PLANNED - Missoula to Old Forge!

[JustPassinThru_imp]

I left y'all hanging...because I broke my computer.

Not on the ride, though. I took an old netbook; and it did what old equipment sometimes does. It quit.

My little trip is completed. As ad-hoc trips go, it was probably a success. After the cold and wet on the Oregon coast, I aimed for Crater Lake....nice trip. Beautiful lake. Walked down to the shore; but didn't go to the inner-cone island.

Enjoyed myself at a private resort at nearby Diamond Lake. Good rest stop.

Then...with this West Coast heatwave upon us...went BACK to the coast. Coos Bay. Highway 101. Good twisties; some good views and vantages. Some excellent diners. Over to Portland, because it was putatively on my way home, and I needed to launder.

Then...since I didn't want to slab...I used TomTom (yeah, a mistake) to dead-reckon north and east.

AMAZING sidetour. I didn't plan it; but I wound up going up the approach to Mount St. Helen...took the turnoff to go up the road to the Windy Ridge dead-end. The rest of the road apparently was closed after the blast; but that's well within the denuded zone. Plenty of downward views on the former Spirit Lake. Lots of interpretive signs and walk-throughs...good for me since I was very young and living at the other end when it happened.

At Randle, Washington, I stopped for gas...and wouldn't ya know. Another CB1100 there, gassing up. We passed quick words; but I was in a hurry...night was falling and I needed to make for a reasonable motel. If you're out there...in a red-and-silver 2013...

The rest of the way home was the tedium you might expect. Too much slab; some good twisty road; and then, crossing Lolo Pass as the sun was setting. DANGEROUS...all the deer out there. I took to honking the horn ever two seconds or so. Three years ago I hit a deer. I lived to tell the tale; but the bike was trashed.

I was LUCKY. Could have been ME that got junked.

Anyway...end of a tale. I'm working to see what I can salvage from that camera.