Des Moines to the Promised land via the NW

[blakduc]

Hello! What a great site. I've been lurking around here since last July after completing a trip to Laguna raceway, found the site after some research of the places/roads that we experienced. I wanted to join earlier but lack of spare time has kept me from it. SteveJonesMOs http://www.pashnit.com/forum/showthread.php?t=4687, has inspired me to find the time and share my trip, though I cannot match his command of the written word. Lots of great reads here, thanks pashnit for creating it.

Here goes

I take annual trips with some friends, usually ten to fifteen in the group. We split up and ride in small groups from 1-3 or 4 and meet at the end of the day or in a few days, very lose, with only a ruff idea of rout (very little interstates) to a final destination. This year the golden country, the promised land to witness the spectacle motogp at Laguna, taking the long way via the pacific NW.

Half of the guys hauled by trailer to Denver, while myself and two others road from Des Moines. A third group took a northerly rout to Glacier national park and then to Laguna.

Here is a scan of the rout we mostly ended taking, sorry for the poor quality, I haven't mastered map software yet to get digital image.


Des Moines to Scottsbluff NE, 643 mi.

Chad Josh and I took i80 to Grand Island NE, highway 2 to Alliance NE. 2 was great after the slab, the land rolled not un like IA, but the roads followed the contour of the land with long sweepers and huge dips through the hills. In IA the engineers have gone to great lengths to make the roads as flat and strait as possible a real bummer. Has something to do with the way the land was plotted for agriculture when first settled. Anyway 2 was empty with few towns and little traffic so we really cooked through here, it made up for the early and long drone on I80. Almost had a gas issue because the 1 town on the 300 mi stretch of 2 that had gas was closed, the gas station that is. A local made a call to the station owner who stopped mowing her lawn and opened up to sell us the fuel. Made Scottsbluff 6pm or so. Had refreshments and food at a pub then turned in at the local dive motel.





Day 2 Scottsbluff to Jackson WY 408 MI


Highway 26 - I25 to Casper, H26 to Jackson. This pic was taken at a gas station/bar around Hiland WY H26 at 11:00am, the couple piloting the blue vet left after this photo. They had been enjoying the bar side of the establishment for some time, and thankfully left in the opposite direction of us.


This photo is Togwotee Pass NE of jackson H26/287



Grand Teton Nat'l Park



In Jackson we hooked up with group who rode from Denver. Lots of food beer and lies then rest.

That's all for now, hope you like. Let see how bad mucked up the photos getting them here.

[OrangevaleFJR]

there are many great mountain views, but few in the league of the Grand Tetons.

Your ride format seems awesome!

[blakduc]

Day 3, Jackson WY to Missoula MT 400 mi.

Again I apologize for the poor map scans, I'm fighting a dial up connection and lack of pc skills to do it right.

We decided against Yellow stone to avoid the traffic. h28 to Salmon ID was fast and scenic, here some photos




At the last gas stop before Missoula, an R1 rider in full leathers stopped to chat. Charlie lives in Missoula and was on his way home from a 2-300 mile loop and offered to escort us to a good watering hole. Just as we were leaving the gas station, our friends that we had left in Jackson that morning rolled up.

A photo of our bikes lined up at one of Charlies haunts


The next day took Chad Josh and myself to Walla Walla, while our friends headed to Seattle to visit friends and family. We did not meet again until San Francisco.

That's it for me tonight.

[blakduc]

Day 4 Missoula-Walla Walla 270 mi.



H12 out of Missoula I had heard from several sources that it was not to be missed and it did not disappoint. Having been borne and raised in the flat lands of the mid-west, when I am in the mountains and their valleys, I feel like a privileged kid visiting Disneyland or some special place. Here are some pics, I can not pinpoint their location, but I think the river is the Lochsa.

[blakduc]

duc pic



Interestingly but not surprising, the more we made our way to the coast, the more people we met who knew what we were talking about when we told them we were headed for the Motogp race. At the gas stops we ran into more and more enthusiasts headed for the Monterey peninsula, the trip was taking on a pilgrimage to Mecca kind of feeling.


The night life in Walla Walla left a little to be desired, depressing actually. The locals we talked to were down on the place and seemed to be accepting there lot in life rather than find anything about it to be grateful for. We talked for a while to a soldier home from the war recovering from mental and physical head injuries so he could return. A ticking time bomb if I ever met one.


Day 5, Walla Walla-Eugene OR 350 mi?


H12-H730-I82-H14-H97-H126-242-H126

We took 14 in WA parallel to I84 in OR along the Columbia river gorge. Beautiful scenery maddening winds. Crest a hill at 70 mph or so on a sweeper and get blind sided by a 70 mph cross wind, BIG fun and crazy feed back through the seat and bars, not unlike tornadoie (is that a word?) weather in IA.

This is from the WA side of the Columbia where H97 crosses. A monument to lost WWI soldiers of Klickitat county. 13 in all.

[blakduc]

Stonehenge Memorial


H97 Oregon just south of the columbia.


The three sisters wilderness area west of Sisters OR. 242 is closed in the winter, large campers are discouraged from taking the road. The road has been cut through the lava flow/rubble in one lane wide sections with 10-12 foot walls of sharp rock. No hanging off in these curves. No good pics of this area, a shame but a good reason to return someday.



The sigh reads;

A cool breeze drifts (bullet holes) but 1,500 years ago things were dramatically different. The lava in front of you was (bullet hole) Glowing red hot, it lumbered and lurched down the path of least resistance

A sequence of three flows stretches to the west. The distant Belknap Crater is the oldest. The youngest is here in front (see pics above)of you, from Yapoah Crater out of view to the south. In the middle lies the Little Belknap flow. The result is over 20 square miles of this eerie, jumbled terrain.

[Papa-Ken]

Todd, you are doing a fine job with the post. Some very nice shots of the country and that one in particular looks like the road goes on for a hundred miles.

Des Moines huh? Nice country and some really fine people in middle America. I have an army buddy that was born in Dow City Iowa and now farms in Humboldt Nebraska. I go back every 5 years or so to visit him and another army buddy in Cavalier N. Dakota.

Keep on riding and writing your travels as we all enjoy others rides.......Ken

[blakduc]

Thank you Ken and Andrew for the kind words.

Day 6 Eugene OR-Eureka CA 479 mi

I'm afraid that from Eugene OR to Happy camp I lost track of the roads we took, some Interstate and small roads mixed. On one nice goat trail like road in Oregon, we were loafing along just enjoying the scenery with some distance between us while I was leading, I saw in my mirror a gaggle of bikes behind Josh. I picked up the pace slightly and left room for them to get by. The first one pulled next to me, disengaged his clutch and let me hear his pre 99 Ducati SS sing before pulling ahead of me. The others passed, ducs bmws and a loan sv650 all in leathers, a dozen or so of them in all. Chad was in the middle of their pack I was now in the back with Josh behind me. They were really humming and it was a rush to hang with them for an hour or so to the next gas stop. We met up with them later at Happy Camp and visited for a while over sandwiches at a road side trailer stand thingy. They were from Portland and on their way to the races. When we left they were headed to some swimming hole to get revived or religion or something. We ended staying in the same hotel in Eureka, and had a night out swapping lies over beer and food and It was there in Eureka that I became aware of the Nor Cal dress code, all black. Actually I think it was the same in Eugene so maybe it is a Pacific NW thing.

Day 7 Eureka-San Fransisco 281+mi.

I'm going to leave the map scans out now for a while as I did not record most of the rout to SF, we pretty much zig zaged between I101 and H1 after Leggett. The only photos worth posting are a few from the coast and Humbolt Redwoods state park.

[blakduc]

We came up on the Golden Gate Bridge around 6:00pm Friday in rush hour traffic with fog. Ohmygod! Absolutely hair raising to say the least. With tragedy narrowly averted, we made our way to a bike shop where we were to meet with our friends who went on to Seattle earlier, I think the shop was Scuderia. The shop was closed but we spied our friends bikes at a near by bar (imagine that). They made SF before the shop closed and one of the more well heeled traded his old Aprilia Falco for a new RSV m. Here's a pic at the motel.

[OrangevaleFJR]

woohoo! Cross country ride and a new bike! How can you beat that? I feel like you are on this ride right now and I could just hop on my bike and go hook up with you guys! I guess if this were a recent trip, Montana wouldn't have looked so green :-)