It was Ohhh dark o'clock, and a semi quiet morning, the moon was almost full (I think it was the day before) and the temp was in the low 50's - Perfect for riding. I lucked out with my odometer reading a straight up 104,000 so figuring out how far I'd gone in a day and this trip was going to be easy! This morning I was going to meet my riding partner Lloyd Gardner for a Dam marathon of sorts. We have both signed up for the 2011 Dam Tour and were out to snag some dams this weekend. Our meeting stop was the rest area right off I-5 near the Everett Mall roughly 10 miles from my house at 4 AM. I rolled in about 3:58 and we were outta there about 4:04. The best part about leaving so darn early is that traffic was minimal throughout the Pugetopolis region (Everett-Seattle-Tacoma-Olympia).
I had spent a small fortune on new HyperPro shocks and wasn't really happy with them but was glad to feel that they were now nice and smooth as I floated over the control/expansion joints on the south side of Seattle (old Rainier Brewery area). Usually I'm beat to death down there but this morning it was smooth as glass (must be the extra weight of the saddle bags and gear I was carrying). The next thing I knew we were breezing through Tacoma and as we passed through the Nisqually delta towards Olympia we hit the lowest temp of the day ~38-39 depending on whose gauge you looked at.
The sun had risen and we got off at Woodland, WA exit to get some gas. Lloyd was anxious to get our first victim, the "Swift Dam" about 36 miles east of the freeway so we blew off getting some breakfast. The ride was quite beautiful but also very difficult on the eyes as we were heading into the sun and the shadows cast from the trees caused all sorts of tricks on the eyes so we had to drive carefully to the dam.
The quickest route was to head back out to the freeway, somehow we were routed down to Battle Ground, WA where we hit McD's for a quick breakfast then out to I-5 and south. Both Lloyd and I agreed that taking I-205 was to slow when going through Portland for any trip so I was surprised when Lloyd took the lead and got us off the freeway after the 5-205 split. We ended up driving east through Vancouver WA to I-205. Lloyd mentioned he talked with Dennis York (another friend who lives there) and Dennis said this was a quicker way to the dam. (I think it might have been shorter but not quicker.) We ended up driving through the country side and a bunch of small town areas with a bunch of stop lights. At one corner in the middle of nowhere there was a beautiful field of goldenrod type flowers.
The 3rd victim was Fall Creek Dam down near Eugene, OR.
By now we both were starting to get HOT and at our stop for photos we took our liners out of our jackets and I ended up taking off my polar fleece pants so I was now riding in my insulated riding pants and gym shorts, it was so nice to cool off. Now back to being in the middle of nowhere country side enjoying seeing some new sites.
The 4th dam of the day was Whistlers Bend dam about 1/2 hour east of Roseburg, OR.
The final dam of the day was near my old stomping grounds of Gramps Pass, OR and west of there is Selmac Dam.
Mt Shasta looked pretty incredible in different shades of pink on the snow as the sun was going down. The temps were still up there but with the sun going down riding was more tolerable. I was leading and as we approached Redding Lloyd passed me and was motioning something. Although I could not really see his hands in the darkness I knew he needed gas so I followed him into a Shell station and we both filled up. About a mile or so down the road we found an inexpensive Motel (Lloyd is the king of finding inexpensive lodging ;-). We unloaded into our rooms and hit the hay as another early morning departure would soon be upon us. Today's mileage was roughly 850.
6-18-11
Another early day on the bike had us zipping down I-5 for a little while then Lloyd took over and got us off on some farm roads headed east towards Chico. The sun was starting to rise over the mountains and the sunrise was spectacular.
HH Dam is about 60 miles from the freeway and the first 10-15 miles were fine but the road quickly degenerated to a Goat//Sheep trail. The road had pot holes all over, was nice and curvy but not good for any kind of speed riding on a bike. My Valentine 1 was powering off and on it seemed every other minute because of these potholes so I finally turned it off. We went way down to the river and back up to the top of the hills. At one point I asked a local if we were on the right road and he said yes and that he hoped we could get to the dam as there was snow covering the road a few weeks ago when he tried to get there.
After about 2.5 hrs we saw the lake and stopped for a bathroom break and photo op. I saw some neat little lizards, cool trees and a great view.
After getting our obligatory shot at the dam with our number on the bike we headed back to the freeway. Neither of us were to jazzed about the road but I punched in the next dam and quickest route and it took us a different way out. Of course at the the first opportunity the GPS wanted us to head down a dirt road and we both agreed to stick to the pavement which eventually brought us out to French Meadows Dam where a construction crew was working and were quite surprised to see 2 large motorcycles wanting to go through.
They stopped and let us pass over the bridge and on the other side of the bridge was a fantastic (compared to the sheep trail) paved road which we made good time getting back to Auburn and the freeway area. On our way I was leading and just smoking along when I passed something in the middle of the road and slammed on the brakes. It was a giant (well to me) 3.5' long King Snake which was black with white bands around the body. Since I'm terrified of snakes I decided I'd just stay on the bike a safe distance away and watch it head off the road into the brush. This time the 60+ miles only took us 1 hr and 50 min so we saved 40 min which we filled the tanks of the bikes one more time and swung over to KFC for the big meal of the day. As luck would have it we got in right before another 2 tour buses stopped with all sorts of folks from Japan.
Back out to I-80 and east to Reno. My Valentine 1 was still acting up as we continued to head north, grrrr... The road was concrete and had lots of ruts but everyone was screaming up to Reno where road construction was causing havoc. (While still in CA I was leading and was really tired. I didn't realize how tired I was but must have been closing my eyes a few times here and there, at one point I kind of flashed a bit and was moving towards the right jersey barrier, let me tell you both Lloyd and I were wide awake after that close encounter - dang!) We didn't have to deal with much of that but we did get to enjoy a hearty wind coming from the NW. It was so strong that EVERY flag we saw was standing out and standing proud. Up 395 towards Susanville, CA we went battling the wind. As we were passing by Honey lake I noticed my GPS mentioning that we wouldn't be going to Susanville after all but it wanted us to head north right past the lake. Thank goodness there was a rest area so we stopped and conferred. I checked the plumbing and Lloyd checked his GPS for petrol as that was high on the list right now.
Lloyd lead to the next gas station which turned out to be in the small community of Standish. Gas was the cheapest we'd found it so far this trip at 4.25.9 per gallon - gack! As we pulled into the station there were 2 pretty spankin new BMW R1200GS's with all the trimmings, metal saddle bags, dry bags strapped on topm and all sorts of other farkles on them. I went to talk with one that just finished gassing up but he gave me the "I can't hear because I have headphones in" routine or was being snobbish, whatever... After we finished fueling I asked Lloyd which way we were headed and he pointed the route. I then asked which way the posers went on their shinny new GS's and he pointed the same direction. I then said, "Lets hunt down some GS's" and off we went. If you've ever ridden or driven on Hwy 395 north of Standish or south of Alturas you know there is a whole lot of open space where you can let your rig really stretch it's legs. I finally tried a different power cord and the Valentine 1still didn't want to work so I just took it off all together and decided we'd just have to go at a speed close to the limit (can you believe it?).
About 40 miles north of our gas stop I noticed a bright yellow/greenish moving spot up ahead and slowly I determine it was our Posers from San Diego on their new bikes. We slowly reeled them in and I was chuckling in my helmet as these guys were behind about 3 other vehicles, a big 18 wheeler and another car. Helloooooo... You guys are in the middle on NOWHERE and puttin along behind a bunch of rigs. Well I didn't even slow down, my throttle lock had been set for miles and I just flipped on the turn signal and went on by the entire lot. Lloyd must have been chuckling in his helmet as well and he just followed suit like a couple of fighter pilot making a few banked turns together. The Posers decided to pass everyone but slowly fell back out of sight.
We got to Alturas and filled up at the highest price gas on the trip at $4.29.9. At the station we met a nice guy on a beautiful Harley that was just riding around and enjoying life. The posers passed by and we headed west to the next victim - Gerber Dam in southern Oregon.
I never saw the sign for Oregon but we had arrived in Malin Oregon a nice small farming community and I was starting to get cold as the sun was slowly starting to go down and the winds were still pulling the chill right off my bones. I stopped and told Lloyd that I wanted to stop and put on my jacket liners and he moaned something about 30 or so miles to the dam so we headed off. I followed my GPS and he followed his. I went right up main street and he went into the neighborhood, at the other end of town I waited for him (I could have put my liner on in that amount of time ha, ha) but he showed up shortly and off we went.
The entire valley of Bonanza OR is just beautiful. Many farms, one I saw had a home built of rock (2 stories tall with a killer entry way with columns and all). The sun was low on the horizon and the colors of the green fields were perfect for picture taking, the streams were the bluest of blues, but we were on a mission and were late enough as it was so we continued to the dam. Up and over a small ridge where some of the turns were truly 15 mph turns. Over the top I saw a small pond with a few Sand Hill Cranes and made a mental note to stop on our way out and take a few photos.
Finally we arrived at the campground area and could see where the dam was but weren't quite sure how to get there so I led out to a point hoping the dirt road would take us back around but all we saw was a dead snake. I didn't know if it was a rattler or what so I took a photo for reference.
A quick turn around and we got to the real campground where we took some dam photos.
We had the dinner of champions (some jerky and whatever else we had), drank some water, used the facilities, put our liners on and decided we needed to make some time. It was getting towards dusk and we wanted to make it to Bend which was another 3 or so hours so we really had to make some time. I lit outta the campground with Lloyd on my 6 and we flew up to the spot where I wanted to shoot the Sand Hill Cranes but they were gone, then over the hill to the awesome valley view for another couple of shots.
As luck would have it coming towards us was Phil O'Connor from Bellingham, WA who was snagging this as his last dam. We wanted to stop and say Hi but both he and us were on a mission and time was not on our sides so a quick wave was it. The next stop was Klamath Falls to get some gas and then north on Hwy 97. I wanted to really make some time but since this was a more heavily traveled road and my V1 was out of commish we had to chill out and stick to a reasonable speed and the sun was setting but still gave off a lot of light. I lead with my high beams and extra lights for a while and then stopped at a rest area to see how Lloyd was doing. He lead for a while and since there wasn't much traffic I came up next to him so we could both use our brights and really light up the area as some spots had a ton of deer on the sides of the roads. When we'd come up to some traffic I'd drop back and let Lloyd lead and repeat. After a while I think Lloyd got a tad uncomfortable with it and decided to let me lead.
As we approached La Pine we hit rain - oh fun - NOT! This lasted for a few miles and we were shortly to Bend where Lloyd suggested we fill up so we were good for the morning. It was after 11 PM now and we stopped at a gas station all lit up got ready and no service. What the heck??? We kept going and every station we saw was shut down so we decided to find a Motel. I let the King lead and he found us a nice little motel at a reasonable price. A quick unload and shower and the next thing I know it's 12:30 AM and we planned on getting up at 4:14 AM gack! Oh well..........
Day 2 and roughly 890 miles tomorrow would be another day. ;-)
6-19-11
Ahhh The final day of our trek. We left the motel around 4:30 and hit our 1 dam of the dam (North Unit).
It was still quite dark but we managed to get our shots and were off towards Prineville for our final dam of the ride. Neither of us cared to ride into the sun but that's the way it is. We flew into Prineville, and a few miles on the east side came to the final victim of the weekend Ochoco dam.
The moon was still out and it was a beautiful morning. We grabbed our shots and headed back to Prineville for some gas and a granola bar then it was time to head for home. I wanted to get home before 2 PM so I could get the puppy out of hock and Lloyd wanted to get home before noon which was fine with me. Up 97 we went to Madras then NW on 26 towards Portland. Everything was going well until we hit the Mt Hood area and elevation. Rain, clouds, fog, viability was really poor so we just dealt with it and drove slow. When we got to the town of Gresham the clouds were higher and the rain stopped but still a dark gray day. We zipped down I-84 to I-205 and north we went up to Woodland for gas and a quick bite at the gas station.
Now as I started to get some gas a young lady (tried to pick me up which never happens ;-) OK, she started talking with me and come to find out she had been riding with us for a while (I don't know how far) but she left the little town of Tumalo (near Bend) this morning also. She was headed to Issaquah and us to Everett, She took off and we did shortly there after. I've never seen Lloyd "Parnelli Jones" Gardner ride like this before as he led from here on home. The I(ndy)-5(hundred) was total CHAOS this morning, people were driving like crazy and Lloyd was weaving in and out and putting them to shame. As we approached Seattle the signs were letting us know that the 520 floating bridge was closed in both directions and I figured traffic was bad and that he was calling his wife for info. We ended up skirting the city by going around I-405 and up to home. Near Everett Mall I gave him a final wave as he exited and I carried on home. (We did get home before noon - for me it was 11:55 AM)
Once home I didn't even unload the bike except for my GPS. I tossed stuff on the table, got out of my riding gear and zipped up to get the pup and all was well.
Here is a link to the Spot tracker page. I forgot to turn it on the last day - doh
Another successful trip.
Day 1 ~850 miles
Day 2 ~890
Day 3 ~560
The total on my odometer was 2136
Gas $168.77
Food $29.54
Lodging $79.55
Dog spa treatment ;-) $80
Next time we'll try to make a little more time for stops and not do as many miles per day as that was a tad excessive. Of course when you have 2 ironbutt riders going places who knows where they will go or end up.
dam fine report brian! thanks. riding vicariously is all i get these days (hopefully that changes soon).
ReplyDelete(now, no more of that nodding-off sh*t while riding eh? )