260 mile loop around Mt Hood

shifter has been crunching into first lately so I cleaned the oil jet and went for a little test ride, took longer than I thought so I got a late start, , started shifting smoother
started out having to cross the entire Portland Oregon metro area, traffic was horrible, freeways jammed , traffic lights backed up and seemed to last forevah, took me 2 friggin hours to get across town,  nice and sunshiny and warm though
stopped and got a subsandwich on the way
finally got up in the woods and was surprised that there wasnt as much snow as I thought there would be
stopped at a motorcycle trail staging area, McCubbins Gulch campsite on the snow scout run and  had the sandwich . This a favorite place to camp and ride singletrack out of, especially with a plated dirt bike and a big tank (no not this huge beast), its not near as nice as Gifford Pinchot but it has pleasant easy trails and not as far and melts sooner
[url=https://flic.kr/p/FUZvVQ]
went on up a road following the GPS and it showed the road crossing this river, not into drowning yet so I turned around and went the long way,
[url=https://flic.kr/p/FXhjCn]
hit some back road gravel and barely made it through , snow is just wicked on the big heavy bike but it was doable because it was melty and hard underneath was able to cut through, glad there were just a few patches in the shade
[url=https://flic.kr/p/F2QRw5]

took the superslab back through Hood river, I remember running this area last spring and was sweating gas, had to stop in Hood River running on fumes, the back roads, especially with snow get me down to 20-30 mpg, but with the big tanks I made the entire trip without having to stop for gas. I turned off the interstate 84 and took the side road through the waterfall park, here's one, there were about 8 spectacular waterfals right next to the road and hiking trails up to others that step down :
[url=https://flic.kr/p/FRqAUX]
.....got back home just before dark and it was raining the last 10 miles
cant hardly believe we have had nearly 5 days without rain after just having about 100 days strait of ran every day

Thanx for the report Dave. We still have snow on the ground here.. That and 2 days of snow and rain in Moab sucked..

Looks fricken awesome...I need to get over that way.

Kermit wrote:Looks fricken awesome...I need to get over that way.

look me up if you want a trail guide
i got Giffor Pinchot dialed in and know all the the singletrack dirtbike trails from death defying pucker factor to spectacular paradise cruise
can also hook up with some A riders around here (im a B level) , I got their numbers and they let me ride with them but the pace is insane

That looks awesome. I have been eyeing the trails around Unity, have you been to that area?

orangerider wrote:That looks awesome. I have been eyeing the trails around Unity, have you been to that area?

No not yet
thanks for bringing it to mind  now is prime desert season
http://oregonstateparks.org/index.cfm?do=parkPage.dsp_parkPage&parkId=7http://oregonstateparks.org/index.cfm?do=parkPage.dsp_parkPage&parkId=7
I have been missing the desert and have meant to get over that way
farthest I have poked was a 700mile day ride on the ADV bike  down past Prineville and turned back up some dirt roads along John Day river
it looks like it would be nice to ride down that way on the adv and rent a cabin and explore around
I like the spookiness of riding alone out in those desolate places
ah the danger
I feel some awesomness in store, this huge project at nike world headquarters is almost done and i have vaqcation time i havent used in three years it accrues 2 weeks and rolls over if i dont use it , it just stays at two weeks
i thought about riding to alaska too