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My Great Adventure (Volume I?)

MZ5

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Besides "Volume I," I'm also going to call this edition "Oregon Cascades & volcanoes." First, though, a California Cascades volcano, Mt. Shasta, then I'll explain the post and adventure:

Mt Shasta.jpg

I'm on TDY this summer. That translates to: I'm working working in the PacNW for 2-3 months. I rode my NCX up from southern AZ, so I'd have unrestricted transportation while I'm here. I expect to be fairly free at least a day or two each week/weekend, and hope to do a bunch of riding. I decided this post would be 'Volume I,' because I went for a really great ride yesterday! I don't have much in the way of pics from the ride up, unfortunately. The Pacific Coast Highway (California 1, from about Monterey, through Big Sur, and down past Santa Barbara) was absolutely pea-soup-foggy and cold the day we rode it, so no stops and no pics. The Silver Surf motel in San Simeon was quite decent and affordable, though.

I took a phone-cam video of me riding down Lombard St. in San Francisco, which I've always thought would be neat to do, but the vid is just silly, so I'm omitting it. Sorta the same with the vid crossing the Golden Gate bridge (another 'I've always wanted to do that' thing).

So, this weekend, I rode from Portland to Eugene, via Hood River, Madras, and Redmond. Those in the PacNW may be tempted to think: "Hood River and Madras are NOT on the way to Eugene!" but we're all motorcyclists here, so we get it. :) Here was my basic route:

https://goo.gl/maps/Lvt6H

I had a very low front tire at the start of the trip, so I was delayed and shortened the route slightly. I wanted to turn north (eastbound, I suppose?) on OR-126 at Belknap Springs, and then take US-20 (the Santiam Highway) west into Salem/Corvallis. However, to keep my schedule I just went down 126 the other way, straight into Eugene, where I stayed with a friend last night.

Here's a surprisingly poor image of Mt. Hood from near Portland International (PDX):

IMG_20150614_171028.jpg

After getting some air into the front tire, I headed up-river toward Hood River. If any of you have never seen the Columbia River Gorge in person, it's worth a visit some day. It's spectacular! The focus of this particular trip was the volcanoes and the McKenzie Pass Highway, though, so on with the show. This is a shot of roughly the opposite side of Mt. Hood vs. what a person sees from Portland. This is roughly the SE face:

MtHood_SE.jpg

And one looking at the south face:

MtHood_S.jpg
 
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The route southward is all on the east side of the Cascade range, so it's much drier there than the lush green-ness of Portland, Eugene, and the whole Willamette River valley. Lots of cheat grass, sagebrush, and juniper trees. Surprisingly large & healthy ones, actually! :)

The next set of pictures are ones I had wanted to make as a panorama. However, I could not figure a way to make the phone camera zoom in when in panorama mode, and without that the mountains were just too small for a decent pic. So here are the major volcanoes, from north to south. They are Mt. Hood, Mt. Jefferson, the 3 Sisters + Broken Top, and Mt. Bachelor. Mt. Bachelor is actually smaller, and it's barely visible as the left-most snowy peak in the 3 Sisters pic. It's actually kind of 'behind' Broken Top, as well as left of it.

MtHood.jpg

MtJefferson.jpg

3 Sisters.jpg

Those 3 pics were taken from the Warm Springs Indian Reservation. There's fuel available at a decent price (by Oregon standards) even in the tiny town of Simnasho, if you're ever riding through there. Right after that pic, the highway descends into a pretty good sized canyon. It's twisty and fun, but watch for gravel, dust, and rocks in the tight corners. There's not a lot of margin for error, so I was not pushing at all; just kind of cruising.

WarmSpringsDeschutes.jpg

That's the Warm Springs River you see in that photo. A ways east it empties into the larger Deschutes River, which flows north and eventually empties into the Columbia.

After climbing back out of that canyon, then descending again to cross the Deschutes and leave the Warm Springs Reservation at Warm Springs, you permanently climb out of canyonlands and head for Madras. Madras is an agricultural area which I personally love. A bit further south, at Redmond, I headed west. Stopped in the town of Sisters, and snapped this closer pic of the 3 Sisters & Broken Top (the ridge thing on the left in the pic) at a farm just west of town.

3 Sisters from Sisters.jpg
 
I just got back from riding the Cascades on my trip home from Alaska. They are beautiful. The one town I will never forget is Concrete, Wa.. I do not know what I have done with the pics, but you have to see Concrete to believe it.
 
This next sequence doesn't even come close to doing justice to the area. I'm a poor, poor photographer by any measure, but even my cousin who does a pretty good job with a camera hasn't captured this to either of our satisfaction. I share the pics here anyway, but memory is infinitely better.

Heading out of the town of Sisters, I turned west onto OR-242. This road is only open seasonally, and this weekend was the first open weekend of the season. There's been little snow here this winter, so it was all clear. The road surface is in very good condition, but the road itself is really much narrower than what most of us are becoming accustomed to in America. Most of the on-coming traffic I met was slightly over the center stripe in my lane, though not too far, and if a person is leaned over very far, they'd have to be right over at the edge of the lane to avoid their head being over the center line when riding a taller bike like the NCX. It's also a super twisty road, but as long as you're not trying to be Rossi, I expect you'll be fine. Here again, watch for small rocks, gravel, and dirt on most corners!

Spanning the top of the pass, which is just over a mile of elevation at 5,325 feet, is a very large lava flow. This flow reminds me generally of Craters of the Moon Nat'l Monument in Idaho. This one is smaller, but with the giant volcanoes on either side, it's spectacular in a completely different way. Here are a couple of photos from Windy Point. The first is of the lava flow, and the 'hill' in the background is the side of the crater where the flow originated. The second is Mt. Washington, which is a smaller and lower peak than the 'big' volcanoes.

LavaFlow_crater.jpg

MtWashington.jpg

Right after this, the road turns and is cut through the lava flow.

Road_in_Lava.jpg

The Dee Wright Observatory is just ahead, and is a great lookout from which to see the flow. It's made from the lava rocks it's sitting on, and is in the upper right of this pic:

Lava observatory.jpg

Here's a shot of Mt. Washington and Mt. Jefferson, both off to the north:

Lava and Wash.jpg
 
Another pic of the Sisters, this time from the NW side. You only see the 2 northernmost sisters in this one; the two which are closest together.

Sisters_closeup.jpg

The next stretch of road I don't have any pictures of. If a person had a video camera, it might make for a great recording. The lava flow abruptly ends, and the road plunges down, down, down into the lush, dense forest of the west side of the Cascades. Trees a hundred and more feet tall everywhere, hundreds of tight twisties, switchbacks... It's quite the stretch! Further down the road meets another highway, and meanders its way down along the McKenzie River.

MacKenzie_River.jpg

There's even a covered wooden bridge! I thought these were a New England item, but Lane County, OR, has a whole ton of them!

CoveredBridge.jpg

Bridge sign.jpg
 
Amazing countryside and photos. Many thanks for sharing.
 
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