Where did you ride today?

Took the new to me BMW K100rs out for a 75 mile test ride. Had a stop at skulls gap overlook. The last ride was a failure with it coming back on a trailer because of a failure to restart because the fuel pump would not run. Once home 4 hours later it started like nothing was ever wrong. Spent time with the wiring diagram and figured the 2 possibilities was the ignition module or fuel pump relay so having both as spares they went on it. So far so good.IMG_3129.jpeg
 
Needed to get out of the City and decompress a bit, so I took the FJR on an early morning ride up to Echo Lake. It is one of my favorite local rides once I am across the Metro Area and into the foot hills. 140 mile round trip garage to garage. The weather was the best this morning. All the colors were just sharp and vibrant, and once on highway 103 to the lake, not a soul to be found. Had the road all to my self.


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CO-470 to 1267-1399 County Rd 65

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If you've never been to the "Ride the Ribbon" rally in John Day, OR, the idea is simple. Meet up with some good friends and make new ones. Then ride on some of the best motorcycle roads west of the Rockies. It seems these roads follow the path taken by wagons and skirt along the banks of local rivers. As a result there are few straight roads. And those that there are, bring you to more twisty roads in short order. There's little traffic and the pavement is beautiful.

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My gaze wants to go out and appreciate the scenery, while that sign tells me to pay attention.
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I spent Sunday riding out to Baker City and then south to Cambridge. The Snake River was glassy smooth in this spot.

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My riding buddy and I split up as we came back and I went north into Hell's Canyon. The quote below is from Wikipedia. A couple quick details to pick out.
  • The canyon is the deepest river gorge in North America. You just cannot grasp the scale of what you're passing through.
  • The Snake River flows more than a mile below the top of the gorge.
Hells Canyon is a ten-mile-wide (16 km) canyon in the Western United States, along the border of eastern Oregon, western Idaho, and a small section of eastern Washington. It is part of the Hells Canyon National Recreation Area which is also located in part of the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest.[2] It is North America's deepest river gorge at 7,993 feet (2,436 m),[3] running deeper than the Grand Canyon in Arizona.[4]

The canyon was carved by the waters of the Snake River, which flows more than one mile (1.6 km) below the canyon's west rim on the Oregon side and 7,400 feet (2,300 m) below the peaks of Idaho's Seven Devils Mountains to the east. This area includes 214,000 acres (87,000 ha) of wilderness.[5] Most of the area is inaccessible by road.[6]
Click to expand...
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It looks so inviting in the picture. The temp was 102F. Hooray for a cooling vest. ;)
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The scenery isn't just on the ground, but also in the sky.

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I left early on Monday morning. At this point, I'd probably been on the road an hour.

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Almost home...Snoqualmie Pass.

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Chris
 
Out to Bend Oregon from the Portland area last week, to pick up some hard to source aquarium plants for my 180 gallon tank in my greenhouse. The guy gave them to me for free when he found out I rode the bike out to get them.
Averaged 62 mpg. Hit a thunderstorm with large hail on the way back over Mt. Hood.
Rode to a "First Open Appointment" with a doctor other than my GP 16 miles from here on Friday.
It seems I may have broken my neck again. Possible compression fracture of the C2.
"Stop riding the bike" Yeah, uhhhh there's a week of good weather left. That advice can wait...
The car goes in for a minor exhaust repair, and a new GPS touchscreen stereo unit this week, so the bike is all I'll have for a few days. I have X-rays tomorrow, and and CT scan and an MRI, ASAP. I'll ride to those as well.
 
Left last Monday for a trip to Wisconsin to ride the driftless area. Stayed in Wisconsin Dells which I did not know is a tourist attraction similar to Branson. Duck boats, Tom Foolery's Adventure park, Kalahari resort, etc. Lot's of ways to take your money. After vacation season has come and gone the rates were excellent (IHG hotels on points) so stayed for free.

The alphabet roads are really cool to ride. Just pick one. Started out jotting down notes of each alphabet road taken and soon gave up on stopping every 20 miles to keep up with the roads so when they say just take an alphabet road, just jump on and enjoy the ride.

Some of the roads have double letters, FF, PF, ZZ. Seems those roads have lesser pavement but nothing to skip over. No dirt or anything like that. Just had a blast riding those roads for a couple of days.

Did pull up Lambeau Field and it was under 200 miles from where I was at so headed to Green Bay to visit that shrine. Washington played there the next day.

Being from the Panhandle of Texas I was amazed at how farming looks in Wisconsin. Rolling hills covered in Corn, Alfalfa, and Soybeans. There would be a huge corn field with huge swaths of open area in the corn. Could not figure out why all that land was not growing corn. After seeing this over and over again it started to click. Those open swaths were growing alfalfa or soybeans. Sometimes all three. Saw more than one field where the farm was growing corn, alfalfa,, and soybeans at the same time. Different for sure for what we are accustomed to where I live.
And to the corn on rolling hills I would love to see them combine that corn. It ain't flat folks and combines seem to be top heavy, so do they have four wheel drive combines with outriggers to keep from toppling over on those hills?
Lots of farm operations that are unique to my eyes anyway. Out in this part of the world we have huge grain elevators for grain storage about every 30 miles. Wisconsin farms have their own grain storage on site. Two, three, sometimes four storage bins at each farm. No huge concrete storage elevators anywhere in sight. AO Smith seems to be the Cadillac storage bins there. Other storage bins seemed to be showing their age where they once stood proud, now, not so much.
Did take a road over to Ferryville to ride along the Mississippi river. Could not believe how big the river is at that town. I expected a stream but the river there has to be over a mile wide. Looks more like a lake than a river. Did not see any barges like you normally see on the river so guessing it is shallow?
Wonderful area to ride in so if you are ever close to that area just jump on a letter road and enjoy some fantastic riding.
Leaves weren't turning yet but did come across one that deserved a picture. The rest are at Lambeau.
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