My son's 1st cross country ride.

[JustPassinThru_imp]

Excellent. The ideal age...where incipient maturity blends with energetic youth.

And a fine ride.

AND...the ideal training program. Twenty years to get ready for it...now he can roll.

Rather than how some of us did it; starting older and more jaded; or going back to it, after years off because of some bad stuff.

[Cormanus]

Great post, Chip. Good luck to Charley.

A word of advice from a boring old fart? Young people think their hearing is indestructible. It is definitely not. Listening to music through smart phone headphones is wonderful but, while riding a bike, it is more than likely to result in long-term hearing damage. Wind noise at highway speeds is in excess of 110 db and will result in damage. To hear music requires the source to be at full volume and, even then, you can hear little more than the pounding of the bass.

Get the lad some noise canceling headphones. If he turns them on and never listens to music, he will still preserve his hearing. If he listens to music, he'll get quality sound without the sort of volume that will add to the damage.

[jrns_imp]

What a great story- thanks for sharing. Put a smile on my face. Congrats to both of you-I hope I get to do this some day with my son...
cheers,

[Rocky_imp]

Great story

[ChipBeck_imp]

Gentlemen,

In the spirit of the Griswold's "Vacation", Charley stops every time he sees something interesting.......and he made it to Crater Lake. Looks like he has figured out proper motorcycle security while staying in a motel!!

Chip

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[CB4ME_imp]

Fantastic pictures and a great story. I'd love to see more pictures....of a father and son ride ....when it cools down a bit.

[ChipBeck_imp]

Gentlemen,

So my son makes it to Crater Lake, spends the night, and gets up this morning to climb down to the shore. There is no trail and it's really steep, rocky, and loose. After an hour climb down he is met by two sheriff's officers who arrest him, put him in their boat, and haul him back to the Forest Ranger's office where he is given a $250 ticket because it is apparently illegal to climb down there. After getting his ticket he needed to hitchhike back to his bike and then the rangers would not allow him to climb down the 20 yards to where he stowed his gear. Rangers donned climbing gear, roped up to a big tree and belayed a man down there to get his bag. Must have been pretty steep. Shades of my early riding years!! All the best.

Chip

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[Cormanus]

Chip,

Pity about the fine; it looks like he's enjoying himself. I reckon they wouldn't let him get his gear because they wanted the opportunity to do some climbing themselves.

Tell young Charles he's doing well.

Cheers

[the Ferret]

Man, was there signs saying you couldn't climb down there? A $250 fine seems rather STEEP ( see what I did there LOL)

[Cormanus]

Man, was there signs saying you couldn't climb down there? A $250 fine seems rather STEEP ( see what I did there LOL)

You're either climbing new heights or plumbing new depths. I'm not sure which!