Two Weeks On The Road - June 22nd 2009

Part of the Rattlesnake coming into Washington from Oregon on the Nez Perce National Historic Trail.

In Lewiston, Oregon. I sure wish that the history of the treatment of Native Americans read more like a fairy tale with a happy ending than the harsh reality that it is!!

The Old Spiral Highway as I climb out of Lewiston.

I've always wanted to spend time seeking out and photographing old barns.

Farm country in Washington State.

I awoke to partly cloudy skies and a 38 degree temperature in Enterprise, Oregon. I am posting a picture that I took outside the Best Western Motel that I was staying in. (I don't normally give chains free advertisement but the folks at this motel were super friendly and helpful.) You can see that the parking lot is only a few thousand feet lower than the snow line. No wonder it is so cold.

Today is the first day that I used all my heated clothing. I have Gerbing's jacket liner, over pants, and gloves. The combo kept me toasty warm all day. The down side is that I sort of felt like Ralphie's little brother in the Christmas Story when he was dressed up to go out in the snow. But warm is better than cold and is worth the price.

Entering Washington State I ran into rain once again. What a bummer as this area is called the Rattlesnake because it has so many turns. (It also has steep grades.) So once again I was forced to go slow and cautious instead of enjoying the turns. And even worse, it was a beautiful area that I was not able to try and capture with my camera. (I think that I need to get a digital, waterproof camera to use on my camera mount on the motorcycle.) The rain lasted about half and hour and gave way once again to partly cloudy skies.

The landscape turns from mountainous to beautiful rolling farmland as you travel northward in eastern Washington State.

I veered back into Oregon for a brief time at Lewiston. It is here that I rode the Old Spiral Highway. It is approximately 7 miles long and is on a fairly steep grade with many switchbacks. It wasn't raining so I got to really enjoy the ride!!

I arrived at my motel in Spokane mid-afternoon after a fairly short day of only 233 miles.

I have reservations for tomorrow night in Surrey, British Columbia. I am really looking forward to the ride through the Northern Cascades. Sure hope that it isn't raining!!!

Day 13 (6/21/09, Father's Day & The First Day of Summer Was A "Wash Out")

I was ready to leave the campground in Hell's Canyon by 7:30 and it had just started to sprinkle. Looking to the north (the direction that I'd be headed ) the sky looked like it was only partly cloudy. Based on my experiences of past 12 days, I expected to start the day with a brief shower followed by broken cloudiness. Boy was I wrong!

It started pouring a few miles from the campground and never let up. The temperature quickly fell from 53 to 41 degrees. You could see your breath!! (Some 1st day of summer!!!)

I was riding through what I knew had to be beautiful mountains. The road had many 15 MPH turns and I was going way below the speed limit due to visibility (rain and fog) and I was freezing. I drove about 80 miles where I reached the first populated area of the day, Joseph, Oregon, where I had breakfast.

Breakfast was interesting. It didn't matter what you ordered, they served it on a big plate and managed to fill it. The food was good but I barely ate half of what they served. While waiting for the food to be served I had several people approach me to talk about the Gold Wing or my journey. I really enjoyed the attention and conversation with these friendly folks. Especially once I thawed out!

I only traveled a few more miles up the road to Enterprise where I got a motel room because the rain was not letting up and it was 45 degrees. I spent the afternoon doing laundry, drying out my riding apparel and visiting with the family back home.

Today's 85 miles brought my average daily mileage down to 373 but I am still doing better than the 350 that I'd planned for the trip. I am getting anxious to find a place to spend a day without any forward progress.

Tomorrow I continue my journey northward.

Day 12

Route 12 promises a motorcyclist a good time and a cage (car) rider nausea!

Rural Idaho's Route 71 was no slouch in the scenery department.


The following pictures were taken on the Hell's Canyon Scenic Byway.

I am camping in Hell's Canyon, Oregon tonight. Despite the name, it is quite "heavenly"! I sure didn't expect to get on the internet out in the middle of nowhere but someone has an unsecured WiFi Access Point!

I left Hamilton, Montana around 8:30 this morning under cloudy skies with a temperature of 53 degrees. It remained more cloudy than not for most of the day. The high was around 73. And I only had one significant downpour to deal with.

My first objective was to ride the Lolo Pass which is Highway 12 that heads out of Lolo, Montana to the west. It was a delightful ride with long sweepers which are not challenging to navigate but offer up a good feeling as you lean through those turns. The road follows the river through the Bitterroot Mountain Range. It is beautiful and quite isolated.

I also had a good time on Route 71 that had a lot of tight turns (vs. sweepers which are challenging) as I headed northward toward Hell's Canyon.

The rest of the day (only about a third) found me in interesting country on roads fit for car travel. :-( But most of that was in Idaho which I think is about the loveliest of places. It is green and mountainous. I spent hours smelling the pine trees as I navigated those "car roads".

Hell's Canyon is really lovely. I am in a very nice campground (that I think that the power company subsidizes). The camping charge is $10 for the night!

After I set up camp I headed out to take the 22 mile (one way) ride throught the canyon to the power company's dam. What a wonderful, beautiful, twisty ride. It was worth the 423 miles I travelled today to reach Oregon and this lovely canyon.

Tomorrow I plan to head north through Oregon and back into Idaho to eventually head west into Washington.

Days 10 & 11

Chasing the rain!

The following were taken at Craters of the Moon National Monument.

The Sawtooth Mountains of Idaho. (These pictures won't replace the classic view you've seen before!)

On Thursday morning, 6/18/09, I left Tremonton, Utah for Fossil Butte National Monument in Wyoming. The ride over on US89 from Logan to Bear Lake made the trip worthwhile as it was the perfect road to ride a motorcycle on ... twisty and scenic. It's good because the Fossil Buttewasn't very exciting to say the least. From there I to Craters of the Moon NM in Idaho. Again the roads were all a pleasure to ride. By the time I arrived at Craters, I was pooped. I'd put in 385 pleasurable miles. There were campsites available so I picked out on close to water and toilets. After setting up camp, I fixed my first meal on the road. I fixed Beef Stoganoff w/ Noodles. Pretty impessive, huh? Not really as I just added 2 cups of boiling water to the freeze dried package that I bought at Wal-Mart. It was actually pretty tasty, at least in the setting that I was enjoying.

Friday morning I fixed a cup of coffee using a "coffee bag" (like a tea bag) and boiling water. (I'm getting pretty good at boiling water!) Then I broke camp, but before leaving Craters, I rode and hiked the NM for a couple of hours. Pretty interesting if you've never seen lava flows, which I hadn't. The end of the day found me in motel in Hamilton, Montana after yet another enjoyable day of riding 358 interesting miles. The worst part was the rain that greeted me at the Montana boarder and followed me all the way (approx. 50 miles) to Hamilton.

Tomorrow I set out for Lolo, MO and the Lolo pass (Route 12) which is supposed to offer a great ride for motorcyclist.

Day 9 - Traveling Route 89 Through Utah

After traveling 364 miles today from Hatch in southern Utah to Tremonton in northern UT, I checked in for a free night at the Hampton Inn. The journey offered many interesting views of the mountains and various rock formations. I took US 89 rather than I15 most of the way and was able to travel at a slightly slower pace soaking up the scenery. The views cutting through the Wasatch Mountains southwest of Provo, UT were unbelievable.

Until today I'd only ridden though a few brief showers despite many a threatening sky. But it finally happened ... today the sky opened and dumped a significant amount of rain. Worst part about it was that I was on I15 in the Salt Lake City area where there were 5 lanes of heavy traffic so I got as much dirty water from the spray created by the traffic as I did clean water from the heavens! Driving was very hectic for about an hour.

Tomorrow I am modifying my trip plan to visit Fossil Butte National Monument in Wyoming and Craters of the Moon in Utah.

Oh, by the way, I may not have mentioned that I modified my original plan and decided to skip Las Vegas. So today, I traveled northward through Utah rather than Nevada.

Day 8

The above picture and next two were taken at the Roaring Springs Canyon.

All of the following canyon pictures were taken at the Grand Canyon.

I am only posting the following two picures taken at Zion National Park. The afternoon was very dark and overcast and the pictures just didn't turn out.



Well I started the second week off by visiting the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. It is certainly the most awesome and majestic of all the canyons I've seen on this trip. Canyonlands might have some bigger ones but they are not as deep as the "Grand One!"

After traveling over 200 miles upon returning to my starting point after visiting The Canyon, I went over to Zion NP. It is smaller than the other parks I've seen but believe that it has some of the largest rock formations. Breathtaking. Plus I got to go both ways through a 1.1 mile tunnel in the park.

I'm settled down in Hatch, UT this evening after putting 275 miles on the odometer today. My goal tomorrow is to travel at least as far north as Salt Lake City. I have no planned stops.

Day 6 & 7

Breakfast - All the gentlemen inside were wearing cowboy hats (except me).

Going to Bryce Canyon

The following pictures were taken at Bryce Canyon

The following were taken at Cedar Breakes National Monument.

I am well and have been treated to some wonderful weather to be exposed to the elements the way that I am on the Gold Wing. I have ridden through some very brief showers but never enough to justify putting on my rain suit.

On Sunday, I rode 265 miles and visited Capital Reef NP and rode the Burr Trail.

Sunday night I camped for the first time and didn't have internet access to post to the blog. I had a campsite at the BLM Calf Creek Recreation Area. The campsite was perfect and imagine that it will be the best one for the entire trip.

Monday I rode 270 miles and went to Bryce Canyon and Cedar Breaks National Monument.

Monday night I am in a motel in Mount Carmel, UT.

On Tuesday I plan to visit Zion NP and head for the north rim of the Grand Canyon.