riding day 1, left the big smoke of Vancouver (surrey) in the early afternoon and promptly ran into rain so we crossed over to the 'dry' side of the mtns. and on to Ellensburg, where the rain stopped long enough to take a short walk downtown for dinner while everything (including my "waterproof" alpine stars) was spread all over the room to dry.
Pic. 1 is in the morning of day 2 looking good so far.
stopped for road work, so a pic of the mtns west of Ellensburg in the sun seemed like a good idea.
as the day deteriorated we were riding on roads that were as if just absolutely poured on though we didn't get rained on (with many layers and rain gear on), we stopped in Antelope to see if the road ahead went thru to a nearby town that had gas as the aprillia needs gas every 2 hours (true), a happy thumbs up Guy on hearing the next town has go juice!
we ended the day in John Day in the rain, just below snow level, uh oh.
Day3 started fully geared up and waterproof as it was raining out again, which was perhaps better that the snow we ran into soon after leaving town and up into the twisty pass above town. The rain stopped after awhile but it was really cold and we mistakenly broke rule #1 in Baja, which is NEVER pass a gas station. As the reality of not making it to Lakeside set in we landed in Wagontire Pop. 3, and two of them had left. This pic. was taken before Guy paid 20bucks for two gallons of gas from the old timer living in the trailer in the background, who didn't answer the knock at the door but came outside awhile later.
no I think the hazard is lower than that.
it seems the not actually there Wagontire International Airport would be hovering at just over 4700 feet, if it were there, and fogetabout staying at that Motel.
Saw these sculptures along the way to lakeview.
Yes we have gas, rather I have gas, Guy has gas just barely.
After arriving in Lakeview for lunch the day had turned good and just got better'n better until we were in full on sun and warmish weather. Ended the day in beautiful downtown Weaverville and had a surprisingly good Mexican meal and good beers at a gas station.
day4 started with a clear blue sunny sky and warm finally. Rode thru twisted roads all day out to the California coast and to the town of Fort Bragg. pics from one of the coastal roads, yes slow to 10!
nice views along the way.
a home with a view.
day 5 and on thru San Fransisco to Salinas and laguna Seca,
where we arrived to a bit of a cluster f with the cheap day pass we had bought for Sat., we had planned on 1 day at the track and 1 night camped but noo, you must have a 2 day pass and buy three nights of camping, so back to the shell station to buy another day pass (at a substantial savings) then back to the track and get set up to camp, in the dark ugg! Turns out we ended up at must certainly have been the best camp spot on the entire premises, pitched the tents in a hollow out of the wind that also cleanly sat below a ridge that completely blocked all the ambient track light making a dark star filled sky to sleep under.
the panorama shot is lousy but it shows the view we had, the tents are 20 feet behind over my right shoulder. below and right is the turn 11 hairpin, front and left is the 120mph exit from the "corkscrew", which is visible to the left (in reality, not in the picture)
a better shot more of the reality of the view where we were set up. The legendary for Laguna corkscrew is directly in the background past that motorhome near the center of the pic.
A parting shot for today, Guy, Ric and Matt perched on the hill looking over the track, perhaps Rick should've got out of the chair and eaten some food during the long day of beer in the sun, unfortunately he didn't. Ric races a vintage Laverda and a Mike Dunhill Ducati at various tracks across the country, but he will spend most of the next day in his station wagon with the engine running and the air cond. turned on, ouch. The return trip home in the next post.