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This turned out to be too long of a reply to mammut's Oslo-Alps-Oslo thread, so I thought I'd post it here rather than derail his upcoming trip.
Just got back from my own mini-adventure this weekend. About 950 miles since Thursday afternoon. This was the shakedown cruise for my new cruiser (Honda VTX 1300), and a chance to see family in Idaho.
The route:
The first stretch was from Seattle to the tiny little town of Worley, ID, on Lake Coeur d'Alene. 300-some miles after knocking off work early. I went to stay with a friend who has a house on the lake, and needed to get there by 9:30 so we could go watch fireworks from his boat. My cell phone with driving directions started flaking out in Spokane, and I was already behind schedule. It took about 20 minutes of messing with the phone before it calmed down and eventually showed me the map again.
Lessons learned: don't trust a faulty cell phone, and cruisers aren't as comfortable as people make them out to be. This is going to take some getting used to.
A photo of Lake Coeur d'Alene:
After fireworks from a boat and a night at the lake, I went a few bays down to a relative's house for a small family reunion. Once done, it's down to Lewiston, ID to stay with my father. On the way from the lake to the highway, my bike turned 1000 miles so I stopped where I was and took a picture.
Before I get to my dad's place, I had to take the twisty Old Spiral Highway down the hill. This is a favorite road for motorcyclists in the area. Here's a video of it some guy took to give you a taste:
[nomedia="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTSqKTaPvPc"]Driving down Old Spiral Highway, Lewiston, ID (4X normal speed) - YouTube[/nomedia]
The next day, my brother took me on his favorite ride down to Enterprise, Oregon and Lake Wallowa. The first half of the ride had some awesome twisties, every bit as good as the Old Spiral Highway, but many more of them. I was wishing I was on my Kat instead of the VTX. You see, the VTX corners about as well as a school bus with a flat tire. I must have scraped the floorboards over 30 times on the way to the lake. I'm going to have to replace these things more often than tires!
Someone's photo of highway 129, in SE Washington:
We had lunch at the Terminal Gravity brewery in Enterprise, then continued up to the lake. On the WA/OR stretch of the trip, we saw four deer, and a mamma turkey with about a dozen baby turklings. Lots of beautiful mountains, of course.
On the way back, I thought I'd try things a bit differently and became intimate with my fuel tank while doing some extreme counter steering. I only scraped the floorboards 8 times on the return! Still not turning like a sport bike, but much better.
Today I returned to Seattle from Lewiston and stopped at Palouse Falls State Park on the way back. I wish I would have taken a photo of the entrance to the park. Turning off of the highway onto the gravel park road was breathtaking and reminded me of a lunar landscape. The entire view was of gently rolling hills of dry, light straw-colored grass extending dozens of miles out into the horizon. A brilliant blue sky above, and fluffy clouds also many dozens of miles away lining the horizon from one end to the other.
The falls weren't bad either:
Another 200-some miles dressed in black in the heat (It broke 100 degrees), with about 100 miles of strong, buffeting wind, then 20 miles of terrible traffic over the mountain pass and I'm back home. My ass hurts and I think my nose is sunburned.
It was a wonderful trip.
Just got back from my own mini-adventure this weekend. About 950 miles since Thursday afternoon. This was the shakedown cruise for my new cruiser (Honda VTX 1300), and a chance to see family in Idaho.
The route:
The first stretch was from Seattle to the tiny little town of Worley, ID, on Lake Coeur d'Alene. 300-some miles after knocking off work early. I went to stay with a friend who has a house on the lake, and needed to get there by 9:30 so we could go watch fireworks from his boat. My cell phone with driving directions started flaking out in Spokane, and I was already behind schedule. It took about 20 minutes of messing with the phone before it calmed down and eventually showed me the map again.
Lessons learned: don't trust a faulty cell phone, and cruisers aren't as comfortable as people make them out to be. This is going to take some getting used to.
A photo of Lake Coeur d'Alene:
After fireworks from a boat and a night at the lake, I went a few bays down to a relative's house for a small family reunion. Once done, it's down to Lewiston, ID to stay with my father. On the way from the lake to the highway, my bike turned 1000 miles so I stopped where I was and took a picture.
Before I get to my dad's place, I had to take the twisty Old Spiral Highway down the hill. This is a favorite road for motorcyclists in the area. Here's a video of it some guy took to give you a taste:
[nomedia="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTSqKTaPvPc"]Driving down Old Spiral Highway, Lewiston, ID (4X normal speed) - YouTube[/nomedia]
The next day, my brother took me on his favorite ride down to Enterprise, Oregon and Lake Wallowa. The first half of the ride had some awesome twisties, every bit as good as the Old Spiral Highway, but many more of them. I was wishing I was on my Kat instead of the VTX. You see, the VTX corners about as well as a school bus with a flat tire. I must have scraped the floorboards over 30 times on the way to the lake. I'm going to have to replace these things more often than tires!
Someone's photo of highway 129, in SE Washington:
We had lunch at the Terminal Gravity brewery in Enterprise, then continued up to the lake. On the WA/OR stretch of the trip, we saw four deer, and a mamma turkey with about a dozen baby turklings. Lots of beautiful mountains, of course.
On the way back, I thought I'd try things a bit differently and became intimate with my fuel tank while doing some extreme counter steering. I only scraped the floorboards 8 times on the return! Still not turning like a sport bike, but much better.
Today I returned to Seattle from Lewiston and stopped at Palouse Falls State Park on the way back. I wish I would have taken a photo of the entrance to the park. Turning off of the highway onto the gravel park road was breathtaking and reminded me of a lunar landscape. The entire view was of gently rolling hills of dry, light straw-colored grass extending dozens of miles out into the horizon. A brilliant blue sky above, and fluffy clouds also many dozens of miles away lining the horizon from one end to the other.
The falls weren't bad either:
Another 200-some miles dressed in black in the heat (It broke 100 degrees), with about 100 miles of strong, buffeting wind, then 20 miles of terrible traffic over the mountain pass and I'm back home. My ass hurts and I think my nose is sunburned.
It was a wonderful trip.
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