phroenips
Pronounced "Free-nips"...it's just a
Last year we (COSFJR and I) went to the World Superbike races at Miller Motorsports Park, and had a blast. So we made plans to go again this year, and the thought process went something like this: "while we were at it, let's continue on out of Salt Lake City! Hmm, I've been reading a lot on the forums about the stock suspension being shot after around 30k miles. And everyone seems to rave about GP Suspension in Portland. And hey, my mom lives in Seattle, we can go visit her while we're up there. And we can take a northern route on the way back, and do Lolo pass, and also the Beartooth Highway. Sweet!"
And so we set off, here's our SPOT tracks (the astute among you will notice we didn't make it to Lolo or Beartooth…more on that later)
On a chilly Saturday morning, we headed out to Salt Lake City. We traveled with some friends in their cage, so we stuck to the Interstates. I-80's forecast looked really chilly, and of course, windy. I-70 it was…at least we would get some warmth around Grand Junction. And we were off!
Eisenhower tunnel. Psychedelic dude!
We crossed the continental divide, rode down on the western slope were it finally warmed up! Warm enough to shed the liners even (they would have to go back on mid-way through Utah)!
As you may have seen on other ride reports, Sunday at the track was bitterly cold and wet. The snow line was only a few hundred feet higher than the track
And yet, it didn't seem to slow down the riders that much. Holy crap they were haulin'
Monday shaped up to be much better….at least we saw some blue skies!
This turned out to be a pretty good spot too. Saw several crashes in this area. Luckily everyone was (physically) ok
After the race weekend, we parted ways with our race watching buddies, and continued on, eventually making it to Portland. We left our bikes in Dave's very capable hands at GP Suspension, and we rented a car to go out to the Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum, where they have the "Spruce Goose"
That f**ker was big! Here's me standing in front of it (reading one of the info board things)
Here's another shot of me (on the left) and COSFJR (on the right)
That night we found a FANTASTIC Moroccan restaurant, Dar Essalam. Highly recommended
We then took our bikes with the fancy new suspension up to Seattle. Stayed the night at my mom's place, and the next day, we went up to the San Juan Islands where she and my step-dad recently bought a house to retire. Bikes on the ferry, that was fun…and getting to go to the front of the line was fun too
The best weather on the entire trip was this several day stretch in the Seattle area…go figure
We knew we'd probably get on an earlier ferry than my mom (who was driving her car…see above about getting to go to the front of the line), so we went to Orcas island first and rode up to Mt. Constitution. Gorgeous views from up there
After that was done, we got back on the ferry to head back to Lopez Island
it was really crowded
The next day we packed a picnic and had lunch in a cute little cove (check out the tree growing sideways!)
That evening, my mom wanted to go for a ride on my bike! She borrowed a jacket and helmet from a friend on the island. Here I am giving her some pre-ride instruction
Look how cute and excited she is!
We headed back to Seattle, and we took the scenic route again (of course), crossing Deception Pass onto Whidbey Island. Watching the current through here was kind of frightening, it would switch directions without notice, and create some pretty scary looking eddies
We also stopped at Fort Casey. We had been there before, but we liked it, so we stopped again.
Those are some big holes in those cannons
…and our last ferry ride of the trip
This is where our initial plans started to change. Our good weather window was leaving us, and the forecast was calling for for rain the next several days between Lewiston, ID and Missoula, MT (Lolo Pass). That was already going to be a long day for us, going through the twisties, and wet twisties are no fun at all. So, we changed our route and reservations and went to Spokane instead of Lewiston. I have to say that Spokane really surprised me. I was expecting kind of a back woods, redneck, desert-y sort of town, but it was really nice! The river going through town was really high and the water really flowing.
We saw a seafood restaurant by the river and they had signs up indicating it was Copper River Salmon season. Well, how can you say no to that?!? Who cares if we were severely underdressed, they didn't have a dress code (we asked). The food was pretty tasty. Copper River Salmon, and some Halibut.
Now, I've spent some coin on good meals before, but I've never spent that much while wearing a t-shirt, jeans and tennis shoes…it felt kind of weird. Oh well, we were under budget for food, so we could afford the splurge
Here's another cool shot after dinner
Our camera, uh, apparently stopped working after that point, 'cause we don't have any more pictures. Yeah, that's it…camera stopped working. We went to Bozeman and stayed with a friend, who took us out to a (stereo)typical steakhouse. That was some good cow! And (relatively) cheap! Our total bill for the three of us, including all the fixin's and some beer, came to $86 or so! As of that evening, Beartooth Pass was still closed, and the weather (you guessed it) was less than warm and overcast down that way anyway (we found out later that the pass opened that very next morning. Oh well, just another reason to go back to that part of the country).
Here's a picture Mark took of us before we left the next morning:
The rest of the trip home was uneventful and boring, but the trip as a whole was a lot of fun. By far our longest motorbike trip, totaling around 3700 miles in about two weeks. I also discovered I need to submit my application for the CBA. Our longest day, by far, was the first day to SLC. That took us about 10 hours, but we settled into liking the 6 hour days.
Of course, when I tell my cruiser riding friends the total mileage, they think we Iron Butted it. I guess they aren't familiar with the IBR!
And so we set off, here's our SPOT tracks (the astute among you will notice we didn't make it to Lolo or Beartooth…more on that later)
On a chilly Saturday morning, we headed out to Salt Lake City. We traveled with some friends in their cage, so we stuck to the Interstates. I-80's forecast looked really chilly, and of course, windy. I-70 it was…at least we would get some warmth around Grand Junction. And we were off!
Eisenhower tunnel. Psychedelic dude!
We crossed the continental divide, rode down on the western slope were it finally warmed up! Warm enough to shed the liners even (they would have to go back on mid-way through Utah)!
As you may have seen on other ride reports, Sunday at the track was bitterly cold and wet. The snow line was only a few hundred feet higher than the track
And yet, it didn't seem to slow down the riders that much. Holy crap they were haulin'
Monday shaped up to be much better….at least we saw some blue skies!
This turned out to be a pretty good spot too. Saw several crashes in this area. Luckily everyone was (physically) ok
After the race weekend, we parted ways with our race watching buddies, and continued on, eventually making it to Portland. We left our bikes in Dave's very capable hands at GP Suspension, and we rented a car to go out to the Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum, where they have the "Spruce Goose"
That f**ker was big! Here's me standing in front of it (reading one of the info board things)
Here's another shot of me (on the left) and COSFJR (on the right)
That night we found a FANTASTIC Moroccan restaurant, Dar Essalam. Highly recommended
We then took our bikes with the fancy new suspension up to Seattle. Stayed the night at my mom's place, and the next day, we went up to the San Juan Islands where she and my step-dad recently bought a house to retire. Bikes on the ferry, that was fun…and getting to go to the front of the line was fun too
The best weather on the entire trip was this several day stretch in the Seattle area…go figure
We knew we'd probably get on an earlier ferry than my mom (who was driving her car…see above about getting to go to the front of the line), so we went to Orcas island first and rode up to Mt. Constitution. Gorgeous views from up there
After that was done, we got back on the ferry to head back to Lopez Island
it was really crowded
The next day we packed a picnic and had lunch in a cute little cove (check out the tree growing sideways!)
That evening, my mom wanted to go for a ride on my bike! She borrowed a jacket and helmet from a friend on the island. Here I am giving her some pre-ride instruction
Look how cute and excited she is!
We headed back to Seattle, and we took the scenic route again (of course), crossing Deception Pass onto Whidbey Island. Watching the current through here was kind of frightening, it would switch directions without notice, and create some pretty scary looking eddies
We also stopped at Fort Casey. We had been there before, but we liked it, so we stopped again.
Those are some big holes in those cannons
…and our last ferry ride of the trip
This is where our initial plans started to change. Our good weather window was leaving us, and the forecast was calling for for rain the next several days between Lewiston, ID and Missoula, MT (Lolo Pass). That was already going to be a long day for us, going through the twisties, and wet twisties are no fun at all. So, we changed our route and reservations and went to Spokane instead of Lewiston. I have to say that Spokane really surprised me. I was expecting kind of a back woods, redneck, desert-y sort of town, but it was really nice! The river going through town was really high and the water really flowing.
We saw a seafood restaurant by the river and they had signs up indicating it was Copper River Salmon season. Well, how can you say no to that?!? Who cares if we were severely underdressed, they didn't have a dress code (we asked). The food was pretty tasty. Copper River Salmon, and some Halibut.
Now, I've spent some coin on good meals before, but I've never spent that much while wearing a t-shirt, jeans and tennis shoes…it felt kind of weird. Oh well, we were under budget for food, so we could afford the splurge
Here's another cool shot after dinner
Our camera, uh, apparently stopped working after that point, 'cause we don't have any more pictures. Yeah, that's it…camera stopped working. We went to Bozeman and stayed with a friend, who took us out to a (stereo)typical steakhouse. That was some good cow! And (relatively) cheap! Our total bill for the three of us, including all the fixin's and some beer, came to $86 or so! As of that evening, Beartooth Pass was still closed, and the weather (you guessed it) was less than warm and overcast down that way anyway (we found out later that the pass opened that very next morning. Oh well, just another reason to go back to that part of the country).
Here's a picture Mark took of us before we left the next morning:
The rest of the trip home was uneventful and boring, but the trip as a whole was a lot of fun. By far our longest motorbike trip, totaling around 3700 miles in about two weeks. I also discovered I need to submit my application for the CBA. Our longest day, by far, was the first day to SLC. That took us about 10 hours, but we settled into liking the 6 hour days.
Of course, when I tell my cruiser riding friends the total mileage, they think we Iron Butted it. I guess they aren't familiar with the IBR!
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