End of Winter Ride 2009

[Bill_Anderson]

Up here in our cloudy corner of the PNW; Saturday, March 21st, was the fourth annual End of Winter Ride. The ride starts at Castle Rock, WA. and procedes east on Hwy. 504 towards the Johnson Ridge Observatory of Mt. St. Helens. How close we can get to the observatory depends on how far up the road has been plowed.

When Randy the X Man started this PNW tradition in 2006, he was riding a Honda VTX 1800. Due to the staggered departures of the motorcycles from Castle Rock, he would record the start of the ride and ride up with the last group of cruisers.

Now that Randy is riding a Honda ST1300, he departs ahead of the cruisers in the sport touring group. While we don't get to see the parade of cruisers leaving Castle Rock, we do get to see its arrival at the end of the road near Coldwater Lake.

My son Daren and I have made cameo appearances in past EoW videos. This year Randy promoted me to a speaking role as Daren and I stand by the map board at the end of the road to point out our location.

l will be posting a ride report and photos once I find a way to resize photos on my new computer. Randy will be producing more videos of the ride, but for now enjoy this first look at the 2009 edition of the End of Winter Ride.

Since most of you are not members of the South Bay Riders Forum, the last part of the video will not make sense, but I hope find it funny none the less.
Here is the Yahoo Link.
http://video.yahoo.com/watch/4719563/12607141

[Bill_Anderson]

When I got up the temperature was about 28*F on my back deck and the skies were clear. Things were looking very good considering the iffy weather forecast. The sun disappeared 15 miles later as we rode through Seattle and it remained foggy or overcast all the way to Castle Rock. At Castle Rock, the clouds began to part and things were looking up for the ride up to Mt. St. Helens.

We always assemble at a Shell Station in Castle Rock just off I-5. I have always wondered if they have caught on to the date. I would think that after four years, they would notice a record number of gasoline transactions around the first day of Spring, but all for less than $10.00

Photos #1 & 2: Lots of bikes began to show up for the scheduled noon departure.

Photo #3: My son Daren grabs a snack before we head out. That is my buddy Fred's yellow Ministrada beside Daren. He and I were the only Ducs flying today.

Photo #4: Randy the X Man prepares his weapons of choice to shoot the ride. He started out in 2006 using a single camera and is now up to three. Randy: you have never forgotten to take off the lens cap, have you?

[Bill_Anderson]

As I mentioned, how far we get towards the end of the road at the Johnston Ridge Observatory depends on the how severe the winter has been and how far up the road has been plowed. Last year the road was open only as far as the Coldwater Ridge Visitors' Center.

Unseasonably warm weather in January caused much of the snow to melt. There has not been a lot of snowfall since, so the snow was not as deep this year as last. The road was open to a trailhead parking lot just past Coldwater Lake. Care must be taken in riding, as large herds of large elk live in the area.

Randy and I stopped for photos at the closed off entrance to the Coldwater Ridge Visitors' Center before heading down the hill to the end of the road. This was as far as we were able to get last year.

Photo #1: Daren and Randy
Photo #2: Daren and I

[Bill_Anderson]

When Randy started the EoW Ride in 2006, he was riding a Honda VTX 1800. Due to the staggered departures of the motorcycles from Castle Rock, he recorded the starts of the 2006 and 2007 rides and rode on up with the last group of cruisers.

Now that Randy is riding a Honda ST1300, he departs ahead of the cruisers in the sport touring group. We quickly left the entrance to the Coldwater Ridge Visitors' Center parking lot so he could ride on down to the end of the road near Coldwater Lake and record the arrival of the last group of cruisers. I counted 82 motocycles in the parking lot. Randy estimated over 90 bikes turned out as there were a few bikes which did not make the ride up from Castle Rock.

Photo #1: The parking lot fillled up with all varieties of motorcycles.
Photo #2: Several of us climbed up this bank to get a good shot of the parking lot....
Photo #3: and this telephoto shot of Mt. St. Helens.

[Bill_Anderson]

While most of the bikes were cruisers, other types were there as well.

Photo #1: This bike looked familar, as Daren had been watching his CHiPs DVD the previous day.

Photo #2: Goldwings for those who want to travel in extreme comfort.

Photo #3: A custom chopper for those who want to travel in extreme discomfort..... but look good while you are doing so.

Photo #4: More bikes.

Photo #5: My ST4s and my buddy Fred's yellow Ministrada were the only Ducs in this year's flock.

[Bill_Anderson]

Randy, Daren, Fred, and I went to the sign board at the trailhead to provide a photographic record of our exact location.

Photo #1: Daren points out where we are for those of you who have never been up this way.

Remaining photos: Daren, Randy, and I had a little fun with the folks from the South Bay Riders forum (SBR) out of Northern California as we "find" one of their "hidden" tag chips that they did not know was up here in the PNW.

[Bill_Anderson]

Fred got in on the gag as he and Daren documented the location of the chip. The few of us from the PNW Road Riders were going to meet at the Olympic Club in Centralia for a late lunch. Some of the large cruiser groups talked about meeting there as well, so we hightailed down the hill to get ahead of them. The Force must be with the chip, as there were no cars ahead of me for most of the ride back down the hill.

I had great fun exceeding the 55 mph speed limit on the sweepers leading down from Coldwater Ridge. Light snow flurries had started as we left, which added to the fun. I hope Randy captured them in his recordings, so others can experience the thrill of riding through lightly falling snow past the large snow banks which lined parts of the road.

Lunch at the Olympic Club was good. Randy and I ordered fish & chips. The fish of the day was shark, which was a first time for me. Daren settled for more prosaic chicken salad.

Before we headed for home, I took some shots of the bikes lined up on Tower Street outside the Olympic Club. Another End of Winter Ride is in the books, but the story of the wandering chip from California has just begun.

[Bill_Anderson]

Here are the videos Randy has made to date.

This is the assembly point and start of the ride. Unfortunately the rear camera began slipping down as the speed increased, which can be seen at the end of the video.
http://www.nwbikers.com/Video/Video/VID_EOW09Start.html

Here is the video off the front camera. Randy lets us know when he discovers the rear camera is only recording the road surface. I gave Randy a bad time for using my still photos at the end of the video without my name appearing in the credits.
http://www.nwbikers.com/Video/Video/...W09Hwy504.html

[Ride]

Thank God for end of winter !

I finally got the Duc out for a little shakedown cruise today after work. Hadn't had her out since last November except for the trip out of the climate controlled storage room back to my garage a few weeks ago. It was a beautiful early spring day by Wyoming standards. 53 degrees and sunny with no wind. Well... all I can say is that it sure felt good to get the heart pumping again even though it was just a 65 mile round trip for coffee. Even on the slab we've got some nice sweepers up here and like Bill I thrilled at exceeding the posted limit a few times Can't wait for the mountain roads to clear next month. Life is starting to make sense again ! Got a 2500 mile round trip scheduled on ( that old Harley of mine ) to Nevada for Memorial Day weekend. Going to see my old riding buddies from L.A. then it's up to Tooele for the Superbike races on Sunday. Damn it was a long winter this year ! Best wishes to all of my snow bound brethren that are finally starting to thaw out. It won't be long now

[bt216]

riding with snow on the ground i havent done that yet