Long Ways Home Blog

First thing is you need to check outside the hotel room and see where the weather's at.



Then down the stairs



past the breakfast room - that would be a real continental breakfast, not a Holiday Inn Express "continental" breakfast



through the lobby





out the door



and down the street.



Vienna has an excellent public transit system, look heres comes the train now



...and there goes the train.



That's OK, there will be another along any minute, just a matter of waiting.



And here comes the next train.



Got on this one, not too crowded on a Saturday morning.



And at the end of the line it is time to get off





Through the streets of Grinzing













Down what was probably a country lane 1 or 3 hundred years ago.



Turn right at the park.



And then just a 1/2-block or so on the left and your there, can't miss it

What better way to spend the first day of the year - which may or may not be the last year ever - than on a motorcycle.

No snow on the ground, dry roads and the clouds were starting to break as I headed out for the respectively late meet up time of 10AM



A total of five nutters showed for breakfast in Sedro Whoolley





I was a little worried about the company when the initial conversations seemed to be all about comparing what was in each others medicine cabinets but eventually we got around to important things like motorcycles.

Its Eagle Fest up on the Skagit at the moment, or Dead Salmon time if you want to be more to the point, so we dutifully stopped to check it out.



Saw a bunch of folks with fancy cameras and fancy telescopes and fancy thermoses... and a bunch of seagulls. At least it was turning into a nice day to spend some time by the river.





Eventually we made it up to Newhalem - the road is closed for the winter not much farther East of here and with the wet sandy roads wasn't worth going any further.



Turns out Tom grew up here so we got the $.05 tour.









Quick ride up to the generation station









Then back towards home, but first a stop for pie... warm home made wild mountain blackberry pie with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. No pictures of the pie as it didn't stick around too long.

532 Miles: Windsor CA to La Mirada CA


Having destinations is important - how you arrive at each is your own business. I prefer a meandering path taking in what each turn reveals and then 10-12 seconds later looking forward to the whatever might be around the next. This is my destination for this trip, the return far less interesting as I Iron Butt it home up I-5 in order to get home with enough time to do the laundry and clean the bike before heading out again.

CA 1

295 Miles: Fortuna CA to Windsor CA


The marine layer was thick and heavy the morning in Fortuna - thick and heavy enough to have me hemming, hawing and generally procrastinating until finally getting my butt in gear and on the road... I probably should have hemmed, hawed and procrastinated some more. The indecision revolved around whether or not to ride down the Lost Coast, just how foggy it might be out there and was it worth the rough roads to get there. Now a large displacement sport touring motorcycle such as the blue bike is perfectly suited for piling up miles around the Trinity Alps however it is far from being the ideal bike for riding down the nasty rotten broken up nasty (did I already say nasty?) pavement found loosely covering the roads across the Lost Coast. The red bike with its knobby tires, spoked wheels and long suspension travel would have been the proper tool for this job. Having a quiver each bike can be used optimally... as long as you bring the right bike.

The Lost Coast
















CA 1

344 Miles: Yreka CA to Fortuna CA


Persuading a motorcycle through a corner takes a few basic steps. To start set up on the outside of the lane then while in a straight line slow the bike to an entry speed that will allow one to safely navigate through the corner. Next turn your head around until it is pointed in the general direction of the exit and continue to look through the corner. Thirdly press on the handlebars in the direction of the corner initiating a lean in the direction of the turn. Finally roll on the throttle in order to maintain an outside-inside-outside path of travel. That's a lot to think about when continually repeated every 10 seconds for 6 or 7 hours and explains why riding a motorcycle can be both physically and mentally exhausting. The situational awareness required limits the brain only to continually evaluate what could happen in the next 10 - 12 seconds and that's it. I'm guessing that that's all I was thinking about this morning when the fully antlered buck jumped in front of me and later on in the day when the pickup towing the trailer wandered way over the center line into my lane. I'll chock flushing the flock of large birds at the crest of a hill and becoming one of them for a few seconds more of a karma thing or something.


Morning in The State of Jefferson


Along the Klamath River








Salmon River at Sommes Bar


Mad River Overlook

531 Miles: Bend OR to Yreka CA



Turns out the seat time I've been craving is on a motorcycle not sitting around a campfire so hanging out with my imaginary Internet friends will just have to wait. First part of the day was spent riding through the Oregon "Outback" and high desert of California. A quick trip into the inferno around Redding (115º F), and then up to the Trinity Alps where things didn't really cool down all that much. I think "Northern" California and Greenland must have the same marketing company; Greenland isn't green and Northern California has none of the attributes I associate with the "North" - cool breezes, cold water, icebergs, polar bears, eskimos.

Not too many pictures today, maybe tomorrow...

The Oregon "Outback"


Weaverville

544 Miles: Home to Bend OR



With life work and stuff haven't ridden much this year or at least thats the way it seems - in fact the blue bike hasn't had enough miles since last August to justify a full service Today was the getaway day - didn't stop much just trying to put some miles under the bike. Bit of a detour South of Toppenish WA as 97 was closed due to a forest fire on the road, or at least that's what the sign said. Might go meet some imaginary Internet friends tomorrow or carry on to the South, a breakfast time decision...

Stopped on the East side of the Cascades.


Yakima Canyon


Taking a late break in the middle of nowhere Oregon


Not much in Shaniko

Transmission returned, installed and starting to look like a motorcycle again.



And now all cleaned up and no place to go... except Alaska, or Ushuaia, or...

July 2010

The road is OPEN.

The road to Artist Point opened Friday, July 30.

Opening the road in late July is in line with previous openings. The road opened on July 28 in 2007 and July 27 in 2006. It opened on August 9 in 2002. In 2008 and 2009, the road opened in mid-July.

Photos of crews clearing snow

Seeing as it was a nice day and the Mt Baker Highway was now open all the way to the top I figured why not?



There was still lots, and I mean lots of snow - using a coin to establish scale just wasn't going to cut it.



The park rangers were busy putting up the out-of-service signs on the toilets.


A lunch stop at the Blue Mountain Inn with its million dollar view once I got down from the top.

Transmission is packed and sometime tomorrow will be on its way to be rebuilt. I'm extremely happy with respect to the amount of wear - or lack of - that I have seen on all the internal bits as the bike was disassembled and folded in half.

Not sure exactly when it happened but the transmission on the Red Bike grenaded itself and literally has been sitting on a shelf for the last year.



The process for removing the transmission is fairly simple - you start at the back and keep taking parts off until you get there. This is how far I got after a few hours today.



Have an extra set of hands showing up tomorrow to help fold the bike in half.

When you get an email invite to a dual-sport motorcycle event hosted by Jim Hyde's Rawhyde Adventures that is sponsored by BMW Xplor and Touratech it would be a mistake not to go.


So we did.
All packed up, ready to go - just waiting for Brian to show.


Brian calls to say he's running late and I suggested meeting up in Edison for lunch.
At the Longhorn - waiting for Brian to show.


Once we were all done with lunch we headed down the back roads of Pugetopolis towards Fauxvaria


We found some signs that indicated we were in the right spot.


And others just like us.


We seemed to fit right in.


Some of the accommodations were a little posher.


The Rally took place on privately owned land and I became curious as to just what type of mini-bikes Tom had planted last fall in order to get such magnificent growth.


In the morning Jim Hyde ran some seminars - this one was on how to properly kick a front tire when your bike didn't go where you wanted it to go...


Actually it was about the importance of having a loose grip on the handlebars while riding on dirt,which was immediately useful as this is the road into camp.


After class it was down to Fauxvaria for "fuel".


And then a great ride up to the top Sugarloaf Peak.




At over 5000 ft there were great views all the way around.


We then continued along the ridge and looped around back to camp.


Due to work and other reasons we had decided Friday night it made sense to head out the next morning as that would afford us a nice leisurely ride home. We get to ride some easy gravel roads up to Chelan as well as a glorious run of the North Cascades Highway....

But something happened on those "easy" gravel roads.

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The process of cold starting a carbureted motorcycle that has been sitting outside overnight when the temperature has approached freezing is character building - I guess. The original plan was to get on the road before 7AM in order to make it home before 5PM, which would have been no problem if the hotel room next to mine hadn't filled up with a load of drunken louts at 3:30AM... and if getting the bike started hadn't turned into an overly dramatic piece of performance art. Once on the road it was a 500 mile straight shot up I-5 - after all it was Mother's Day Sunday and there is a bit of tradition to uphold.

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I think the folks in Windsor have it right - Santa Rosa is the suburb. Upon being informed of my plight and that the repairs were being rendered at a shop named BMW Santa Rosa that was actually located in Windsor it was immediately decided that if not a petition a letter writing campaign was definitely in order that the name of the shop be change to BMW Windsor.

I picked up the bike first thing with out any further issues, although I am starting to notice who the Airhead cognescenti are amongst a crowd as they acknowledge the R100GSPD Classic. And I must say was looking forward to the day as it was over one of my most favorites roads - route 101 from the Sonoma wine country north through the redwood forests of Humbolt and Del Norte. And I was not to be disappointed.