What did you do on or to your other bike part 2

[pdedse]

Felt like a riding day...

Went south of Gresham, passing through the towns of Molalla, Silverton and Sublimity with the main goal of taking in the agriculture and avoiding horrendous I-5.



Hazelnuts...groves and groves... ... ... and groves of Hazelnut trees, and the nuts are getting near time


Also fields of corn, wheat, dill, blueberry, alfalfa, grass seed, hay, hops and Christmas trees.  And lots of grapes...


More small towns: Scio, Sweet Home and Marcola


Besides horseys, cattle too.  And can't forget the logging...




After lunch, headed east on hiway 126 towards Santiam Junction.  Lots of forest...and sadly, lots of charred forest from fires.


Hiway 126 hugs the McKenzie River for miles




Clear Lake


At the Santiam Junction, took hiway 22 towards Detroit Lake, then forest service road 46 (paved) north towards home in Gresham.  I probably road 200 miles through forest today.  I'd say 80-90 miles were through forests that have been torched in recent years.  


It's one thing to read on-line that another forest fire has claimed X number of acres...it's another thing to ride through these areas, miles and miles of blackened trunks.  But you can see new growth in the hills.  

You leave a burnt area, and suddenly back to this...

30 miles of tree tunnels...so little traffic, so much fun!

One of these fires produced a stage 2 alert ("get ready to evacuate") for us 5 years ago, but I think the closest the fires got was about 15 miles away.  But terrible smoke in our neighborhood for a good 4-5 days.  Bleh!

Started at 9am, home by 6:30pm, 350 miles.

I absolutely love motorcycle riding, whether it be the Kawasaki W800, the Suzuki DR650 or the CB1100.  Grateful for these days.