On the Scottish Moors.

 We left the Isle of Skye and came across Scotland through Inverness. We were headed to the Lighthouse Cottages shown above. To the left of this picture are the sand dunes and the North Sea at Rattray Head, between Fraserburgh and Peterhead. This area of Scotland is called Aberdeenshire and is an agricultural area. The lightshouse is located just off shore on a partially submerged spit at the Rattrey Estate. The wind would blow at night on these Scottish Moors with ruins everywhere.
   I was asking about my mothers family name, which is Moir as it was always said in the family that they were originally from Aberdeen. One half of the Rattray Estate is actually farmed by a John Moir!

   

  During the day yesterday we drove down through Aberdeen to Stonehaven and had lunch at a highly recommended fish and chips place and in the Afternoon went to Dunnottar Castle. It is quite the sight and a hike down then back up to get to it that takes a while.  But we had lovely weather for a stroll in the castle.

 Today we have moved down to Pittenween ScotLand. It is on the Firth of Forth just below St. Andrews Golf course. A lovely little fishing village that we will go to Edinburgh from tomorrow for a day in that City.
     It has been wonderful to view this area of Scotland, where my middle name Moir originated. It feels as if the feeling of belonging here has been passed down through my DNA. But I feel as if these are "my people" and the journey has been worth it.

On the Road to Canada

Washington Pass, North Cascades National Pa

Amazingly I find myself back in the Pacific  Northwest after my motorcycle ride up the coast of Oregon in April of this year. This trip started out with a family gathering in Bedford Wyoming and then on to the Columbia River Gorge. My wife Mary and me had the the Honda Ridgeline loaded with camping gear and picked up her cousin Angus to head up to the North Cascades.  Angus lives just below the Bonneville Dam at  Skamania Landing in the Gorge, where the pictures of barges were taken in April.
     The first day we drove east and north to Lake Chelan, where we camped for two nights. On Wednesday last we cruised the fifty miles up Lake Chelan on the Lady of the Lakes to spend some time in Stehekin. This town and small farming area is only reached by boat or float plane. We got to see the de Havilland Beaver land on the lake while we were touring around Stehekin. There is a visitor center in for the North Cascades Park and we got our first introduction to the North Cascades and picked up a new book by Terry Tempest Williams on the National Parks. It was our first wonderful day on the water.
     Next we packed up our camp on Thursday and drove along the Columbia River and turned northwest up the Methow River. We passed through Winthrop Washington which was having a rhythm and blues festival which we passed up on to see this view in the picture above. It was fun to sit up at this overlook and listen to the motorcycles headed up and down through these turns. I missed the Mothership at this moment. This road looked like a great motorcycle ride.
      On the east side of the pass we came down to the Ross Lake recreation area and this lake with glacial flour coloring the water. It was a beautiful drive through the Park on Washington Highway 20 with high sharp mountain ridges and heavy forests. Though they did almost lose the Park headquarters to fire last year.

Ross Lake

We finished the day eating at the locals favorite fish restaurant in Anacortes  Washington. Great fresh fish and view of the sound at the Secret Cove restaurant. We spent the night in Anacortes because we had a reservation on a ferry to Vancouver Island where we would be entering Canada at Sidney British Columbia.
     Today dawned cloudy and cool, with delightful temperature in the high sixties. But my noon the clouds broke up and we had sunshine and mid seventies for our two hour ferry ride through the San Juan straights past Lopez Island, Shaw Island, Orcas Island and many more we don't even know the name of. In the picture below you can see how calm the water was, and blue sky over it all. It was hard to go inside where the seating was for fear you might miss something going by. At one point they slowed the ferry down for a transit between two Islands that were pretty close together.
     So tonight we are staying in Victoria, but tomorrow we will drive across the island for two nights of camping on the Pacific Coast at Ucluelet
Campground.

San Juan Islands on a ferry to Canada

I promised to give a shout out to Christopher Arthur in Casper Wyoming. Christopher hopes to get home from rehabbing a broken leg which has put a damper on his motorcycle riding season, already short enough in Wyoming. I think the wind quits blowing there two days a year and he may have missed them!!. Get well Christopher.
Will by the Ocean, again.

Epilogue- The Windy Continental Divide

Mt Massive

It may be true that as long as we are alive the story never ends. And as the Artist of my life story I know that I could keep on writing because the story keeps on unfolding.
      I was able to get the Mothership home and have spent the last few days in anticipation of the moment when I would get to write some more in this Epilogue of the Mothership Meander of the West Coast of the United States.
      I took back my brother in law's borrowed car on Sunday the 24th of April. Mary came over in one of our cars to visit her mother, so I would have a way home if the mercurial spring weather closed down the way back over Battlement Mesa and Tennessee Pass into Leadville and down the Arkansas River to our house. The distance of 160 miles was enough that the weather was developing different ways in different areas of the drive. But Monday morning after I cleaned a layer of bugs off the windshield and front of the motorcycle, I left under slowly building weather and overcast skies. Once I cleared Glenwood Canyon on I-70 I got some sunshine and temperatures in the low 60's. In the climb over Battlement Mesa out of Minturn the wind starting gusting and by the time I reached the summit of Tennessee Pass it would push on the Mothership pretty good, warning of the changing weather. Stopping on a back way around Leadville I took this picture of Mount Massive, one of Colorado's fourteen thousand foot peaks. You can see the remains of the snow that had made me pause in El Jebel and the scudding and torn clouds in the wind here at ten thousand feet. The roads remained clear though, and as I drove to lower elevations the temperatures came up. The drive over the Continental Divide took just over three hours and within a few hours of getting the bike home it  started to rain with the weather remaining unsettled all week with snow forecast here for tomorrow the 29th of April.
         As I rolled the big beemer into it's home in my shop, I felt more elation for having completed this big endeavor. The final mileage for the trip was 4,129 miles. And in gratitude to my equipment, when I put the bike up on it's center stand to check the rear tire, I was amazed to find it did just that, it just got me home. I must of driven over something in Glenwood Canyon, the back tire had two open scars on the center of the tread all the way down to the cords! I won't even push the Mothership out of the shop until I have removed the rear tire and installed a new one, it was that close! This is not the first time I have felt thankful that what ever I was driving just got me home. I have been left "out" and been towed a few times, heck, I have had small airplanes I was flying leave me standing in a field. So I am grateful, if for nothing else, my luck.( Luck enhanced by attention!)
       I continue to be grateful for how much the motorcycles I have owned have improved through the years. While it is an adventure to ride a motorcycle this far instead of a car, it is eminently easier that thirty years ago. But the most gratitude goes to living in a country where this is so easy to do. Just go and see it from the seat of a motorcycle. To be healthy and of an age where I can appreciate what I saw, what I did. For me, another incredible life experience to add my life story.
     I am the Artist of My Life Story looking to whats next, One Day at a Time!

Will by the River.

I am done, the weather won.

 I awoke this morning in Ogden Utah and started planning this day. The weather forecasts  had worsened on Monarch Pass and North Pass to the San Luis Valley. The web cams on both passes showed snow packed conditions still, and the forecast was for rain. (on ice, I am not that brave or foolish!) Nothing was very promising for the next two days that would hope to melt back to pavement so I could cross one of the passes home on Wednesday.  I have been away on the Mothership for three weeks today and life responsibilities are starting to intrude. So I decided I could get as far as Glenwood Springs and run up the Roaring Fork Valley to El Jebel and my brother in laws house.
     In this picture above you can see the low clouds that were around all day. Those are the La Sals over by Moab Utah from I-70. There was virga all around most of the day and from  Salt Lake the temps went down to 49 degrees on Soldier Summit to a high of 61 degrees here at the Crescent Junction rest stop. I was using the hand grip heaters and seat heater on and off all day.
      Traffic was pretty light through Salt Lake and just a steady flow on US 6 over Soldier. I have found on these longer ride days, that to stop more often at rest stops seems to be refreshing. I found myself more alert on these long stretches of super slab. As I approached Colorado and saw the turns for Westwater, a fun river run to Cisco takeout everything became familiar again. And as I drop into the Grand Valley alongside the Colorado River, spring was starting with greening fields and blossoms on the trees.
    After a gas stop in Clifton I ran upriver to DeBeque Canyon and the sweeping turns on I-70, from there all the way to my in laws in El Jebel it was spitting rain, and up on the ridges it looked like it could be snowing. All this was enforcing my decision that I couldn't get over the Continental Divide tomorrow without driving on snow or ice. F---ing winter, at least the areas I came from knew it was spring! Oh, yeah, that is spring here isn't it.!
      So to El Jebel and a warm bed and the lend of a car, plus a garage for the Mothership to sit in until I can come back and get her when the roads are clear.
     So here I am, calling it a completed trip and this my final trip blog. I promise a epilogue  on the final two hundred miles when I get this big BMW home.
      It was all I wanted it to be. I had no trouble, used no oil, the tires held up. No close calls, no scary moments. I met many wonderful people and saw the incredible Pacific Ocean coast from LA to Astoria Oregon. I saw hidden gems of beach towns along the way and ate a lot of fish. I don't think the mothership or I look any worse for wear!
     So I checked my mileage and I will have driven over 4000 miles when I get the bike back to Salida. Now thats my idea of a great trip.
     Thanks to you all for listening, sharing your comments and even the offer of a bed, But really Christopher Arthur, do people even come to Casper Wyoming in the winter? But thanks I do appreciate the thought. I am impressed by this 17 year old bike and the way it shrugs off the miles, and comes up shining. It was a fun ride.

Will, almost back by his river.

That was Idaho!

 I awoke this morning in a lovely Victorian Hotel, high ceilings, crystal chandelier, the quiet of town outside. I realized that I had entered Oregon on the Pacific coast at Brookings. Traveled the entire Oregon Coast to Astoria. Traversed three fourths of the north border and today would exit into Idaho almost halfway down the east side of the state. The Mothership has over three thousand miles on it since I left and rest stops involve watching the rear tire and hoping it will make it home. It is down to the wear bars. Yet I find myself dawdling, not wanting it to be over. Plus my path over the Continental Divide continues to have snow on it today. A no go snow with a motorcycle.
     I had a leisurely breakfast at the SunRiver Inn in Baker City and left with the outside temperatures in the high 60's and rode over the last hills of Oregon and into Idaho. I seemed to stop more often at rest stops but the landscape had become barren, grassy volcanic hills with farming around the Snake River. There are pretty areas and towns along the Snake but the scenery was dry buttes and long view of Mountains capped with snow from the recent storm.
The difference of the lushness of Multnomah Falls to the arid west, especially with two weeks along the Pacific Ocean is very striking. The fecund green, with flowers blooming on everything. Moss on trees and rocks, and water wherever you look. I am feeling positively shriveled tonight in Ogden Utah.
      Keeping the Mothership moving was easy today, the speed limit for Idaho was 80 MPH. I entered Idaho and lost an hour of time moving to Mountain Time. It was noon when I came into Idaho and a little after four when I left. Idaho was just there and gone. And riding into Utah there were some afternoon buildups and the temperature dropped into the high 50's. I started thinking about getting the cloths from the bottom of the bag that I had to wear to get out of  Colorado almost three weeks ago. Oh well, at least I found warm spring somewhere!
       I leave you with this picture of the Blue Mountains of Baker County Oregon. I have seen a lot of Oregon, I have enjoyed a lot of Oregon. I hope to come back to Oregon soon.

Will by the River.

The rest of Washington Hwy 14 and on to Baker City

In the soft morning light among the cherrie blossoms I idled the big Mothership out to Washington Hwy 14 and headed east. Highway 14 ends east from Vancouver Washington for 180 miles to end out by Plymouth Washington at Interstate I-82. There you cross over the Columbia on I-82 to get on I-84 either east or west. The traffic was pretty light and there are nice sections of curves. Out toward Hood River and then The Dalles a lot of  people were parking on the Washington side to go hiking or at boat ramps to go fishing. It was a sunny day and a Sunday.
      Hwy 14 is a nice two lane that takes you gradually out of the forests into treeless grasslands with the occasional vineyard. The temperature for most of the ride today stayed in the high 50's to the 60's.
     As I started up the road I passed the Bridge of the Gods at Cascade Locks. When the Bonneville Dam was finished the resulting pool upstream was deep enough that they don't need those locks anymore and it is a park now. The Bridge is a toll bridge over to the I-84 side of the river or back and has a metal deck that I didn't try on the Mothership.

      Once on I-84 at the rest stops were I paused there were displays giving information about the Oregon Trail.  Hwy 14 was the Lewis & Clark Hwy and now I-84 is the Oregon Trail, though sone older highways were before I-84.
    When you pass Pendleton the interstate climbs a 6% grade with many hairpins called Cabbage Hill up to the Blue Mtn summit at 4100 ft, almost a 3000 ft climb from the columbian basin. Then it is down the other side into La Grande Oregon home of Eastern Oregon University. This is a farming area and the road is fairly level except at Powder where the road curves through some foothills.
     At Baker City Oregon there are two exits into town and the first heads east up toward Hell's Canyon and is a favorite motorcycle ride in the summer. I didn't ask it the snow was off that road but I did go up a ways to the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center. In this picture from the parking area you can see the fresh snow on the Blue Mountains. Mt Hood was very white this morning with fresh snow.
     The Interpretive Center is a large facility up on the top of a hill, where you can see history presentation and maps of the Oregon trail. Still visible are wagon tracks of the Oregon Trail.
      Tonight I am staying at the Geiser Grand Hotel in downtown Baker City a restored Victorian Hotel that is featured in just about any information on Baker City. It nice and the wifi works  which it hasn't always been that way for me on this trip. It is reported as haunted, I'll let you know if I talk to any ghosts tonight.
    Tomorrow I hope to be in the Salt Lake Area and ride this bubble of good weather back to Salida Colorado by Wednesday.

Will away from the river

Leaving the Landing

It has been a nice pause here at Skamania Landing. The misty Northwest weather has moved out leaving sunshine and warming weather. The flotsam in the big eddy here at the house has increased because the river is so high. So as the sun is shinning up the river from the west you look out on the river and see large pieces of wood drifting down the river and then back up the eddy with flocks of birds floating along on top make large twenty minute turns around the eddy.
       I cleaned the Mothership and aired the tires today, did my laundry, so as my mother taught me, if I have an accident I will hopefully have clean underwear! But jokes aside this has been a marvelous. I loved the river traffic. The tugs pushing what ever up and down the river. Getting up high for the long views.
It was fun helping the friends of the library set up the book sale on Friday and go back today and take it down and find out how they did. Then afterwards go to the Walking  Man Brewery and have a beer with the Saturday afternoon crowd. There were wind surfers and a small sail boat regatta out on the broad river above the Bonneville Dam there in Stevenson.
One of the ideas about this trip was to spend time rather than passing through, at some places along the way. And though I have been here before, I learned even more about this area of the Columbia River Gorge.
     Also spring is here, with Azaleas, lilacs and fruit trees all in bloom. Something that is not happening today at home in Colorado. I got messaged this evening on my phone with pictures of quite a few inches of snow that fell today. I am glad I got a taste of spring here, I like it better than snow in April or even May!
     But tomorrow I will drive Washington Hwy 14 till it ends at I-82 and cross the Columbia River there. At Pendleton on I-84 you climb up the long hill where you can stop and read about how the got wagons on the Oregon Trail down this "hill that went on forever". It looks to be a nice day.

Will by the River