One day before the longest day of the year, Deby and I packed up our camp and prepared for the journey home. We lightened our loads by sending camping gear home with friends from the rally, keeping only the essentials for the next week. The Norton had been a reliable companion for the past 10 days, but it was now looking worn, with its headlight held on by duct tape and a sticky coating of sap from parking under an unknown but sappy tree.

We didn’t have an exact plan or timetable for the ride home, but our first stop needed to be a friend’s house near Reno, Nevada, where my modern BMW motorcycle was waiting. We spent a very enjoyable night with the Griffith family but were eager to head north, just the two of us.

It took a while to get used to the much larger BMW and reacquaint myself with its smooth power and acceleration, as well as modern amenities like cruise control, an adjustable windscreen, a comfortable seat, a better riding position, and a quieter ride. After stopping to fill up the huge 30-liter tank (almost 8 gallons), we were flying back towards Quincy.

During one of the rally rides, we rode to Lake Almanor for a lunch stop. Some internet research showed we could rent a small cabin near the lake and explore the area a little more. I booked two nights. We tried to ride through Lassen national park on the way but the road was late opening for the season due to budget cuts with the park service. We found a nice back road that circumvented the park but we missed riding on one of my favorite roads in California.

Below is a picture of me and two friends on Nortons from the parking lot of the visitor center at Lassen National Park from July 2016. The elevation of the parking lot is 6736 feet and the road through the park reaches an elevation of 8512 feet.

We had a very relaxing two days in the cabin and didn’t do much except read books and go for a few hikes. We both like hanging out with groups of people but then it’s nice to have a break.

Next, we went to explore a part of california we’ve ridden through many times but never visited. The area along Interstate 5 north of Redding California. We managed to book two nights at the Jubilee Railroad Wilderness Lodge where we stayed in a refurbished caboose.

On the way we were looking for back roads and also checking one of my favorite websites, Atlas Obscura for interesting things to see along the way. Atlas Obscura recommend the Packway Sculpture Park, near the tiny town of Cassel, CA.,  “A whimsical display of massive metal sculptures made from recycled materials.” Well, who could resist that?

Those are just a few of the giant metal sculptures in the big grassy field. The following description is from Atlas Obscura. Here is the link: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/packway-sculpture-park

Brothers Richard and Will Hathaway sell rock and aggregate outside Burney, California. Over the years, they’ve accumulated a wide variety of scrap metal from old machinery.In 1998, the brothers decided that, rather than just recycling the materials, they would make them into whimsical sculptures instead. Their very first creation, a “scrap dinosaur,” sat at the turnoff to their business. People loved it! It proved so popular that they have continued the tradition ever since, adding one new sculpture every year.

Just the kind of places we love visiting and it wasn’t really much of a detour. Back on the road we headed north on CA 89 and kept seeing signs for Burney Falls. What was that? I suppose there is only one way to find out so we followed the signs to the McArthur-Burney Falls Memorial State Park. Like many parks these days we were greeted by a booth collecting a fee for the visit. We discussed turning around but I thought $10 to support the local parks wasn’t too bad and I wanted to see the falls. I’m glad we did.

We were told there was about a mile long interpretive loop trail to see the falls. We swapped riding boots for walking shoes and took off on the well worn trail to see the falls. Right away we could hear the 129 foot waterfall before we could see it a few tenths of a mile later. Wow, not only was water rushing from the top of the falls but hundreds of underground springs just spouted from the rock layers.

We followed the loop trail that went around and crossed over the top of the falls before getting back to the parking lot. In the lot parked next to us was two loaded down adventure motorcycles. It was two guys from Argentina who were on their way to Seattle to watch a soccer match. Small world, we were just in Argentina about a year prior. We exchanged stories and I even practiced my Spanish for a bit. Fun stuff.

Finally at the caboose we settled in and starting planning the next few days.

Like I said, we had ridden past this part of California on I-5 many times and had always seen the signs for the Lake Shasta Caverns. A check of the map told us that it wasn’t too far from Dunsmuir. I went online and booked a tour for the next day.

With our reserved time slot I programmed my GPS to take us to the visitor center and start point for the tour. It was a crazy super steep winding road down to the lake from the I-5 exit. Warning signs were everywhere that RVs were not recommended. I could see why. Fun on a motorcycle, not fun with a big vehicle.

We found out that the tour starts with a half hour boat ride across Lake Shasta and then continues with an harrowing  bus ride up the side of a mountain  to the cave entrance. Here is a picture from the cave entrance, you can see the marina in the background. 

The cave was awesome but my pictures weren’t so I won’t show many here. I highly recommend the visit.

The two days in Dunsmuir went fast and we had a lot of fun exploring the area, finding some hiking and an excellent restaurant called Zaks, if anyone wants to visit.

Did I say we were not in a hurry to get home? The weather was perfect and we were having fun riding so we looked for more areas to explore. We’ve been to a place called Happy Camp a couple of times before and remembered that there were some excellent motorcycle roads in the area. I went online a found a “hotel” in town with a vacancy, the Bigfoot RV Park and Cabins.

Happy Camp is a super interesting place in itself it’s a small, remote town not far from the Oregon border and nestled in the Klamath National Forest along the Klamath River with a history of gold mining. While riding I received a text from the Bigfoot Cabins, we were being upgraded to a house, would that be ok? Hmm, I suppose, why not? Upon arriving we were directed to “The Yella House. Guest House 4 Fancy Travelers.” Yes, that is us for sure!

It’s hard to tell from the following picture but the house was huge and seemed like it might be slightly haunted. There was a giant second floor with at least three bedrooms. The first floor had a full living room, kitchen, dining and laundry rooms with two bedrooms. We nestled into one small bedroom which was good enough for us.

We went for a walk around town and took a few pictures.

So we had the Yella house, Shadey RV sites and a Garage Sail. All in one day, ha.

But people did seem happy there. We hiked through a park and over a bridge with this.

One of the main reasons for choosing Happy Camp was an excellent gravel road that heads north out of town into Oregon towards Cave Junction, Oregon where there is, guess what.. another cave! We started our day with a morning walk and looked for a restaurant but nothing was open so we loaded up and headed north. The weather and the road was excellent. The road turned to dirt and we immediately starting climbing from the Happy Camp elevation of 1,000 feet to nearly 5,000 feet. The views were stunning. This area had burned a few years ago and the evidence surrounded us.

We decided to ride as far as Oakridge, OR where we found one of the last rooms in town at the Arbor Inn Motel and Storage Units.

Were we in a room or a storage unit? Below the lit sign it says “Friendly WiF” I presume that means friendly Wifi? What does that even mean? Or could it mean a friendly wife? Um, sure. Well, I’m glad I have a friendly wife and it actually wasn’t a bad place to stay.

The next day we rode another of my favorite Oregon roads National Forest Road 19 towards the Cougar Reservoir. We had the road to ourselves and enjoyed every mile. At the end the road follows along the west side of the reservoir where we passed the famous Terwilliger Hot Springs. We’ve never stopped but might have to some day. At the north end of the reservoir there is a dam with a road over it. In the past the gate has been closed but this time it was open so we rode over the dam to take a look. I checked my GPS and it showed a dirt road that follows back south along the east side of the lake. We decided what the heck and looped the lake on a nice and only slightly challenging dirt road.

Back at the north end of the lake we connected with OR 126 and planned to continue north to our destination for the night at Government Camp, OR. The route would take us on another favorite Oregon road, Breitenbush road aka Forest Service Road 46. But, before the turnoff to Breitenbush we saw a sign for the Mckenzie Highway. Ohhhh, we forgot that was here, yet another favorite road. But this one is way up on the list. The Mckenzie Highway is a tight winding road that climbs up though a huge lava field. You can read about it here: https://www.tripcheck.com/Pages/Scenic-Byways-McKenzie-Pass-Santiam-Pass

How could Deby pass up an opportunity to ride on an excellent mountain road though miles and miles of volcanic rocks!

We hiked to a small lookout tower made of, what else, volcanic rock and just hung out for a while.

With the best part of the road behind us we had the option of continuing into Sisters, Oregon and circling back on boring highway 20 or just turn around and re-ride the tight turns through the lava field. Oh, yea, that’s what we did.

We stopped for gas in the very small town of Detroit which had been almost totally  destroyed in a forest fire a few years ago before turning north on Breitenbush road for the last leg of the day. Somehow we missed the Road Closed Ahead sign. Maybe we saw it but didn’t think it applied to motorcycles? Maybe we assumed we could get around any closure? Nope, not this time. The road was seriously closed and huge machinery was running around without space for two motorcycles.

The Makenzie detour had put us behind schedule and now we had to retrace about 10 miles of the Breitenbush road, bummer. We had a reservation in Government Camp at one of the most expensive hotels of the trip. We thought we would enjoy our last night. Instead we backtracked and had to almost ride to Salem, OR before catching the very busy highway to the hotel at the base of Mt. Hood.

We arrived as it was getting dark which was getting close to 10:00 PM this time of year. We had a good meal and immediately crashed after the long day. The GPS showed 331 miles for the day. That’s a lot of miles when it’s mostly slow mountain roads.

The next day it was mostly straight home for us. We crossed into Washington in Hood River and retraced our route south along the Klickitat river into Goldendale, WA. We covered nearly 300 miles and were home in the early afternoon.

That wraps up our journey to the INOA rally and back. Sadly, this may be the last trip for Deby on her BMW. Deby’s bike now has over 75,000 miles on it and is only 5 years old. That’s more miles than my 10 year old car. We took it into the BMW shop for regular service and they found a problem with the cam chain. While repairing that they put something together wrong and all her valves collided with the pistons. That’s bad.

In the mean time, we have paid for reservations in Canada for an August trip. The bike will not be ready so we have to go with plan B.

Here is a sneak preview….

The next story is worth telling but it will have to wait until we get back in two weeks.

Thanks for following,

Donn and Deby