San Diego or Bust, August 2017, Part 7

I TRIED TO GET THESE TO POST IN REVERSE ORDER, BUT NO SUCH LUCK.  IF YOU'D LIKE TO START AT THE BEGINNING, GO TO AUGUST AND FIND PART 1.


Saturday—Day 19

Destination:  Thompson Reservoir, Oregon

Miles:  316

Critter Count: 1 deer, bald eagle, sand hill cranes

It's a beautiful morning, once again. We are up and on the road by 7:30.  That might have been an error in judgment as it was a very cold ride, getting down to 45 degrees.  Maybe we should have waited for the sun to come up a little higher.

There are 3 ways to go north from Lake Almanor. One goes right through the Lassen Volcanic Park, and we are all tired of the crowds so that was a big no.  The second goes too far west, almost to Redding, so that also got voted down as too hot.  The third was to take some county roads to the east of us that would short-cut us to SR 44 which joins up with SR 89 just outside the Lassen Park.  This was the winner.

 The view of Mt Shasta from Highway 89

About 30 miles past the SR 299 junction we turned north on Harris Springs Rd.  This forrest road took us to Medicine Lake.

Looks like the lake is a little full.  You have to wade out to the beach if you want to swim.

Medicine Lake had been an option to camp at, if we had arrived in the afternoon.  As it was only 11 am we opted for a snack and a rest as I reset the GPS's with the next route.

 It is a pretty little lake

After Medicine Lake we took SR 139 north splitting off on county roads as we went into Oregon.  We went through Bonanza and out to SR 140 to go east through Beatty, to Bly where we had lunch and got gas. We then turned north on more forest roads to get to Thompson Reservoir.

 We again had a beach front site

Smoke from the fire across the lake made for a nice sunset

Tomorrow will be a short day. Less than 130 miles to Dave and Loretta's where we plan to spend the night.

Sunday—Day 20

Destination: Dave and Loretta's, Bend Oregon

Miles:  128

Critter Count: 1 deer, bald eagle

We had a quite night in camp.  At sunset the sand hill cranes started telling each other about their day.  They have a very distinctive cry.  They started back up this morning as the sun was coming up.  They were so loud, we all got up.  We planned on breakfast in town, so clean up this morning was minimal.  We went to the Silver Lake Cafe for breakfast and had our last visit for now, with Lyon.  He will head straight up US 97 to catch a highway west over the mountains.  He would like to get home to Hillsboro before all the weekend traffic gets on the highways.  It makes sense, but we will miss him when he leaves.

We lasted 1.5 miles on US 97 before diving onto secondary roads that paralleled the highway to Sun River.  Then we went a little west so we could then come in on the Cascade Lakes Highway.  We stayed to the west of the Bend mess, coming into Dave's place on the Tumalo Rd.  It was nice to have a day to spend with friends.  They told us about their ride home, after they left us, and we filled them in on our adventures.

Monday—Day 21

Destination: Debbie's house, Yakima, WA

Miles:  297

Word of the Day:  Hot

We have company for part of our ride today!  I had planned on us doing a lot of US 97 to get us to Yakima at a reasonable time, But Dave and his friend Darryl had other ideas.  They used us as an excuse (as if they needed one) to go riding!

We started out after a great breakfast (thanks Dave for feeding Wayne his favorites) and followed back roads to north of Redmond, crossing 97 at Terrebonne. We continued east to the Madras Highway (US 26), which we took north to Madras. Once out of town we took backroads on the west side of the highway until we had to go back on 97.  6 miles later we were off to the east on SR 293. The next time we stopped Wayne was telling us about this car that had followed us up 97, then waved energetically at him when we peeled off.  We had no clue, until later that this had been our friend Sue who lives in Terrebonne.  What are the chances, and how did she know it was us from behind??? 

 We took state highways through part of the John Day Fossil beds  and through the towns of Antelope and Fossil.

 Very cool rook formations

 I'm standing under the rocks, but the other side of the valley is so smooth and weathered

In the town of Condon, Dave and Darryl turned east, trying to get higher in elevation to avoid the heat, while Wayne and I headed west to get back on US 97 so we could cross into Washington.  We had lunch in Goldendale, then took the Bickleton Hwy northeast to Mabton. Then it was SR 22 northwest to where we could cross I-82 and the Konnowac Pass Rd to Moxee. Then we worked our way north to Deb's house.  It was hot, hot, hot all afternoon.  I was dripping wet by the time we got to Deb's.

 It was so much fun to catch up with Deb and Lisa.  We spent the evening talking about old times.  We used to camp and ride together almost every weekend.  I miss that, but moving to Salt Lake City put an end to it.

Thanks Debbie, for taking us in for the night, and for all the good times we've had over the years.  Hard to believe it was 30 years ago that we met on the trails at Mad River.

Tuesday—Day 22

Destination: Monroe, Washington

Miles:  183

Word of the Day:  Home

Total Trip:  23 days, 22 days riding

Miles:  4952, only about 900 short of what I expected 

Debbie and Lisa had to work today, so we got up with them and were on the road by 6:30 am.  Yikes!!  We thought we were avoiding the heat, but it never did warm up until we got west of the Cascades.

We struggled to get out of town, as the roads that my map showed weren't there anymore.  It happens... We didn't want to go through town, so we got on the dreaded interstate, I-82, for the 8 miles to the Yakima Canyon exit and then headed north.  I love the ride through the canyon, it is so pretty. We were getting gas in Ellensburg well before 8, and at the Liberty Cafe on the Blewett Pass highway for breakfast.

Then it was up to US 2 and Leavenworth, over Stevens Pass and in to John's house before noon.

We're back!

It looks like the bikes puked camping gear all over the place!

It's nice to be home, where ever home is.  Currently that's John and Cheri's place in Monroe.   We'll stay here for a while.  Wayne needs to rip into his BMW and fix that bad boy, then it is off to Bend to hang with Dave and Loretta for a while.  Hopefully I'll have more for you from there!

Take care,

Patti

Life shouldn’t be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, wine in one hand and chocolate in the other, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming "Wow! What a Ride!”