Met up with another Ahead and headed up to the starting point in Red Bluff via backroads.
We left Saturday morning for Callahan via Hwy 36 to Hwy 3 with lots of twisties and up/downs which were a real surprise as a starter road.
We then proceeded to Hwy 96 onto Hwy 5 to catch old Hwy 99 into Sugar Pine camp in Oregon. Gorgeous campsite, landscape, and wind howling like crazy.
find pics on
Good catered dinner and later shower before hitting the sack in preparation for next day ride.
Sunday we left Howard Prairie Lake toward Medford to Hwy 238 where we rode in the usual Oregon downpour for about 15/20 min.
towards Cave Junction on Hwy 199.
On Hwy 96 along the beautiful Klamath river lots of fast bikes were screaming past us, as my rider buddy would not go over 50/55 mph.
I only chased one GS1200 and when he almost went up the side of the mountain on the opposite lane, I gave up. It was getting to stupidly dangerous for both of us!
Later when I got to a rest stop I went up to the GS rider and told him he was lucky to still be standing, at which hew replied he wasn't scared; go figure!
From Hwy 96 to Arcata via route 299 to Hwy 255 towards Fortuna to end up in Ferndale fairgrounds.
I really enjoyed this tour, beautiful roads, great accommodations, good catered food-wish they had coffee in the morning, and overall satisfaction of completing the journey on an almost 30 yrs. old machine
I totaled 1100 miles with circa 100ml of oil consumption and an average of 45/48 miles per gallon. The only problem occurred when trying to start the bike one morning at 5k elevation after a cold night, the engine just took a lot of cranking before coming to life
Wish there had been other R65 on this ride, my machine with about 44k miles proved very reliable and fun in this kind of roads, at times poking the butt of the bigger, newer bikes, with their exuberant riders
photos at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/9752562@N03 /sets/72157622195565539/