Day 8 - Crater Lake
(Ashland, Oregon to Crater Lake, the Cascades and back, 325 miles )
Our route, Wednesday, July 31st, 2002.
"My poor bike!" I thought as I loaded up my electronics laden tank bag. Ash from the nearby wildfires had coated my black bike making it look like it had gray measles. Though considerably less dense than the evening before, the smoke was still present in the damp morning air. We were going to ride to Crater Lake that day and I was sure hoping that there would be no smoke. The night before I had talked to a couple of guys that had made the run and they mentioned that Crater Lake had been all but obscured by the smoke. Maybe we'd get lucky.
"Pre-flight" checks complete, I decided to go and see how Ken was progressing. The short walk up to his bike took me through a parking lot jam packed with ST1100s. It was a truly awesome sight! I'd never seen so many ST's in one place before.
"ST's a plenty". Just a few of the many, many ST1100s that lined the Windmill Inn's parking lot.
Much later than we had anticipated, Ken and I took off for Crater Lake on northbound Interstate Highway 5. Because it was morning rush hour the road was crowded as well as smoky. At Medford we got on Highway 62 for the last leg of the run. Medford Honda was right on this highway so we stopped in to pick up the speedometer cable and worm gear that Ken had ordered when we were in Denver. They had told him it would be waiting for him but surprise, surprise, it wasn't. They told us the order would likely be ready for pick-up the following day so off we went.
As we cruised through the outskirts of Medford we spotted some ST's in our mirrors. They fell in behind and stayed with us. Once past Shady Grove on Highway 62 the road became much more scenic, the traffic thinned out and the smoke dissipated rapidly as we gained altitude. Near the top of the mountain that contained Crater Lake, the roads became much twistier and I began to feel a little frisky. My riding had been pretty sedate to this point in the trip and it was time to have a little fun, so I wicked the throttle up a bit and went blasting into the corners. A few of the guys who had been following us fell in behind me and stayed with me all the way to the entrance of the park. Our line of bikes must have looked like a fast moving snake as we zipped around the twisty roads, scraping foot-pegs as we made our way to the top. What a blast! After a brief visit to the visitor's center of Crater Lake National Park, we made tracks for the lake.
The term "WOW" just doesn't do justice to my initial reaction to Crater Lake. The first thing that smacked my senses was the deep, royal blue color of the water. The next thing that impressed me was the size of the caldera that contained the lake... over 5 miles wide! This caldera (a kind of depression) formed from the violent explosion and subsequent collapse of a volcano almost 8,000 years ago (A reconstruction of what the volcanic mountain once looked like can be seen here.) The amount of energy it took to blow the top of this mountain off and make way for the deepest lake in the United States was simply off the scale of my imagination.
Crater Lake in the Cascades of Oregon. A camera hardly does it justice.
When we were through gawking and taking pictures, we hopped back on our bikes and proceeded around the lake road in a clockwise direction. The scenery stayed gorgeous and there were many observation points from which to take pictures. After we'd seen enough of the lake, we exited the park, took Highway 138 and headed toward Roseburg. This was a scenic route that headed through the Willamette National Forest and paralleled the Umpqua River.
Mick, somewhere along the Umpqua River, Oregon.
The drive along the Umpqua River valley was a delight to the senses and we hated to see the tranquil scenery stop, but we eventually hit the town of Roseburg where we were forced to get on Interstate 5 for the return trip to Ashland. A group dinner was being held that evening across the street from the hotel and we wanted to attend, so we put the "pedal to the metal" and made it back with plenty of time.
Once back and rested, Ken and I started walking across the motel parking lot with the intention of going straight to the bar/restaurant across the street to meet other STOC'ers for the evening gathering. We hadn't gone too far however when we saw a group of guys gawking at a bike that was not an ST1100. It turned out to be the just released FJR1300, Yamaha's competition for Honda's new ST1300. I immediately liked what I saw! The more I looked the more excited I became, especially when the owner started that inline 4 cylinder engine. The engine was reported to have a stump pulling, 145 horsepower to the rear wheel. Man, that engine sounded good. It also looked lighter than either the ST1100 or ST1300 and looked stunning with the panniers removed. I asked the British fellow whose bike it was (forgot his name) a gazillion questions. He offered to let me take it for a spin the next day. I absolutely fell in love with that bike. The only problem I had with it was that it did not come with ABS brakes. According to the owner however, the 2004 models are scheduled to have optional ABS brakes just like the early 90's model FJ1200's had. What a long time to have to wait!
Yamaha's new FJR1300. I'll be a wantin' one of these 145 HP puppies in my garage as soon as it is offered with an ABS option.
The gathering of guys at the restaurant/bar across the street from the hotel was a lot of fun. Some of the STOC'ers seemed to be a little "lubricated" already by the time we got there so everyone was in a pretty jovial mode. Ken kicked the laughter into high gear when he told the waitress he wanted a "heiny" (meaning a Heinekin's beer). She looked at him and backed away from the table and continued walking backwards all the way back to the bar! After much B.S. and laughter, I exited the joint and went back to my room and got things ready for the day ahead. It was going to be a day of unplanned adventure in a quest to see the Oregon coast.
