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| Seattle to Quincy Wa. Via Portland 04/04-04/05/09 Fred asked over Tacos Thursday night. Did you see the weather forecast for the weekend? It looks like summer. Were are we riding? Larry said we could go to my condo at Crescent Bar in Quincy. But it is still snowing in the pass. It might be hard to get a bike over any of the passes. I said we could go down to the Columbia River Gorge and ride the long way around. We all looked at each other and said yea. The first real ride and weekend trip of the year. It is around 450 miles via the most direct route. Larry decided to add some back roads on the way down. He lead us on a GPS run which means we had to turn around 4 times. A new record I think. I was laughing in my helmet most of the time. But each turn around led us to a very nice and in most cases new road. We did a little corner of Oregon. Some could be a scouting trip for the Pelican run in two weeks. As we came back for Portland to Oregon one of the few stretches of I5 we hit a several mile parking lot on the free way. One of the 2 we would see this weekend. Not a huge wait but a pain anyway. Here is a map of the route to Quincy |
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| From Portland we headed east on Hwy 14 running along the north banks of the Columbia River. That can be a nice ride depending on traffic. Traffic was not to bad that Saturday. We did have an interesting time with Brother Speed. There was a large cruiser group behind us that we suspect Brother Speed was with. But he was riding ahead and would approach us from the rear then pass around and through our group of 3 bikes. He would then stop wait for us to pass and do it again? I guess he was having a good time? From Lyle we headed north on another of the great Washington rides highway 142. We were cruising along this great twisty section of road at a crisp but not break neck pace. I noticed at one a large pickup truck behind us that seemed to be coming on pretty fast. I thought perhaps we were riding to slow. But thought nothing about it until I heard the siren. Opps now that fast moving pickup make sense and he wants to talk to us. Fred and I pulled over and he went on after Larry. We decided to park at a view point we had just passed and wait to see what happens. As we parked a second officer pulled up behind us. He was very friendly and asking us all the usual questions. He saw my camera and asked if it showed the speed. It would be good in court he said. He said he paced us at 60 to 70 on a 45. The second office then pulled up with Larry in tow. He took our drivers licenses for the usual check up. Mean while the other officer was joking around with us but clearly referencing our soon to come 3 tickets. Then the other officer got out of his truck and said. Well all 3 of you have excellent driving records so I am not going to ticket you. The other offices says "WHAT"? I am saying thank you very much sir. We think that they were searching for another group they had asked us about and thought we were part of the were racing up and down the road. |
| Officer friendly is on the left. Officer "what no tickets" is on the right. We continued north on 142 at a reduced pace for a time. Then over the Bickleton hwy to the Blue bird in Bickleton for a Burger. |
From there it was on to Quincy. After around 522 miles we arrived at Larry's condo at Crescent Bar. It was around 7:30 so that was 12.5 hours of fun. But the night was just beginning. We had many more adventures that night to include the Lost Keys. The lost in the dark off roading high on a hill in a dying Golf Cart. Not to forget that the Golf Cart was stolen. But we did put the Golf Cart to good use by driving home to the trailer park a very lubricated person. I think he made it without a barf bag. But there was a strange substance on the floor board the next morning. We are not sure when we went to bed Saturday night. But it was sometime the next morning. Most of our wallets were empty and the credit cards were warm. From what Larry says this is common in Crescent Bar. What goes on in Crescent Bar stays in Crescent Bar? Sunday was a bit of a slow start but after a good breakfast in Quincy we were of for an I 90 return. We took the Vantage Highway and made a stop at the new visitor center for the wind farm. Then Larry showed us a nice I 90 alternative that takes you from Ellensburg almost all the way to the pass. The road was in early spring condition but dry. Will need to try again in the summer. The pass was jammed west bound at the top because the road was down to 2 lanes. So it took a while to get thru Snoqualmie. We bypassed some of the parked traffic by going thru Snoqualmie. The snow was so high you could not see any of the buildings. There were just canyons of roads dug out to the buildings. Pretty impressive. |
Vantage Highway. We did not send much time there but it is worth a look. The wind farm is much larger then you can see from the road. Wow this was a high intensity weekend. What a blast have not had so much fun in a long time. Video Links. Hwy 142 Danger Zone, Hwy 142 the whole story. Bickleton Grade. |
