Day 5 - Mark is safe and sound in Reno after a 579 mile ride

Day 5 - Best day so far

It’s a make up time day today. I need to be in Reno tonight so that I can be in Yosemite tomorrow, Sequoia day after, Death Valley day after after and Las Vegas on July 4. Gotta do some serious miles. I spend last night at Diamond Lake – home of the flocking mosquitos, there were on me before I turned the ignition off, and they were thick. But that 95.5% Deet from REI scares them away! I stayed within 25 miles of Tokateee Dam, so I snagged it first thing in the morning, then it was on to Crater Lake, down to Highway 66 (Green Springs Hwy – another awesome ride) down I-5 to Redding to visit Keswick (first bonus dam for me – woo hoo) cross Hwy 44 to Lassen Park and through Lassen on Hwy 89. If you are ever this way, this is a must do. The ride through Lassen was nothing shore of spectacular and probably the best ride so far. Up and down, twisties and turnies, taking you from basically 1,000 ft of elevation to over 8,500 ft, through trees, volcanic devastation, high mountain meadows and sulphur springs. Then it was on to Susanville, south on 395 to the Reno Worldmark, a hot shower, a late dinner and a nice comfortable bed. Definitely a step up from the Budget Inn in Ontario OR. And they have 3G coverage here, I can tether the Netbook to the iPhone and upload pictures that are not from the iPhone and update the blog, oh happy day!
Best things today: The Lassen Park ride nd the East Rim ride at Crater Lake and a shower

Challenge today – it was 101 degrees in Redding

Daily mileage – 596, total miles 2,103Best thing – the long rides are over with!

Nothing longer than 250 miles for the next month, woo-hoo

Mt Shasta off of I5
Hot stuff as Lasesn Park

Crater Lake West Rim

More Lassen Park, the road goes behind this and up to 8,511 elevation

Lassen Park through the windshield

Day 4 - Mark has now visited all 8 Oregon dams on Damtour2009

Day 4 – Oregon has some really, really straight roads and your gas tank is 4.6 gals, not 4.9 like you thought, you big dummy!

So, just like when you take your car into the shop and explain the symptoms to the mechanic, he (maybe she) hems and haws for a while and says “nothing really comes to mind, I’ll need to take it for a test ride”. And of course, none of the symptoms that you reported make them selves apparent during the test ride. So – you’re stuck waiting for a catastrophic failure. Anyway Keith at Edge Performance did his best to explain away my bikes lack of symptoms. It might be valves – WRONG, this was way too loud. It might be drive train slack – WRONG, gimme a break. It might be a u-joint, coming from the right place, but not making any noise now…..BINGO – as I learned 200 miles later! Evidently there is a sleeve that the drive line slides into and it started acting up near Silver Lake Oregon. Knock, knock, knock, sounded like marbles bouncing around in the transmission, and I was able to put my hand on the cover and feel it…..Some aggressive braking seems to have loosened it up and it’s not made noises now for over 800 miles, so I guess I’m okay. I’ll tear into it on a down day in Vegas later this week.
Today was mostly straight roads. The terrain is hilly, there is much agriculture, even more if you consider sagebrush a crop. I’m glad that I’m leaving eastern OR behind and moving into the trees.
Okay – ran out of gas 8 miles outside of Burns OR. My math skills are fine, the gas gauge works fine, my base for calculations was faulty. Fortunately my cook stove and bike can run on the same fuel and my 22oz gas can for the cookstove saved my bacon!
Best thing today – getting out of Ontario and having a spare (full) gas can
Challenge for the day – finding Silver lake, those road signs in Christmas Valley suck! They could have spent more time being informative and less time being cutesey with their friggin’ road names.
Funniest thing – the next picture

Going to Owyhee Dam

Now changing to California maps!

My home tonight

Diamond Lake- home of the flocking Mosquitos. 495 miles today and for
the most part the bike behavesd. The u joint has ocassional fits and
is the definitive source of the noise the mechanic couldn't find this
morning. It's gin and tonic time!

Running fine?

Just like taking a car in, couldn't find anything wrong I'm on the
road again, visited Owyhee Dam and headed for Thompson Reservoir.

Day 3 - What’s wrong Mister, is it to hot to ride today?

Hells Canyon on the way to "the end of the road"

Third Day – Oxbow to Owyhee and Silver Lake Ontario Or
What a beautiful Sunday! I’m at Oxbow Campground, right at the entrance to Hells Canyoun and it’s gorgeous. There’s a river running not 50’ from the tent, and the day holds much promise for some outstanding sights. First off is a 30 mile trip down the Snake River to the Hells Canyon Dam and the ride is just wonderful. I went early (before eight am is early for me) and didn’t break camp first, that way I could ride a little bit ‘sportier’. I must be hauling well over 100 pounds of equipment and the bike is not as nimble or fun with that junk on it. Besides, checkout time wasn’t until 11, so I had plenty of time. This is a road that you want to pay full attention while riding, there a3e some serious drop-offs, lack of guardrails, and the occasional rock on the road. Well worth the ride. And I can’t believe how small some of those boats/rafts were that they were launching almost right into the rapids.
Back to Oxbow to break camp, and then I headed into Idaho and another tine zone – Mountain Time. The first fifty miles were pretty good, and then I heard what sounded like I had loose cables of something – going ‘click, click, click’ so I pulled over to check it out, found nothing amiss and started up again. Five minutes later, same thing, only a little bit more dramatic. Pulled over again, and again aI found nothing amiss. Started up again and after five minutes it sounded like there was a loose marlble flying around in the crankcase. So what do you do? You’re out in the middle of nothing, the last town you passed has a population of 37. You know something has to be ahead, cause there is surely nothing behind me. So I played the which speed seems safest game. I believe that the rule if you are going slow you need to pull over and let people that want to go faster than you pass. When was the last time you saw that on a motorcycle? And I found that if I went about 35mph the marble bouncing around sounded close enough to someone playing the xylophone that I was unseemingly soothed…….
I nursed the bike to a Napa store (the first sign of anything remotely to do with transportation) and they laughed at me when I asked about a bike shop being nearby. But once they recovered, they directed me to a dealer 20 miles away – that also happened to have a Motel two blocks away.
So here I sit in the Budget Inn of Ontario Oregon. Certainly not as nice as the campground I stayed at last night, and four times as expensive. But I do have my own mini frig, soilded carpet, mismatched furniture, and it is convenient to Love’s Truck Stop and Edge Suzuki of Ontario. I’ve torn the bike apart to the section where the factory manual states “special tool required” – and I know what the problem is – the oil pump chain has way, way too much play. I’ll be first in line at the dealers tomorrow at 9am and can start working on Plan B then!
Best part of today – I made it to civilization. The little lady that runs the Inn didn’t scold me too much when she caught me mechanic-ing in her parking lot. I thought that I may possibly have been good advertising for the type of clientele that this dump probably attracts!
Challenge for the day - *&^%$&^ Suzuki!
Mileage 149, over 70 under duress, total mileage 1,036

Oh the What’s wrong Mister, is it to hot to ride today comment? That's what the desk clerk asked me when I checked in!

Day 2 - The Bhagwan says - Scraping the pegs on the twisties

The campground at Oxbow

Eastern Oregon

Deschutes River

Side of the road between Shaniko and Antelope

The sign say Antelope

Second Day – The Dalles to Oxbow Dam
Headed south out of The Dalles on 197, and headed east at Tygh Valley in search of Rock Creek Dam. The country is very different from yesterday, wheat fields and sagebrush and not many trees. The route to the dam did gain a bit in elevation, but the trees are much sparser than 50 miles west. Found the dam, headed back to Tygh Valley and on the spur of the moment decided to take the road less travelled, Highway 216. This in another great motorcycle road – it goes through gullies and canyons, follows the Deschutes River for a bit and is really fun. But it’s a pale comparison to what was next, Highway 218 from Shaniko to Fossil. All right, it’s only been two days, but I’ll wager that leg is going to be one of my all around favorites. Maybe the Bhagwan rode a bike and that’s why he decided to settle in Antelope? This ride is simply not to be missed. Anyway, from there onwards to Condon, Heppner (pave your main drag, will you please Heppner?) and McKay Dam just south of Pendleton. Back to I84 and a high speed cruise to Baker City for the 60+ miles to Oxbow. Which is another darn fine ride. The Idaho Power Campground is Oxbow is clean, green, only costs $10 for a tent and has free unlimited time hot showers.
Best Part about today – Highway 218 from Shaniko to Fossill is cool. There are so many posted 15 mile per hour turns and one section that even looks a little bit like Lombard Street in San Francisco – there are lots of switchbacks.
Challenge for today – It’s hard to make good time on the backroads. I had to take I84 from Pendleton to Baker City instead of Highway 395 and Forest Service Roods 52 and 24. Oh well, be flexible as I will learn tomorrow……..
Mileage – 458, total mileage 887

Day 1 - What are you thinking?

Mount Hood

Just outside of Astoria on the way to Fish Hawk

Outside of Raymond WA

Outside of Raymond WA

Leaving Home

First Day – Seattle to The Dalles, by way of Astoria, Birkenfeld and Government Camp
First off, I want to apologize for the lack of pictures. I’ve not had decent wi-fi of 3G coverage on this trip….yet. I’ll pose ‘em up once I find coverage. But back to the story. Okay Mark, riding to The Dalles by way of Astoria, Birkenfeld and Government Camp is no where near a straight line, a road frequently travelled or the way any person in their right mind would commence a journey. Just what are you thinking or are you directionally impaired?
I joined a motorcycle touring event – known as “The DamTour”. The object of the DamTour is to visit twenty dams during riding season. It’s pretty neat, ;cause you don’t have to think up places to go for rides, the DamTour has already done that for you. There3 are eight dams in Washington, eight in Oregon, two in California and two in Montana. As part of my 40 day trip, I’m going to try and visit all twenty, before I left I had six Washington Dams visited.
First destination, FishHawk dam, near Birkinfeld WA. You have to really want to visit this place to conme here, it’s near……..nothing! But highway 202 out of Astoria is an awesome motorcycle road, full of twisties, dips and turns and highly recommended. From there through the heart of Portland on Highway 26, all the way to Mt. Hood and Government Camp. Then a quick left oh Highway 35 down through Odell and Hood River joining I84 and a run to The Dalles.
Best part about today: Riding Highway 202 out of Astoria and visiting with my Mother, sister and brother-in-law. Thanks for the spare room Matt and Mary – it was great!
Challenge for today – not applicable, it was all good!
Mileage – 429

It's almost time!

The route is planned and reservations have been made!

The cornucopia of junk required to support the trip has been procured.

It actually packs down quite nicely!

And I've had my tea.

There's a six week of supply of dog and cat food for the varmits. The bike has been tuned, the oil changed, and the bills have been paid. The new iPhone arrived, so I have 20gb of tunes to see me through. Woo Hoo!