Lightning Rod: 2009

Marsha and I took the Goldwing to the Columbia Gorge over Memorial Day. We enjoyed good weather, good hiking and some beautiful flowers.

Climbing Beacon Rock

It was a beautiful Day with great views of the Columbia River as we climbed.

And Climb is what we did.

But the Views from the top were awesome.

We also enjoyed a Hike on Dog Mountain which also had some beautiful flowers. We started the hike thinking it was 1500 foot elevation gain.

The hike started out pretty easy.

But as we climbed we needed a lot of rests as the hike appeared to be greater than we thought.

Finally we figured out that the hike was not only 1500 feet elevation but 2900 feet elevation and little more then we were prepared to do on an afternoon. So we headed down.

But, the flowers were very good along the trail.

As we were headed down the mountain we met a man who felt sorry for us that we didn't have enough to get to the top of the mountain. So, he gave us his web site where he had posted pictures he took that day on the top of Dog Mountain. If you go to http://www.pbase.com/greglief/dog_mountain you can view the beautiful wild flowers on top of Dog Mountain. Enjoy!

Four friends left for a week of riding. We had two Hondas, a BMW and a Harley. One of the hondas had breakfast with us the first morning but had to return home until he met up with us on Wednesday in Las Vegas. We traveled over 3500 miles and on the last day three of us completed our Iron Butt of over 1000 miles in one day. (you can click on pictures to make them larger)

We left on Sunday morning and headed down I-5 for breakfast and then headed for the Oregon coast. The weather was cool so dressing warm was the apparel for the day.

We also traveled though the Redwoods. Then went on to Redding CA where we spent our first night.

On Monday we headed towards Reno, NV by way of Mt. Lassen.

After Mt. Lassen we had some extra time so we took a great ride on route 49 which went through Sierra CA a great ride with great curves and awesome scenery. On our way through here we hit one of many “road repairs” stops.

When you goal is to ride, how do you get good pictures of the things you are seeing? Well, what I came up with was a lanyard around my neck with the camera attached. And it worked!! So from now I was able take more pictures on the road as we left Reno and what great timing. The views from Highway 395 are great.

Here is a view of the Honda Goldwing cockpit moving at 50 mph, this camera thing is working.

A side trip up to Tahoe.

And the ride back down to Highway 395

Back on the Highway headed for Yosemite.

As you can see my back seat is empty. Marsha is back east visiting her family. But I am sure she would love this ride.

As I ride I keep checking to make sure David is doing OK behind me.

My view of David following me.

More scenes from the road.

We stopped at the entrance to Yosemite and decided to ride up towards the gate and get back on the road.

Views of the road up to Yosemite.

Packing up the next morning as we head towards Death Valley and Los Vegas.

Yup, David is still there and Jim is still leading.

Near the Entrance to Death Valley. As we stood looking down this canyon towards the valley, we heard some jets and saw two F-18s chasing each other up through the canyon. A few minutes later an F-18 came up the canyon and went vertical. It was amazing.