It is not always necessary to have a reason to take a trip by motorcycle. For many people, including myself, just riding to see new and interesting places is a good enough reason to go for a trip by motorcycle. The trip I describe below, however, did have a purpose. I wanted to bring back memories of my family and my childhood. I could not think of a better way to bring back these memories than to visit one of the places I knew as a child. So, my brother and I road our motorcycles from our homes near San Francisco up to eastern Washington to visit the town of La Crosse, Washington, the town where our mother grew up and a place that has a lot of memories for us both. We then returned through Idaho and eastern Oregon.
On Saturday morning I left home about 6:30 am, with the plan to meet my brother in Williams, on Highway 5 in central California. There was virtually no traffic as I left my home in Belmont, CA and headed north on Highway 280 on my 93 Yamaha Seca II. To cross San Francisco Bay, I cut over to Highway 101 and then hooked up with Highway 80 and the Oakland Bay Bridge. The air was cool and clear as I crossed the Bay and then drove through Berkeley. I followed Highway 80 through Vallejo and Vacaville before turning north on Highway 505. Turning onto Highway 505 takes you into the farming areas of central California. The highway is straight and flat, with fields of corn or rice along both sides of the highway. After about 25 miles, 505 intersects with Highway 5 and the long ride north begins. At about 8:30 am I turned off at Williams to meet my brother.
In Williams I refueled and stretched my legs. The next stop we planned was for Mt. Shasta City. The drive north on Highway 5 was fast. The traffic moved at 75-80 mph. After leaving Williams, the highway runs through flat farm country and the road is about as straight as a rifle shot. It goes on this way for about 100 miles until Redding. To the east of Redding, Mt. Lassen is visible to the east. North of Redding the road starts to go through go through rolling hills as it continues on towards Mt. Shasta City.
A short distance before Mt. Shasta City is a Vista Point, we stopped there to take a picture of the mountain, but found that the trees near the Vista Point had grown so tall that they obstructed much of the view of the mountain.
We refueled in Mt. Shasta City and continued north. A few miles north of Mt. Shasta City in Weed, we turned off of Highway 5 and onto Highway 97, a 2-lane highway. The riding became more relaxed as we passed through the rolling hills and farms near the Oregon border. Just before the Oregon border is the town of Dorris, a small town with big gas prices. Gas was $2.69/gallon in Dorris. Jus across the border in Worden, Oregon the price of gas was $1.99/gallon.
Continuing on Highway 97 we stopped for lunch in Klamath Falls. The highway north of Klamath Falls parallels Upper Klamath Lake. Upper Klamath Lake is nearly 30 miles long and up to eight miles wide, Upper Klamath Lake is the largest body of freshwater west of the Rockies. Depth ranges from eight to 60 feet in a few isolated spots. Leaving Upper Klamath Falls behind us, highway 97 continues north to Bend. The road was flat with pine trees lining both sides of the highway for most of the distance. Before reaching Bend, the mountains to the west in the Deschutes National Forest are scene to the west and the road passes through ancient lava fields.
North of Bend the road continues as a 2-lane highway through a mixture of forests and high desert scrub. Travel is not very fast because the speed limit is 55 mph on most of the highway. There also seems to be a lot of police cars on the highway, so speed was kept at about 60 mph on most of the road north through Oregon. As we drove north, we entered farming country as we got closer to the Columbia River, and the wind started to pick up. The wind was blowing fairly hard from west to east and the gusts of wind hitting my bike made it feel like the engine was misfiring. As we got closer to the Columbia River, we passed a van pulling a trailer carrying a Fiat X1/9, with a second Fiat X1/9 following behind. As we passed them I thought to myself, 'Fiat, short for Fix It Again Tony' and 'The car on the trailer must be spare parts for the one driving behind.'
A little while later the road started to drop down to the Columbia River and we pulled into our hotel in Biggs. A few minutes after that, the van and the 2 Fiat X1/9's pulled in to the same hotel. We got a close look at the Fiats; the one on the trailer was set-up for racing. I was amazed how small they were, not much bigger than a go-cart.
We stayed the night in Biggs and the next morning the enjoyable part of our ride began. From Biggs, we crossed the Columbia River into Washington and drove east on Highway 14. Highway 14 is a 2-lane highway that parallels the Columbia River and is almost devoid of traffic. We drove into the sunrise and made a few stops to take pictures. On the Oregon side of the river is Highway 84. Highway 84 is a 4-lane highway and has a lot truck traffic, I don't recommend Highway 84.
One of the places we stopped was the Stonehenge Memorial a few miles east of Biggs on the Washington side of the River. The Memorial was built to honor the local men who died in World War I and it is inscribed with the names of the young men of Klickitat County, Washington that died in WWI. It originally stood at the center of Sam Hill's town of Maryhill, but Hill neglected to put in a water system and everything burned down except the Stonehenge. The monument was dedicated in 1918 but it wasn't finished until twelve years later. Sam Hill was by then in a "manic state" and short on cash. He died in 1931, living just long enough to see his Stonehenge completed. He is buried at the base of the bluff, but there is no easy path to his grave because he wanted to be left alone.
Leaving Stonehenge, we continued east along the Columbia River. Driving east into the sunrise, high bluffs line each side of the river. There is almost no traffic on the north side of the river as the road curves to follow the river. We continued along Highway 14 to the junction with Highway 82, where we stopped to look at the map a choose the best route for our journey to La Crosse. Wanting to continue along the river, we crossed the Columbia River again and drove back into Oregon at Umatilla.
In Umatilla, we turned onto Highway 730 to continue following the river as it turned to the north. Crossing back into Washington, the highway changes numbers to Highway 12, and leads to Pasco. From Pasco, we drove north on Highway 395 through rolling hills and farmland. There were few trees along the highway and it was easy to see for miles when the highway would go over the crest of hills. Just before reaching Connell, I signaled to my brother that I was low on fuel and I had just gone onto reserve. So we stopped for gas and a snack in Connell, where 3 police cars showed up soon after we arrived. The 3 officers were just talking to each other and we guess they were there for some donuts. I needed to use the restroom at the gas station, but a carload of 5 little boys got there just before me and there was a bit of a wait to get into the restroom. After a few minutes, I went back outside to my bike and one of the police officers started taking pictures of a hubcap and a license plate lying on the ground in the parking lot next door to the gas station. Well, there was just too much excitement for us in Connell, so we got on our bikes and headed east on Highway 260. Highway 260 continued through low rolling hills with farms and ranches until we reached the town of Washtucna and we turned east onto Highway 26. After going about 20 miles, we turned of the highway to drive into La Crosse. We drove through town until we came to home of our aunt and uncle.
After saying our 'Hellos' we went into town for lunch at the café, where we also me a few of the local residents. We had a lot of old memories to discuss, and good stories from our uncle to listen to. Our uncle is a very special man; he's a mechanical genius, a fisherman, and a great contributor to the town of La Crosse. It is almost unbelievable some of the things he has done. He's built 4 airplanes, he's restored a Korean War vintage helicopter, and built his own dump truck and backhoe, just to mention a few of his past projects. One of his more noteworthy projects even results in a new law to be pass in the state of Washington. A few years ago he took some of the radio control components out of toys and installed them in duck decoys. He could then control the duck decoys and have them swim around in the water. Well, the moving, radio controlled duck decoys had ducks flying in from all over the county. There was no problem getting ducks to fly in for the local hunters. It was obvious that radio controlled duck decoys gave hunters too much of an advantage and they were banned by the state. Our uncle who has his own welding equipment has built a lot of weather vanes and done a lot of community service projects to help keep La Crosse the nice little town that it is. My uncle is the kind of guy you wish you had for your neighbor, someone you could always go to when you had a problem, and he'd be happy to help you out.
After seeing some of our uncles projects and his customized motor home, we also visited the cemetery where are brother is buried. It was sad to think of all that our brother, Mark, missed because he died when he was only a child. My brother and I wondered if Mark would have wanted to join us on our motorcycle trips. Personally, I felt that Mark was with me on this particular trip, riding with us as we drove through the Washington countryside, sharing the memories of La Crosse, of our family and of our youth.
About 5:00 in the afternoon it was time to get back on out bikes and head out. We said our 'Good-byes' and left town driving east.
Continuing on Highway 26 we drove through Colfax and turned south on Highway 195, where we continued to drive through the rolling hills of the Eastern Washington wheat fields, until we crossed the boarder into Idaho and stopped to on the bluffs above Lewiston and Clarkston.
Lewiston and Clarkston are located on the confluence of the Snake and Clearwater Rivers on the Idaho and Washington boarder. On the bluff overlooking the cities it was cool and there was just a light breeze. Driving down into Lewiston, the temperature increased and it became quite warm. We found a place to stay the night at the Sacagawea Motor Inn. The lady at the counter to check in asked us where we were coming from and we said La Crosse, WA. She replied that her daughter-in-law grew up in La Crosse. I was floored, La Cross only has about 370 residents, and to meet someone that has a relative from La Crosse was really surprising, especially since we had just come from there. It just goes to show you that it's a small world. So was had a nice little talk with the lady at the front desk. When we talked about a room for the night we said we wanted a non-smoking room with 2 beds, and she gave us the key. When we got to the room it was actually a 2-room suite with 2 beds, but with a TV in only one room. We decided we would rather share a room, and we went back and asked for another room. The second room was a smoking room, and the smell almost killed us when we entered the second room. So it was back to the front desk again and get yet another room (she was probably pretty sick of seeing us by then). Luckily the third room was fine and we decided to stay. We were pretty tired at the end of the day, so we ate Dominos pizza (I had a vegetarian and my brother had the Philly Cheese Steak) and beer in the room for dinner that night. We had a lot of leftover pizza and decide to keep it for lunch the next day. My brother would end up regretting that decision the following day. One of the things about Lewiston was that wherever we went in town, there was always some kind of funny odor. We Kept asking ourselves, 'What's that smell?' Sometimes the smell reminded me of sewage and other times it smelled like rotting vegetation. It wasn't a strong odor, but it was everywhere we went in town, we just couldn't figure out what it was.
The next morning we had breakfast and left early. As we drove east out of Lewiston on Highway 12, we passed the Potlatch wood products plant on the eastside of Lewiston. This explained the smell from the night before. It's too bad the factory puts out that smell. We continued on Highway 12 as if paralleled the river and passed through low mountains. Highway 12 is a great motorcycling road, with no traffic and many twisties. We turned south on Highway 95 and were one again in farm country. In Washington the wheat harvest had already begun, and any remaining wheat was brown and ready for harvest. In Idaho, the wheat was still green, but just beginning to turn brown, and the harvest looked like it was still a week or 2 away.
Continuing south on Highway 95 we began to leave the faming areas and the road began to parallel the Snake River. Again we were on perfect motorcycle roads that twisted through the bottoms of steep canyons the Snake River had carved over countless centuries. We stopped for some gas in Grangeville. The main reason for the stop, however, was to clean my visor. There are a lot of bugs in the Idaho farming country and it seemed they like to die on my visor. In general, at every stop we made I had to clean my visor of dead bugs so I could see a little more clearly. Driving south out of Grangeville we continued on Highway 95 to New Meadows and on to Cambridge. Before getting to New Meadows, we stopped at a rest stop on the Snake River. The river was quite small at the rest stop and it would be easy to walk across the river. At the rest stop, we finished the pizza we had from the night before and had something to drink before continuing south on Highway 95. Upon reaching the town of Cambridge, we turned west on Highway 71 west to head for Hell's Canyon. In Cambridge we saw 2 identical Triumph Tigers pull into a gas station just as we turned onto Highway 71.
The ride on Highway 71 was through a narrow canyon for about 30 miles before coming to the lakes behind the Brownlee dam on the Snake River. The road then followed the river past the Oxbow dam and the small town of Oxbow. Arriving in Oxbow, it was quite hot and we stopped for a drink at the General Store. The Hell's Canyon dam was about 20 miles further up the road. After finishing our drinks we headed up the Canyon to the Hell's Canyon dam. The road followed close to the river with many twists and turns. Each side of the canyon was very steep and very few trees or plants were growing in the rocky soil. At one point the road passes between the lake behind Hell's Canyon dam and under a sheer cliff of solid rock just before reaching the dam. We stopped at the dam for some pictures, right next to the sign that said no parking on dam. But there was no one else there except my brother and I, so who would care. We didn't stop for long because it was too hot and there was not shade where we could hide from the hot sun. Getting back on our bikes we drove back the way we came to the town of Oxbow where we got on Highway 86 and drove into Oregon.
In Oregon, Highway 86 passed through hot, dry rolling hills as we drove past the towns of Halfway and Richland before reaching Baker City. We had to be careful on this particular stretch of road. Once was passed a large bull standing in the road and every once in while we would pass some lumber lying in the road. It seemed like after we passed Halfway, every few miles there would be 2 or 3 ten-foot long 2X8's lying in the road. Eventually we caught up with a tractor-trailer carrying lumber that was parked on the side of the road and it was easy to see where the boards we had passed had fallen from the trailer. From Baker City we traveled on Highway 7, which paralleled a stream as it wove its way through the dry hills on the way to Bates.
From Bates, we turned west onto Highway 26 and continued our drive through high desert. There were few trees and endless vistas. In the distance to the north and east were high mountains. Again there was little traffic. Arriving in John Day at about 6:00pm we decided to keep going and drive south on Highway 395 to Burns. Highway 395 also followed a river at the bottom of a valley as it went south. There were trees lining both sides of the road, and about half way to Burns, I noticed deer standing near the road. When I saw deer, I immediately slowed down. I figured it was better to drive slow and hopefully have less chance of hitting a deer. After a while I also noticed some range cattle near the road also. This was just more of a reason to slow down. As we got closer to Burns, our shadows lengthened as the set started to set. We arrived in Burns about 7:30pm.
One of the first things were learned when we arrived in Burns was that most of the hotels were full. There was Little League tournament in town and most of the hotels were full. Luckily we found a room at the Horseshoe Inn Motel on the north side of town and checked in. By that time, my brother was keen to find a bathroom. It turns out the leftover pizza we had for lunch was not agreeing with is stomach. His only thought was it had to be the leftover Philly Cheese Steak Pizza from Dominos. Luckily for me the vegetarian pizza I had was okay. At about 9:00 we were ready for dinner, so we drove into town to eat at the Ye Old Castle restaurant, which was recommended to us by a lady at a mini-mart. We got into the restaurant a little after 9:00 and found out the restaurant closes at 9:00. We lucked out again and they let us stay for dinner. The Ye Old Castle restaurant is decorated with old bicycles from the 1940's and 50's and old model airplanes hanging from the ceiling. The atmosphere was very nice. Because were we late, we could get some of the things on the menu, but we were just happy to eat, so we got a couple of burgers and I had beer while my brother had wine. The food was quite good. Just before we finished eating, the owner came over and asked us, 'Who owns the Yamaha?' I replied that it was mine and he promptly told us a story of his driving his Yamaha XS1100 at about 135 mph with a passenger and the front wheel exploded, not the time, but the rim. Well, there was big crash, but he and the passenger were able to walk away from the crash. We walked around the restaurant and he told us stories about the car he had restored and the bicycles and the model planes hanging from the ceiling. It turns out my brother has had an old Hop Along Cassidy bicycle when he was a kid and the restaurant owner told us that bicycle would be worth about $10,000 if we still had it! We finally had to leave and headed back to the motel.
The next morning we continued south on Highway 395. Most of the trip south on 395 was through high desert. The roads were mostly straight and you could easily drive at 70 mph, even though the speed limit was 55. As we drove south, we saw a lot of BMW motorcycle driving north. It seemed like we passed 1 or 2 every 10-15 minutes. Later I found out that there was a meeting of BMW motorcycle owners in Spokane, WA the following day. All those BMW's were probably on the way to Spokane. We stopped at a rest stop about halfway from Burns to the California border. My brother and I know this rest stop pretty well. This was the second time we had stopped there. The first time was about 4 years ago. At that time, there had been a good rain a few days earlier and we had to stop there to clean the bugs off the visors on our helmets. There were so many bugs at that time that we had stopped several times while driving down that road to clean our visors and windscreens.
Just before reaching Albert Lake on Highway 395, my brother hit a bird with his helmet. We stopped for a couple of minutes after that. But it was nice to stop and look at the scenery for a while instead of just blast through it. Soon we came to Albert Lake, which has an interesting smell, kind of like an old chicken coup, it you like that sort of thing.
Leaving Albert Lake behind we soon drove past Goose Lake and entered California again. We stopped for lunch in Alturas and saw a few more BMW riders headed north to Spokane. We then drove west on Highway 299 headed for Redding. There was some road construction on Highway 299 that had us stop a couple of time. It was now quite hot and the stops for the road construction were a little uncomfortable. One of the stops did allow for a nice view of Mt. Shasta to the northwest.
Upon reaching Redding, it felt like it was about 100 degrees in the shade. We stopped for a quick drink and called our wives to tell them we were okay and would be home in the evening. I poured some water inside my jacket to keep cool while riding. Getting out onto Highway 5, we headed south at about 80 mph straight down the middle of the Central Valley. Traffic was moving fast, and there were more cars and trucks on the road than we had seen the whole trip. We made a short stop at a rest area about 80 miles south of Redding before continuing south to stop in Williams. Williams is where I met my brother at the beginning of the trip and this was where we would also go our separate ways to get home. We said 'Good-bye' and we both took off for home. I went south on Highway 5 and my brother went east on Highway 20. As I drove south on Highways 5 and 505, the air temperature cooled as I got closer to the San Francisco Bay. For part of the ride south on 505, green fields of rice, corn and sunflowers lined the highway.
By the time I reached Highway 80 it was quite cool. I stopped in Cordelia at the interchange with Highway 680 and put on warmer gloves and put the liner back in my jacket before taking 680 south. It is usually windy in the afternoons on Highway 680 between Cordelia and Suisun Bay, and on this trip was no exception. I rather like Highway 680, however; it has a nice view of the Suisun Bay and the mothball fleet at anchor in the Bay.
Crossing the Benicia Bridge and Suisun Bay told me I was getting close to home. I continued south to Pleasanton and turned east on Highway 580, then on to Highway 92 and across the San Mateo Bridge and home.
Time away from home: 4 days
Miles driven: 2092
Memories: More than I can count
Trip Dates: July 19-22, 2004