A gravel road with washouts and long corrugated patches makes for some very tough riding on a street bike, I found out how challenging such a ride could be while doing a 20+ mile stretch on a forest road going through the Gifford-Pinchot National Forest in Oregon. This was part of my yearly bike trip with my buddy ‘Mujj’, which this year took us through southwest WA and the OR coast.
We started off late morning from Seattle and made our way to Enumclaw where we had a short lunch stop at the local IHOP and then headed towards Rainier National Park, the ride from here on was very scenic. We had decided to go to the sunrise point to view Rainier, rather than the more popular paradise, as this is usually less busy. The ride through the park was simply amazing, and we made several stops along the way. At sunrise we did a short (2 mi) hike, with panoramic views of the majestic mountain. We then headed to Mountain View Lodge in the small mountain town of Packwood, where we were staying overnight. For dinner we went to the Blue Spruce Salon in town, the food was your regular bar fare and reasonably priced, we then called it a day.
The next morning we had breakfast at Cruisers Pizza, the food was very good and I would recommend the restaurant. The plan for the day was to ride through the Gifford Pinchot forest and head to Mt. Hood, with an overnight stay at the town of Government Camp. The ride through Gifford Pinchot forest was very scenic and refreshing till we hit a long stretch of gravel road, it was made more challenging as the road had not been regraded after winter closure and had washouts in places. After a long challenging ride for about two hours we finally made it through the patch. We stopped at The Station Cafe in the town of Trout Lake, this restaurant is set besides a stream and has picnic tables laid out for customers, we just loved the ambience and the food. We ran into a fellow biker ‘Jeb’ who was a regular visitor to the area and knew a lot of the local byways that were great for biking, specially Rt 142 from Klickitat to Lyle with lots twists and turns. After some rest and a good lunch we headed out, crossing the Hood river and made it to the Best Western at Government Camp. Had a nice dinner at the Hood Brewing Co., met four retired ladies who were on a long bike trip, starting in North Dakota, what was impressive was that they had been covering 3-400 miles a day and didn’t seem any worse for it. The best part of road trips is running into fellow travelers and sharing stories.
We headed out making our way towards to Oregon coast the next day, passed though the interestingly named town of “Boring“, OR. We stopped in Estacada for some lunch at the Sol Tapatio Mexican restaurant, and had some really authentic Mexican food, I would highly recommend the place if you are in the area. The scenery got a bit monotonous on this part of our travel, that along with temperatures in the 90’s made for some uncomfortable riding. We made a pit stop at the cute university town of Monmouth, and cooled down with some ice cream from the “Main Street Ice Cream Parlor” in town. After a rather uneventful ride through the countryside we made it to Newport, OR on the coast in the afternoon, water is always a nice sight for sore eyes. Oregon beaches are rather cold and even in the summer one sees a few people in the water, a wet suit is usually recommended. It was a delightful walk on the beach and as usual I got to see an awesome sunset. We had a nice relaxed evening at the Taphouse at Nye Beach, the place has wonderful staff and the food and drinks are decent. Got back to our hotel “Newport Inn by OYO” and crashed after a long day.
We had a big breakfast at the NYE Beach Cafe before hitting the road next morning. I am really fond of driving or riding along the Oregon coast, it is usually not very busy and is very scenic. From Newport we headed out along Highway 101, going through Lincoln City, Tillamook, Manzanita and Cannon Beach, making several pit stops to just take in the beautiful views, specially along the beach. My bike “Old Bucephalus” hit 50K miles near Tillamook, it has been some wonderful 17 years and many many unforgettable adventures since I got the bike while in grad school in NY. We stopped for a late lunch in Astoria, OR. I have been to this town several times, and love the food scene here, perhaps my favorite place is a quaint Bosnian restaurant “Drina Daisy’s” run by the the chef Drina and her husband. Everything is cooked fresh and tastes wonderful, and one can find many drinks imported from the Balkans, the mezze, burek, sarma and goulash are amazing and so is the presentation and ambience. After a long, relaxed and very large meal we literally rolled ourselves to our hotel in the town of Long Beach WA, a few miles north of Astoria on the Long Beach Peninsula. The beach here is very interesting with a long boardwalk and people flying colorful kites during the day.
After a breakfast sandwich at the quirky Surfer Sands Cafe in town, we headed back to Seattle, with many memories of yet another fun filled motorcycle trip!
The Open Roads 