Our September 2022 motorcycle adventure

I hadn't been on an extended motorcycle trip since 2020, when we went to Baja, California, Mexico and the world got COVID. I had planned on going with Stefan to Colorado in 2021, but my dog was injured and I had to stay home (Lucinda the dog is fine now, BTW). 

And so, off we went, in September 2022, for 16 days visiting historic towns and eating biscuits and gravy and riding almost 3000 miles in Washington state, Idaho, Montana and Oregon. We stayed relatively close to home and decided to concentrate on historic, abandoned towns - ghost towns - most new to us, but at least one we've seen before, many years ago, and wanted to see again. 

We had really low expectations for the trip - and it turned into one of our very best.

The travelogue is here, with photos. Or, just go look at the photos. 

Highlights:

• This bed.
• Thirteen Mile Trailhead, because it also had campsites.
• Molson historic site in Washington state, right at the Canadian border.
• Ovando, Montana.
• Return to Garnet Ghost town in Montana.
• Return to Highway 12 / Lolo Pass in Idaho.
• Washington state road 129 and Oregon state road 3 from Clarkston, Washington to Enterprise (wow!).
• Crystal Crane Hot Springs (outside of Burns, Oregon).
• Stefan saving someone's life (yes, really).
• Return to the Alvord desert.
• Rediscovering how wonderful US395 North of Burns is to ride!

10 years as a motorcycle rider

10 years ago, in June 2009, I took the Motorcycle Safety Foundation Basic Rider Course in Louisville, Kentucky, a course delivered by the Derby Motorcycle School. In fact, I signed up for the course months before I had even arrived back in the USA, when I was still living in Germany, because I knew these classes fill up quickly.

I got my license just a few days later after finishing the course, in July 2009.

And I'm still a motorcycle rider.

It's 10 years later and I've ridden more than 43,000 miles on my own motorcycle - almost 70,000 kilometers - almost all of it for fun on vacations and the weekends (rather than commuting). I did it on two motorcycles, actually: my first bike was a 1979 Honda Nighthawk, which I bought in November 2009 and road for two years, and now, my 2008 Kawasaki KLR 650, which I got in October 2011.

Via my motorcycles, I've been:

• all the way up through British Columbia, up to the Yukon via the Cassiar Highway and back down the Alaska Highway
   
• to Jasper, Banff and Kootenay National Parks
   
• Yellowstone, Western Montana and Wyoming
   
• all over Nevada, including Great Basin National Park and, of course, Rachel Nevada
   
• Arches, Canyonlands, and Capitol Reef National Parks, and Goblin Valley State Park in Utah
   
• Lava Beds National Monument, Lassen National Monument, Emmets Pass, Devil's Postpile, and lots more of Northern California and everything in between that and where we live in the Portland Metro area.
   
• All Over Idaho - which might not sound like much, but it's one of my favorite trips!
   
• Olympic National Park, Gifford Pinchot National Forest / Southern Washington State - really, and all over Washington state
   
• Steens Mountain, Eastern Oregon, including the Alvord Desert - all over Oregon - like up to Mt. Hebo via Siuslaw National Forest Service Road 14.
   
• And regularly all over Washington, Yamhill, Tillamook, Clatsop, Columbia, Clackamas and Wasco in Oregon, and Skamania and Klickitat counties in Washington state.

My only regret about my motorcycle riding is that I didn't take the MSF Basic Rider Course YEARS SOONER. I looked into it when I lived in Austin, Texas back in the late 1990s, before I moved to Germany, because I thought buying a small motorcycle and using it to get to and from work at the University of Texas would be a much better way of commuting. But I kept talking myself out of it.

Whether someone commutes by motorcycle, does simple cruises on a weekend, goes on epic long-distance trips for weeks or rides off-road, I totally get why people love riding a motorcycle. It's hard to say why I love riding a motorcycle without using clichés. It's so incredibly empowering to ride a motorcycle - it makes me feel stronger and more confident and more capable of handling life. I love how connected I feel to my surroundings on a bike and I love the focus I have on the road and the landscape and the surroundings when I'm riding. I feel so incredibly present when I'm riding, and I do not think about my professional work or cleaning my house or all my many obligations and responsibilities. My mind is completely free of all stress and worries. I'm just riding - turning this corner, taking this curve, stopping at this light, going over this hill. I love the long trips and I love just riding across town and back. I love the challenges: I love doing something I find hard to do, and doing it over and over and getting more and more comfortable doing it - and it may take a few hours or it may take months. I love that the more I practice, the more I ride, the better I get at riding. I love that I'm always improving. I wish everything that needs improving in my life was just a matter of practice.

I love after parking my bike and taking off my helmet and looking up and seeing a group of people staring at me, in surprise or disbelief or awe. I admit that I'd also love it if they frowned or otherwise looked disapprovingly. it shouldn't matter what people are seeing when they see me, but it does, and I like my image as a motorcycle rider - I'm not even going to pretend that doesn't matter. It does.

And I really love meeting people - people are happy to walk up and start talking to my husband and me when we stop on our motorcycles.

Stravaig, which is pronounced straw vague, is an Irish and Scottish word meaning to wander about aimlessly. One goes stravaiging about the roads. Stravaig is probably from an even older and obsolete word extravage, meaning to digress or ramble. I am all about stravaig, both on my motorcycle and in conversations: I love exploring and traveling and I really love exploring and traveling by motorcycle. It is fascinating and challenging and soul-reviving as anything you can experience.  

I don't see how I ever could have weathered the disappointments I've experienced since moving back to the USA, especially professionally, if I wasn't a motorcycle rider. When I get on the bike, I'm not thinking of all the hours I've spent preparing consulting proposals and job applications, hours that, by and large, have been for naught. When I'm on the bike, I'm not second-guessing the choices I've made. It's therapy, it's a mental reboot, it's an oasis, it's a shot of serenity.

Like I said, it's hard to talk about without sounding clichéd.

If you are a woman, I really encourage you to think about becoming a motorcycle rider. I swear it's cheaper than therapy. 

• My advice for getting started as a motorcycle rider
   
• Getting started on a dual sport: my journey (Changing from a cruiser to a dual sport)

To take the MSF Basic Rider Course, you do not have to have even touched a motorcycle, and the classes are available all over the USA (sadly, not in Oregon - they have some other group that does courses - if that's your only option, by all means, do it). All you need for the MSF courses are high-topped shoes (this can be tennis shoes - I used hiking boots), pants (no shorts), long sleeves and any kind of gloves that allow you to operate the controls. If you don't have a helmet, they will provide such. If you study up and take your written motorcycle test and get your permit before this class, you will get your license immediately upon finishing the class and presenting your paperwork to the DMV in most states (otherwise, you have to wait 30 days). Half of my class were women, and at 43, I was not the oldest woman in the class!

There's no obligation to get your license after you take a basic riding course. It's worth the price just to have the experience of trying, I promise. If you don't fall in love with it - if you do it and think, oh, no, not for me, hey, that's okay too! Congrats for trying.

If you do fall in love with it, as I did - see you out on the road.

10 years of motorcycle riding. Here's to at least 25 more!

2018 Nevada motorcycle trip

 

In the last two weeks of July, we went on our annual two-week motorcycle trip. This time, we toured Nevada, as well as parts of Oregon and a wee bit of California. We spent 13 days, going over 2657 miles / 4276 kilometers. We stayed at the historic hotel in French Glen, Oregon, rode around Steens Mountain, rode most of US Highway 50 in Nevada (the "loneliest road in the USA"), visited Eureka, Ely, Rachel and Tonopah, Nevada, stayed two nights in Great Basin National Park, stayed a night in Cathedral Gorge State Park and took the Extraterrestrial Highway.

You can read the travelogue or go straight to the photos.

As always, my goal isn't so much hey, look what I did! as it is here's advice if you want to do something similar.

Motorcycle Adventure Mostly in Idaho

This year's two-week motorcycle adventure tour? Idaho! And it was amazing. A couple of people gave incredulous responses when we said we were going to Idaho for our vacation. After motorcycle trips to the Yukon and back, to Jasper and Banff, Yellowstone, national parks in Utah, and, of course, travel all over Europe, we were going to Idaho?

Yes. It was my idea. I was ready for an adventure closer to home, one that didn't require us to ride for 700 miles over two days on the Interstate just to start a vacation. We'd seen a bit of Idaho every time we went over Lolo Pass for other trips, and we'd been to Craters of the Moon already, which we hugely enjoyed. If we concentrated mostly on Idaho for two weeks, we would, at last, see Hells Canyon, a legendary destination for motorcycle riders, and allow us to explore more the North East of Oregon, something we hadn't done yet since moving here in 2009.

Here is the route we went. Unfortunately, this map doesn't have many city names on it.All of the photos from the trip are online, with descriptions; in fact, I also put all the photos for Silver City, Idaho into their own photo album as well.

Here are the travel point highlights:

• Hells Canyon drive from Oxbow Bridge along the Snake River to the Hell's Canyon dam and then back over Oxbow dam to Cambridge, Idaho
• Historic Silver City, Idaho 
• Bruneau Dunes State Park, Idaho 
• City of Rocks National Reserve, Idaho 
• Sawtooth Scenic Byway, Idaho 
• Salmon River Scenic Byway, Idaho 
• Historic Custer, Idaho 
• Ft. Missoula, Montana 
• Wallace, Idaho 
• Lake Coeur d'Alene, Idaho 
• White Pine Scenic Byway, Idaho 
• Hell's Canyon Overlook, Oregon 
• Joseph, Oregon 
• Painted Hills, Oregon 
• Little Crater Lake, Oregon

Here is the Idaho travelogue

Will I ever not be a novice motorcycle rider?

I've been riding a motorcycle now for almost seven years. And I still say I'm a novice rider.

It must be wonderful to grow up riding dirt bikes. When I see motorcycle riders now that seem so utterly comfortable, so at-one with their motorcycles, and I get the chance to talk to them, it always turns out that they started riding dirt bikes as a teen - even a pre-teen.

My husband didn't ride dirt bikes. He didn't start riding a motorcycle regularly until he was 27, yet, by 30, he was riding his motorcycle with such incredible grace and confidence and, well, I would say perfection, like he had been doing it for oh-so-long. I'm not saying he could do the Dakar Rally, but nothing seems to intimidate him as a rider, not sharp turns on a hill, not turning around on a hill on a one-lane road, not gravel.

Me, on the other hand... I'm Ms. Barely-the-Speed-Limit off the interstate. All motorcyclists and drivers hate being behind me off the interstate. Let's face it: 99% of riders and drivers go at least 10 miles over the speed limit, even on winding, narrow roads. I go around curves as quickly as I feel comfortable, and that always turns out to be the speed limit. I'd be okay with that if it weren't for the long line of cars and motorcycles that often end up behind me, or that one car following too close, or seeing my husband in my mirror and knowing he'd so love to be going faster.

But I think if you see me riding, even if you are following me, you don't think I'm a novice rider - just an overly-cautious one. I think my form is pretty good, and I really do enjoy riding off of main road (the freeway, and anything with lots of traffic lights). I enjoy gravel that isn't too complicated - I was going up and down Dixie Mountain Road and Otto Miller Road with quite a lot of confidence in 2013 and 2014. I've had a bit of a set back in confidence since my wreck in Utah last year. But I'm getting more and more comfortable again. If I didn't still really enjoy riding a motorcycle, I'd quit - and I still really do so enjoy it, and I want to not only keep riding in the USA, but do more ambitious trips in Mexico and Chile in the coming years.

But if you see me when I park my motorcycle, or leave a parking place, you know I'm still a novice rider. And it's during those times when I think - maybe I'll never get this. And it's when a lot of people watch me and think, wow, she's a novice. She must have just gotten her license last month.

The areas that I just cannot master so far - or even just feel comfortable with:

• Sharp turns immediately after an uphill stop
• Stopping and starting on an incline
• Turning around on an incline
• Parking (if it involves any of the above, to park or to get out of my parking place)

I loathe driving in cities because they involve all of the aforementioned. The idea of driving in Portland, even Beaverton, and especially Oregon City, makes me start sweating profusely - even just sitting here on the couch, not about to ride anywhere.

How do I practice these things? How do you practice something that, if you get wrong, you drop your bike?

I really need a one-on-one class to work on these things with someone who really knows what they are doing and how to transfer those skills. I'd love a class on how to better ride on dirt and gravel as well - especially how to stop. Stefan has been really wonderful teaching me dirt and gravel riding techniques, but we both think another person, who is really comfortable teaching novices, would be so helpful. But I cannot find such a class.

I have emailed and called and left a message with a training center in Washington state that shall remain nameless that offers a range of dirt bike and ADV rider courses, but they never called or emailed me back. I finally got someone via IM chat, but he wasn't clear on what class he thought I should take - and even suggested one class that seemed more about learning to camp via motorcycle - which I am quite experienced at doing - than a class to teach me the skills I need.

I took the Advanced Rider Training class with Team Oregon, and it did help me with cornering, but I got the impression the class is really about learning to go AS FAST AS POSSIBLE, safely, around curves. I'm just not interested in going fast... though I'd like to go faster, and this course did help. I also got the impression that the instructors were frustrated with me - they didn't like that I just couldn't go as fast as the other riders. It wasn't a nurturing environment - just a "Here's how you do it. Now do it. Okay, you didn't do it right, so I'll tell you again." I'll be trying another Team Oregon course, Rider Skills Practice (RSP), in May, since it's all I can find. Unfortunately, Motorcycle Safety Foundation courses aren't offered in Oregon - I loved their basic rider's course back in Kentucky (so supportive, so clear, so fun!), and I would SO love to take its Ultimate Bike-Bonding RiderCourse (patterned after police training courses).

And I'd still love to find a one-on-one trainer to help me with those bulleted items, and with riding better on dirt and gravel. Anyone?

I am always aspiring to be a better motorcycle rider. Always. I sure would like some help in that quest.

Travelogue for two-week motorcycle trip in Utah & Nevada

Two-Week Motorcycle Tour, Mostly in Utah, Nevada & Oregon
June 2014
2989 miles / 4810.329 kilometers

I've put the blog on the travel portion of my web site, with plenty of photos:

• Part One
• Part Two (the crash!)
• Part Three

In case you don't want to read the entire travelogue, but want some quick advice for your own motorcycle trip to the area, then here is a list of the very best of times, the absolute highest of highlights:

• The host at the Farewell Bend Oregon State Park (I LOVE volunteer camp hosts!)
• Cleveland-Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry
• Capitol Reef National Park (the most under-rated national park)
• Goblin Valley (so overlooked! so fabulous!)
• Camping in a cow pasture in the deserts of Nevada (yes, again)
• Sheldon National Wildlife Refuge