Racoons and things...

WHAT?? 

All packed up and ready to roll.

Jay and I left home Monday morning, June 2nd, after a rush pack job. I had been under the impression that we were due to leave Tuesday until I got home Sunday and looked at the calendar, I let a few choice words fly and then started throwing stuff in bags.

We caught the 12:30 ferry out of Coupeville and headed for Hwy 101. We stopped for the night in Warrenton, OR. It was getting late, cold and starting to rain so a good time to get off the roads.

We woke up to beautiful sunshine and headed south. Our next stop would be Carl G. Washburn state park on 101.

I pulled in and told the guy we needed a tent site. He said there were some nice walk-in sites and we would be the only ones there. Walk-in? I asked him just how far we would need to walk in and he of course replied - not that far. AND, there are wheel barrows there to haul your stuff to your site. Hmmmmm, well OK. So off we go to check out the walk-in sites. Just around the corner I see this bright yellow sign.

It's hard to see the date under the bear but it was about 1 month ago there had been a bear siting. We get to the walk-in sites and they are a bit more of a walk than we both wanted so we go back down and tell the guy we need a regular site. I told him he had me until I saw the bear sign and the fact that we would be the only ones there! HA

This was a much better option and the beautiful beach was only a half mile walk away. 

Unfortunately I had left a pack of gum in my tank bag. I know, I know...but there are bears in the area!! So around 2 a.m. we had a visitor. I heard a scraping on metal sound coming from the bikes. I jumped up and grabbed the light, unzipped the tent and pounded on Jay. Of course our first thought was that it was a bear so Jay started yelling to scare it away. I then saw the two eyeballs lower to the ground and realized it was a racoon. Once Jay got a foot out of the tent the little rascal ran away. It didn't get my gum but it did make quite a mess on my seat and tank bag with it's muddy, sandy feet. 

The next day we said goodbye to the coast to head inland to ride a nice twisty road my friend Jeri had recently found while we were mapping out our ride to the Redwoods. 

We rode south to Florence then headed east through Eugene and a few more miles to The Aufderheide - a great motorcycling road.

The Aufderheide or Road #19

We decided to stay in Oakridge that night at the Best Western. It was getting late and a bit chilly so instead of carrying on to highway 97 to head south to Klammath Falls we decided to hang out there a night. 

Diamond Peak on our way to Hwy 97

The next day we got up early and took off Crater Lake. We wanted to take the road that goes around the west side of the lake and then down into Fort Klammath and on to our condo at Klammath Falls. This was where we parted ways for 2 nights while Jay did the Adventure Camp at Fort Klammath. 

Jays aunt and her partner came over from Brookings, OR to spend a couple of nights with us. We had a great visit and then off we went headed for John Day, Oregon. 

This was where I was suppose to take a one day off road class. Well, we stayed a night in Redmond and then we were suppose to make our way to John Day and the closer that day came the more anxious I was becoming. If you remember from my last post I took a pretty hard fall on my right side while at Adventure camp. I still have lingering pain from that fall and apparently lingering anxiety because I really did not want to take this class. I talked it over with Jay and we both decided it was find if I didn't do it. So, we had a lovely ride to the Painted Hills.

We made it up to the flats where there are miles and miles of these...

Any time I see turbines and they are spinning I know it's going to be 'one of those' rides. Basically you lean into the wind and hope that the gusts do not push you the wrong way. We rode about 30 miles in this wind and made it to the Columbia river where we decided to call it a day and got a camp site. It would have been great but I counted 14 frieght trains from 4 p.m. when we arrived to 6 a.m. when my alarm went off. Needless to say, the alarm was not needed. Jay always gets up first and makes us coffee. This day would be different. I heard him say, "Kelly, you have a flat tire!" Oh man. So luckily he paid attention at Adventure camp and we were able to get the job done. Patched the tube, put it all back together and off we went, in search of coffee. 

We stopped in Goldendale for gas and decided to find the town and some coffee. We found Koyote Coffee on main street. It was a sweet little shop with good coffee and conversation. If you ever get the chance you should stop in and visit with the owners - we would have stayed longer but had to get on the road to make it home that day. We stopped in Gold Bar to have dinner with a friend we had not seen in over a year and then made the last stretch home and even got here before dark on June12th. 

My next adventure will be at the Touratech Rally towards the end of this month. I will have some good friends there who will continue to mentor me on all things gravel.