Seattle to Tahoe and Back - Part Nine

We decided to shun the interstates, whick meant a LONG drive. We thought Highway 97 would be a viable alternative, but it ended up being almost worse than superslab travel.. huge straight stretches, nothing to see, nothing to occupy your attention. Here's two long straight pieces...





As you can see from the pics, the shadows were getting long. We stopped just north of Bend, Or, to camp for the night. Beautiful campsite, next to a little river. We were done, it was a long, boring day after the experience of Crater Lake.



Brrr!!! The next morning we realized that camping in a low spot near a river in late September might not have been the best plan. By far our coldest morning... you can see the evidence coming out the tailpipes on Sim's ST.



So, we made a long breakfast stop at a local IHOP. By the time we were done it had warmed up considerably, and we continued toward home.



Bye, Bend, Or. and your hateful highway 97...



Or maybe not. Still on 97, bored, taking alternative pics....





O.K., 97 redeemed itself a bit as we neared the Wa/Or border. It carved down the golden valleys, interspersing its long straights with some truly twisty bits. Got my attention. Awake now, I cranked it up for a short blast...



Now in Wa, we took the backroads, eventually trying to reach the east side of Mount St. Helens, where a spur road called Windy Ridge is one of my favourite roads. The mountain below is Mount Adams, which holds a place in my heart as I recently summited it... my first mountain ascent. Scroll way down for pics and the story.



Lonely backroads in the wilderness between Adams and Helens. No one but the occasional other biker and backwoods camper here...



Many times the trees fully enclosed the road, so you were swooping through a green tunnel for miles.



When we got near Helen's, we decided getting home was more important than another two hours of twisty roads, as we'd been working the handlebars pretty hard for hours and the roads leading to Windy ridge are also known as a bikers paradise... we saw many riders out enjoying the ride. This is the mountain, you can see how it's smoke and steam fill the valley.



Caught a group of sportbikers as they were trapped behind a pickup that wouldn't pull over, making all twenty or so people lose the enjoyment of riding 10 miles of great road. One of the guys had a friendly word with him when he reached the next town.



Alright, almost over, almost home.