Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Ever Been to Palouse Falls?
A long, long time ago icy lakes melted and froze, melted and froze. When they did, they sent huge walls of water across the Northwest, causing what are called the Missoula floods. The Missoula floods changed the landscape by carving canyons and making new rivers. Some of the rivers were so big they made waterfalls way bigger than Niagara Falls. There are a few dry falls around the Northwest from the floods. This one isn't dry. Palouse Falls is about 30 miles north of Walla Walla. Nice little park there, and trails to the falls if you have the time. Best in the fall, I think, or early in the morning. Bloody hot in the afternoon in July. Sally and I took pictures then walked really fast back to the car and turned on the air conditioning.
Monday, July 13, 2009
Pendleton, OR
In Pendleton, Oregon. Can't tell from looking at it but think the town's money was in ranching once upon a time. Known for its great "Round Up" rodeo. Never been to that, but you know any town that puts "Hear the air raid siren at noon" on its tourist things to do list goes straight on my bucket list.
Not as cute as I thought it would be. Not really a concentrated cool area to walk around in. You have to go seek out neighborhoods with interesting old houses scattered about. They could have at least bunched them together. :) Sorry, Pendleton, but Winthrop, WA gets higher marks on my "Cute Western town" scale.
Tomorrow back through Walla Walla - so nice I have to swing through twice - to hit another twisty road, then its all highway all the way home.
In a Rut? Visit Oregon Train Interpretive Center
I'm at the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center at Flagstaff Hill outside Baker City. Cost $8 to get in and see the pioneer interpretations. There's a cool gold stamp mill and a mine here too. You have to walk a mile and a half from here to see the ruts. No way in biker boots and leather. I'm driving to the roadside viewing point recommended for the differently abled and elderly. :)
Fast forward 15 minutes. Made it to the ruts. Yup, still rutty after 150 years. Cool. The sign says you can tell they're the real Oregon Trail ruts because there's a center rut where the horses walked. Wait, I don't see a center rut. Those deer tracks on the pavement sign look kind of suspicious too.
The Cold and the Beautiful: All in a Day's Ride
Which of the following did I not encounter on my ride this a.m.? A) hail B) dense fog C) torrential downpour D) deer in the road E) cows in the road F) potholes G) Sasquatch H) lightening and thunder I) 40-degree temperatures J) cold winds.
If you guessed G, hooray!
I jammed the hell away from Hells Canton Overlook when the thunder delay after the lightening was about .01 seconds and the winds started dumping hail again. See the photo? I"m literally ready to run! Brrrrr!!!
Hells Canyon Scenic Byway: Prepare for Anything
Thunder and lightening and hail and freezing rain on Hells Canyon Scenic Byway, Oregon Highway 39. Kind of scary.
Started out at 7:30 a.m. It was raining a little but the darkest clouds I've ever seen loomed ahead - and went on as far as I could see. Couldn't decide whether to go a different route or stick to the plan to go up to the Hells Canyon Overlook. Anxious about finding gas out there in the woods -- knew it was 73 miles to the next town, and wasn't at all sure that town had a filling station. I can get 110 miles on the flats without bags...but with bags going up a mountain to 4,000 feet? Eek. Anxious about the road, which I'd heard was narrow, damaged and full of potholes. Anxious about being out there alone. What if something happened?
I sucked it in and kept going.
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Joseph in Bronze
Joseph, Oregon, is a city cast in bronze. The town cradled by the Wallowa Mountains has a bronze foundry at the north end of town that presumably cranks out the fantastic bronze statues that line main Street. Surprisingly the foundry isn't in a turn-of-the-twentieth century brick building with oversized rusting machinery sitting in the yard, but rather is housed in a metal building in a parking lot at the north end of town. Well known bronze artists, none of whom I'd recognize, live and work here. Tours 10:30 a.m. and 4 p.m. daily.
Lewiston to Joseph
Monday, July 6, 2009
Next Up: Sourheastern WA, Northeastern OR
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Ape Cave, Lava Canyon, Cougar and Yale
The last leg of Hwy 25 (DH4) from Ape Cave and Lava Canyon to Yale was a marathon. Man-made Swift Reservoir fairly glistened on my left as I zigged and zagged merrily making for gas and lunch. More windy road to play with, leaning right then left to take all the esses. Wheee!
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Washington's Highway 30 from Carson
Highway 30 north from Carson is full of esses, and once you settle in to them you feel like you're one with the bike and can take the road at 10 mph faster than posted limits in most places. There are a few tight corners where it's a good idea to adhere to the signs though.
Views of the volcano are plentiful. Today the top was cloud covered but otherwise the snow-covered volcano was breathtakingly striking. Yellow and purple flowers were blooming all over the place. I felt like I was in a volcanic Sound of Music.
I met very few cars on the road. Rode to Ape Cave and Lava Canyon next.
Ape Cave is a 1 1/4 mile lava tube you can walk through if you have the right gear, which I didn't. It was named after a local pack of Boy Scouts, there are no primates in sight. Gotta come back for some spelunking sometime.
Go past Ape Cave to Lava Canyon and get schooled on what lava does to the landscape.
Washington's Highway 25 to Windy Ridge- Not!
The road to Windy Ridge is gorgeous, fun, rough in spots, and ultimately impassable. If I hadn't been so hell-bent on come-what-may adventure, I would have found out in advance that Windy Ridge hasn't been reachable for nearly two years. The aforementioned Hwy 141 bridge washout just south of Randle (set to open this 4th of July weekend I'm told) stops you from the north, but it wouldn't matter cuz snow is piled high on the road up to Windy Ridge and has been that way since 2007. So a southern approach won't get you one iota closer. There are gates across the road about a mile north of the Muddy River viewpoint, which by the way, has a view of absolutely nothing except trees and the presumably muddy river. Hmph.
But the road. Oh, the road! Highway 30 (Wind River Road) north past the hatchery got into beautiful shady green forest and curves galore. Beware for about 3 or 4 miles they just laid down fresh gravel and oil. That part sucked, but I prided myself on the fact that even at reduced speeds I was still able to go fast enough to lose a motorcyclist behind me. Five buttes off to the right loom (Lava, North, Middle, South and Big), but I hardly noticed them through the thick trees enveloping the super windy road as I cruised over Oldman Pass.
Just past Northwoods, which had such scarcity of substance I passed it without realizing it was a town, a volcano viewing area comes up fast on the left. Too fast. I caught a glimpse of the massive Mt. St. Helens as I whizzed by the entrance. Shoot! Nowhere to hang a U, I kept going.t mile 32.5 where Hwy 51 (now Curly Creek Road) ends at Highway 25, there's a big "closed" sign covering the Windy River mileage sign. Below that, a huge orange sign "Road Closed Due to Snow." Shoot again! I plunged forward anyway, about a mile and a half til I hit a a locked gated and turned around.
Monday, June 15, 2009
Carson Hot Springs Resort
It's Fun to Say Klickitat, and Visit it Too
On Hwy 142 between Blockhouse and Klickitat (yes, there really is a Klickitat! There's a market, a restaurant and a trading post with gas station and old fashioned pumps you can't stick a credit card in!). This ride is awesome, with beautiful black rock walls perpendicular to the one lane road. Oh, and there are no guardrails and an immediate drop off to the Klickitat River far below. Fortunately ran into no other vehicles at all 'til some sun-baked pick up driver swerved into my lane just outside town...on the two lane road! Keep yer eyes peeled on this riverside ride. Twists and turns galore, and cool river air. This road makes my personal WA Top 20 list for sure.
Flat Out to Goldendale
Destination Highways puts Hwy 142 from Mabton to Goldendale WA @ #25 on its list. It's a kick-butt road with 15 mph twisties punctuated by long boring stretches of open range land up on the plateau and bookmarked by hills at either end. Smack in the middle is the town of Bickleton, home to resident Bluebirds and a cafe of the same name, reportedly Washington's oldest cafe. Looks it, too. The road is better than it looks where it has been patched, but beware the miles of fresh tar they just laid down about 5 miles north of Goldendale; it's ok once you get the feel of it but it's a surprise to hit in between nothing and nowhere.
The 61 miles will take you about two hours if you more or less observe the posted speed limits. It helps to travel with tunes to break the monotony of rolling brown between Bickleton and Mabton.
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Good Place to Rest in Sunnyside
Clouds, rain, hail, heat: A Detour Around Mt. St. Helens
I left Seattle just shy of 9 a.m. on a cloudy Sunday morning, headed for the eastern edge of Mt. St. Helens on my 2002 Harley Davidson Low Rider. The road to Windy Ridge is numero two on The Destination Highways Top 74 list of best motorcycle roads in Washington State. I've been wanting to ride up to Windy Ridge for the last few years, and finally I've plotted a trip to do it. On this trip I want to ride as many of the DH roads as I can in three days around South Central and South Western Washington.
Today the plan was to head South from Seattle around the east side of Mt. Rainier south past Puyallup, Elbe, Morton and Randle, checking off DH 57 starting just north of the teensy town of Tanwax (despite the name, there's no spa here) on Highway 7, and ending 32 miles later at Morton. From there I'd continue south past Mt. St. Helens to Carson on the Columbia River, doing Windy Ridge along the way.
South to St. Helens
It was a gray day, so though a mere 30 miles away, My. Rainier was tucked cozily out of sight. Highway 7 is chock full of twists and turns, making fun riding but slow going, with speeds staying between 25 and 35 mph, sometimes slower depending on when the Monaco Coach in front of me decided to hit the brakes.
Forest lines both sides of the road, but a lot of it is new growth from being logged, conjuring memories of the ride heading for the coast on Hwy 101 between Cosmopolis and Raymond. The La Grande post office is cute-as-a-button on the way to Elbe, and just about the time I was ready for a pit stop, Elbe appeared. Not much to stop for except maybe to see the historic church, and bad for motorcycles because every parking lot seemed to be made out of gravel. Since the mini-mart didn't have a restroom I had to stop at the Mt. Rainier Historic Railroad Visitor station, where you can buy railroad-themed souvenirs, for that. More gravel.
Back on the road, I caught a glimpse of a few fishing boats on scenic Alder lake, and cruised through to the official end of DH 57 in Morton, where the deli and espresso cafe is closed Sundays (boo). So, hunger pangs growing, I headed to Randle where I gassed up and got lunch at the Mt. Adams Restaurant, excited to head on to my next DH. The restaurant is at the turn off to DH 4, a 69 mile twisty road nirvana through the Gifford Pinchot National Forest that features glorious DH 2 - Windy Ridge - branching off the middle of it. A fabulous motorcycling two-fer! Except for one thing. A fellow motorcyclist at the restaurant mentioned that the Rte 131 bridge that washed out in 2007-2008 was still washed out. When I double-checked with the waitress, "Is there really no way through?" she just giggled and shook her head. Guess I wouldn't be doing the ride today after all.
Detour East
Undaunted, I decided to hit Windy Ridge from the south. But first I'd have to get there. I decided to head east, then curve back around towards the Columbia River from the Goldendale area. Fortunately, Highway 12 (White Pass), itself a fantastic motorcycle road (DH 7), offered almost enough curves and scenery to make up for the disappointment. Caution to White Pass riders: this road has been banged up pretty good in the last couple years. Bad patch jobs and sudden dips dot the road for about 20 miles heading east from Packwood.
White Pass is a beautiful, curvy road with magnificent views of the Cascades. Today, the mountains peeked out from under a cloud mass that shrouded the peaks but left the snow and tree-covered sides showing. The sun, which dared not show itself all day, finally made an appearance. Sightseers in campers pulled over at every scenic vista and snapped photos. I could see more grey sky ahead, but blue off to the east, so I hoped I'd miss the spot of bad weather. No such luck. About 5 miles from Highway 410, the rain began. In moments it became torrential, and in a few more moments it became stinging hail. I laughed inside my helmet, as I am wont to do when stricken by Mother Nature's unavoidable outbursts while on my bike, and pulled over. Luckily I had thrown rain gear in my bag just in case. Back on the road, the hail and rain ended almost as quickly as it had begun, and gave way to 80 degree weather as I rode into Naches.
A Couple Roads Around Yakima
Gassed up again, shed the rain gear, and in my most impulsive decision of the day, decided to find Naches Heights Road, listed as a "Twisted Edge," (DH's name for a fun alternative road) that skirted Yakima through the hills to the south. I was reminded, as I have been before, that the DH book sometimes gives crummy directions and has cryptic maps. After driving around the countryside for 15 minutes, turning around and guessing at roads, I found a road called Summitview and decided the name had promise for a motorcyclist. Indeed, it offered panoramic vistas of picturesque Yakima Valley farmland set against rapidly browning hillsides and clear blue sky. I was soon in the heart of Yakima, which seemed to teem with police cars, btw, and back on Highway 12.
I considered barreling straight through to Goldendale, but since I wasn't in a particular hurry I decided to head to Sunnyside and hit another DH Twisted Edge road. The temperature was 88 as I leaned the bars toward Highway 24 and the grassy brown Black Rock Valley. The road is flat and smooth, in way better shape than the mountain pass roads, and goes for about 26 miles between Eastern Washington's quintessential hills until the turn to Highway 241 south. Along the way, there are fields of hops and tree fruit, and the most massive stacks of wooden fruit crates I have ever seen - thousands of boxes stacked as high and wide as entire buildings.
Highway 241, the "Twisted Edge," is a lightly-travelled, pretty and windy ride through the Rattlesnake Hills, featuring scrub brush flanked by power lines, dropping into vineyards whereupon I promptly started visualizing of a cold glass of Sauvignon Blanc and knew I needed to pull in for the day. The Sunnyside Best Western beckoned on the horizon. It's got a hot tub. :)
Tomorrow I head south to Goldendale and on to Carson, WA, along the Columbia River. I'm aiming to hit at least three Destination Highways and one or two Twisted Edges tomorrow. And if I'm lucky maybe there'll be another adventure or two along the way.