AlaskaFish
Jun 25th, 2006, 12:18 pm
Finally made it home from WCR this Friday. And managed to hit nine (9) GT Checkpoints in the process!
We departed on a wet Wednesday (6-14) in the company of Art & Marcia Kester and Dan & Debbie Kienle. Slabbed it for the first part in order to get South where we could pick up our first of many GT Checkpoints: Camas Valley and Talent. If you like Pepsi, you will love the Camas Valley Checkpoint! Ignition Gallery in Talent was very interesting. Plus Marilyn found a great drawing of an LT. Ended up on Hwy 66 over the hill to Klamath Falls, where we parked for the night. This would have been a ton more fun if it wasn't so wet!
Woke up to great riding weather the next day and headed for the next GT Checkpoint: the Canby Hotel. The people at the hotel were amazed that we did not get caught in the speed traps which are on Hwy 139 north of Canby!
After that we found some more slab in order to get down to Williams where we stopped for the night to cool down.
Got up early the next morning for a quick ride without all the luggage up to Lucerne for our next GT Checkpoint. Found that the owner is selling the business, but since he was there he kindly offered to stamp our GT books for us anyway. BE ADVISED, take your camera for this Checkpoint in case no one is there! The ride back to the hotel to pack up was much quicker than the ride up! We all then decided to hit the slab one more time in order to make it in to Three Rivers (WCR) at a reasonable hour. We felt very hot in the 95' degree temperature. Little did we know that there was much worse ahead!
WCR was the usual blast with meeting old friends as well as making some great new ones. We enjoyed riding around the Parks at our leisurely pace, and did not do any unscheduled drops, slides, or "Flower Picking"! We really do enjoy these annual meetings and plan to make them all! Many Thanks to the folks who spent all the time organizing and putting on this years event! Maybe we can help out with next years event, based on what was announced at the dinner! We both would gladly help out as our dues for such great people.
Sunday morning Dan & Debbie had to get back home for work that week, so they slabbed it north toward home, while the rest of us headed for St George Utah in order to hit the Bryce Canyon GT Checkpoint. Now remember, we thought 95' was hot? Well how about a couple of hours riding in 111'? Oh yeah, "it's a dry heat though!" OK, so we rode in an OVEN rather than a sauna! Still too hot for fun! We finally ended up at a great Holiday Inn where we were able to cool down from the great desert crossing!
The next morning we headed for the Bryce Canyon Checkpoint, Ruby's Inn, by way of Zion Nat'l Park. Zion was probably one of the most scenic rides you can take! Beautiful views through the whole park which you can see from the seat of your Bike! Bryce was totally different from Zion in one big way: you need to park the Bike at the viewpoints and get off in order to really see the grandeur of the place! Made for a longer trip in terms of time, but well worth it! We then rode the "Hogsback Ridge" (Hwy 12) after Escalante. The Hogsback Ridge was exciting for a different type of view: straight down on both sides! You are literally riding along this very narrow ridgeline where you can see down to the valleys on both sides. Not for those afraid of heights! We finally parked for the night in Salina Utah.
The next day found us riding through a very busy and smoggy Salt Lake City enroute to our next GT Checkpoint: Afton Wyoming. We encountered several construction delays including several miles of gravel/dirt/mud on Hwy 89! We stopped in Montpelier Idaho and unloaded the Bikes before heading for Afton to gather our stamps.
After a few more enjoyable miles on the back roads we ended up slabbing it again up to the Maled Gorge State Park (near Tuttle) which is right along Hwy 84. Do watch out for the chip sealing which is occurring along this strip of 84! We ended up with a couple of small rock chips in the paint & shields. This is a very interesting stop which we had driven right by numerous times in the past. You just catch a fleeting glimpse of this very deep gorge as you fly by on 84. We made it a stop just to really see what it was and enjoyed it immensely. We ended up in Ontario Oregon for the night in order to visit with our eldest Son who was working in the area!
Our next Checkpoint the following day was the Diamond Hotel! In the middle of nowhere I might add! We gassed up the Bikes in Burns Oregon both before and after the Checkpoint just to make sure we did not pull a "Meese" and run out of gas! NOTE: Avoid the older Shell station right near the downtown part of Burns! The owner there has a rule that no more than 2 Bikes can gas up at one time, and they had better be on the same side of the island! He does not want to tie up both sides of an island with Bikes which will fit on one side!! Go West just a few miles and you will find some nice new stations with plenty of room! We found this out too late! As far as the the Diamond Hotel goes, they serve great (read big!) burgers, but watch out for those mosquitos!
After the Diamond Hotel we proceeded to the Hampton Checkpoint. While enjoying our Ice Cream to cool down with we bumped into a group of Harley riders who told us they had just ridden from North Carolina in four days! We congratulated them for actually riding their Bikes! Of course we subsequently found that they had told the people in the store that they had been riding for 2 weeks! So choose which one you think is closer to the truth! They were a friendly bunch though, and we enjoyed talking about the Bikes.
Our last night on the road was spent in Bend where we were able to help Art & Marcia celebrate their Anniversary at the famous Deschutes Brewery! Mirror Pond is greatest when you can get it right at the source!
We caught the Mehema Checkpoint on the way home form Bend and finally rolled into the garage about 2:30 Friday afternoon.
It was really a great trip with friends and one of the things that really helped was having a common FRS frequency which we could keep in comms over. Of course one of the couples (who shall remain nameless) had not yet installed a push to talk switch, so all they could do was listen to the other two chatting away! Hand signal were used when needed!
Thanks to Art, Marcia, Dan & Debbie for the companionship on our trip! Total milage was 3375 miles according to our GPS. We averaged between 47 & 50 MPG for most of the trip. Total of nine (9) GT Checkpoints gathered. Ten (10) days of pleasure with no mechanical failures!
Pictures (many!) of the Parks available on request!
We departed on a wet Wednesday (6-14) in the company of Art & Marcia Kester and Dan & Debbie Kienle. Slabbed it for the first part in order to get South where we could pick up our first of many GT Checkpoints: Camas Valley and Talent. If you like Pepsi, you will love the Camas Valley Checkpoint! Ignition Gallery in Talent was very interesting. Plus Marilyn found a great drawing of an LT. Ended up on Hwy 66 over the hill to Klamath Falls, where we parked for the night. This would have been a ton more fun if it wasn't so wet!
Woke up to great riding weather the next day and headed for the next GT Checkpoint: the Canby Hotel. The people at the hotel were amazed that we did not get caught in the speed traps which are on Hwy 139 north of Canby!
After that we found some more slab in order to get down to Williams where we stopped for the night to cool down.
Got up early the next morning for a quick ride without all the luggage up to Lucerne for our next GT Checkpoint. Found that the owner is selling the business, but since he was there he kindly offered to stamp our GT books for us anyway. BE ADVISED, take your camera for this Checkpoint in case no one is there! The ride back to the hotel to pack up was much quicker than the ride up! We all then decided to hit the slab one more time in order to make it in to Three Rivers (WCR) at a reasonable hour. We felt very hot in the 95' degree temperature. Little did we know that there was much worse ahead!
WCR was the usual blast with meeting old friends as well as making some great new ones. We enjoyed riding around the Parks at our leisurely pace, and did not do any unscheduled drops, slides, or "Flower Picking"! We really do enjoy these annual meetings and plan to make them all! Many Thanks to the folks who spent all the time organizing and putting on this years event! Maybe we can help out with next years event, based on what was announced at the dinner! We both would gladly help out as our dues for such great people.
Sunday morning Dan & Debbie had to get back home for work that week, so they slabbed it north toward home, while the rest of us headed for St George Utah in order to hit the Bryce Canyon GT Checkpoint. Now remember, we thought 95' was hot? Well how about a couple of hours riding in 111'? Oh yeah, "it's a dry heat though!" OK, so we rode in an OVEN rather than a sauna! Still too hot for fun! We finally ended up at a great Holiday Inn where we were able to cool down from the great desert crossing!
The next morning we headed for the Bryce Canyon Checkpoint, Ruby's Inn, by way of Zion Nat'l Park. Zion was probably one of the most scenic rides you can take! Beautiful views through the whole park which you can see from the seat of your Bike! Bryce was totally different from Zion in one big way: you need to park the Bike at the viewpoints and get off in order to really see the grandeur of the place! Made for a longer trip in terms of time, but well worth it! We then rode the "Hogsback Ridge" (Hwy 12) after Escalante. The Hogsback Ridge was exciting for a different type of view: straight down on both sides! You are literally riding along this very narrow ridgeline where you can see down to the valleys on both sides. Not for those afraid of heights! We finally parked for the night in Salina Utah.
The next day found us riding through a very busy and smoggy Salt Lake City enroute to our next GT Checkpoint: Afton Wyoming. We encountered several construction delays including several miles of gravel/dirt/mud on Hwy 89! We stopped in Montpelier Idaho and unloaded the Bikes before heading for Afton to gather our stamps.
After a few more enjoyable miles on the back roads we ended up slabbing it again up to the Maled Gorge State Park (near Tuttle) which is right along Hwy 84. Do watch out for the chip sealing which is occurring along this strip of 84! We ended up with a couple of small rock chips in the paint & shields. This is a very interesting stop which we had driven right by numerous times in the past. You just catch a fleeting glimpse of this very deep gorge as you fly by on 84. We made it a stop just to really see what it was and enjoyed it immensely. We ended up in Ontario Oregon for the night in order to visit with our eldest Son who was working in the area!
Our next Checkpoint the following day was the Diamond Hotel! In the middle of nowhere I might add! We gassed up the Bikes in Burns Oregon both before and after the Checkpoint just to make sure we did not pull a "Meese" and run out of gas! NOTE: Avoid the older Shell station right near the downtown part of Burns! The owner there has a rule that no more than 2 Bikes can gas up at one time, and they had better be on the same side of the island! He does not want to tie up both sides of an island with Bikes which will fit on one side!! Go West just a few miles and you will find some nice new stations with plenty of room! We found this out too late! As far as the the Diamond Hotel goes, they serve great (read big!) burgers, but watch out for those mosquitos!
After the Diamond Hotel we proceeded to the Hampton Checkpoint. While enjoying our Ice Cream to cool down with we bumped into a group of Harley riders who told us they had just ridden from North Carolina in four days! We congratulated them for actually riding their Bikes! Of course we subsequently found that they had told the people in the store that they had been riding for 2 weeks! So choose which one you think is closer to the truth! They were a friendly bunch though, and we enjoyed talking about the Bikes.
Our last night on the road was spent in Bend where we were able to help Art & Marcia celebrate their Anniversary at the famous Deschutes Brewery! Mirror Pond is greatest when you can get it right at the source!
We caught the Mehema Checkpoint on the way home form Bend and finally rolled into the garage about 2:30 Friday afternoon.
It was really a great trip with friends and one of the things that really helped was having a common FRS frequency which we could keep in comms over. Of course one of the couples (who shall remain nameless) had not yet installed a push to talk switch, so all they could do was listen to the other two chatting away! Hand signal were used when needed!
Thanks to Art, Marcia, Dan & Debbie for the companionship on our trip! Total milage was 3375 miles according to our GPS. We averaged between 47 & 50 MPG for most of the trip. Total of nine (9) GT Checkpoints gathered. Ten (10) days of pleasure with no mechanical failures!
Pictures (many!) of the Parks available on request!