Oregon Ride to BMW Rally and through a plague

I took the Blackbird for a little ride around Oregon last weekend, went to the BMW Rally and picked up 8 Rose City Oregon Trail checkpoints and rode through a plague of locusts along the way.


Day 1 of 4 - Thursday Evening
Marysville, WA to Goldendale, WA 235mi.

Route: http://smal.in/Goldendale
Pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/VF700F/OregonGrandTourThreads1#

Brian and Pete were headed to the BMW Rally in Redmond, OR and I had a Friday day-off coming up. On Thursday at work I decided I had to go. I wanted to get away to relax, been too busy lately. My bike was ready to go; my new stator is working great. I packed when I got home and got on the road. My goal was to get at least to Goldendale, WA. I took the back way east of Seattle to avoid the nightly jams. I planned to fuel up on this side of Snoqualmie Pass, but at North Bend I saw an electric sign that said the road would be closed for construction blasting at 8pm. Acckk… that was in a half hour. I needed to get over that pass now. So I pushed on and of course my fuel light came on. Thankfully I have loaded a new powercommander map that gives me up to 45mpg. But not wanting to push it, I stopped at the top of the pass for the expensive fuel. I made it a quick stop and got back on I-90 with 15 minutes to spare. I rode right past those guys moving the orange barrels out into the road. Whewww… It was a beautiful summer night across eastern Washington. I hit it just at temps were dropping and it was a comfortable 75 degrees. By the time I neared Goldendale, I felt I could go on several more hours. But I had heard the estimate of 6,000 bikes headed to central Oregon and figured many rooms were probably taken. So I stopped short at Goldendale, 2.5 hours away. As it was I got there at 10:15pm and had to press the night call button and interrupted the manager’s TV program.


Day 2 of 4 - Friday morning
Goldendale, WA to Summer Lake, OR 250mi

Route: http://smal.in/summerlake

I took off early in the morning, well early for me. ;-) I crossed over the Columbia River and was greeted in Oregon with 55 mph speed limits on 2 lane highways. I was taking it easy, sometimes a bit over +5. Coming over a rise in the road, an Acura flashed his HID lights at me; they kind of strobed and it caught my attention. I got the warning and checked my speed. I was OK, and then was pinged with KA band radar from a friendly Oregon State Trooper. I assume he was
friendly as he didn’t stop me. ;-) I got to the BMW Rally at about 10:20am. I looked for familiar bikes in the parking lot and found Brian’s green RTP with a red top box. I was changing into street clothes when he came up to his bike. He didn’t even recognize me. We have been strangers this year, both so busy. We chatted for a few, and then he went riding, chasing dams.

http://www.bmwmoa.org/rally10

I registered for the rally and called Pete. We met over by the food. It was getting hot, I put some sun screen on and Pete got some water; it got up to 92f, no clouds were to be seen. We toured the fairgrounds it was like a huge bike show. We looked everything from underwear to armor. Many vendors attended knowing they had a crowd of actual riders to pitch to. The BMW folk are interesting people who love their bikes, but it is like a cult or religion, like I was attending a camp meeting. We saw custom seats, multiple types of lights, maps, tankbags, riding gear and BMW’s. In the afternoon Pete and I attended a seminar where the history of the K-bike was presented. Pete has the latest evolution, the K13s. A video of a K13s accelerating to its top speed on the Autobahn, wow it is fast! Oh, one of the vendors was demonstrating the Nomar tire changer and tire plugging kits. And in front of the trailer was the nicest bike out at the rally, Dragonslayer’s mint 2003 CBR1100XX Blackbird! We had a great time and the rally was worthwhile. I really enjoyed it. Pete and I bought LDComfort.com shirts, and I got some ROK straps. We decided to call it a day. Pete had a room south at Bend, OR, and I wanted to head south to a Grand Tour checkpoint. We rode together down to Bend, honked and waved and went our separate ways.

When I got near Lapine I noticed on my GPS that my route to the Summer Lake checkpoint headed out into no-mans land where fuel is scarce. I had come very close to running out on the same road last year. I had to stop at a RV campground to get some fuel out of a farm tank. So I filled up at Lapine. I also called ahead and made reservations at The Lodge at Summer Lake. I passed by the campground and a Harley event called “Summer Explosion” was in full swing. I also passed through Silver Lake, OR past a large flat grassy area that shows up as water on my GPS. I asked later and found that there hasn’t been water in Silver Lake for a long time. I got to the lodge about 8:15pm. The lodge is great, a neat getaway place in the middle of nowhere. They were not that busy. They are busy at other times of the year with
bird watchers and hunters, hopefully not at the same time.

http://www.thelodgeatsummerlake.com/


Day 3 - Saturday Summer Lake, OR to Reedsport, OR
the long way, 436 miles

Route: http://smal.in/reedsport

Pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/VF700F/OregonGrandTourThreads1#

My motorcycle brings me to cool places to meet unique people and have great experiences; the road is the thread that ties it all together.

The Lodge at Summer Lake is very nice, quiet and relaxing. Out back is a little lake that was like glass and fish were jumping and toads were croaking. I didn’t see any redwing blackbirds though. I had good sleep, good breakfast. It would be a great place for a family reunion. It is a long way from anywhere. The owners were moving stuff in preparation for some birders. At breakfast in the restaurant I talked to a retired telecom guy who said he basically lived off the grid. He wasn’t pleased with current state of affairs with the economy and the government. He said if it gets too crowded in Summer Lake he would move on. ;-)

He recommended that I backtrack to Silver Lake. Along the way I was cruising along and felt something hitting my boots and legs, then it felt like someone with a machine BB gun shooting at me in the chest and shoulders and legs, I kind of ducked into it, cringing as it hurt, I had to slow down a bunch so it wasn’t as painful. I new it was some type of bug, and finally saw the little suckers jumping from the road; it was a plague of locusts. They were thick for about 5 miles, I was in a swarm; they got all over my facesheild and helmet. Glad I have armor. Finally I got out of the cloud and resumed cruising speed. Just as I got out of the cloud a group of bikes were coming from the Summer Explosion. Hah… the lead Harley rider had no shirt on. I was thinking how can I warn him of the impending pain? Maybe I could have put my arms up like a grasshopper, or sign language G - R - A - S ... but I don't even know how to sign, and that may have confused him. But I did laugh out loud in my helmet, wishing I would have turned around to watch the reaction. I’ll bet it caused a welt or two. My vote is for all the gear, all the time.

More info on Oregon locust plague: http://smal.in/locustplauge

I continued on turning on a forest service road that passes by the Klamath Marsh. Fort Klamath General store was another GT checkpoint, and I gassed up here. I went north near Crater Lake took the back way to Canyonville. I rode for a few miles down I5 to Azalea, OR to pick up another checkpoint. I met Mike on a red Valkyrie; he was also picking up the checkpoint. We found we had common interests, we grabbed a bite, he had pie, and I had the chili. I had saved a waypoint on the Lower Graves Creek road last year when flying with Blackbirds. Birds of a feather flock together don’t you know. I took Wolf Creek Road to get there. These roads are like riding a roller coaster tight banked corners that rise and fall. Quite fun! This route was a shortcut to avoid the busy Grants Pass area. It passes by the Rouge River a popular river rafting destination. I saw where folks were putting there boats in. Then I aimed west to Gold Beach over Bear Camp Road Coastal Route. The Bear Camp Road is where James Kim and his family were stranded in the winter.

Rogue River Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rogue_River_%28Oregon%29

Bear Camp Wiki, including Kim family ordeal: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bear_Camp_Road

Bear Camp Road was thought to be a shortcut. But heck it is scary even in the summer. It is a very desolate place. It is a nice motorcycle road though, 68 miles of twistys. I saw many catamaran pontoon boats on the Rogue and on trailers. The road climbs to 4700 ft in the coastal range. It is very tight & twisty. It was nice to cool off to 75 up at elevation. Then I headed down to the ocean at Gold Beach, OR another checkpoint. I got my book stamped and headed north along the coast. The Oregon coast is beautiful, big rocks, blue waves crashing against the sand. I found coffee at a place called the Human Bean in Bandon. I had been looking for some good coffee all day. I kept pushing on up the coast, past the Oregon dunes, lots of quads and dune buggies having fun in the sand. I was trying to get as close to the checkpoint in Elkton, OR. It was closed and I would pick it up in the morning. I ended up stopping at the west end of Reedsport at a nice old motel. Had taco pizza for dinner across the street.



Day 4 - Sunday
Reedsport, OR to Marysville, WA 556 mi

Route: http://smal.in/tohome
Pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/VF700F/OregonGrandTourThreads1#

Today’s ride home started out cool at 60 degrees so I used my electric liner. I was cozy on the ride over to Elkton, OR. On Umpqua highway 38 there were many folks with their lumbering motorhomes and travel trailers heading home from the coast. It was basically a moving slolam course. I got to the checkpoint, a pastry shop in Elkton and saw some sportbikes parked out front. One rider of a CBR 600F4 was heading in to meet some folks from a local sportbike forum. Their bikes were clean looking, didn’t look like they get ridden much. We talked about riding for a bit. In our conversation he passed along some local tribal knowledge of a fun route to Mapleton. Basically head over to Lorane and head west into the mountain on the Suislaw River forest road service road. It was an awesome road, one of the best of the trip, once again tight twists and up and down elevation changes. Except for the barricade. The road was closed on a section that was the shortest way to Mapleton. I rode down to where the road was blocked off thinking I might be able to ride around the gate and through some narrow road construction. But this was not to be, not like when I rode near Mt. Fuji with James. We were able to get around several gates, uhh but that time we had dual-sports. Somewhere out here I saw a bomb sticking into the roof of a mobile home.

But my detour wasn't too bad and didn't waste too much time. It actually was another section of a fun road, the Wolf Creek road. So I had been keeping a casual 8 tenths pace behaving myself all day. But I was having fun; I don’t know what got into me, maybe memories of my adolescent youth… Near the end of Wolf Creek road, I was riding along minding my own business, came around a corner and there were these lanky skaters hanging around slowly drifting across the road. They were at the top of a curvy downhill with longboards. I slowed almost to a stop in first, they got out of the way and waved; I hit the throttle and did a stonkin vertical wheelie down the road. I was kind of surprised how far it came up; it was one of my best! I continued
down the road and saw a car coming, with a guy hanging onto the rear car door on the driver’s side rolling on a longboard, surfing with the car pulling him up the hill. I did the circular “crazy” motion with my finger next to my head. ;-) Those kids are crazy…

At Mapleton the checkpoint was a bakery that made gingerbread, so I “had” to buy some cookies. Boy were they good. I spoke with a guy that was into boating. He was a software guy from HP. He made a comment to me that with my camelback I looked like a character from "Tron" the movie. We discussed that it was a good and bad movie. He also told me about the Rogue River tours. I had seen boats putting into the river, and then was almost taken out several times on the narrow Bear Camp Road where the boats were on trailers being towed back to the put-in area of the river. He said the catamaran pontoon (cantoon?) raft trip takes 4 days and up to 5 if you spend more time at your stops. Sounds like fun. He told me to visit the Triangle Lake Park and hike down to where you can slide on rocks at the river. I will have to go back.

From Mapleton, I took another road recommended by the rider in Elkton, Highway 36. It was another awesome motorcycle road. I then got onto Highway 99 and slogged north to my next checkpoint, the Evergreen Air Museum in McMinville, OR. I wanted to get there before closing to get my book stamped. I got there with 10 minutes to spare. As they were about to close the girl at the desk told me I could wander around for a few minutes if I wanted? She saw that my jaw had dropped to the floor as I was looking at the huge, umm, bigger than huge Spruce Goose. It’s the troop transport that Howard Hughes built out of wood. I walked around it and saw lots of other planes, one a Boeing B17. I tried to get into the other building that houses the SR-71 Blackbird, but it was closed. I walked around the outside to get a picture of it. At another building under construction was a 747 perched on the roof. It is going to be a feature in a water park. Kids will be able to get up into the airplane and take a water slide out of it.

My next checkpoint was at the Yankton Store, west of St. Helens, OR. Along the route to the store, I saw the last stragglers in the STP – Seattle to Portland bicycle ride. In a neighborhood I saw a sign that said, "garage sale, husband is away". I thought it was funny, and then realized I was away… By the time I got to the store I was ready for another break. I tried their famous chili, and it was good. As I was leaving I spoke to another interesting fellow. He was a younger guy, very technical and we talked bikes. He was a mechanic and now drives a bus. He rides a cruiser but now wants to get a Ducati GT-1000. And again I got some great local advice on how to improve my route. He described the couple turns needed to get to the Vernonia Highway. Once again it was another of the best roads of the trip. And this road is closer to home. This would be the last of the twisties. The rest of the ride was just a cruise up I5 to home. I got home at 11:30 pm and all my junk was still in the garage.

It was a weekend getaway trip. The bike and setup worked great. I met many interesting folks, saw some incredible country and rode some awesome roads!