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Had a wonderful weekend ride. Friday we got out of town early and headed down 97, then turned right at Beaver Marsh towards the longest and straightest stretch of road I know of in the state. Snow still cuddled up to the roadside, more than a few feet deep in spots. The air was chilly, and I was very happy for the heated liner and gloves. By the way, the heated gloves WAAAY ROCK over heated grips. The gloves have heat on the backside of your hands, so it radiates inwards. The back of my hands are always cold, the palms, not so much. Heated grips warm your palms and leave everything else frigid. Especially if you’re a ‘two fingers on the brake and clutch’ kinda rider, those two fingers will be cold with heated grips.
After a stop at the Grand Canyon of the Rogue (very cool canyon with tons of rushing water) we wandered the rest of the way in to Grant’s Pass, making it to town by around 5:30 or so. After dropping most of the gear in our motel room, we rode to dinner at Abby’s Pizza (only salad bar in town), then relaxed and watched the Blazers get beat up.
The next morning after a quick bowl of cereal (for me) and coffee (for both of us) we were on the road to Oregon Caves. This section of pavement could be very fun if it were a bit wider, had some guardrails, and didn’t have multitudes of gravel in every corner. It was still fun, but no way I was willing to wick it up and really rail the turns, especially after a bit of back-end drift in the first corners.
We got in on the 10am tour (first of the day), and had a very nice young tour guide. I thought the caves were cool, Mike was less impressed. He was thinking that for all this hoopla the rooms would be larger.
We were back on the bikes a little after noon, and headed back down the mountain and towards the coast. Our route took us through some beautiful country, and touched the very tip of California and Redwoods National Park. Boy, those are some humongous trees!
We headed up 101 from Brookings, and got into some pretty intense wind gusts. Funny thing is there’s a flashing sign at Brookings that states “Wind Gusts next 20 miles if sign is Flashing”, but it wasn’t flashing. So I guess those zephyr winds which were blowing me out of turns weren’t big enough for them to bother with. Wonder what it’d be like to ride in ‘real’ wind gusts? No, I really don’t wonder that. I don’t want to find out!
Brookings had some traffic, but it tapered off pretty quickly. By Gold Beach the road was pretty deserted, and a joy to ride (except for the occasional hurricane).
Gold Beach was supposed to have a Motorcycle Museum – well, it did, but it doesn’t any more. Closed a year ago. Rats!! A day late and a dollar short, that’s us. Crazy thing is, the website for the place is still active, so it really tricked us.
Reached Bandon in the early evening, and it was beautiful. Very quiet. A bit too quiet for a tourist town on a Saturday evening, but it is still early in the season, so hopefully more shops will inhabit the empty storefronts soon.
The next morning after a wonderful free breakfast, we packed everything up and got ready to go. As we were starting the bikes, a few drops of rain fell on us. So, yes, it did rain at the coast while we were there!
We took 42 S in to Coquille, then on 42 until it runs out of steam at I-5. Next we jumped onto 138 and followed the road as it twisted and turned through the Umpqua Valley. This was the first time we’d ridden this stretch, and it’s gorgeous!
Mike was hoping a low mountain pass road would be open for us, so we stopped at Steamboat Inn to ask. The gal there was a wealth of knowledge and said she’d just tried the road last week and it was still very blocked. Bummed that our fun road wasn’t an option, we decided to eat lunch at the Inn. Glad we did, it was excellent! Can’t wait to go back and try a burger, they’re on homemade buns and looked scrumptious!
After lunch, we continued on, finishing our 700+ mile loop back where we started, riding past Diamond Lake and on to Beaver Marsh and 97 to home.
