Continuing south I head into Baker City and highway 26 west across central Oregon into Redmond. Not a bad road for a much used highway. Still a two lane, with plenty of passing areas to get around any trucks or RVs. Not much traffic today anyway it turned out. Nice ride to the motel in Redmond, very close to Crater lake, my next stop. 455 miles today and this is my 8th day on the road and I feel like I've just been out for a day's ride in the country. My CBX ran perfectly. I had noticed that at the higher elevations she kind of lost some of the snap I was used to but never hiccupped or died, or stumbled. In fact, it pulled great from 3,000 on up in any gear. Tomorrow I spend most of the day in CLNP another favorite of mine.
I've been going to CLNP since the 70s and I still enjoy the ride. My first trip was on my 1970 CB750-4, packed with my half full army duffel bungeed on behind me. First long distance tour for me and I had a ball! I'm still having a ball and I still have that 750. (Actually I recently sold it to a Cafe racer builder in SoCal, Steve Carpy Carpenter).
Construction was going on at the rim near the lodge but all in all it wasn't much of an inconvenience. The lake is, as always, the attraction, even when its cold like today and its not as blue as it is in late summer. Get up there for a ride around the rim drive anytime you can. The ride up and around, from the south or north is a great ride. The roads surrounding the park are also great rides. Lots of snow up high and it was late in June! Kind of cool and very windy this day along the eastern edge, my favorite place. No sounds at all except for the wind and birds chirping. Very peaceful. Not many miles today, spending most of the day relaxing inside the park. Basking in the serenity, if you know what I mean. As the sun begins to set I head down the crater out the south entrance through the Ft. Klamath area, alongside Klamath Lake and then, guess what, into Klamath Falls! They get a lot of use out of a name up here in Oregon. Tomorrow I head south into California through the small border community of Tule Lake and on into Lassen Park, the last day of the tour. (sigh) Mileage today was only 213.
Beautiful weather greets me as I step outside my motel room. Rained the night before but my Nelson Rigg cover did its job very well. Dry seat and dry guages. Soon on the road I get past what the locals might call 'traffic' and ride into northern California. Felt kind of good. This day I'll spend as much time as possible riding through Lassen but I'm going to ride all the way home by day's end. I'd already decided not to ride west from Lassen to the giant redwoods and spend another night on the road. I've learned on these annual trips that on the last day, today, day ten, I know I'm heading home and the trip is nearly over. No matter how nice the ride, its a bit of a sad day for me in comparison to the last nine days. Getting close to Lassen, the area begins to green up and trees appear as I climb into the park. I stopped for a breather alongside a small creek outside the park for nearly an hour. In that hour, about six cars passed by. What country!
Heading into the park from the north the scenery gets better and better and as I climb it gets colder and colder! Beautiful ride. Breathtaking views to the east with spots that must be tiny lakes in the distance. Of
all the parks I rode through this summer in eight states at all altitudes,
even Glacier, Lassen, in California had the most snow! Here I ride through Yellowstone, all the way to S. Dakota and across Wyoming and Montana and back through Idaho, down through Washington and across Oregon and even up to Crater Lake National Park, and I find the most snow in California! Hopefully these pictures, as one dimensional as they are, will give you some idea of the sights I was fortunate enough to see on this year's trip.
After leaving the park's south exit I head towards I-5 and the 'flight' home on the freeway. If you pay very close attention to the on ramps and the sky, and keep an eye on your radar detector, you can usually make pretty good time down this section of I-5. So I did just that! The last day's mileage was 445. Got home before dark. Total mileage for this eight state tour was 4,135 in ten days. Is the X a reliable sport tourer? I think so! On last year's ride on my nekkid 79, the odo turned over 45,000. Only problem I had was a rear tire flat.
Now, where to go next year? The Lochsa Lodge in Lolo for a few days and then to the lodge in Glacier for a few days? Maybe ferry the bike to Anchorage and ride up through Fairbanks and down the AlCan highway...hmmm, now how to decide which bike to take?
As for which bike to take on this year's tour, I finally decided to buy a new motorcycle, my first new one since 1970, an 06 Suzuki GSX1300R LE commonly known as a Hayabusa. Except for Yellowstone, Wyoming and S. Dakota, I rode much of the same roads as last year...only a bit faster if you know what I mean.
I added some pics of that tour as well, in and around Glacier, over the Lolo Pass, and generally throughout the NW states. Hope you enjoy the story and hopefully it will encourage some to get out and ride those Xs. They won't let you down. BTW, its a gas to be a few miles south of Canada on the east side of Glacier and have a fully suited up brand new BMW tourer ask how the hell did I ride all the way up there on such an old motorcycle!http://s70.photobucket.com/albums/i87/j ... NW%20Tour/
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