front tire is starting to cup pretty bad, so I'm guessing that that might be the cause? Winter projects, I guess. Jim didn't have any problems at all with his bike except the blinkers, which don't work until the bike has been well warmed up. He was going to fix them before weleft, but didn't get around to it.
If anyone ever has a chance to ride up the Oregon coast (Highway 101) or do the Cascade Loop I would highly recommend it. By far, I would say this is the best vacation we've ever taken. We didn't really have any plans, just a general idea of where we wanted to go and a few places we needed to be, and a date for returning. Other than that, it was pretty much planned out day by day. Neither of us wanted it to end. We're already planning what we can do next year.
Volcano, CA 1999
We left Baker City Wednesday night to stay in Ontario, OR, at a friends house so we could get an hour head start on Thursday morning. Wind, wind, and more wind and a wind chill reported at 33. It was a brisk ride. Jim had to tell me know how fast I was going, which was past the limits of my speedometer, but I had figured the sooner we got there, the sooner we'd be warm.
Thursday morning was cool, but hardly any wind. For a while anyway. Eventually it caught up with us, along with the rain. So, Thursday we rode in wind and rain all day. Nothing exciting happened, except providing a tour bus an interesting view while Jim and I tried to get me into my one piece rainsuit on top of my leathers while standing outside a restaurant in the drizzle. And, what would a road trip be without road construction. We had a 15 minute wait and while we were moving around trying to keep warm the flagger informed us that Reno had been snowed on earlier in the day. We stayed all night in Sparks, NV, just outside of Reno.
Friday morning was cool, but the sun was trying to peak through. Carson Pass was cold and long. If it wouldn't have been for us freezing and a few spots of sand in the road it would have been great though. The road was nice and curvy, and the view was pretty nice also. Make sure you fuel up before you hit it though if you have a bike with a small tank. We were getting near panic when my fuel light had been on for about 20 miles. Finally, a gas station!!
We arrived at Jim's Grandparents, near Railroad Flat, where we were waiting to hear from Don Peter and the Strodes, who we were going to meet in Volcano. Around 6:00 they called, just as were sitting down to dinner. After dinner, we headed out to meet them. We did cheat though: we drove Grandpa's car since we knew the meeting was going to last a while and I can't see to drive after dark.
It was quite the sight, rounding the corner into Volcano and seeing all the bikes lined up. We parked around the corner and walked up to the motel. Didn't want EVERYONE to know we were in a car. Just the few that knew us needed to know that!! We waited around for a while, met a few people, then had the rider's meeting. Lots of stories were told and everyone introduced themselves, but there was a lot of names to remember. We left after the meeting and headed for home, with Don and the Strodes following. Uncle Pat and Aunt Cathy were waiting for us at Jim's Grandparents. They rode up from the Bay Area on his Harley.
Saturday morning we took off, all bundled up for the weather. At each stop (fuel, looking for air for my rear tire several times, and finally when we found some) we had to take a few layers of clothes off. First a sweat shirt, then the jacket liner, and thiner gloves. It was a beautiful day. It couldn't have been better. Not to hot, not to cold, no wind, just perfect.
At the first stop sign (on our way to Volcano) John Strode was trying to tell me something, but I couldn't understand him, so I rode on. The Stodes and Jim and I all have Chatterbox communicators, so we can talk to each other through those. When they're turned up loud enough that is. At the gas station he informed me that my rear tire was low. Really low. So, the search started for some place with air. Yeah, right. Good thing we left early enough to do some riding, because it took us a while to find a station with air. Finally, after Jim asked some guys standing outside a grocery store where we could find some air, which sent Rhoda and I into giggling fits, as Rhoda started gasping for air saying, "air, I need air", we were pointed towards Pine Grove. Okay, down the road we went, finally finding an air compressor that worked, then on to Volcano. Again, the bike line up was great. This time we fit right in. After a while, everyone started breaking up into groups. We were the second "relaxed" group after Uncle Milt's group, although after a while we caught up to them. At the next stop some reorganizing was done, and off we went. The roads were wonderful. Anyone learning how to ride a bike in that area would definately be a good rider. Curves everywhere. I don't think there was very many stretches that didn't have curves in it. The views were great, the roads were great, almost made me want to move there. We rode with Don Peter, who was our leader, Jim, me, John Strode, Rhoda Strode, Uncle Pat and Aunt Cathy. Don led a great pace and didn't take any wrong turns. Although if he would have we would have just followed him without knowing it. Only one road was in poor shape, and it only lasted a short while. Hardly any traffic and a few bicyclists at the beginning. The scenery was breath taking. When I think of California I always think of cities and smog and people. This ride changed my mind. It was really beautiful.
Lunch was good. The poor staff ran around like crazy, but everyone got served and the break was nice and relaxing, allowing for more visiting and tire kicking. After that we went back to Jim's Grandparents house and waited for the BBQ to start. Yum, lots of food. Again, we took the car because we didn't want to have to eat and run. I'm glad we did take the car, after seeing the driveway!! Wow!! We knew when we found it. Bikes everywhere, people everywhere. Good food. Great company.
We really enjoyed meeting everyone and putting faces to names. I wish we would have been able to spend more time with everyone, but Jim only gets to see his Grandparents once or twice a year, so he wanted to spend some more time with them, and I don't blame him, so we spent as much time with them as we could.
Thanks, Ron and Doe, for everything. You did an excellent job. No one was left hungry, and if they were, it was their own fault. It was nice to meet everyone who contributes so much to the list, and those who rode so far.
Sunday morning the Strodes and Don Peter left, meeting up with Steve and Irene Frost. Jim and I just sat around, visiting Grandpa and Grandma and Jim's two brothers who came up from Los Gatos and San Jose.
Monday morning: BLAH!!! Rain, rain, rain. More rain. We suited up for the rain. I felt like an austronaut in all that gear. I could hardly lift my leg up high enough to get it over the seat. Off we took. We had to change our route because of snow and ended up going into Sacramento, where it finally stopped raining. Thank goodness!! It stayed cold though. We ended up in Alturas, CA for the night. We were shooting for Lakeview, but the clouds were getting darker and we were freezing. Just as we were pulling the bikes up to the front of the motel room it started hailing. What timing!!
Tuesday: it looked nice. Looks are deceiving. It didn't rain though. It was cold when we took off, and just got colder as we went. About 20 miles from Lakeview we had to stop and put on more clothes. At Lakeview it started snowing, raining, and the wind was blowing. More clothes.
Not to far into that stretch of road we saw a sign on the side of a pickup parked on that side of the road that said Cattle Crossing. They meant it!! They were herding about 70 or more cows plus their calves down the road. We had to come to a complete stop as there was cattle everywhere, walking down the middle of the road, taking their time. Once they all got past us we took off again, dodging cow piles for the next few miles. Only in Oregon!! After that we had to dodge bike-eating potholes from hell. We stopped in Burns and warmed up and took off again. Between Burns and John Day it snowed. And we're talking big flakes here. At the BBQ Eric was saying something about having to wipe off snow from his visor and windshield and we kind of laughed at him (with him, not AT him), and he told us he was serious. NEVER laugh at someone!! It will come back to haunt you. We were wiping snow off our visors and windshields. It was cold, the snow was falling, and we were putt-ing along at about 30. Finally, into John Day. The sun peeked through while we were fueling up and we managed to waste about 15 minutes there trying to get as much warmth into our bodies as we could. The last 70 miles into Baker City was cold, with some snow and a little hail, but not to bad. At one point Jim got so cold he almost missed a curve. About halfway into it he started yelling something about gravel and a few other words I couldn't understand (probably a good thing). Then he straightened up and hit the brakes. I made it around the corner and slowed down to let him catch up. Later he said he was just so cold he couldn't lean the bike over anymore. That's the first time I've ever seen him do anything like that, so I was shaking so bad I thought I was going to have to pull over to regain some composure. That was the closest thing to an OOPS! we had the entire trip, and that was just fine with us.
We had a great time and are planning on attending next year. Again, it was great meeting everyone and I wish we would have been able to spend more time with everyone. Maybe next year!!
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