Summer Riding

This is the time of year that many things work-wise just get in the way, but when work is hampered with mechanical difficulties then it just downright sucks.

Mistress went down again with finaldrivitus after 14k miles after the last rebuild and it was another routine of pulling the drive, running it to Ride West BMW for service, waiting for the cause to be determined and if warranty coverage would apply, getting it rebuilt and picking up to put back on.

In the meantime, Mystique was there to fill the void left with one bike down so I took my friend John on a little adventure ride:












 The old Blewett Highway is still an improved USFS semi-paved road that even though you see the fallen trees and rockslides here and there is a ride to be savored... mainly because going fast and not knowing the conditions of the sharp corner ahead of you will leave you down a sharp ravine somewhere.

Tucked off the approach of Hwy 97, it is a neat backroad bypass around the summit of Blewett Pass.







It was breathtaking!

So I also got my final drive in the last week and Joan and I did a North Cascade Highway run to make sure I did it all right... nothing like a quick 400 miles to verify good assembly!

While coming down out of Twisp we saw smoke filling the Methow Valley and upon hitting the 97 South out of Pateros we saw the cause:

They were busy the entire week trying to contain, but the smoke didn't come South so we were relatively smoke free for the duration. We had as good a solid day riding than all the good pieces of our whole trip to No. California... Washington is a great State to ride in, you get it all!

105°f to 55°f... Northern Cali Run

Day 1: Headed south on the 28 toward Quincy and cut some shortcuts to the 243/24/241 to the Mabton/Bickleton/Goldendale highway, then the 142 to the 14 and across the Hood River bridge to Oregon 35/26 South to Madras, Or.








Day 2: Headed South on the 97 and turned off at Crater Lake on the 138 Diamond Lake Highway because the 97 was not doing it for us and noticed my rear tire was experiencing major tread loss, so we headed over to Phoenix (between Ashland Medford) and Hansen's BMW for a new Metzler.

Day 3:  Hansen's BMW had the tire but their tech crashed his Ducati that weekend so I pulled off my wheel and had their jr. tech mount it for me, plus I saved $40 to boot. We shot down the I-5 from Medford (never again) and cut off at Mt. Shasta/89 and headed South to Lassen Volcanic National Park.

Coming out of the park it went up to 105°f as we entered Red Bluff, CA on the 36 West and decided we were not going to wait around for it to get hotter so we headed out on the roller coaster 36 West with Weaverville as our night stop. We hit the 3/299 and it got noticeably cooler as we wound our way into the mountains


Day 4: Winding our way down to the sea on the 299 West was beautiful and one of the best areas we had ridden through as we continually headed down out of the mountains and progressed down to 55°f as we hit the PCH 101 for a trip up "sunny?" California.

We hit the beach with the coastal fog rolling in...

Headed into Oregon and stopped for the night in Bandon.




Day 5: Began with another grey day in Oregon and 58°f as we headed North. It was nice to see my good friend Steve and his new 2010 Corvette, complete with a pressure sensing seat that equalizes the blood-flow to keep you from passing out on corners and acceleration.

We shot up the rest of Oregon and into Washington at Astoria and headed to Long Beach for the night

Day 6: Lft Long Beach and headed up the 101 to Raymond where we cut East on the 6 to Chehalis, then some back roads on the Johnson Highway South to the 508 East to Morton, the 12 over White Pass, some more back roads to Selah, through the Yakima canyon, Ellensberg to Wenatchee on the 97-2/97 and home.

Ghost Town Adventure V

I headed into North Central Douglas County for my last run in this area and after leaving Waterville zig-zagged in my usual adventure fashion trying to find the abandoned oddity out there and ran across this prairie homestead in the gully of one of my intersecting roads somewhere around Roads J and 7 NW.

Area Travelled

Lamoine is still around on roads 8 and G NW, including the old school

Heading out of Lamoine I grabbed road F to 11 and then over to some buildings I saw in the distance on Road H.

There are a lot of old homesteads and granaries out here...

 North up to Road 15 NW and then east to Road D and up to what's left of Howard, WA.

From Howard it get's interesting as the roads may or may not continue through public access. I ran into more deer here in a 2 mile area than I have ever seen together in one place. A5 to 22.5NW to A NW led me to the town of Dyer.

Dyer is not much more than a few stray buildings as far as towns go, but there are many abandoned houses hanging around the area.

As I continued North on A NW I saw lava pillars form the volcanic activity that formed the area.

Shooting across 29.5 NW (what is it with the .5's?) I head East on Kropp Rd, Dezellem Hill Road, and begin winding my way down to the Chief Joseph Dam.

Once down to Hwy 17 South I continue South on Bridgeport Hill Rd to Hwy 172 and another abandoned home.

Cemeteries pop up when you least expect them...

The Kumar Cemetery is just a few miles NE of Waterville as I head back into town there and get ready for the fun run down Pine Canyon (Hwy 2) and home to Wenatchee.