Holy Oly!

Seems like there's some sort of strange attraction between the florescent better target gear and the snowblowers up on the North Cascades....or at least that's what several aging fools would have us believe on a sunny afternoon.

The ride from Cranberry to Twisp to join Tim at a favourite watering hole was spectacular and relaxed.  A great little bar to watch the playoff game and introduced to a new campground close to a rising river.  The ride over the N Cascades highway was a beauty until the traffic parade from Diablo in, but worth it for the weather and scenery.  Deception Pass and the adjacent campground, with inflight entertainment after seafood edibles maintained the flow.

While awaiting the arrival of Yoda and Becker, an afternoon wander about Camp Worden and the big gun batteries was undertaken.  Not a lot of guns left, but a reasonable hike, on and semi off trail before we gathered and headed to Port Angeles.

The NW coast of Washington is a special and rugged place.  Lots of logging and fishing history and some great roads to clean the nubs off the sides of the tires.  Not fast, but very enjoyable riding through mostly dry and good road conditions.  Hurricane Ridge is one of those special and easily accessible areas.  Climbs about 5000 ft in 14 miles and there's coffee and a great view at the top.

Lunch was had and while I had to head east and north, the other lads headed toward Mt. St. Helen's, hopefully for an unclouded view of the cone and some more great roads.  All in all a very nice ride and looking forward to visiting the area again,   jm

& here's a link to a slideshow with more photos from the tour: http://www.flickr.com/photos/photojam09/sets/72157626957354974/show/

and for another perspective on the rides and lots more interesting comments, check out Yoda's blog at: http://floobydust.wordpress.com/

There's this stretch of road......

....between Kalso and New Denver BC that is one of the sweetest to ride on most days and on some days its just about perfect.  This was one of those days.

As I was looking out at the snow in the mountains another rider cruised by.  I think he gets it, and while it isn't always this great, these kind of days do bring you back and centre a guy.

En route from Jasper to Drayton Valley on the same trip, I was meandering along at a sedate pace and watching the reflections in peaceful Lake Talbot.  Sometimes the road is just access to where we need to be.

its these captured moments that make up for the heavy rain going into PG and the windstorms on the flats in Alberta.  As I've heard at least once...all good    jm




and if you want another perspective from an interesting bike builder try: 


http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Qx0WNEUm-MY

Under Interesting Skies

So, there we were, an unseasonably cool, wet, often snowy April, and while common sense and reasonable judgment would normally prevent setting out on a tour, everyone was keen enough to ignore the obvious.  It was nearly 11 bells before the air temp was above freezing and no one really wanted to speculate on the road temp on the way out of Cranbrook.  The Okanagan was slightly better in the valley and Vancouver was just wet, so, "hey" why not tempt the fates and go for an early spring tour.

Some good meals, a dram or two and a lot of laughs while checking the weather and hockey scores punctuated the gathering.  Yakima has some character locations and some characters to keep the boredom factor down.

The weather gods smiled on us and we rode under dry and some sunny skies for 5 days.  Not sure if Norm made it back unscathed by any wet, but other than a bit of coolness and plugging in the heated gear at start up, all good.  Rode some very nice highways, twisties and interesting scenery and towns.  Even got to camp one night in Colville, which the consensus opinion found a tad nipish in the early morning.  I remain amazed at the good fortune we've enjoyed on previous early season jaunts and how we played in these unsettled conditions without having to rubber suit up.  All good and looking forward to sharing some more great roads, j

Miller Raceway Superbike Races - May 2010

So there Roger and I were.  First time for me at a major motorcycle race event and an amazing volume of high tech, high powered machines and some excellent riders to put on a show.  The entire weekend was a great experience, learning and entertaining.  Anytime you get to the leading edge of an activity it is inspiring to catch a glimpse of the potential and to put some of the finer points into practice to make our pedestrian pace a bit more fun and a lot safer.  Hope to do it again and do some riding on the track.  Can't hurt to learn some new skills and expect it'll make the entire riding adventure more safe and fun, jm

Here there and most other places

So there we were and then we weren't.  An interesting ride from many perspectives.  That said....

Whine Country to Yosemite, then on to Nevada

Update time since we've missed a few days; combination of timing, priorities and poor internet connections.  After some diverse orienteering through Napa, onto Yosemite and a spectacular day in the park.  The waterfalls were doing what they do best and the traffic, while steady, wasn't overly heavy.  A cool, but sunny day made it all worthwhile.

Onto Sonora, after a stop for a beverage to celebrate Grant's birthday in historic Jamestown, then a ride over the Monitor pass on a near perfect day.

Its soon going to be M-m-m-m-may..... in Petaluma and Yosemite

Per the last missive from Yoda and Becker, we parted company with those two intrepid lads, who were not content to simply ride south into sunshine, but determined it was too much of a whooosy approach and instead headed back north into the eye of the storm.  JP was looking a tad green at the time and with 4-6 inches of snow forecast for Klamath Falls, it seemed like a wise choice. 

On the other hand (even more fingers), we had to search far and wide for something challenging and rode into a lot of white in the mountains west of Redding. We tried for the honoured double dog dare you crossing and got just what we wanted.  No harm done and several lessons relearned.  You'd be amazed at how much discussion you can tease out of multiple illogical decisions in a row. 

As demonstrated by the photo, as yet unretouched, the weather is better, we're seeing some great country and we'll be headed for more soon, as we turn west toward Yosimiie and then start north through Tahoe and perhaps Crater Lake,    

These tours always contain a bit of adventure and this one has its share.   Take 6+2 Canucks in a bar in Davis, making a lot of noise as we watch the Habs win the 7th game of the playoff series with Washington.    We really know how to push the limits...but we did offer severa l apologies.  Its only Canadian, you know,

jm