Adventure to Coeur d'Alene

     My friend, Greg, bought a new BMW GS Adventure, But owning a bike named Adventure without an actual adventure seems to miss the whole point. So he suggested a ride through the volcanic areas around Mt Lassen and Mt. Shasta, then North to the Columbia River and on to Coeur d'Alene, Idaho.     

      


     Greg on his big, powerful, comfortable and fully loaded BMW and me on my hardtailed Sportster, we set off. The odd couple.
     We rode to Redding, Ca. and left interstate 5. Highway 299 heads to Alturas and is a great ride through the volcanic mountains of Northern California.

  

     At Alturas we hit Highway 395 which heads north and a little east, past Goose Lake. Near the lake we checked out the site of an old saw mill. The beehive burner was really big so the sawmill must have been a large one. The burners were fed scrap wood and sawdust by conveyor belts. Today none of that scrap is wasted and is used in one way or another. But in their day they were impressive especially at night.

     Highway 395 in the area from Goose Lake north is a fairly lonely road so when we saw a guy changing a tire we stopped to see if we could lend a hand. Mike, a fly fisherman, had the tire change under control, and we were able to get enough cell signal to call ahead to the town of Riley in Oregon to make sure he would be able to get a repair before the shop closed. We stopped at The Nest in Riley for a burger and a beer.

 
   

     
     Somewhere, after leaving Riley, we stopped at a possible camping place. It looked good, sage brush and sandy soil, but the mosquitoes were vicious. We took a couple of photos and took off for Bend, Oregon.

     After leaving Mosquitoville, we were headed toward Bend on Highway 20 and after sundown, I ran out of gas. Fortunately the BMW has a huge gas tank and I carry a small siphon so after a short delay, we made it into Bend, Oregon. We had covered 600 miles.

     The next morning we crossed the 45th Parallel. Then to the Columbia River.

     Coeur d'Alene, Idaho is a 400 mile ride north of Bend, Oregon. It is a growing place, it's considered hip, cool, and Idaho conservative. Californians, fed up with the peoples republic, are moving there. 

     I had intended to leave but a rainstorm came in so I stayed another day. 

     When I left the weather had changed, it was cold and damp. There was a headwind blowing a gale along the Columbia River. I drafted behind some trucks to ease the pressure of the wind pushing my helmet into my face. I stopped for only one photo near the John Day Dam.

      It was early afternoon when I arrived at Bend Oregon. It was still early so I called ahead to make a reservation in Klamath Falls a 140 miles further south.
     In the morning I headed for Weed, California. This is an area of high mountains, covered by snow. Although on the cool side this ride is one of my favorites.

 

     Highway 97 hits Highway 5 at the town of Weed, but here Highway 5 is not the boring Highway 5 of California's Central Valley. Not far south of Weed the highway passes Mt. Shasta and the town of Shasta. 
     The highway runs through beautiful forests, downhill, from Shasta to Redding. It follows along the Upper Sacramento River to Lake Shasta near Redding. At Redding it warmed up and I was able to stow my cold weather gear. In another 3 hours I was home.
     Even though my bike is not named "Adventure"...maybe it should be.

 Greg had still had more adventure in him so he headed east to visit friends near Boise, Idaho. Then South into Nevada where he has family in Virginia City. He sent a couple of photos of his ride.

 

Howl and Prowl

The Howl and Prowl is a chopper show in Bisbee, Arizona.  It's a small show but it is a good show. It's a riders show, I didn't see any of the "Professional Builders" present.  Every bike I saw looked like it had been ridden to the event. The town of Bisbee is a very old mining tow and has a lot of Old West history, that's another reason visit Bisbee.

Stampede influence...present.

El Diablo Run - EDR 2019

     The El Diablo Run is a chopper get together in San Felipe, Baja California, Mexico.  San Felipe is about 125 miles south of the border from Mexicali.  The EDR only happens every other year and a last minute mechanical problem kept me away in 2017, this year I was ready to go.

     I called my friend Bob Marshall in Riverside, California.  Bob  said of course he was going to the EDR.  So I rode to Riverside, spent the night and the next morning Bob, his girlfriend Annette and I headed for Mex-he-co.  

     
          It's about 300 miles from Riverside to San Felipe. We rode east to Indio then south by the Salton Sea to Calexico where we crossed the border to Mexicali.  Mexican Highway 5 south of Mexicali is a pretty lonely road.  There a few small settlements but no gas stations.  

I had been told there was one Army checkpoint about half way to San Felipe.  I envisioned a few young unhappy soldiers with mildly itchy trigger fingers standing around a military duece and a half parked in the road.  What I found was a professionally manned checkpoint, similar to the one found between Reno and Truckee in Northern California.  We were waved through without stopping. 

     Bob and Annette had reserved a hotel closer to town, so I settled into Ruben's Camp.  The beach was beautiful and the weather was mild.  

I met up with old friends.

 










     


    
     
     
     









     
     The EDR is truly a Chopper event and there were very few stock bikes.

     

     
          There were some local motorcycle clubs with interesting names.

     
          
     The races were on Saturday. The dirt lot across from Ruben's Camp was the location. Bob Marshall, land speed racer, entered his Kawasaki KZ-1000P bike in the hardtail race. He didn't win but had a good time and didn't die or tear up his bike too much. Really, a Kawasaki Police bike is hardly a flat tracker.

     After a weekend of sun, beer and fried shrimp, it was time to head home.  I rode to Mexicali, where I parted ways with friends, who were headed to border crossings to the east.  I had a little trouble finding the international border because a lot of the traffic signs were damaged and I had heard that there was a "hole" in the fence that was for motorcycles.
     
     I asked a few locals and they confirmed that waiting in the car line would take hours and be incredibly hot and that there was a motorcycle lane.  The "hole" in the traffic fence was in fact to allow motorcycles to access the motorcycle lane that was between the car lanes. 

     Once back in California, I headed home and as usual I got into that mode where I just kept going and going. There were heavy winds near Palm Springs and it rained on and off from Santa Nella to Oakland, but I kept going and made it home about midnight.