BrettB
Well-known member
OK, so I'd been talking about doing this for over a year (threads on both LD and Pacific Northwest sub-forums) but I finally DID IT!!
It was such a blast! My friend Tim, already a member of the Iron Butts, met me at the local gas station that is open 24/7 (The Y Market in Molalla) at 4:00am, after a brief greeting and some planning comments, we made sure we had gas receipts showing a 4:10am start time and I noted my odometer reading of 17815. Headed up 211 to Estacada, brief jaunt on 224 to cut over to Hwy 26 at Sandy, where we topped off again to get a receipt there, then east bound on Hwy 26 through Madras to Prineville where we stopped for gas and a quick snack for breakfast out of our packs, then over to Vale, and in to Ontario because using Vale as a corner wouldn't get enough miles, then lunch in Burns, down to Lakeview, back up to Sisters via La Pine and Bend, over 22 then 20 to Albany (if you haven't ridden 20 above Sweet Home, I HIGHLY recommend it, awesome twistys!). Heading home we stopped at the Markum Inn for some tasty burgers then headed the rest of the way back into Molalla for the finishing top-off and final receipt at 11:37pm and odometer reading of 18853, total of 1038 miles by my odometer (I think it was 1029 by google maps) in just over 19.5 hours.
It was a truly great ride! I think one of my favorite parts were the smells. First of the sage at daylight as we came down the east side of Mt Hood, it was so rich and heady. Then as we rode through Crooked River there were alternating fields for grass and alfalfa hay drying that smelled great. Later in the day as we came back through Bend and Sisters, I loved the smell of the campfires in the campgrounds we were passing. You just don't get that in a car... of course you don't get the fun of taking a great line through the twistys either. I truly think the route was a most excellent one with a great variety of beautiful scenery, most of which was going by too fast for me to get pictures of it though, so it'll just be for Tim and I to remember the best of it. The weather was also perfect, a sunny day, but not too hot, mostly in the mid-80s.
I'll turn in all the paperwork later this week, I can't wait for my "Iron Butt Association" license plate backer! A truly epic and fun ride. Glad I finally got to do it rather then just talk about it!
I'll edit this post later to add a link to the exact route as we made an on-the-fly modification to keep completely off all interstates (last version before we left had us on I-5 from Albany to Woodburn).
First pic of the day is our gas stop at Prineville. Tim didn't want to be in the picture, just just the Gen I and Gen II FJRs that are our mighty steeds that carried us well:
The rest of the pics are of the ride back out Vale for the second time as we headed down to Lakeview...
Tim setting up for the next corner:
Loved the river along the road (wish I would have gotten pics of the other rivers we rode along side, especially along Hwy 26)
It was such a blast! My friend Tim, already a member of the Iron Butts, met me at the local gas station that is open 24/7 (The Y Market in Molalla) at 4:00am, after a brief greeting and some planning comments, we made sure we had gas receipts showing a 4:10am start time and I noted my odometer reading of 17815. Headed up 211 to Estacada, brief jaunt on 224 to cut over to Hwy 26 at Sandy, where we topped off again to get a receipt there, then east bound on Hwy 26 through Madras to Prineville where we stopped for gas and a quick snack for breakfast out of our packs, then over to Vale, and in to Ontario because using Vale as a corner wouldn't get enough miles, then lunch in Burns, down to Lakeview, back up to Sisters via La Pine and Bend, over 22 then 20 to Albany (if you haven't ridden 20 above Sweet Home, I HIGHLY recommend it, awesome twistys!). Heading home we stopped at the Markum Inn for some tasty burgers then headed the rest of the way back into Molalla for the finishing top-off and final receipt at 11:37pm and odometer reading of 18853, total of 1038 miles by my odometer (I think it was 1029 by google maps) in just over 19.5 hours.
It was a truly great ride! I think one of my favorite parts were the smells. First of the sage at daylight as we came down the east side of Mt Hood, it was so rich and heady. Then as we rode through Crooked River there were alternating fields for grass and alfalfa hay drying that smelled great. Later in the day as we came back through Bend and Sisters, I loved the smell of the campfires in the campgrounds we were passing. You just don't get that in a car... of course you don't get the fun of taking a great line through the twistys either. I truly think the route was a most excellent one with a great variety of beautiful scenery, most of which was going by too fast for me to get pictures of it though, so it'll just be for Tim and I to remember the best of it. The weather was also perfect, a sunny day, but not too hot, mostly in the mid-80s.
I'll turn in all the paperwork later this week, I can't wait for my "Iron Butt Association" license plate backer! A truly epic and fun ride. Glad I finally got to do it rather then just talk about it!
I'll edit this post later to add a link to the exact route as we made an on-the-fly modification to keep completely off all interstates (last version before we left had us on I-5 from Albany to Woodburn).
First pic of the day is our gas stop at Prineville. Tim didn't want to be in the picture, just just the Gen I and Gen II FJRs that are our mighty steeds that carried us well:
The rest of the pics are of the ride back out Vale for the second time as we headed down to Lakeview...
Tim setting up for the next corner:
Loved the river along the road (wish I would have gotten pics of the other rivers we rode along side, especially along Hwy 26)
