Annual Autumn Adventure 2008

[Bill_Anderson]

I returned home this afternoon from AAA/2008, the PNW Roadriders' annual autumn ride. I will post up a trip report and photos later this week; but as they say in the movie industry, here is a "trailer" from Randy the X Man.
http://www.nwbikers.com/VID_Lost.html

[Bill_Anderson]

Here are the events leading up to "Lost". Note the following:
1) We missed Tod waiting for us at the correct turnoff.
2) The silver car at the beginning of the video later gets lost with us.
3) Randy's selection of music.
http://www.nwbikers.com/VID_Lost2.html

[Bill_Anderson]

I moved up the date of this year's PNW Roadriders Annual Autumn Adventure two weeks in the hopes of avoiding bad weather. Those of you who read the chronicles of AAA/2007 will recall we hit snow the first day out.

We met up at Puyallup to head for Maupin, Oregon via Hood River. We took paved Forest Service roads around the east side of Mt. St. Helens between US 12 at Randle and Washington Hwy. 14 on the Columbia Gorge at Carson. After crossing the Columbia River at Hood River, we stopped at a Hood River brew pub for lunch.

After lunch we made our way south to Parkdale on the Hood River Hwy. South of Parkdale we took the Copper Spur Road and wound up on Forest Service Road 44 for the ride to Dufer and US 97. I love riding the wide open spaces of eastern Oregon and felt a real thrill as we descended the forested foothills of Mt. Hood into the open plateaus near Dufer.

Once on US 97, we repeated our route of Spring Break/2008 for the ride to Maupin via Oregon 216 through the Tygh Valley and past the spectacular rapids and Indian fishing platforms on the Deschutes River at Sherar's Bridge. Unlike last spring, this time we stopped at took some photos.

After checking in at the Imperial River Company resort, most of us ate dinner. One member had to repeat the run up Bakeoven Road to Shaniko that we did at Spring Break/2008. He could not tell if the ice cream parlor was still in business and he said it got a little scary coming back down the hill in the dark with deer all around.

Photo #1 Scenic view point of Mt. St. Helens.
Photo #2: The group.
Photo #3: Ducati.MS member Martys./
Photo #4: Yours truly.

[Bill_Anderson]

The following is a series of photos of the Indian fishing site on the Deschutes River on the Warm Springs Indian Reservation. The location is Sherar's Bridge on Oregon Hwy. 216. Tribal members are allowed to net for fish attempting to jump the rapids and falls from platforms built over the rapids. These photos were taken from Hwy. 216. In the background you can see the river access road built on the abandoned road bed of a railroad which once ran along the river.

[Bill_Anderson]

These photos were taken from the river access road I mentioned in the previous post. The railroad now runs on the opposite side of the river. Note Martys and the new railroad line in the backgound.

[Bill_Anderson]

The group meets up for the final ride to Maupin along the river access road. The last three photos are of the Imperial River Co. resport.

[Bill_Anderson]

We back tracked to Hwy. 216 then continued west into the foothills of Mt. Hood along the Wamic Market Road, which became Forest Road 48. We took this west to FR 43, rode a short section of US 26 to FR 42, the Oregon Skyline Rd.

FR 42 at times narrowed down to one lane, but the pavement was excellent and the twisties were spectacular. I prefer riding open spaces rather than through forests, but the Duc was in its element and I was determined to make the most of it.

Photo #1: Mt. Hood and the Tygh Valley.
Photos #2 & 3. An intersection of FR 42 and another Forest Service road in the middle of the woods. Someone painted road numbers directly on the road surfaces so we would not get lost.
Photo #4: Marvelous Marv, the 70+ year young wonder who puts about 25,000 miles per year on his Blackbird.
Photo #5: Wood Duc

[Bill_Anderson]

FR 42 joins FR 46, the Breitenbush Rd. We continued on this road to Detroit, where we stopped for gas. After gassing up, we rode east on Hwy. 22 to Hwy. 126, then west on 126 to FR 19 at Rainbow. FR 19 is yet another fantastic paved Forest Service Road with no traffic and lots of twisties.

We rode FR 19 to Westfir, then took a side road to Oakridge on Hwy. 58 wheew we stopped for lunch. After lunch we headed west on Hwy. 58 towards I-5 at Cottage Grove. We alternated between I-5 andf old Hwy. 99 for the ride to Roseberg, where we spent the night. Randy the X Man, who had done a solo ride to Northern California, was waiting for us at the motel.

Photo #1: Gassing up at Detroit.
Photos #2 & 3: Martys and my Ducs at the Cougar Reservoir on FR 19.
Photo #4: Cougar Reservoir on FR 19.
Photo #5: Chilling out on FR 19 waiting for Martys.

[Bill_Anderson]

At the south end of FR 19 is a covered bridge at Westfir. As luck would have it, Amtrak's Seattle bound Coast Starlight passed through and I got a few "grab" shots. There were two private cars on the end, which a friend of mine photograhed passing through Edmonds the following Monday on the tail end of the Empire Builder.

I'll continue with the report tomorrow, which will include the famous "Lost" episode.

[scott]

Nice stuff Bill, I liked the second video, it has all the elements of a Hollywood feature including girls, intrigue and suspense . Did I mention girls?