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potatoes. Who knew it’s also got lots of great mountain and river roads? We got off the Interstate in Rapid
City, SD and went to Mt. Rushmore, Deadwood, Lead, and the incredibly gorgeous Spearfish Canyon. Roads through Montana and Oregon aren’t on a grid, and I don’t think we found a single bad road in Oregon. Oregon is, however, one of only two states that does not allow self-serve gas stations. Yellowstone is as beautiful as they say it is. Crater Lake was as beautiful as advertised, even if a storm was rolling in, meaning we had to ride down the mountain in deep fog.
The main destination we wanted to get to was State Road 36 in California, from Redding to the coast: 144 miles of twisties, they told me. You’ll love it, they said. We got going on it, and the
soundtrack in my head said, “This road isn’t so hard, why’d we ride all the way just to – HOLY HELL WHAT THE..?” It’s a normal two-lane highway until a point when suddenly it turns into a roller coaster. Up, down, left, right, up and down some more; blind corners and switchbacks. The Dragon at Deals Gap has some corners on its 11 miles. Now imagine that going on for 144 including mountain passes! At the end was the highlight for me: Avenue of the Giants and the groves of giant Redwoods. Pictures cannot do it justice. It even smells good. Highlights weren’t over for the
day, though. Lodging for the night was at a casino, and they let us park the bikes in their secure underground parking. We shared the lot with people who had driven in for a custom car show, and who were nice enough to show off their car for us. From California, we spent a couple of days going up the coast.
Oregon is spectacular, with just one problem. You see, I have this ridiculous fear of heights. Crossing bridges from Canada to the US is not my favourite thing in the world, but to get where I want to go I just have to suck it up, hold on and go. Of course, the guys I travel with know this, and it’s an endless source of amusement to them. On a previous trip, traffic got backed up to the middle of the bridge at Sault St. Marie, with a semi coming up behind that made the bridge bounce up and down. That wasn’t fun, but the Oregon-Washington border was worse. I was looking ahead and saw this big bridge looming. “Thank God I don’t have to cross that,” I thought. “Wait! Isn’t the Columbia River around here somewhere?” I zoomed in on the GPS and CRAP! The screen turned blue with miles of wide river. The guys at the front began to turn
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46 BOUNDER MAGAZINE
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