2. Test Ride - Olympic Peninsula, WA
I think it is a smart idea to go on a short test ride before I disappear to jungle and mountains of South America. I wanted to be sure that all my gear is working and I have all the stuff I need. Packing for motorcycle trip is an art form itself and everybody’s “art” is personal. You want everything to have its own place and to be easily accessible. From all those years of riding motorcycles I have pretty good idea what and how to pack but then, every trip is different. It also changes as the trip goes by. And I will have lots of gear for the upcoming trip. I’ll ride through tropics, deserts and high altitude passes. So I need EVERYTHING 🙄. Saying that, total capacity of all of my bags is only 130 litres. That’s a huge downsizing considering I am leaving behind a 4 bedroom house. There is a serious diference between “want” and “need” to take with me. Some stuff just didn’t make the cut and stay behind.
This was an easy 4 day trip south of the border within an easy distance of any help should I need it. At the end, I logged exactly 1,600 km. On the map bellow you can zoom all the way in to see exactly where I’ve been. If you want to skip my rant and see the pictures, head to Photos.
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Day 1 was an easy 150 km as I rode only south across the border to visit my friends. Darin and Jeannette are as nice as they come and it is always nice to see them. They have a house on acreage with the most beautiful flower arrangements maintained by Jeannette. Darin’s multiple shops and garages have all the tools money can buy. And he can fix or build everything short of a nuclear submarine. And that’s only because the government would not let him. Anyway, it was short but lovely stay and the next day I was off at the crack of noon 😉
Day 2 took me through nice side roads to Port Townsend ferry. It is only a 35’ boat ride but saves hours if you want ride around the bay. I timed it perfectly (= got lucky) and waited about 10’ before ferry appeared through the thick marine fog. Price of the ferry was cheap as it is considered part of the state highway system. And I’ve got even discount as a brand new senior citizen. Bonus, but I still have to get used to it… Off the ferry for a nice and windy road on the north shore of the Olympic Peninsula. Not too much traffic as there are no big towns there. Nice beaches all along but as soon as you got close to the water, the temperature got quite cold, all the way down to 12˚C. There is a lot of sea fishing there so all you see is big trucks pulling even bigger fishing boats. And you get stuck behind them. Thank goodness for 136 HP … I wanted to camp at the north-western tip of the peninsula but when I got there it was foggy, cold and damp. Don’t need to get all wet camping overnight 😇. I backtracked and checked in to a motel in a small village. Not too much there so it was an early night.
Day 3 was southbound along the coast. I’ve been on that road many times and it always put a smile on my face. Riding in and out of marine fog, it was beautiful. Stopped by few beaches to take pics and stretch my legs. The Pacific Ocean is pretty cold here so there is no swimming even the beaches are spectacular. And while riding through the fog, the temp went down to 10˚C ⛄️. I had a brand new heated jacket with me which suppose to keep me warm. But it didn’t work! I was not happy and I needed to fix it. As soon as I left the coast and start heading east, the temp started to climb all the way to 33˚. I took the secondary roads with less traffic and more scenery. I rode all the way to a small town of Packwood, just south of Mt. Rainier. It was HOT, for a change so I checked in to an air conditioned motel with a view of Mt. Rainier. Got my senior’s discount, again! It was a small town, not too much there, but they had the best ice cream I’ve had in a long time!
Day 4. An early start mean cooler morning. Actually, it was cold. Jacket still doesn’t work 😤. The road goes up through higher elevation up to 1,500m. Gorgeous views, took bunch of pics. There was a nice road though a deep canyon but it was open only on weekends, so I kept going. Pretty quickly I reached bigger and bigger towns around Seattle and then Seattle itself. It is always PITA to drive through it. However, they great system of HOV lanes where motorcycles are allowed as well. What normally takes 2 hrs in a car, I went through in 30’. I don’t think I slowed down bellow 120 km/h until way north of Seattle. Then I changed my plan on a fly and instead of heading home on I-5 interstate, I took a detour to Mount Baker. They have snow on the road there most of the summer and they just opened the upper section for the traffic. There is no through road, you drive up and the same way down. But beautiful road and views. And when you get to the top, there is still easy 6m of snow there! There is no secret that I like snow so couldn’t help myself and played on the snow for 2 hrs 😎 More pictures, of course. Then was time to head back. Easy ride, I got home in piece .
Mission accomplished. All tested and all worked well. Except the heated jacket. I couldn’t make it work back home and I was getting seriously annoyed. I tried everything and nothing worked. Then I had an brilliant idea to read the jacket’s user manual. Actually, I watched the video on YouTube. And it took me about 0.2 second to identify the problem. There is a sequence which the ON/OFF button needs to be pushed. I did it as directed and violà, it worked! The moral of the story, read your manuals!
It was a good trip and I accomplished what I wanted. Next on the menu is packing & moving my house. Not nearly as exciting as riding the bike …