Motorcycle: Columbia River Gorge Ride 4/19/2009

478 miles, 12.2 hours.
Ken and I went for a quick ride Sunday. The goal was to go out to Bickleton, but we couldn't resist adding in some other Interesting roads. We ended up on a handful of beautiful gravel roads, which was a blast.

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The first part of the day was dedicated to riding the Washington side of the river. We went out Highway 14, then turned onto the super-twisty SR141 to BZ Corner. This was Ken's favorite stretch- he pulled away from me quickly, and raved about how great it was later. The stretch from BZ Corner to Glenwood was curvier than I remembered- and climbed 1400 feet fairly quickly.
Mt. Adams	Ken and Mt. Adams
The next stretch included a couple more canyon runs, which are always fun. The light traffic made it very easy to have fun.
Ken's self-portrait	Ted, action shot	Ted
Two bikes with Mt. Adams in the background	Ken and Mt. Adams
Next, we stopped in Bickleton to eat at the Bluebird Inn, which is about the only place with movement in the tiny settlement. The food was tasty.
Ted, chatting with another rider at the Bluebird Inn in Bickleton
The next plan was to run from Bickleton, through Dot, to Hwy14. The road turned out to be paved about halfway, running past a ton of wind turbines. It then turned into gravel and dropped down to the river. The gravel was nice, but the road was curvy and Ken wasn't used to the gravel.
Two bikes and a wind turbine	Ted with the wind turbines	Ted with the wind turbines
DL650 and the wind turbines	Ken on gravel
Panorama of a barn and wind turbines
Once we reached the Columbia, we crossed into Oregon at Biggs, then took some gravel along the river and climbed away from the river. We then linked some great paved roads with some decent gravel roads- great twisty fun!
Ken at the Columbia River	Riding across the Sam Hill Memorial Bridge	Ken on gravel
Panorama of the Columbia River at the Oregon Trunk Rail Bridge (Celilo Bridge)
Ted with the bikes, above the Columbia River	Ken's bike with the Fairbanks Schoolhouse	Ted with the Fairbanks Schoolhouse
Cool barn	Mt. Hood	Mt. Hood
Our next diversion was to take OR-216 across the Deschutes River. I've always seen the twisties on the east side of the river and wanted to run it. The curves were fun, though the narrow road and steep drops meant I was a little nervous about having too much fun. We then turned around, ran it in the other direction, then ran down to Maupin.
Ken on gravel	Ken on gravel	Deschutes River in the Warm Springs Indian Reservation. Fishing platforms are visible.
The final goal of the day was to take NF-48 from Tygh Valley to Highway 26. Unfortunately, we ran into snow and didn't make it all the way. We tried hunting around to get between NF48 and Highway 216, but we ran into snow there too. Oh well! So we turned around, rode out to The Dalles, had dinner, then rode home.
Ken at snow on NP48. FYYFF!	Ken at a snow/tree crossing.
The only curse of riding with two identical bikes is that we were getting very low on gas before we got to Troutdale. We were both concerned for the last 5-10 miles.