by BluK100RS » Thu Aug 02, 2012 4:54 pm
It has been a week since a bit of riding. Took a 5 day ride, with no particular destination or route. Wanted to get into some dry and warmer country. Began with heading down Hood Canal, turning south before Olympia and wandered backroads to Hwy 12 and rode east over White Pass to Yakima. Thought about taking 25 south from Randle but decided not to as the weather was questionable. Still got a bit of rain on the top of the pass, but it felt good, as the temperature was in the 80's. Yakima was Hot, but acceptable, Turned south from Yakima and headed for Goldendale, and found a nice campground just before Goldendale and made camp in the late afternoon. Next morning it was breakfast in Goldendale and rode south down on 142 through Klickitat to Lyle on the Columbia gourge. Great piece of country. At Lyle we turned east and stopped at Maryhill museum for a tour and proceeded south crossing into Oregon, at Biggs junction. Our ride continued through Wasco, to Condon, on to Fossil, Spray,and south to Hwy26 and turned east. The temperature at Mitchell was 90 degrees, and we got some beer and headed for Ochoco summit and a campground we were familiar with. At the summit the temperature was perfect, as we set up camp. The next mornings ride into Prinville was sunny and cool, where we had breakfast. Our route this day took us down the backroad Century Drive from Bend to Crescent Lake. The camp at Crescent lake was at a private campground with good showers. Next morning found us on the road early as usual, headed to La Pine for breakfast and continueing south and east towards Lakeview, but we got sidetracked out to Ft Rock, and ended up wandering through Christmas Valley and east to Wagontire, and north to Burns, and finally north up into the mountains to a campground just south of Seneca. The campground was the site of an infestation of insects eating the pine needles, killing the trees, and they were in turn being eatten by a beetle. The green worns were everywhere. The next day found us in John Day for breakfast, and it was here that I parted paths with my riding partners and headed for home, retracing some of my ride north to the Columbia Gorge, over to the Washington side and west to I-5, and blitzing home. The old BMW K100RS ran great the whole trip, and after a bit of cleaning, made it to the PA Powersports get together the next day.
So I guess I can say, It's nice to be retired and to do some riding.
Art