June 18th Ride Report–Wow what views! Crater Lake.

So last night I did the camping thing at Carter Lake. I knew going into the day that the Lodge would be full and I was right. So I mozied on down to the Campground, setup shop and got ready for my evening. I didn’t have to cook for myself because there was a restaurant in the campground. I had to have some comforts, right? Supper was good. Fried Chicken, Corn on the Cob, Mashed Taters, and sting beans. Did I forget to mention Sweet Tea?

Ok, so after supper it was off to my portable home to type as much as I could remember and as much as my batteries would allow. So I finished off the laptop battery, the cell phone battery was down to 15%, turn that off, and the Spot Tracker had life, but I have no clue for how long. Recharging abilities? None! Communications to the outside world? Almost none, I had Spot Tracker if needed.

Elevation was 6500' feet in the campground and by 9pm it was getting brisk. The forecast was 32, but that was at the lodge and it was 73 or 7500 feet. When I laid down to go to sleep, I could feel the brisk air but it wasn’t that bad. When I rolled into my sleeping bed, mmm, snug as bug in a rug. I didn’t stir until 5am. Birds! I tried to get on back to sleep and laid there for 45 minutes and said, light enough, let’s start packing. Took me an hour to break everything down and pack it all back on the motorcycle. That’s including getting warmly dressed.

Rolling out the campground the thermometer on the bike read 42, so that might have been the low. As I drove back up to Crater Lake to get those early morning shots with no people insight, the temps quickly dropped to 36 degrees. This is the point the BMW starts flashing the temperature warning about freezing roads. As I rolled around the western side of the lake, I lost another 2 degrees to 34. Ok now, it’s getting pretty close to the freezing point and there is water on the roads. That was it, the temp never got any lower and I made my exit downhill out of Crater Lake. You guys reading this, put Crater Lake on your Bucket List. My pictures do it no justice and you have to see it in person. Just incredible colors.

Ok, so the rest of the day was track east to Baker City, Oregon. The views and roads where suppose to be very nice. Problem? Rain, more rain, and then it rained some more. What do I hate about the rain? I can’t see nothing and I cannot take pictures to show you!! It wasn’t all that bad and I did manage to get some nice shots. Some of the good roads with curves were dry, so that was fun. But riding in the rain, just spoils my view. I got the gear, so that is not an issue. It’s all about the view.

Rolling into Baker City the plan was to stay in a motel that was built in 1889. Nice place and I took some internal shots, but no external shots. Tomorrow when I leave, I promise to take the external shots as long as I remember. Hell, I’ll be 52 shortly and sometimes I forget things. Very nice hotel and restaurant and I love these old restored motels.

So I have one more little story to tell and I’m done for the evening. I’m waiting to be seated in the motel restaurant when the Hostess finally ask how many. I said, just me and the ugly bike out front. She didn’t smile! What’s wrong with her? She points to the back as we are walking and said pick a table and I point to the one in the center up against the wall. Sorry that’s reserved. Fine, that one over there will do. Couldn’t she just seat me somewhere? So as I’m eating, the people that reserved the table sit down at the special table and they were a bit older than me. They might have been my parents. I hear the word anniversary. So when my waitress handed me my check, I asked, “What year anniversary is it?” She said, “52.” I said thanks and I have a request. Bring me their check please. She gave me a very strange look and then walked up to another waitress and the other waitress looked my way and smiled. I paid their bill, scratched out the amount due and wrote $0.00. On the backside of the bill I wrote, Congratulations to the both of you, and pay it forward. Then I left.

Tomorrows ride is looking very gloomy rain wise for me. Does it matter? Yes, I will not be able to see and you will not get pictures. Let’s hope that it eases off the 80% prediction. I‘m riding to Hell’s Canyon and ending in Missoula, Montana.

Pictures of the Day

June 17th Ride Report: Oh my!

First thing I want to do before I get into the ride report is to thank someone. No names and if they read it, they will know. Someone out there took it upon themselves to ship me a replacement for Dixie when I first reported it. They loaded my webpage, click on a date about 5 – 7 days ahead, and shipped the package to the hotel I had picked out. Pretty clever if I say so myself. Then the News Story broke in Vancouver and it was to late to take it back, it was in the mail. I emailed said good Samaritan and told them this. The story started when someone else gave it to me, then I created a story and a blog attachment to her, (Dixie), and so did the readers. Mark then lost her somehow. Then the News Story broke and it made it even more complicated. Look, originally even I was going to go buy a new toy, but I decided to just report it as it happened and take full credit for my blunder. I just can’t get my head wrapped another little toy at this late venture, so I thanked them for all their effort and trouble. I hope I didn’t offend them. I’ll take credit for that to. Now if Dixie was to miraculously reappear, then that would make a great blog post and story. So let’s just let it die unless.

My planned route today, I thought, was going to take me through more trees, then a scenic motorcycle tour, and then Crater Lake. Well almost none of that happened. I did see a few more trees but it was so brief, I knew that I didn’t do my homework well enough for this leg. Ok, the skies are crispy blue and the temperatures are 60-65, let’s just keep rolling.

My road was pretty but fast paced. Meaning that the speed limit was 55 or more. Not your typical expected speed limit on back road touring. Once I reached Cave Junction, I made my first turn off route. At first all was good. Then the road got incredibly narrow but it was still paved. Up and up I went and then the dreaded sign, asphalt turns to dirt. Ok, I can do this. I 80-20 tires, meaning that 20% is meant for dirt. The road is hard packed but there is a bit of loose rock, sometimes 1 to 2 inches deep. I still can do this. I was back at least 20 miles on this road and the last 5 all dirt when the Garmin said make a right turn. Ok, I turn right, I go 100 feet and stop. My exact words, “You’ve got to be kidding!” I knew what an ATV trail looked like and this was a ATV trail. This big A$$ BMW is not made for trails. I shake my head, and this is where most turn around or park and walk it a bit. I put her in gear and off I go. I can do this. Rocks are now softball size and ruts are anywhere from 6 –12 inches deep and me and BMW are not happy. The first flat I come to I stop. Pounder!!! Get off the bike, Start pushing back and forth to the tune of about a 15 point turn and retreat to the better dirt. It took me about 5 minutes to turn that beast around on that small trail because it was not much wider than the length of my bike.

Now what? I’m looking at a 23 mile back track from here. One road continues to points unknown and unknown condition. The second road that I’m looking at also looks like an ATV trail. Mark gets the laptop out and fires up Mapsource. I get my Latitude and Longitude off the Garmin itself. I plug them into the Software on the Laptop to pinpoint myself on the map. Damn, all roads lead to more unknown dirt for a minimum of 20 miles before they hit any road that says Highway. Well to me the only logical decision was to back track and retreat. So I retreated like a little girl with frilly panty's. It’s ok, sometimes we just have to admit we made a mistake and regroup. So I went to a local Subway, sat down with the laptop and Garmin and made a new route.

So here I sit at Crater Lake and yes Mark Trent, I’m camping. I have no way to recharge all my crap, so I will have to wait another day before I can blog this post. The Lake? What a beautiful and breath taking view on such a clear day. The water gives a new meaning to Blue. Tomorrow morning I will take more shots.

Pictures of the Day

June 16th Ride Report: I packed to much in this day, but wow

This is and was the last southern route that I will be taking on the Pacific Coast highway. I had no idea what to expect other than trees. This morning got off a little slow because I had to find replace that digital camera that has finally in my opinion, became worthless. Something is wrong with the lens and it’s just not worth taking shots if they are going to look like yesterdays bunch. To many erroneous dots in the frame. Not the exact camera I wanted, but it will fill the bill for motorcycling.

Ok with the camera situation solved, I took off south and it was a bit chilly at 56 degrees. No rain though, so life is good. The first little chant off of 101 dropped me into the Redwood State Park and the trees are big, but not quite as big as I remember. Apparently, the big stuff comes tomorrow. It also didn’t take long before I found myself off-road in the dirt again easing down the coast until the road ended. Don’t know how I did that, but the road ended and I had to make a little re-route on the fly. When Garmin works, Garmin is cool. Eventually I popped back onto 101.

The further south I went the warmer and clearer the skies became. Now for a little creepy story. I rolled into Eureka and I needed a cup of coffee and change my gear up a bit. It seemed like every 20 to 30 feet someone was begging for something. I do feel for these people, but I can’t help 40 or 50 people all at once. I’m marking Eureka as a place I do not want to visit. Leaving Eureka, I turned off 101 again and I went through a little town named Ferndale. Once in Ferndale, I took off on a little road and once I was on it I started thinking, “How the hell did I pick this road.” It was tight for 2 cars to pass each other and the repair work that was done is, just throw some crap in the hole and pack it down. Yes, she was a little rough. Then it hit me, Road Runner Magazine. I downloaded the California route and blended it with my other route.

Ok then, let’s travel on down the road and see what we see since I have the right bike for this little adventure. Up and down, left and right, and tiptoeing around those blind corners. Why? I have a lot of dirt road riding experience in Virginia and let me tell you, people in cars and trucks on dirt roads drive insane sometimes. They really do not care what side of the road they are on, so if you can’t see through the corner, you hug it and tip toe until you can see. Let’s just say that paid off twice today. Some of the views that started being feed to me were absolutely incredible. On mountain tops, looking across open fields with clouds hanging just above my head and blue skies in the distance. Then roads falling off the hills into the ocean or they appeared to, from my point of view. This little wonder of a road lasted for hours and hours. On one occasion, it turned into dirt, uphill 15% grade with four 180 degree switch backs. Sorry for my language, but I was like Damn! Apparently through some of this my Spot Tracker stopped working and I got a single txt somehow in the middle of nowhere from the wife. Hey, is the spot tracker on? Is she checking up on me? Don’t tell her, but I gave the spot tracker away weeks ago. I’m really in South America running the Dakar! Yea right! Ok back to reality.

Lunch? So it seemed with all the fun I was having, I forgot to think about lunch until I started feeling a little bit hungry. Stopped in the middle of nowhere and did a food search and there was nothing within an hour. So, I reached into my plan B bag and had peanuts and water for lunch! Yummy! I made up for it at dinner.

Eventually the thrill ride was over and it was back to the sane world of boring roads with cars and RV’s. I continued south on 101 until I reached the Joshua Tree so I could drive through the tree that is a tourist requirement. Ok, it was neat and it’s been there forever, check! This is also where I got a little faith restored. Think about this just for a moment. Ever since I re-entered the Untied States, have I spoken about meeting any nice, different, or interesting people other then the town of Eureka? I was really beginning to believe what I thought was true, an that is we live in a country of snobs and me me’s. Two young men, I estimate 22-23 and likely in college, saw my bike and the note with all the signatures on the tankbag from my workmates. They hung around until I return to the bike and started a conversation with me. They are on a 2 month road trip from California through Canada and eventually turning south until they end up in Florida. They are traveling by car. We chatted a lot about motorcycles, because they both ride Sportbikes, but eventually the conversation turned to what to see in Virginia. After I was done, one of them said to the other, “looks like we are going to have to extend our trip.” We chatted for about 45 minutes and then I had to break it off.

I packed way to much into today’s must see and though I accomplished a lot, I missed out on one Redwood Park, Humboldt. That’s ok, I enjoyed the day. One more thing about weather. When I left the Joshua Tree it was 85 degrees and the skies were clear. By the time I reached Crescent City 2.5 hours later, the temperatures dropped 20 degrees. Brrrrr.

Is anyone curious about mileage to date? 11,685 miles in 30 days including non-travel days. That’s about 390 miles a day.

My new camera did an awesome job. The Lighthouse shots were all taken in Crescent City. Tomorrow it begins! I start my official turn back to Virginia. The next 11 to 12 days, there will be a steady march back to the East.

Pictures of the Day

June 15th Ride Report. Oregon Pacific Coast Hwy.

Today’s run was all about the Pacific Coast Highway and it rarely disappointed and mostly was a highlight reel. I would estimate that 80% of the Highway run along the coastline. Some of the scenery was spectacular and unfortunately my little camera has just about bitten the dust. I believe the internal lens has been corrupted or is just falling apart. Either way, some of the pictures turned out very nice. Some just have a few spots.I will be on the hunt for a camera that will work for me on a motorcycle. Has to be glove friendly.

This morning in Astoria the skies were mostly clear and the temperatures felt warmer than the 60-62 that the bike was reporting. This also allowed me to take some very nice pictures with those clear skies. What did amaze me about the first half of the ride is how busy the road actually was. Nobody wanted to pass anybody either, so cars just kept stacking up deeper and deeper. One particular driver from Florida, yes he was an old fart, thought doing 20 under the speed limit was a good thing. On top of that, he thought it was cool just to let people stack up behind him. You may see this as his right, but I see it two different ways. First, this old fart is just on a power trip. Look at me stack the traffic. Second and the most important is that it is reckless driving in most states to do 20 over or under the posted speed limit. Yes, under! Damn good reason for it to. You might get run over by an 18-wheeler and flatten like a pancake if you cannot maintain the posted speed. That’s another reason you will see a lot of motorcyclist when stopped in traffic, sort of offset to the left or right behind a vehicle in case traffic behind them doesn’t stop they can bolt down the side of stopped traffic. Long story short, I pulled right up beside his driver side window at 35 mph in a 55 mph zone, stared into window, and waved him to the side of the road. To no avail, so I speed off and left the old fart waddling down the road.

It must have been the traffic on the road today because I felt exhausted when I pulled in Crescent City today around 5:00 to 5:30. Can’t remember the exact time. So I checked into the hotel, sat resting for a good hour before I could get out of my chair and go find dinner. Another unfortunate situation is the internet in the hotel is down and appears they are doing nothing to fix it.

Tomorrow I will be running a little further south on 101 checking out the Redwood National Forest, Chandler Drive Through Tree, Humboldt national Park, and of course more coastline. This will be as far south as I go in California and will actually end my day back in Crescent City. The day after I will actually do my first official turn back home in the wiggle to get into Virginia. Sad but true, my trip is winding down but I still have a bunch of miles to do and bunch of stuff to see.

Beware, over 100 photo’s in that link below.

Picture of the Day

No wi-fi, ride report will delay

Yup, stayed in a hotel to charge all devices and blog. Now motel Internet is down. That's not nice. I will post the blog and pictures as soon as I get a hold of se wi-fi. 

I wrote this post using an App on the I-phone. 

June 14th Ride Report–I had some guest at the end of the day

I’ve got to make this ride report short and sweet, because it is late and I have to get up and ride a full leg tomorrow.

I rode a lot today on highway 101 through Washington State but I also had to take a few other roads to accomplish the ride. The one road that stood out was HWY 112 in the northern part of the state and it was tight and twisty. I enjoyed this road a lot. As far as weather goes, I would say 95% of my ride was 100% overcast but mostly dry. I did have a few showers to drive through but not enough to put rain gloves on.

When I pulled in Astoria the skies parted and nothing but clear skies greeted me. It was almost as the border between Washington and Oregon was the same as the clouds versus no clouds. Once in Astoria I had to wash cloths. Ugh, and this is still not that last time. It’s part of the trip, so it has to get done.

What are the odds that I laid out a trip over the past 2 years that would last 6 weeks and 16,500 miles and would meet up with someone I work with on the other side of the country? Slim! Tonight when I came rolling into town, I got a txt from Chris Lloyd saying, “it looks like you’re in town.” Yep, I am. Eventually Chris came to my hotel, picked me up, and we went to dinner with his wife, Stephanie and their 2 kids.

 

We chatted and laughed for at least 2 to 3 hours and then it was time for all to part ways. It was fun and I appreciate them inviting me out to dinner. Did we talk about work? Hmm, I’m not sure work came up at all until right at the end of the dinner when Chris said more retirement posters were going up. You guys enjoy the rest of your vacation in Seattle.

One last note. Today I got a txt from the Texas that I might in Anchorage letting me know he made home safely. He wanted to know where I was and how I was doing. Attached was a photo he took of our two bikes. He had just exited the dirt roads heading to Prudhoe bay and I was just getting ready to enter. Also, lot’s of cool shots in the pictures of the day. Tomorrow should be the prettiest part of the Pacific Coast highway driving though Oregon.

Pictures of the Day. 

June 24, 2013 planned route, Day 38

So here I am, the last day of my adventure as I see it and then the 3 day sprint back to Virginia. The plan today is to pickup Debbie Fanatia and give her a ride on the R1200GSA to the highest Asphalt road in the united States. The hard surface road peaks out at 14,240 feet on top of Mt.Evans. I have made the climb in a SUV and on a motorcycle and I will tell you if you scared of heights, this will make your stomach tighten a bit. The last 4 to 5 miles the road narrows and there are no guard rails. It gives the appearance that you could roll off the edge and roll, roll, forever. After we accomplish this mission, then the plan is to ride up through Rocky mountain National Park and  hope that the road is open. I have tried twice before to ride completely through the park only to be stopped by snow. If we make it through the park, then we will just ride the countryside until we end up back her home. Lunch and Dinner will be on her to research and figure out since she is the local. Today’s run should be very relaxing and my second round robin of this trip. Planned mileage for today is 282 miles.

Hampton Inn & Suites Denver-Speer Boulevard

2728 Zuni Street

Denver, CO 80211

855-271-3622