1K mile trip through the Washington/Oregon Gorge- lots of pics!

Yamaha_chop

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Lots of words in this one!

My brother decided to come up from San Diego this past weekend to do a motorcycle trip with me up through the gorge in between Oregon and Washington. I live at the bottom of Oregon on the coast in a town called Brookings. Our plan was to ride up to Hood River the first day to spend the night at my brother in law's house, then ride all through the Gorge on Sunday, then back to my house on Monday. Here is that trip....

My Dad was down in San Diego checking on his boat, so on his way back he stuck my brother's new Ducati Monster in the van and my bro jumped in with him and they made the drive up, checked out the redwood trees just south of Brookings area:

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Yea, they're big.

Made it up to Brookings on Friday the 14th, Here's the family back together, from left to right; Dad, Me, Matt, Joe

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Next morning, got all our stuff ready to go (except all my bathroom stuff, which of course means my contacts too which I'm blind as a bat without. Figured out I forgot all that about an hour out of town.

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Left Brookings around 10am. Rode up the 101 through the fog on the way to Gold Beach 30 miles up the coast, terrible. We rode on up the coast to Bandon, were way too cold, so we struck out inland on the 42, quickly found some sun:

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Made our way to Roseburg Oregon, rolled up I-5 to Eugene. Not much fun blasting up the freeway on a pair of naked bikes so we tried to stay off the main routes as much as possible. Cut away from Eugene on the 126 to Sisters Oregon. Beautiful ride through there, so much fun going from the green of the coast, to the high desert of central Oregon.

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Rolled into Sisters oregon around 6 pm. Some pretty ominous looking black clouds overhead. Not unusual to have thundershowers in that area this time of year, but I really didn't want to get rained on.

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Asked another rider about it, and he told me that it was actually smoke from the massive fire that was burning just east of there!

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I heard from my Dad later that they closed that area of road just after my brother and I came through.

Continued on from there to Redmond Oregon, turned north up to Madras. Absolutely stunning views through there. Unfortunately we didn't get off the bikes to get any shots because we were trying to keep moving, it was getting late in the day already and we still had a long way to go.

Got dark as we came up out of warm springs, as soon as we hit the treeline going out to Hood mountain the temperature just dropped. Wasn't too much fun at that point. Jumped off the 26 and cut over on the 35 going right up over the top of Mt. Hood. Yea, it got cold. And my brother had his tinted visor on, so I had to go really slow so he could follow my tail-light. Rolled into Hood River Oregon around 9:30pm. Used my brothers phone to locate my Bro-in-law's house. We rode for a bit past where we thought it would be, then we stopped at a gas station to look at the map again. While we were looking at it I saw two people climb over the small dirt hill leading to the gas station and start walking toward us. At this point we've been on the road for 11 1/2 hrs, I'm in no mood to chat with random people. I hear they are in flip flops so I start thinking that if they try anything stupid like knocking me off my bike I can at least catch them. Yea my brain wasn't working too good at that point. Anyway, they reach us, and it turns out to be my Brother and Sister in law! We had pulled into the gas station that was directly adjacent to their house! They heard the bikes and came over to see if it was us. We were very relieved and pulled the bikes into their garage so we could grab a bite to eat and catch some Z's.

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Next day, we all pulled our bikes out and cleaned them up for the ride. The Blue Aprilia is my Bro-in-law's bike. Beautiful '01 RSV Mille, this thing is so clean you could eat off of it, and the brakes are unbelievable! Ohlins suspension front and rear, really a fun bike to ride.

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We rolled out across the Columbia river and headed up one of the canyons toward Clickitat.I know, sounds made up doesn't it?
Stopped at a scenic point and swapped bikes with each other.

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We continued rolling out east though some twisty sections, Then rolled back down the canyon and back across the river, rode down to Oregon Raceway Park in Grass Valley. Unfortunately they were all closed up, but it looks like a really fun track to ride.
Then we on the way back to My Bro-in-law's place in Hood River we jumped on the 42 headed west, this lead up to a observation area with a stunning view, but the road leading up to that Oh MAN!

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The view

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Kind of funny seeing the bikes lined up, California, Oregon, and Washington plates.

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Then we got back to Hood River about 4:30, and my brother and I decided to start heading back early so that we wouldn't have such a long ride on Monday. We rode back to Bend Oregon, where I used to live for about 6 years and spent the night there. Here we are at the hotel the next morning.

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Left Bend around 10am again, Rode down the 97 and past Crater Lake, it really is a beautiful ride through there, one I've been wanting to do for some time.
Stopped about 20min from a place called Shady Cove to celebrate our 1000 mile mark!

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Went through Grants Pass where the temp spiked to about 100, that wasn't too much fun, then got one last blast by riding through HWY199, an ultra twisty highway that winds through a canyon river. Lots of fun to be had there. Finally we rolled back into Brookings around 5:30 after having ridden 1158 miles in three days.

It's been about a week now, and my butt finally doesn't hurt :)

All in all, what a phenomenal trip. the weather could not have been better the entire trip, and the roads were perfect. We all traded bikes periodically throughout the trip, and it was really neat to compare the bikes positive and negative traits. I had really been wanting to do a multi-day trip and this was perfect.
Thanks for reading.
Sky
 
great writeup ,excellent pics too!

Thanks for sharing your reunion trip with us I really enjoyed reading that this morning as we have been stuck inside with torrential rain for 5x hours now
 
Hello, new member on site, just read your write-up and pics. I grew up in Hood River in the 60's 70's and 80's, moved to PA in 89. If you get back there you should do Lost Lake Rd, Cooper Spur rd. And the old highway on the Oregon side. Lots of beautiful waterfalls through the gorge area. Timberline lodge is a awesome place too. I am going out to visit this summer, will post pics of some of my favorite spots. Thanks for the pics of my old stomping grounds :thumbsup:
 
My wife is up in hood river right now with some of her family. You're right, there's a lot of amazing riding up through the gorge area. Next year is the year!
 
Hello, new member on site, just read your write-up and pics. I grew up in Hood River in the 60's 70's and 80's, moved to PA in 89. If you get back there you should do Lost Lake Rd, Cooper Spur rd. And the old highway on the Oregon side. Lots of beautiful waterfalls through the gorge area. Timberline lodge is a awesome place too. I am going out to visit this summer, will post pics of some of my favorite spots. Thanks for the pics of my old stomping grounds :thumbsup:


welcome carman :thumbsup:
Do you have a current project you can post about ? or maybe some pics of your bike/s by way of intro
 
Great report, I've run through about every part of Oregon a few times on various trips to here and there.

Beautiful state but out there in the Bend, Burns, McDermitt area the 55 mph speed limit can be a tough one to comply with, particularly when every other car goes by at about 100. Thanks for the enjoyable post. denny
 
Great story. Have you considered sending it to a bike mag? You write as well as the folks in the mags.
Leo
 
I appreciate that. I used to write for the local newspaper, and for a time when I was younger I wanted to be a journalist for one of the bike mags. Didn't turn out that way, but I still enjoy writing :)
 
Good story!
It has been some time since I was up in your area.
I would love to ride up that way again.
A ride like that a guy could get some knees down and really have some fun!
 
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