TruWrecks
Still chewing thru the Restraints
I just completed 4162.5 Miles round trip, yesterday afternoon. It was a long and enjoyable ride!
Valuable pictures were omitted to stay within the image limit. For full content and pictures please refer to this link.
The journey begins:
I left for my road trip on a sunny Wed. morning, just after the morning traffic calmed down.
I didn't want to ride any freeways, but I had an appointment in Union Gap to have lunch with my mom. I couldn't miss that. I used I-90 and I-82 to get to Yakima. It was boring and quiet once I got out of town. I stopped at a few places along to way to Union Gap to make adjustments and check out the loading on the FJR.
After my important "business meeting" I followed HWY 97 to Oregon. The canyons in northern Oregon were really good, but that only lasted until I got to Shaniko.
I headed out of Shaniko toward Antelope on SR-218. I turned onto SR-293 to go south and back to 97. The roads were decent and twisty.
All the state parks in central Oregon were still closed for the winter so I stopped in Redmond, OR for a hotel and fuel. Got rested up for the next day.
The next morning I headed out for Crater Lake. The road to Crater Lake was very boring, but fast. I had a problem getting to the lake. My bike doesn't do snow very well.
I stayed on HWY 97 for way too long. I found a great view Mt. Shasta.
I had to double back to CA SR-161. The day ended at Eagle Lake on CA SR-139. I'd have to recommend SR-139 to anyone that likes sweepers. The route took me on SR-139, SR-36, SR-147, SR-89 and SR-70. The roads were fun, but the fun was limited by the lack of daylight. I was getting to dark for pictures, and the animals were starting to venture on to the road, so no pictures for that leg. I found a place called Frenchman Lake Recreation Area is off Highway 70 on California Highway 284. It was a great place to camp, and there were many great people there also. I arrived there at 10PM and setup camp via flashlight.
For using a flash light I think did a fair job on the tent. It only took me about 10 minutes to setup camp.
I stayed for an hour visiting with some other campers. They invited me to breakfast. Very cool people. They declined having their pictures taken. I respected their request. On the way out of the park I found the views that I couldn't see the night before. I drove across this and thought it was a bridge at night. I was wrong, sort of. It was a dam.
Continuing south on SR-70/SR-89, I took the SR-89 turn off toward Truckee, CA. Corners were not in short supply, but places to stop for pictures were.
I road around Lake Tahoe before heading down to the Sierra Nevada's for the night. Mount Rose is a killer ride (SR-431 in Nevada). I noticed that my front tire was pushing pretty bad with the additional weight on the back, so I had to take a few of the roads a bit slower that I would have otherwise. Continuing south on SR-395 I hit some terrible side gusts that almost blew me off the roads several times in the 70 miles from Carson City to the mountains. This time I got there before night fall. The camp sites in the Sierra Nevada mountains suited me well for the night.
It was cold and dry the next morning. It was going to be a great day to ride.
The further I travel south, the hotter it got in the day. The temperature was well into the 80's by this time. Someone at the campsite told me that the pass to Yosemite was closed. That kind of bummed me out. First Crater Lake, now Yosemite too??? Oh well. I'll just have to make the best of it.
I took more pictures along SR-395. South of Nevada it was pretty good riding. Lots of variety. When I went to view my last few shot my camera displayed the dreaded "card error"! NOOOOOOO!!!!!! I ejected the card and reinserted it. I powered the camera back on and all was fine. Whew!
The road winded down the hills with a 45 MPH curve rating the whole way. The FJR held 55 to 65 nicely. I was just past Mono Lake when I saw a sign saying that Tioga Pass was open. I didn't even waste time taking a picture, I just turned and started up SR-120 to Tioga.
I had a woman in an Audi tail gaiting me up the pass so I opted not to stop for pictures. All the shoulders were loose gravel and she wasn't going to give me any room to slow down. I did do several once I got into Yosemite.
I met a bunch of nice guys on Harley's, and one 46 Indian. The pictures didn't survive. They did use my camera to do a picture of me in Yosemite. Here's my ugly mug.
After I road back down Tioga pass I headed south for Bishop, CA. It was about 90f when I got there on SR-395, so I opted for a hotel. That also gave me a chance to stay somewhere with phone coverage so I could talk with the wife, and get some of my gear cleaned up. The bugs were out in force.
On to Death Valley.
Crowley Point:
The name says it all.
I hiked for about a mile out to the dunes in the valley. The heat became a real problem with my riding boots. My feet started burning through the soles, so I turned back for the bike. It would truly be bad to get lost there.
A few miles later I found the lowest point in the Death Valley highway.
After a nice does of heat I headed out of Death Valley for SR-93. Hoover Dam was the next hot spot. It was 102f when I got there, and it was stop and go traffic because of construction. There was no place to stop with a view of the from. I could only stop for pictures from the back.
From there I be-bopped my way down SR-93 toward Phoenix. I made it to Scottsdale Monday night after 532 miles of temps from 95f to 104f. I met with Mike and his sister, and called it a night. That was the fist 1902 miles out of the way.
Monday morning we (Mike, Mary and myself) went on a nice 300 mile ride around the mountains NE of Phoenix. I did a dummy move and left the camera at Mary's house during that ride, so no pictures today. That turned out to be a real stupid move, because we rode through some of the most beautiful territory I've ever seen. If I could I would have shipped it home so I could ride through it every day!
Now for the return trip to Everett:
I took the FJR to a local Yamaha shop to get it checked out because I started feeling a mild vibration with braking. The front tire isn't cupped, and the steering head felt good, so I wanted to get a shop to give it a good bill of health. The shop told me that the sintered brake pads, stock on the FJR, are grabbing very aggressively and triggering the anti-lock brake controller to modulate the front brakes. The tech said it may be due to the 104f temps I was riding in. Other customers looked at me like I was from another planet because I was still riding in full leathers. I think I lost a few pounds doing that, but I felt comfortable while i was riding.
With the delay in the shop, Mike and myself got a late start leaving Phoenix. We hit the road north at noon on Tuesday. We decided to return to Nevada on SR-93 just so we could get to cooler temps a bit quicker. The FJR registered an ambient air temp of 102f at noon in Scottsdale as we left. We only stopped for one picture in Arizona on our way to Nevada. This was at the edge of the Joshua Tree forest.
We follow the truck route to SR-195 to miss the construction at Hoover Dam. I'm glad we did. We had some great sweepers waiting for us on SR-95. Mike and I doubled back on SR-93 to Lake Mead for some camping. It was dark when we got there, so no pictures of Lake Mead. The temps got down to 75f that night. Still warm, but much better that the 90f+ temps from earlier that day.
The next morning we woke to find a coyote snooping around our campsite. He took off as soon as I opened my tent.
We traveled through Eastern and Central Nevada to get back to Oregon. The trip was long, painfully boring, and dusty. Especially the 30+ miles of gravel roads that were from construction. We took SR-93 to Caliete. Then SR-375 to Tonopah, and SR-376 to Austin, were they claim to be the home of the stealth fighters. They must really be stealthy, because we didn't see any. I did see a bunch of "low flying aircraft" signs, but I thought they were referring to my FJR.
Some time during the day I scratched the cornea of my right eye, making it really hard to judge right hand corners. It also made the glare of the sun pretty harsh. I must have ridden a good 70 miles with my right eye closed so I could stand riding to ward the sun.
No pictures were wasted on the wide open spaces of Nevada until we got north of Fallon on SR-50. We crashed there for the night. Next morning we both got up and washed the bugs off our bikes. I hit a swarm of flies coming into Fallon the night before. The bike looked really bad in the daylight.
SR-50 took us to SR-447. 447 was an interesting ride. Some corners, rolling hills, and salt flats. My eye was doing a bit better this morning. I could see shapes. It was just difficult to focus on signs. It made it really adventurous when we hit the mountains going back through North-Eastern California. I spent more time making sure I stayed on the road then I did looking through the corners.
Mike posing for a picture with his new BMW GS in Nevada.
Finally were heading out of the Nevada desert.
We stopped for fuel and lunch in a small town named Cedarville. The food was good, and the temps were much more tolerable. The restaurant owner kept trying to tell us his place was for sale. He must of said it three or four times while we were eating our food.
We hopped over the mountain pass to SR-395 and rode to Burns. SR-395 at Lake Albert was a blast. We stopped there to top off the fuel and get dinner before finding a good place to camp about 15 miles north on SR-395. The camp site was descent and empty, except for the mosquitoes. Mike had some repellent that worked really well. Good thing he had it, I forgot to pack some.
Next morning we got up and rode to John Day for a late breakfast. The section of SR-395 leading to John Day had some construction, so a few more miles gravel roads. SR-395 going through the mountains just south of John Day was pretty nice. We hit some really killer twisties on that section.
We found a quaint little place for breakfast called the Squeeze-In Diner. The food was very good. I would highly recommend it for anyone riding through the John Day area.
After breakfast Mike and I enjoyed a brisk ride through the Umatilla Forest north of John Day still on SR-395.
Mike was following me, and said he could see bits of rubber coming off my rear tire as we cornered through the forest. That's good because I needed to even out the flat spot down the middle of the tire from all the straight roads in Nevada and southern Oregon.
Now everyone can see that my "couch" can corner pretty hard.
From SR-395 to Pilot Rock the road is just plain awesome!!!!!!! You'd have to ride it to believe such a road exists. I give reps to the person that planned that route. It must have bee a motorcycle enthusiast to come up with that!
We found out the need to back track to SR-74 when we got to Pilot Rock. SR-74 to SR-207/206 was our desired route, and SR-74 was no disappointment! We must have taken over 100 corners in the first 30 miles. Most of them were rated from 20 to 40 MPH. The rolling terrain made for a few pucker factor moments as I built up a bit too much speed coming through a decreasing radius turn that followed to top of a cliff. The bike handled it really well, even with all the junk I had loaded on it.
A few miles before reaching Heppner I had a bee hit me in the neck and fall down the front of my jacket. The little bugger stung me four times. Once in the neck, and three others on my chest on stomach. I pulled over real fast to get him out. A few minutes after I could feel my chest getting tighter. I boogied into Heppner at a very brisk pace, and found a pharmacy. I though I was having an asthma attack. Nope, I was having a mild reaction to the bee sting. The spot on my stomach was red and starting to swell. The pharmacist recommended Benadryl. He told me to take two and stay put for a while. I took one and waited for a while to see if it was going to help. I felt better after about an hour later. Benadryl doesn't make me groggy, does it does drain the energy out of me. I drank plenty of water.
I had to stop when I started feeling the effects of the Benadryl. We found a windmill farm just outside of Condon. We stopped there until I felt well enough to ride again. By dinner time I was feeling much better.
We took a casual ride the rest of 207/206 to HWY 97 and turned north toward Yakima. The wind in the gorge got so bad I had to park my bike nose into the wind in Goldendale when we stopped for dinner. The gusts were so strong I was leaning into the wind to whole way up the hill. The wind died down when we got up the pass on HWY-97 near Toponish. We spent the night in as Motel 6 in Yakima. There was a middle school basket ball team there that was being pretty rowdy. They calmed down about 10PM.
Our final day we decided on Canyon Road from Ellensburg. That's a nice ride to warm up on. I let Mike lead this one. He grew up in Yakima, so he knows this road well. From Ellensburg we rode back to HWY 97, and took it over Blewett Pass. We stopped at Mineral Springs for breakfast.
After Blewett Pass, ride it if you haven't, we made our last fuel stop for the trip in Leavenworth.
*Beware of Leavenworth. They are doing road work, and the east end of town has grooved pavement in several locations.*
I took advantage of the stop in Leavenworth to get my wife her Aussie supplies. There's a great little Australian shop just east of the town park.
I was allowed back in the house after a valuable peace offering.
Mike and I finished up our ride going over Stevens Pass in the rain. We split ways at Snohomish, and I got home around noon on Saturday.
It was fun to take a long motorcycle trip be myself, but it was more entertaining riding back with Mike. He's a great guy. I hope he's up for the North Cascade loop in a few weeks.
If I had to do this trip again, I would pack a smaller sleeping bag, and less casual clothes. That would have saved me more space and weight. Other than that, I would have ridden down HWY 101 to the Bay Area, then east to Arizona on the more twisty roads.
I now have over 6400 miles on a two month old bike. Next week the bike gets an oil change and new tires.
Valuable pictures were omitted to stay within the image limit. For full content and pictures please refer to this link.
The journey begins:
I left for my road trip on a sunny Wed. morning, just after the morning traffic calmed down.
I didn't want to ride any freeways, but I had an appointment in Union Gap to have lunch with my mom. I couldn't miss that. I used I-90 and I-82 to get to Yakima. It was boring and quiet once I got out of town. I stopped at a few places along to way to Union Gap to make adjustments and check out the loading on the FJR.
After my important "business meeting" I followed HWY 97 to Oregon. The canyons in northern Oregon were really good, but that only lasted until I got to Shaniko.
I headed out of Shaniko toward Antelope on SR-218. I turned onto SR-293 to go south and back to 97. The roads were decent and twisty.
All the state parks in central Oregon were still closed for the winter so I stopped in Redmond, OR for a hotel and fuel. Got rested up for the next day.
The next morning I headed out for Crater Lake. The road to Crater Lake was very boring, but fast. I had a problem getting to the lake. My bike doesn't do snow very well.
I stayed on HWY 97 for way too long. I found a great view Mt. Shasta.
I had to double back to CA SR-161. The day ended at Eagle Lake on CA SR-139. I'd have to recommend SR-139 to anyone that likes sweepers. The route took me on SR-139, SR-36, SR-147, SR-89 and SR-70. The roads were fun, but the fun was limited by the lack of daylight. I was getting to dark for pictures, and the animals were starting to venture on to the road, so no pictures for that leg. I found a place called Frenchman Lake Recreation Area is off Highway 70 on California Highway 284. It was a great place to camp, and there were many great people there also. I arrived there at 10PM and setup camp via flashlight.
For using a flash light I think did a fair job on the tent. It only took me about 10 minutes to setup camp.
I stayed for an hour visiting with some other campers. They invited me to breakfast. Very cool people. They declined having their pictures taken. I respected their request. On the way out of the park I found the views that I couldn't see the night before. I drove across this and thought it was a bridge at night. I was wrong, sort of. It was a dam.
Continuing south on SR-70/SR-89, I took the SR-89 turn off toward Truckee, CA. Corners were not in short supply, but places to stop for pictures were.
I road around Lake Tahoe before heading down to the Sierra Nevada's for the night. Mount Rose is a killer ride (SR-431 in Nevada). I noticed that my front tire was pushing pretty bad with the additional weight on the back, so I had to take a few of the roads a bit slower that I would have otherwise. Continuing south on SR-395 I hit some terrible side gusts that almost blew me off the roads several times in the 70 miles from Carson City to the mountains. This time I got there before night fall. The camp sites in the Sierra Nevada mountains suited me well for the night.
It was cold and dry the next morning. It was going to be a great day to ride.
The further I travel south, the hotter it got in the day. The temperature was well into the 80's by this time. Someone at the campsite told me that the pass to Yosemite was closed. That kind of bummed me out. First Crater Lake, now Yosemite too??? Oh well. I'll just have to make the best of it.
I took more pictures along SR-395. South of Nevada it was pretty good riding. Lots of variety. When I went to view my last few shot my camera displayed the dreaded "card error"! NOOOOOOO!!!!!! I ejected the card and reinserted it. I powered the camera back on and all was fine. Whew!
The road winded down the hills with a 45 MPH curve rating the whole way. The FJR held 55 to 65 nicely. I was just past Mono Lake when I saw a sign saying that Tioga Pass was open. I didn't even waste time taking a picture, I just turned and started up SR-120 to Tioga.
I had a woman in an Audi tail gaiting me up the pass so I opted not to stop for pictures. All the shoulders were loose gravel and she wasn't going to give me any room to slow down. I did do several once I got into Yosemite.
I met a bunch of nice guys on Harley's, and one 46 Indian. The pictures didn't survive. They did use my camera to do a picture of me in Yosemite. Here's my ugly mug.
After I road back down Tioga pass I headed south for Bishop, CA. It was about 90f when I got there on SR-395, so I opted for a hotel. That also gave me a chance to stay somewhere with phone coverage so I could talk with the wife, and get some of my gear cleaned up. The bugs were out in force.
On to Death Valley.
Crowley Point:
The name says it all.
I hiked for about a mile out to the dunes in the valley. The heat became a real problem with my riding boots. My feet started burning through the soles, so I turned back for the bike. It would truly be bad to get lost there.
A few miles later I found the lowest point in the Death Valley highway.
After a nice does of heat I headed out of Death Valley for SR-93. Hoover Dam was the next hot spot. It was 102f when I got there, and it was stop and go traffic because of construction. There was no place to stop with a view of the from. I could only stop for pictures from the back.
From there I be-bopped my way down SR-93 toward Phoenix. I made it to Scottsdale Monday night after 532 miles of temps from 95f to 104f. I met with Mike and his sister, and called it a night. That was the fist 1902 miles out of the way.
Monday morning we (Mike, Mary and myself) went on a nice 300 mile ride around the mountains NE of Phoenix. I did a dummy move and left the camera at Mary's house during that ride, so no pictures today. That turned out to be a real stupid move, because we rode through some of the most beautiful territory I've ever seen. If I could I would have shipped it home so I could ride through it every day!
Now for the return trip to Everett:
I took the FJR to a local Yamaha shop to get it checked out because I started feeling a mild vibration with braking. The front tire isn't cupped, and the steering head felt good, so I wanted to get a shop to give it a good bill of health. The shop told me that the sintered brake pads, stock on the FJR, are grabbing very aggressively and triggering the anti-lock brake controller to modulate the front brakes. The tech said it may be due to the 104f temps I was riding in. Other customers looked at me like I was from another planet because I was still riding in full leathers. I think I lost a few pounds doing that, but I felt comfortable while i was riding.
With the delay in the shop, Mike and myself got a late start leaving Phoenix. We hit the road north at noon on Tuesday. We decided to return to Nevada on SR-93 just so we could get to cooler temps a bit quicker. The FJR registered an ambient air temp of 102f at noon in Scottsdale as we left. We only stopped for one picture in Arizona on our way to Nevada. This was at the edge of the Joshua Tree forest.
We follow the truck route to SR-195 to miss the construction at Hoover Dam. I'm glad we did. We had some great sweepers waiting for us on SR-95. Mike and I doubled back on SR-93 to Lake Mead for some camping. It was dark when we got there, so no pictures of Lake Mead. The temps got down to 75f that night. Still warm, but much better that the 90f+ temps from earlier that day.
The next morning we woke to find a coyote snooping around our campsite. He took off as soon as I opened my tent.
We traveled through Eastern and Central Nevada to get back to Oregon. The trip was long, painfully boring, and dusty. Especially the 30+ miles of gravel roads that were from construction. We took SR-93 to Caliete. Then SR-375 to Tonopah, and SR-376 to Austin, were they claim to be the home of the stealth fighters. They must really be stealthy, because we didn't see any. I did see a bunch of "low flying aircraft" signs, but I thought they were referring to my FJR.
Some time during the day I scratched the cornea of my right eye, making it really hard to judge right hand corners. It also made the glare of the sun pretty harsh. I must have ridden a good 70 miles with my right eye closed so I could stand riding to ward the sun.
No pictures were wasted on the wide open spaces of Nevada until we got north of Fallon on SR-50. We crashed there for the night. Next morning we both got up and washed the bugs off our bikes. I hit a swarm of flies coming into Fallon the night before. The bike looked really bad in the daylight.
SR-50 took us to SR-447. 447 was an interesting ride. Some corners, rolling hills, and salt flats. My eye was doing a bit better this morning. I could see shapes. It was just difficult to focus on signs. It made it really adventurous when we hit the mountains going back through North-Eastern California. I spent more time making sure I stayed on the road then I did looking through the corners.
Mike posing for a picture with his new BMW GS in Nevada.
Finally were heading out of the Nevada desert.
We stopped for fuel and lunch in a small town named Cedarville. The food was good, and the temps were much more tolerable. The restaurant owner kept trying to tell us his place was for sale. He must of said it three or four times while we were eating our food.
We hopped over the mountain pass to SR-395 and rode to Burns. SR-395 at Lake Albert was a blast. We stopped there to top off the fuel and get dinner before finding a good place to camp about 15 miles north on SR-395. The camp site was descent and empty, except for the mosquitoes. Mike had some repellent that worked really well. Good thing he had it, I forgot to pack some.
Next morning we got up and rode to John Day for a late breakfast. The section of SR-395 leading to John Day had some construction, so a few more miles gravel roads. SR-395 going through the mountains just south of John Day was pretty nice. We hit some really killer twisties on that section.
We found a quaint little place for breakfast called the Squeeze-In Diner. The food was very good. I would highly recommend it for anyone riding through the John Day area.
After breakfast Mike and I enjoyed a brisk ride through the Umatilla Forest north of John Day still on SR-395.
Mike was following me, and said he could see bits of rubber coming off my rear tire as we cornered through the forest. That's good because I needed to even out the flat spot down the middle of the tire from all the straight roads in Nevada and southern Oregon.
Now everyone can see that my "couch" can corner pretty hard.
From SR-395 to Pilot Rock the road is just plain awesome!!!!!!! You'd have to ride it to believe such a road exists. I give reps to the person that planned that route. It must have bee a motorcycle enthusiast to come up with that!
We found out the need to back track to SR-74 when we got to Pilot Rock. SR-74 to SR-207/206 was our desired route, and SR-74 was no disappointment! We must have taken over 100 corners in the first 30 miles. Most of them were rated from 20 to 40 MPH. The rolling terrain made for a few pucker factor moments as I built up a bit too much speed coming through a decreasing radius turn that followed to top of a cliff. The bike handled it really well, even with all the junk I had loaded on it.
A few miles before reaching Heppner I had a bee hit me in the neck and fall down the front of my jacket. The little bugger stung me four times. Once in the neck, and three others on my chest on stomach. I pulled over real fast to get him out. A few minutes after I could feel my chest getting tighter. I boogied into Heppner at a very brisk pace, and found a pharmacy. I though I was having an asthma attack. Nope, I was having a mild reaction to the bee sting. The spot on my stomach was red and starting to swell. The pharmacist recommended Benadryl. He told me to take two and stay put for a while. I took one and waited for a while to see if it was going to help. I felt better after about an hour later. Benadryl doesn't make me groggy, does it does drain the energy out of me. I drank plenty of water.
I had to stop when I started feeling the effects of the Benadryl. We found a windmill farm just outside of Condon. We stopped there until I felt well enough to ride again. By dinner time I was feeling much better.
We took a casual ride the rest of 207/206 to HWY 97 and turned north toward Yakima. The wind in the gorge got so bad I had to park my bike nose into the wind in Goldendale when we stopped for dinner. The gusts were so strong I was leaning into the wind to whole way up the hill. The wind died down when we got up the pass on HWY-97 near Toponish. We spent the night in as Motel 6 in Yakima. There was a middle school basket ball team there that was being pretty rowdy. They calmed down about 10PM.
Our final day we decided on Canyon Road from Ellensburg. That's a nice ride to warm up on. I let Mike lead this one. He grew up in Yakima, so he knows this road well. From Ellensburg we rode back to HWY 97, and took it over Blewett Pass. We stopped at Mineral Springs for breakfast.
After Blewett Pass, ride it if you haven't, we made our last fuel stop for the trip in Leavenworth.
*Beware of Leavenworth. They are doing road work, and the east end of town has grooved pavement in several locations.*
I took advantage of the stop in Leavenworth to get my wife her Aussie supplies. There's a great little Australian shop just east of the town park.
I was allowed back in the house after a valuable peace offering.
Mike and I finished up our ride going over Stevens Pass in the rain. We split ways at Snohomish, and I got home around noon on Saturday.
It was fun to take a long motorcycle trip be myself, but it was more entertaining riding back with Mike. He's a great guy. I hope he's up for the North Cascade loop in a few weeks.
If I had to do this trip again, I would pack a smaller sleeping bag, and less casual clothes. That would have saved me more space and weight. Other than that, I would have ridden down HWY 101 to the Bay Area, then east to Arizona on the more twisty roads.
I now have over 6400 miles on a two month old bike. Next week the bike gets an oil change and new tires.
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