bobbybob Posted January 26, 2009 Share Posted January 26, 2009 Day 4 Thursday: John Day to Sisters by way of the fossil beds. Heading west from John Day on US 26, we then turned north on 19 and followed the John Day river right through this narrow slot canyon…. Until we ended up here….. This was an impressive place. Drilling dinosaur teeth is tedious work. It must have truly sucked to be a dinosaur. Saw this sign shortly after leaving the fossil beds. I wonder if they made an error on the sign…maybe it should have read “petrified bunnies” and “snakeskins” etc. Poor little critters…but we passed. After leaving the fossil sites, we made a bee-line towards Sisters, our overnight, as we wanted to see some sights there before dark. We checked into the Best Western-Sisters, a very nice property. A short distance outside our patio door, we spied this….. And these guys…..my favorite was Fernando. Fernando Llamas to be formal. Well, on to the sights before dark. We took the Old McKenzie Highway from Sisters west to the Summit of McKenzie Pass….. This was an extraordinary place. From the Dee Wright Observatory were views of the 3 Sisters peaks, all dormant volcanoes. But apparently one of them spewed some chunks in the past few hundred years. I’ve never seen so much lava in one place. One of the 3 “sisters”…. We ran into a gaggle of colorful Goldwing riders in the parking lot. They were from Idaho and riding all over the PNW. Very nice folks. This is what it’s all about…..right? Day 5-Friday The final day—Sisters back into Portland—not many pics. These guys were right outside our room enjoying the early morning complimentary outdoor continental breakfast the Best Western provides. We beat a path for Mt. Hood taking some NF roads thru the Cascades. Mt. Hood from Timothy Lake. We rode up Mt. Hood to Timberline Lodge…..obligatory Mt Hood pic. Leaving Mt. Hood we stopped off at Bonneville Dam down on the Columbia River. The fish ladders were quite interesting. A worthwhile stop. And---finally—back at the hotel in Portland around 5PM. We made it in 1 piece. Averaged around 250 miles per day, a perfect pace to enjoy the ride plus stopping to gawk and snap pics. Regarding the motorcycle rental: we rented from http://www.northwestmotorcycleadventures.com/ They delivered the 2 V-Strom 650’s to our hotel the evening before we departed, no delivery charge or extra day charge for this. They also picked them up from the hotel on our return. Their service was fine, the rates were (relatively) reasonable, and the machines were new and performed flawlessly. Although I was a little hesitant about 5 days on a V-Strom, they turned out to be fairly competent tourers. Wind protection was mediocre with helmet buffeting an issue over 60 mph. I lowered the windshield to the lowest position and then shimmed it so it tilted rearward more. This took care of the buffeting but wind noise was still moderate. Ear plugs were helpful. None of this seemed to bother Curb Queen. The ease of handling and the torquey motor really made up for the wind shortcomings. They were a real blast to ride—acceleration seemed almost on par with our R12RT’s and it was a sport bike in the twisties (comparatively speaking). We would do it again!! Link to comment
Paul_Burkett Posted January 26, 2009 Share Posted January 26, 2009 Very nice. Thank you for holding off writing this Ride Report, it really hit the spot, especially nice since it was only 8° today. Link to comment
vfrcauv Posted January 28, 2009 Share Posted January 28, 2009 Bob, Another nice set of photos and report. Looked like a great trip. Thanks for posting the report! Bill Link to comment
Francois_Dumas Posted January 29, 2009 Share Posted January 29, 2009 Love those colorful Wings indeed..... and the funny text on one of them. Cascades area looks a lot more like the Oregon I would expect to find..... thanks for showing ! Great tales and photos !! Link to comment
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