"Sure", said the motel clerk, "the easy way to get on Highway 97 is to go up the street, turn right and you'll run right into it." "Good deal", I thought as Ken and I pulled away from the motel in the cool morning air. We thought we'd be on the highway in just a couple of minutes but ten minutes later we were still trying to find the entrance ramp to the highway. We actually passed under the blasted highway a couple of times but there were no entrances! Finally after an involuntary tour of Bend, Oregon, we found an entrance ramp and we were on our way to Ashland for the start of WeSTOC 2002.

Our plan for the day called for a relaxed tour of the Cascade Mountains along a road southwest of Bend. This road was marked on my AAA map as being scenic and since we had more than enough time to make it to Ashland by afternoon we decided to go for it. The map showed that the road was Highway 372 and that it originated in Bend. We never saw one sign for this road however, so we continued south on 97. We turned off of 97 onto Highway 45 near the little burg of Sunriver and followed it to its intersection with Highway 372.

The ride along Highway 372 in the very cool morning air took us to Mount Bachelor and beyond through heavy forests and on to beautiful lake filled valleys. Along the way we passed a couple on a Harley chugging along and enjoying the spectacular scenery just as we were. Somewhere near Mount Bachelor we stopped and took pictures but the lighting was so odd that early in the morning, neither of us got a picture worth showing. Finally, after travelling for quite a way, the road ended at Highway 61. We turned west and traveled a short distance to its intersection with Highway 58. At that point the scenic part of the road ended and we turned back to the southeast and headed for Highway 97, a good sixty miles southwest of Bend. Once we got on 97 we settled in for the eighty-five mile, straight, boring run to Klamath Falls. The spectacular scenery was gone and the traffic on this main north-south route was relatively heavy. It was mile munching time.

About thirty-five miles north of Klamath Falls we began to see smoke from nearby forest fires. As we approached Klamath Lake it got even worse. In places we couldn't see across the lake for the smoke and haze. The sky was dirty and the sun was just a dull yellow orb in the sky. For the next three days we would be riding in and out of smoke because of all the wildfires. It seemed like the entire northwest was in flames.

At Klamath Falls we took Highway 66 for the final run into Ashland. Just past Keno, the road turned into one of the most spectacular sport-riding roads I've ever been on. It was non-stop fifteen to thirty mph corners that reminded me of some of the roads in the Texas Hill Country. The only difference was that the roads continued in this twisty fashion for a good fifty miles! It got to the point that I literally got tired of it and wanted the road to straighten out a bit so that we could make better time. Here again, I thought about the guys in my Sunday riding group. They would be grinning from ear to ear as they whipped around these curves.

At 1:30 PM, Ken and I wheeled into our final destination, the Windmill Inn in Ashland Oregon, headquarters for WeSTOC 2002. There were already a lot of ST'ers there. One of the first people I saw was Sandy Woods from Dallas, Texas. She had piloted her ST via the hot southern route to get to Ashland. I also saw and greeted several others that I had met at other rallies. By the time the day was out, 200+- had registered to participate in this social event.

There were folks that had come a long way to attend this rally, some from as far away as Florida. The hands down winner however traveled around the world to get there! Kris Nijs from Belgium had been traveling around the world on his ST1100 for 2+ years and managed to time things so that he could be in Ashland for WeSTOC (Read about Kris and his journey here ).

Kris Nijs' well traveled ST1100. He stopped in Ashland on his way from Prudoe Bay, Alaska to attend WeSTOC 2002. Kris is from Belgium and is on a 4 year world tour.

After Ken & I registered, we walked around and took part in the time honored STOC tradition of tire kicking and gawking at each other's farkles (motorcycle accessories). Ken is much more of a farkler than I and he was in heaven going from bike to bike and discussing the various items and methods of attachment.

While participating in our farkle-a-thon, I saw a group of guys that I knew wheel into the motel entrance. They were Jeff Schneider from Wichita, Kansas and Ed Grant from Abilene, Texas. Traveling along with them was Al Barth from Chicago. Rather than bring his ST1100, Ed decided to ride his brand new Suzuki V-Strom. I had initially planned on meeting up with these guys in or near Denver and riding essentially the same route with them that Ken and I had taken but their schedule didn't quite fit with mine. My desire had been to leave a few days earlier than what they were planning on so that I could travel a bit slower and see more of the sights. They had some pretty good tales to tell of their trip. One especially funny one concerned an encounter with a tame bear somewhere in Idaho!

One of the reasons I looked forward to attending this year's WeSTOC was to see the new ST1300, which is Honda's replacement for the aging ST1100 (The ST1300 had still not hit the show room floors as of the date of this writing in mid September). Honda loaned Jeff Bertrand, who is a part-time journalist for Motorcycle Consumer News, one of the ST1300 press evaluation bikes to take to the rally. It created quite a stir to say the least. Though it retains some of the lines of the ST1100, it is a completely new bike from the ground up.

Once we'd had our fill of farkles and general B.S.'ing, we cleaned up and went to the free Mexican food buffet hosted by Medford Honda. During the meal, KOTL (Keeper Of The ST1100 List) Don Feyma gave a safety briefing then requested a moment of silence in honor of those STOC'ers who had died during the year (we're not a young group. Average age is 48). At the rear of the room, maps of the area were on display that showed not only good roads to ride during the rally, but the location of major fires and which roads were closed as a result. Finally we hit our rooms to get a good nights rest for the next day's ride to Crater Lake.

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