pnelson
New Member
I've been wanting to go up to Kinzel ever since the snow melted. Today I left the boat shop and played hooky to ride up the mountain. The 10 mile road to Kinzel starts on the east side of Trillium lake. I had first explored this area back in 1973 when I was 16 and had just moved to Oregon. For a kid on a Suzuki TS90, Oregon and the forest roads around Mt. Hood were heaven. I've been back many times since but not with the ST10.
The road up to the lake seems to be worse than ever. I remember riding 70mph (on my XL175, that was as fast as it would go...) down my favorite straight section back then and today I was in 1st and 2nd gear standing on the pegs the whole way. This is one rough road. It's rocky, has ruts from erosion and trucks but my Kenda Big Blocks didn't slip once. I don't know if I would want to do this on my Battle Wings. Having said all that, this is a great road for ST10s and other than not pushing the bike as fast as I would on a smaller bike with more suspension travel, I had a great time getting there.
The lake is warm and clean and the same logs we jumped off swimming back in 1973 are still there. There are several camp sites but no facilities other than a few picnic tables. No outhouses here, bring a shovel. I do think though that this would make a great ride-to-camp destination. Any takers?
The only downside to my trip was on my way home. Of course bad things always happen right near your home don't they? I was cruising through the DQ drive through and a large flatbed truck backed out and was about to back into me. I had just enough time to think my bike was going to get crunched just like another forum member's was last week when we both stopped. I was on a sloped section of the drive-through and turning left at the same time and knew as I put my foot down that this wasn't going to work. Sure enough, the bike just laid over. It was not moving forward at all so no scrapes or scratches, it just gently laid right down on the Alt-rider guards. Because of the slope of the drive-through, it was actually leaning tank down with the wheels up. I managed to get it back up with a handlebar lift but with the help of a bystander. I could have done it on my own but would have needed to get it into gear first or use a wheel chock, something that I may start carrying in the future. No harm done and I rode on through and got the cheeseburger I was so looking forward to. ;-)
Photos and map links below:
Google Map:
http://goo.gl/maps/Jzgwc
Photos:
The road up to the lake seems to be worse than ever. I remember riding 70mph (on my XL175, that was as fast as it would go...) down my favorite straight section back then and today I was in 1st and 2nd gear standing on the pegs the whole way. This is one rough road. It's rocky, has ruts from erosion and trucks but my Kenda Big Blocks didn't slip once. I don't know if I would want to do this on my Battle Wings. Having said all that, this is a great road for ST10s and other than not pushing the bike as fast as I would on a smaller bike with more suspension travel, I had a great time getting there.
The lake is warm and clean and the same logs we jumped off swimming back in 1973 are still there. There are several camp sites but no facilities other than a few picnic tables. No outhouses here, bring a shovel. I do think though that this would make a great ride-to-camp destination. Any takers?
The only downside to my trip was on my way home. Of course bad things always happen right near your home don't they? I was cruising through the DQ drive through and a large flatbed truck backed out and was about to back into me. I had just enough time to think my bike was going to get crunched just like another forum member's was last week when we both stopped. I was on a sloped section of the drive-through and turning left at the same time and knew as I put my foot down that this wasn't going to work. Sure enough, the bike just laid over. It was not moving forward at all so no scrapes or scratches, it just gently laid right down on the Alt-rider guards. Because of the slope of the drive-through, it was actually leaning tank down with the wheels up. I managed to get it back up with a handlebar lift but with the help of a bystander. I could have done it on my own but would have needed to get it into gear first or use a wheel chock, something that I may start carrying in the future. No harm done and I rode on through and got the cheeseburger I was so looking forward to. ;-)
Photos and map links below:
Google Map:
http://goo.gl/maps/Jzgwc
Photos:
