RIDE REPORTS - 2009 Tim Bowman, September, 2009: Here are links to my recent ride pics and movies. The movies will give a sense of the thrill of the ride on a dual sport and give some variety for the reader. The high bridge is reachable by a Wing on several miles of very passable gravel:  West Side of the High Bridge |  East Side of High Bridge |  A Cliff Shot off Route T |  Washout Here are the links to both sets of pictures from the two GripTwister rides I took (many of the photos are captioned to give some context):  Route G, H, & T |  Full Loop 3-pass Rubin Ride, 09/27/09, Jeff Harvey 9/8/9: I just completed the Café 2 Café ride last night and updated my blog at: tbcafe2cafe.blogspot.com. The last 4 legs were 1,815 miles and took me as far north as Bonner’s Ferry, ID; as far east as Sun Valley, ID; south to Mountain Home, ID, and west to Joseph, OR as well as Walla Walla, WA. On Leg 5, there was even some adventure riding. Check out the blog; there are lots of pictures as well as text. Tim Bowman Another long ride with Tim and Angela, August 2009, Tim Bowman Better Late Than Never (BC Alps), August 2009, Jeff Harvey Fantastic voyage to the BC Alps, August, 2009, Tim Bowman 39 Counties Ride Blog, July, 2009, Tim Bowman Mystery Ride 2009 report, 07/12/09, Jeff Harvey WA District pre-ride, 07/04/09, Tim Bowman Seven Pass Report, 07/04/09, Mike Briese FS25/Skate Creek Ride Put Together by Kenny Urban, 07/03/09, Tim Bowman Alternate After-chapter meeting ride, 06/27/09-- After leaving the Old country Buffet, we headed east on Kent-Kangley toward Covington. There is road work going on along 272nd so we skirted that on Covington-Sawyer Rd to 216th and back to 272nd. Right after turning onto the Covington-Sawyer we were treated to an excellent view of Mt Rainier. It was beautiful. I wish I had a camera handy to snap it as we passed. After getting back on 272nd we headed up SE Summit-Landsburg Rd to SE Ravensdale Way through Black Diamond and Enumclaw, down Hwy 410 to Mud Mountain Dam for some scenery and a quick break. Click on the link to see some pictures-- Mud Mountain Dam Vista Point Mud Mountain River Mud Mountain Dam Taking a quick break at Mud Mountain 1 Taking a quick break at Mud Mountain 2 Taking a quick break at Mud Mountain 3 Taking a quick break at Mud Mountain 4 Taking a quick break at Mud Mountain 5 Doug and Roxy Leaving Mud Mountain Dam we took the twisty back road toward Buckley with the thought that we would go to Wally's for some ice cream. Unfortunately, there was something going on in Buckley and the line of cars into town was about three miles long. Seeing that a left turn was going to be astronomically difficult and travel would be tedious at best, we took the right turn on the Enumclaw-Buckley Rod back through Enumclaw toward Flaming Geyser Park. We didn't go into the park but the road is always a joy to ride. We headed up Green Valley Rd to Hwy 18 to I-5 and this is where Doug and Roxy headed south for home. They had some things to take care of so we said our farewells over the radio as we continued north to Don's house to drop him off. His daughter was coming to visit and he needed to be home early. We sat and talked in Don's garage for a bit, had some water and that is when Barb realized that her wallet was missing. She called the Old Country Buffet but they had not seen it. Ron and Barb headed home to see if they could locate it and the rest of us took off northbound looking for smooth roads and blue skies. We went west to Kent, up Hwy 18 through Maple Valley and Snoqualmie towards Snoqualmie Falls. We, or at least I, had intended to take a look at the falls and get some pictures but it appeared that several hundred others had the same idea so we passed on the idea of stopping. So, up the Fall City-Carnation Rd passing Remlinger Farms and Carnation then continuing on the Carnation-Duvall Rd finally arriving in Duvall at about 4:10 p.m. We were stopped at a traffic light when Todd said "Are we going to eat or not? My food low level light is on". So a quick right turn was made into a small strip mall of sorts where we found a really good Burger and Wrap establishment. It is called Pickle Time. It is on the south end of Duvall on the corner of Carnation-Duvall Rd and NE Big Rock Rd. They have a very full menu and the food was really excellent. I way pointed it so I can find it again. They have some great BIG dill pickles in a jar on the counter too. I wanted one but just knew if I had one I couldn't finish the Bar-B-Que burger and fries I had ordered. By the time we had finished eating it was a little after 5:00 p.m. It was evident that the wives had finished with the Bridal Shower for Rosa's daughter-in-law. They started ringing our phones to let us know that they were headed back to the "Home 20" and were wondering if we missed them and when we were going to be coming home. 'Nuff said. We headed out. South on the Carnation-Duvall Rd to NE124th and across the valley to Novelty Hill Rd. Nice road but there were far too many four wheelers on it to let us ride like we wanted to. We enjoyed the ride anyway and headed on through Redmond on Hwy 520 into Bellevue onto 148th to I-90 to I-405 and southbound. Of course the traffic at the Hwy 167 interchange was pretty clogged up so we continued to I-5 for the rest of the southbound journey. Todd and Ryan took the appropriate exit for them in Sea-Tac and Bill and I headed for Hwy 18. At the Hwy 18 and Hwy 167 interchange Bill and I parted ways. He headed into Covington and I went towards Puyallup and eventually Spanaway. In Puyallup I refueled at the same Chevron station I had refueled at before the meeting that morning. The gas was $2.839 a gallon. The bike took 4.873 gallons of gas and I had 215.5 miles on the odometer. 44.2 MPG. Not bad at all for a GL1500. It was a good day of riding and for riding. I hope it is as good next weekend. --Mike Duck Run 6.13.2009 Duck Run-- The day started a bit cool and cloudy. Five intrepid Apes (Jeff "Fearless Leader" Harvey, Sam "the EMT" Grubbs, Gary "Da Crabman" Francis, and the not seen enough Blangys) rounded out our little group. We headed south to Olympia where we stopped for a quick "break" and a near death experience for Jeff. When we turned into a lot to get back on the cross-way, some nimrod raced in front of Jeff and damn near blew him off of his bike. We caught up to this nimrod but I was at the end and didn't get all of the conversation. Not much you can do except tell him what a douche he was and let it go. We finally rolled into Montesano and ran into the EZs, the Holts and a bright, happy, smilin' Boxcar. It was great to see him on the road again. He rode great all day. What a nice surprise to see him. There was a great selection of pastries, bagels and exceptional garlic cream cheese. I think I hurt myself... in fact, I know I did. Flushing it with black coffee didn't do much. After paying up and getting on the road, the 8 bikes started the day's run. Dee was giving instructions but she was reading from a stacked deck. The directions really were poorly written. We had a few u-turns but the scenery was very nice and we had a great time. At our stop for gas, Dee heard that I was looking for gizzards and surprised me with a great treat. They were great. Love da gizzards. We found one of the ducks but missed the other one. The run passed some beautiful areas and some of the stops are starting to look pretty familiar. About 1:30 p.m. we were back at the start point. We got back a little too early though. We had some really great "duck" soup (tastes like chicken). Great broth, thick noodles, carrots, celery... very tasty and just what we needed at the end of our ride. I really like soup so this was a great treat. Homemade chicken soup... sweet. However, after eating that and the great desserts, the early rise, little sleep the night before hit me. All I could think of was taking a nap... there wasn't anything to keep us busy for 1-1/2 hours till prize time... so we just rode it out. Chapter A was shut out today folks. Most of the big prizes were taken in-house but I do have to say I won a great pack of cocktail napkins in the door prize. Sam got a really nice pad of paper. We were so happy... We headed home as soon as the sponsoring chapter's members won the $190 50/50. We ran into crappy traffic in Tacoma on the way home. All that time fixing the cross-way and it still sucks going through Tacoma. We hit Hwy 18 from I-5, then to SR-167 where our little merry group scatted like kitchen cockroaches when the light goes on at 2 a.m. Nonetheless, all in all, how can you whine about a beautiful ride? I had 335 miles from home in Bellevue. I was a happy camper. C U @ the XXX for the welcome home to the Alaska 4 (including the legendary Neil). Hey... so we get to add all of Neil's mileage to our totals? AZ to AK and back again... sweet. ranks Saturday, June 13, 2009 - Duck Hunt '09 7:30.. kinda early to get up on a Saturday, especially on a cooler, overcasty... almost misty morn. The southbound Federal Way scales was the rendezvous point for duck hunting Apes. Grubbs, Ranks, Jonesey, and myself gathered and waited until about 7:45 and decided to take off when De and Mike showed up. Seems that De and Mike, in their attempt to be punctual, got to know the working side of the local tax collector. De, in her charming way, sweet talked the lady-bull out of the tariff. What a way to start the day. They pulled up and we pulled out... headed due south to Oly then west to Montesano. An uneventful trip make moderately entertaining by the scores of radar throwing, sneaker driving, overpass leering public servants. Needless to say, we made the initial leg at speed limit+5 and arrived at the school in Montesano safe and sound... and a little chilly. The Holts and Brieses and Boxcar were already there (they departed at 7 a.m. from SBFW as well). We checked in at the sparsely attended venue around 9:15 a.m., received our game cards, route instructions and performed the 1st checkpoint game and also the final checkpoint game? Then hit the road. The route instructions were typed out like an excerpt of a quickly written novel, pretty hard to follow while riding 1 up, so De acted as co-navigator... reading the step-by-step with me watching for road signs, landmarks, gravel, potholes and ducks. The route was a really very nice. Heading into Aberdeen then south, paralleling the seashore, thru farmlands, over hills, through valleys on mostly vacant rural roads. There were an additional 3 checkpoint game stops along the way. The back-up at each gamepoint was minimal and crowds of Wingers moved thru quickly and efficiently. No lunch stop was made... De did serve up some freshly fried gizzards to Ranks from the local "Gas and Gizzards" store in Raymond. Aside from a couple of JUTs, (the product of lack luster route instructions)... the trip was very nice. We only spied 1 duck on our hunt. We ended back where we started out... the school in Montesano. Duck soup was served (homemade chicken noodle) along with rolls, plenty of desserts, juice, coffee and fruit. There was a lag time of 1-1/2 hour before the awards were presented. We filled our time by eating, studying the recently deposited bids on the silent auction table, drinking juice and coffee, eating some more, walking around and eating and studying the new bids again. Finally the silent auction bids were awarded with some APEs buying some things, the numbers were drawn for prizes (which two chapter D members won) and the grand prize was awarded. No big prizes were won today (Sam came within 15 points)... but we did go away with some fun memories of a very nice ride. Straight back on the superslab only to find bumper to bumper in Tacoma... oh civilization. 8 Wings, 277 miles, 5:47 saddle time... a good day. Jeff 06/06/09: Chapter B Breakfast Visit Hey Gang, It wasn't the warm weather we had all week but at least we got to take a cruise this morning. Note here: we are on peak fares now. $6.25/bike/driver plus $6.75/passenger going over. Just $6.25 coming back, I think. Best to check. Also, the Hood Canal Bridge is open again so I see a trip to Hurricane Ridge in the future. It was pretty crowded this morning as we hit downtown because it was the last day of the Susan B. Komen March for the cure. Perhaps next year, we could to this as a chapter activity. Get some pledges for us to walk some miles and help a worthy cause. Today's group included Captain Kenny and Ann, Gary "Jonesy" Francis, Mike "Big Pipes" Mercier and your humble servant, Ranks. Steve (no longer Tugs but now "Animal" as he rides up from Olympia) Tuggle joined us just in time for the meeting start, lucky him (you will find out later). Anyhow, back to today. We arrived just in time for breakfast. It is one heck of a deal. We had scrambled eggs with peppers, ham, onions, hash browns (minus the brown, more like hash whites but excellent covered with gravy), sausage, ham, bacon, biscuits and a most excellent peppery gravy, juices, coffee, Captain Kenny-approved cinnamon buns, pancakes with raspberry topping and whipped cream…all for just $7. What a deal. However, their meeting started at 9:30 and wasn't over till after 11. I moved out of the eating room to the bar and fell asleep in a chair for 40 minutes. Meeting was still going on when I woke up. One really nice thing B did was round up a bunch of stuffed bears for children. There were four Wash. State Patrol troopers there to accept these little jewels. As the Sgt stated, it is a humbling moment when they present these to little kids and see the joy in their hearts. Maybe we could do this same thing with Apes once a year. We finally got out of there around 11:20 or later. We headed out of town to Allyn, Union and ways around the water. Great trip. Kenny had lots of twisty roads mapped out (well, duh!!) and we followed. An additional pleasant surprise was at a gas stop at 128th and Hwy 301, Jonesy and I found a Texaco that had some of the best gizzards I have had in ages. There was a large HD group there on a poker run too. As I paid for my gizzards, an HD woman was paying for a large coffee, bag of Flaming Cheetos and two corn dogs, then she yelled over to her husband and asked if he wanted anything. What a gal. My dream date, already married, sigh. I hope there was a strong headwind. I will mark that place as a must stop for the future. Eventually, we ended up in Shelton where Jonesy and I finished off the gizzards, Animal ate a 3-day bag of M&M's in 10 minutes, giving the green ones to Capt Kenny and we headed out again. Eventually, we got to 101 East and headed towards Olympia. We were all getting a bit peckish around this time, so we thought we would head over to the Red Wings Casino for dinner. Animal called Soozie Q to be ready for us and we picked her up for the ride into almost Yelm. We had great parking and headed into the casino. It has been a long time since I have been in a place with smoking. News for you, it still sucks. I was hacking w/in a few steps. Anyhoo, we paid the mere amount of $14 for the buffet. It was pretty much a shrimp day. Peel & eat, fried, boiled, tempura, and lots of crab. I think that Jonesy personally ate episode 3 of season 3 of The Deadliest Catch. They will have to add an episode next season to make up for it. The peel & eat was very good as they sliced the shell to make it easy to peel & eat. The 7 of us filled up three shell plates in no time. The service was great too. After gorging on see-food, we all went our separate ways. Not sure what others had, but I went back for some rice and beef stew, very tasty, I had a couple of spoonfuls of crinkle-cut marinated beets, very good, about 10 bacon-wrapped scallops and I was ok till Jonesy told me that there was garlic mashed spuds out there. So, I waddled back to the food line and ladled up a sampling along/w some rice and beef stew. I noticed a few others were dabbling in the red meat area (steaks) and other little treasures. Afterwards, it was dessert time. I managed to push down cherry cheesecake, Mike was already totaled, and others had some ice cream with the kind of chocolate that hardens when it hits ice cream. I wanted to try it but it was just too much for me. I slithered out to the bikes for fresh air. I do want to add that the staff was very friendly and helpful. It was a great stop. After that, it was out to I-5 and due north. Along the way, I was almost taken out by some nitwit on the curve from 512 to 167. He drifted over while trying to take the top off of a bottle of water. Thank goodness, Gold Wings have real horns or I would be in the papers today. So all in all, another great trip. I had an idea while we were riding. I am going to get a transponder like our most fav gadget geek, the always surprising Tim "How do I get one of those for my Wing" Bowman and mark my trail this way. I don't have any idea where I am going w/o my GPS. Even when I get it fixed, the transponder will let me check out my course at my leisure later on at home. Sweet. OK, one last note. Tugs and Sooz are headed to Hawaii for a few days. Part of Steve "I can't sit still" Tuggles plan is to look over the edge of a volcano, go scuba diving, jump off Diamond Head on a parasail (or was it parasailing from a boat) and then wrap it up with a dip into the ocean to get up close and personal with a Great White while he is in a cage. Stay tuned for the film at 11 or perhaps on Shark Week, whichever comes first. Next week the Duck Hunt, adios gang. 05/31/09: El Capitan Iron Butt Ride Hold onto your seats, well more appropriate glued to your seats. Sunday morning another beautiful day. Temperature was about 55 degrees at 7 a.m. Joe Ennaro, Kenny Urban Gary Franics, Mike Mercier and I, Sam Grubbs, met at McDonalds, 212th and the East Valley Hwy. Helmet time was 8 a.m. and I think it was 8:05 when we pulled out with El Capitan Urban leading. South on 167 to Hwy 18, West to I-5, South to the scales where Gary Beard joined the group. South on I-5 to Hwy 512, a quick check at McDonalds to see if anyone was there. Then South on I-5 to Exit 111 where we pickup Steve Tuggle and His friend Brian. All set here weeeee go. South on I-5 to Exit 72 where we headed West and then south paralleling I-5 till we got to Exit 42. Back on I-5 to Woodland where we gassed. I brought up going on the South side of Lake Merwin. Everyone was up to exploring a new road. I took the lead Eastbound along the South side of the lake. We came out on Hwy 503 between Lake Merwin and Lake Yale. Into the quaint town of Cougar where we stopped for lunch. It was definitely getting warm and everyone was dressing down. Gary Franics orders gizzards (sorry you couldn't make it Ranks). Everyone else had the standard fare. One close call, Joe's kickstand started to sink into the ground. It was noticed in time so no mishap occurred. With our tumtums filled we headed East where we turned South on NFS Rd 90. A beautiful ride up through the mountains and lots of twisties. On our way down we came upon a Sheriff putting our flares he waved us to slow down. As we rounded the corner I could see one motorcycle down on the shoulder and out of the corner of my eye I could see a second next to a small bank. One person was sitting next to a stump holding a cold pack to his head. It looked like several people working on a person just over the bank. As we continued towards the town of Carson. Several emergency vehicles pasted us. At Carson we headed west to the Bridge of the Gods where we headed across the Columbia River and into Oregon. We continued west along the Old Historic Columbia Hwy. Pasted Horse Hair Falls and Multnomah Falls. We then stopped at Crown Point, which is very high up and gives a great view of the Columbia River. It was now about 3:00 PM and we headed west for a short way. Then South into Oregon and through some great twisties. About 30 miles South of Portland we headed north. Somewhere along the route Gary Franics saw 90 degrees on his thermometer. We fueled South of Portland and discussed the route back. ' Gary Beard and Joe Ennaro decided when we hit I-5 they would continue on I-5. The rest of us would turn West at Exit 42 and head North. We took Hwy 205 across the Columbia and up I-5. At Exit 42 Gary, Joe and Mike decided to head North on I-5. The rest of us headed west one more road to the West of the road we came down in the morning. We stopped for a short break and Steve convinced us to go to his new pad for a bite to eat. So, north to Exit 72, then North on I-5. We headed East off of I-5 and I don't know where the heck we went from there but we ended up at Steve and Sue's house. We were very weary at this time. We had a great turkey dinner with the trimmings. I had called Doreen several times to let her know what time, approximately, I would be home. I started at 6 p.m. and finally I told her it probably would be 10 PM, which it was. It was another great trip put together by our Urban Legend and always great company. OK, here it is. 508 miles from my front door, 14 hours. May '09: Polouse Falls, M Mercier Here is a synopsis of our trip to Palouse Falls. We all met up at the McDonalds in North Bend at 8:30 a.m. where Doug and I ate one of their breakfast. The weather was already in the low fifties and sunny when I arrived in North Bend. After some small talk and eating we went outside where Doug Dobkins gave us a breakdown of some of the new things he had done to his older model Harley. Everyone thought the new improvements were quite impressive. Kathy Wilbert the lone female in our group touched briefly upon some of her improvements to her newer model Harley as well. Her husband Bill could not join us because he had to study for his supervisor exam! We then topped off our tanks at the gas station next to the McDonalds and headed east on I-90 at around 9 a.m. to get to Ellensburg. Right before Ellensburg we encountered some road work on the freeway. The DOT had removed the top layer of pavement and left some thin ruts making for a somewhat shaky ride. This went on for a few miles. We all were able to handle it OK although my thin front tire made it especially unstable steering wise. Once in Ellensburg we stopped off at the nearest gas station where we all topped off our tanks and then pulled off to the side to take a water and pee break and to start shedding some layers of clothing. After about 15 minutes we were back on the road headed south on Canyon Road (Hwy 821) which follows the Yakima River and runs parallel with I-82/Hwy 97 south. As we were riding thru these vast canyons we couldn't help but notice just how green everything was. Normally because of the heat in these canyons everything is usually brown and dead looking so it was a real treat to see it this way. I highly recommend taking this road if you plan a trip in this area. We encountered very little traffic and waved at a few bikes headed in the opposite direction. The only concern when taking this road is the possibility of rocks falling off some of the cliffs that juts up 200 feet. But on this day were didn't see any, fortunately for us. At some point south of Yakima Hwy 821 connects up with I-82 south where we followed I-82 where it intersects with Hwy 24 east. We followed this road which seemed to go on forever. Doug had a dust devil cross right on top of him but it didn't seem to bother him much. We encountered several dust devils along the way some lined up as many as 8 in a row working their way towards the road. Eventually we arrived in Othello where we topped off and had lunch at an Asian place just as you entered the main drag in downtown Othello. Food was good and you got plenty to eat, so much so that all of us were only able to eat half of what was served. Once finished lunch we proceeded east on Hwy 26 to our next destination which was the town of Washtucna where we turn south on Hwy 261 thru downtown. About 3 miles outside of Washtucna is an old grain elevator on the left side of the road which is where you want to turn to get to Palouse Falls. There are signs directing you there. It is a nice twisty roller coaster type of road. We drove down this road for about another 3 miles or so and saw a sign directing us to turn left into the dirt access road to Palouse Falls. They had re-oiled the road the previous week so the dust was kept to a minimum but there was sufficient enough gravel on the road to make it dangerous enough for motorcycles and so we took it real easy and slow. After about a mile of driving we arrived at the parking lot where the traffic was being directed by the park rangers. Be advised that the parking lot is covered with pea gravel and can make your footing a bit unstable. Kathy had a little trouble negotiating into the parking spot and had to be assisted by Doug. From there we proceeded down the short trail to the cyclone fence and looked down into the 200-foot canyon which faces the main falls. From there you can follow the trail left or right. We continued left and followed the trail which took us up to the unfenced bluff. This gave us different perspectives of the main falls below. Again there was no safety fence along this trail and so it was necessary to be especially cautious when taking pictures along these edges. One misstep and you got a 200-foot fall to contend with. We continue following the bluff trail which took us to another much smaller waterfall upstream. This gave us some really nice views of the canyons up and downstream. In this canyon we could see the main trail which allowed people to hike down into the canyon and allowed people to hike along the river. There were handfuls of people who were in the canyon swimming in the shallow pools along the canyon floor and just generally hanging out along the river below. It was about 4:30 p.m. when we decided to leave this area and headed north on Hwy 261 to Rittzville where we had a small snack at a burger joint right by the I-90 on ramp. We decided to top off our tanks as well before heading west on I-90. When we got to the Columbia River crossing on I-90 the air got noticeably cooler and we began to experience a really strong headwind. We continued on for about 100 miles or so where we reached a rest stop before continuing on to Ellensburg. We took the opportunity to switch back into some warmer clothing and stretch a little. This was also a good time to drink some water and go to the bathroom. After about a 15 minute break we headed back west on the interstate and on to Ellensburg, still fighting a strong head wind as we rolled into Ellensburg where we gassed up for the last time. Doug suggested we bypass the construction that we encountered earlier in the day. Kathy took the lead at this point and we drove thru downtown Ellensburg until we found Hwy 10 which follows the Yakima River. It eventually ended about 20 miles passed the I-90 construction where we picked I-90 and Doug took the lead once again. We continued on until we got close to North Bend where people began to peel off and headed home. I got home in Shoreline about 9:30 p.m. totally exhausted and grateful for finally getting home. I didn't keep track of the mileage, but I figure we covered 500+ miles that day easy. Traffic was very minimal all day and that made for a fast paced ride. All in all a great ride with some great people! I would highly recommend going to Palouse Falls.