Upper Green Point is near Hood River I can easily pick it up later and enjoy parts of the Historic Columbia River Highway and spend some time at the Rowena Curves.
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| Rowena Curves, Historic Columbia River Highway, near Mosier Oregon. |
The forecast for the weekend was blue skies and 70 degrees on Saturday and upper 50's in gray skies on Sunday and Monday.
Saturday morning dawns clear and we missed it by sleeping in. We depart at 9:30 or so and stop at South South BMW looking for summer gloves for Linda. This is a very nice dealership. The show room is decorated with old BMW iron which makes me drool. While Linda is checking out the gloves I am talking bikes and checking out the Schubert C3's.
Underway again we stop for coffee about 25 miles later. The place is crowded, causing more delay. At 12:30 we are 55 miles or so from home with a full tank of fuel and a crowded freeway.
The freeway congestion breaks up south of Olympia and finally we are on the road and making good time. We make a beeline down I-5, I-205 and on to Mompano Dam in Oregon. Cruisin' down the freeway is a heck of a way to break in a new tire.
Here is the first dam photo.....
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| Feejer is now sporting a Givi V46 Topcase |
We take a scenic route to Lebanon Dam which is quite nice in the farm land south of Oregon City.
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Arriving at Lebanon Dam and meet two fellow motorcyclist also on Damtour. Dave and John are brothers from Tri Cities area. John is riding a Vstrom with 77,000 mile and it is so clean it sparkles. Looks like it has 5k on it. A lot of bs'ing delayed their first meal of the day and our arrival time in Springfield Oregon.
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| Lebanon Dam |
Saturday dawns as promised low 50 and cloudy. Our route is along the Smith River road to Reedsport then on to Coos Bay.
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The roads starts out very nice then get goes to one lane but paved.
The road was like this for 40 miles or so. Slow going but no potholes. Scenery was a canopy of trees with precious few twisties taken with abundant caution.
There was this water falls along the way providing some visual relief from the hall of trees for 40 miles. I guess it is stuff like this is the reason I am looking to sell my Vstrom. Adventure riding is simply not so appealing anymore for the visual stimulation is not as appealing as those views from better roadways. Sure there is visual appeal on back ways but often it is monotonous to get there.
A little camera fun with the water fall.
Having left the heated gear at home and with temps in the low 50's Linda was freezing. Arriving in Reedsport she was ready to take a bus or train to Longview. Note to self: she needs heat when riding in sub '60 temps. With no bus or train service the next best option was to leave Linda at a cafe for a couple of hours while I went south to bag dam points. So I did.
I continue on my route and found some nice twisty road and along the way took the needed photos.
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| Tarheel Dam Photo - It is a good thing it is about the ride and not the dam. |
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| Bonus Destination |
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| Coquille River Lighthouse - A bonus destination. |
Returning to Reedsport I rescued Linda from the dumpy little cafe. Hey would have dropped her off at a better one if there was a better one but alas there was not.
By now it was 5 degrees warmer we head up Hwy 101 with a slight breeze at our back. Arriving at Waldport we take the best road of the day Hwy 34 to Corvallis. Highway 34 is a road riders delight with lots of visual appeal, lots of twisties and a smooth pavement. Oh la la.
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| Courtesy of the Oregon Motorcyclist |
Monday we blew up I-5 for a stop in Longview for an appointment for Linda then continue on backroads home. It was a great weekend other than Linda freezing.
I now have eight dams to go and hope to finish them off very soon.
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