Small World
Following the Destination Highways map, we found a pretty fun road, NF-26, to take us towards Mt St Helens. Although paved, it’s essentially a single lane road that winds it’s way through the Cascades towards NF-99. It had a very remote feeling as we only passed 1 vehicle the entire time.
Evidence of the 1980 Mt St Helens volcanic eruption lay all around us as we rode south through the blowdown zone. Thousands upon thousands of massive trees blown over by the initial blast covered the landscape, more resembling very large matchsticks. It’s difficult to imagine a 1,200 degree (F) pyroclastic flow travelling over these mountains at 125 MPH destroying everything in its path for 370 square kilometres.
Fantastic view of Spirit Lake from here. More matchsticks laying about in the lake, even now 34 years later.
Climbing up to get a better view.
The view better be worth it!
Oh yeah!
Mount St Helens, minus about 1300 feet that was blown away in 1980.
Can you spot the observatory in the distance?
No?
How about now?
As we were about to hike back down from the look out point, we met up with a young couple riding BMW’s - Steve and Becky. Steve caught the name of the dealership where I bought the bike from the plate on our bike and said something about being a long way from home. The next few moments went something like this:
Us: “We’re actually from the other side of Toronto.”
Steve: “I used to live about 45 min west of Toronto.”
Us: “No kidding, we lived west of Hamilton.”
Steve: “I’m from St George.”
Us: “We know St George, we’re from Paris.”
Steve: “I used to live in Paris.”
Us: “No way!”
Steve: “Yeah, by the cemetery off Freeman Street.”
Us: “We lived on Dundas St right behind the cemetery.”
Steve: “That’s where I lived, on Dundas Street.”
Us: “You have got to be kidding! We lived in the condos right on the corner by Freeman Street.”
Steve: “I lived in the first house next to the driveway to those condos.”
We all just stood there for a moment with this stunned look on our faces, not sure what to think other than…WTF?
What are the odds of meeting your neighbour from a little town in south western Ontario, population 11,000, on an overlook at Mount St Helens in Washington? Talk about a small world! It seems Steve was moving out around when we were moving in so we never actually met.
We left the Twilight Zone and headed south, in a northerly fashion. But who’s complaining when the maps looks like this:
The riding here was just off the charts fun.
Had a chuckle at this sign.
After a stop over in Vancouver, Washington, we headed back to the coast stopping at Beverly Beach State Park. Another great campground located right next to the ocean. In the morning we took a walking path right under 101 to get to the beach. I will admit, it felt good to be back at the water. We liked the place so much, we extended our stay to 3 nights. Our new found philosophy of “ride for a couple of days, stay for 3” was really growing on us.
The hotel in Vancouver was...let's say, unique.
Hello front desk? Yes, I seem to be running a bit low on toilet paper. Could you please send up some more? I mean what went through the head of the person who decided this was a good idea? You can conduct business while doing...your business I guess. I realize there are those that already do this with cell phones but still, it looks strange.
Making dinner at Beverly Beach State Park.
What da ya think Jonathan?
Somewhere south of Newport, OR, along the 101.
We continued down highway 101 another day before cutting across east on route 42 at Bandon and then taking I-5 south into Medford.
As much as we didn’t want to leave the coast, the weather had turned cold and wet. Less than an hour after leaving the coast and before we even got to the I-5, the skies cleared up completely and the temp skyrocketed to the 90’s. The landscape, much like the temperature, changed dramatically. Everything near the ocean had been green and very lush, moss covered trees and ferns everywhere. Here along the I-5, the colour of choice was dessert brown. You could feel the lack of moisture in the air.
I looked out the window of the coffee shop in Medford and saw the hill side in the distance. A moment later, I looked up again and it was gone. Like a Klingon warbird, it’s cloaking device had rendered it invisible. There were several large forest fires burning in northern California so I guess I wasn’t surprised that the smoke was making its way all the way up here into southern Oregon, in fact we could see as we rode down the I-5. But what surprised us was how thick the smoke was. I mean it completely concealed a hillside a few miles away. Not only that but set foot outside, and you could literally smell the smoke. The Happy Camp fire in Northern California was the closest to us and had been burning for well over a month at this point and still was not 100% contained. It was just so weird that no one paid it any attention. It’s business as usual here.
In an effort to be consistent, we spent a few days hanging out in Medford. What’s in Medford? Well, a Triumph dealership, an REI and an Eddie Bauer, a great burger joint and several Starbucks. We noticed a trend on the west coast with Starbucks by the way. Most of them offer free wifi with speeds of over 50Mpbs - that’s FIFTY megabits per second! Do you hear that Canada? Back home, everyone is advertising free wifi everywhere you go, but you’re lucky to get 0.5Mbps.
REI - well it’s been at least a few weeks since we’ve spent money at one, so we figured we better get back on track. Actually as much as I really love my merino wool clothing, the stuff just doesn’t seem to last. I’ve now gone through a merino wool shirt and 2 pairs of underwear on this trip. Yes, some will say I’m full of s…but they had all just disintegrated on me. I’m sticking with my ExOfficio from now on. Also a few weeks ago, my Eddie Bauer sweater went through a magical wash and dry cycle going in as a MED and coming out as an extra small. Isn’t polyester not supposed to shrink? So I decided to put their lifetime warranty to the test. I walked into the store with just the sweater (the receipt didn’t make the packing list) and walked out with a brand new size MED sweater. Thank you very much Eddie.
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