Part 1 It's LONG!!!
STromTrooper Ride
Gifford Pinchot National Forest
July 17 – 19th
2009
July 17th,
The time is upon me to leave on a trip to south central Washington. This for me is a 3 day weekend ride with some fellow V-Strom motorcycle enthusiasts from the internet. I am heading south of my residence here in Issaquah towards the Gifford Pinchot National Forest, home to Mt. St. Helens and her eruption back in 1980. This is the first little bike trip since I have been married. It has been long time since I have done a trip of any kind by myself since knowing Kiki, my wife. It’s not like she hasn’t been telling me to get out and do something like this, because she has all along. Much the same as when she told me, if she was going to marry me, I must always own a motorcycle. This is something every man dreams of hearing!!!
“What time is it now?” I say to myself as I start to look at the clock every ten minutes thinking and calculating of how long I have before I absolutely need to leave. This starts some two hours before the 11:30 departure time even gets here!! Oh crap, I am not showered yet, the dog needs walked and I have to throw my pile of essentials actually onto the bike. No problem, I can sit here an extra ten minutes to catch the last part of this t.v. show. So now 10:00am approaches, and I leave to walk the dog, further compacting the necessary time needed to drive 90 minutes south to meet up with Dan a.k.a. ScriminBanshee from the internet StromTrooper forum.
11:00am roles around as I am going through the packing ritual. Tent check, sleeping bag check, lantern check, second lantern check, flashlight check, where’s the second one? I have my hatchet, saw, two knives, multi-tool, cook-set, tank of cooking fuel, air compressor, Slime tire fix goo, tire plugs, water tablets, 100% DEET, four empty bottles to carry water, camelback water backpack, fishing pole, lures, sinkers and such. I have my Washington detailed atlas, Gifford Pinchot detailed flat maps, GPS. Oh rat’s Kiki wants me to print out the area and maps of where we are staying. Back into the house I go to print these off. Done!! As I quickly head back to the bike, I might as well carry a load of prepared packages of food down to the bike. I don’t really notice the time yet.
“Really?” It’s 11:45!!! Dammit!! Man I hope Dan isn’t that upset with me. I know I am going to be late now, when my phone rings. Dan how are you? It looks as if I won’t be there till after 1:00pm now. “Ok, no problem!” as he says we have all day to get there and no rush at all!
Off to the shower I go, in, out, clothes on. Scan the counters, the table and the bed to make sure nothing is left behind. Wallet, cell phone, jacket, boots, helmet and four pairs of assorted weather condition gloves!! You never know what you might get out there traveling around!! And I can’t forget my safari style Columbia hat. Thanks Kiki!!!
Nothing like starting a trip and all geared up ready to go click into first gear, and gander down at the fuel gauge, only to find some petrol needs to be added. One mile down the street, I get the gas, and off I go I-90 west 5 miles to I-405 south 12 miles then S.R.167 south for some time to where I run into Puyallup area. Right off of the highway I head south on Meridian Ave S for seven miles. Well, that was the plan!! Nope! How about crawling south for seven miles to where Dan is meeting me! It looks like everyone from the area is heading south on this Friday early afternoon too. Man I am really going to get it for being late, late, late!!! Ok, so 30 minutes later, I have just finished the short seven miles and pull into the parking lot where Dan is PATIENTLY waiting for me to arrive.
Hey, how are you, good to see you. Are you ready to head out? Yep! Ok. We are off heading south on the ever congested Meridian Ave. I yell over to Dan and ask how far will the traffic be like this? He said not too far down the road, where we can then split off onto another road which offers a few bends in the pavement. Twisties for you motorcyclists!!
Our plan is to drive south to Morton on S.R. 7, but only after briskly driving through Eatonville and Elbe. Our last main gas fill-up before heading down to the campground was here in Morton at the Chevron. As Dan quickly pointed out, it seemed more like Grand Central Station back in NY. Locals, travelers, bikers from every direction seemed to be filling their stomachs and tanks with appropriate liquids to continue on their journey, wherever that may have been. While we were at it, Dan and I got a Subway sandwich thinking it may be the last decent food till tomorrow. We had this thought since neither of us had packed the freezer on the bikes loaded with T-bones we could cook when the campfire actually got going. For us, it was more like, “I got pork and beans!” Dan says “I have four cans of ravioli!” So our subs weren’t that bad.
Our next plan was to head 17 miles east to Randle, then south on forest service road 23 to our campground of Olallie Lake, or so we thought!! We make it to Randle and Dan says it is oh maybe 20 some miles or so. The first stretch will be pavement winding its way through the forest. It did to say the least while trees formed a canopy over the width of the road!! There were series of switchbacks with 35mph posted, then some with 20mph posted, and of course something right in the middle, 25mph signs. If you aren’t an avid motorcyclist, this is the part where smiles on our faces become larger than one of a toddler on Christmas morning. I personally think these signs were a bit low on the markings. I think of a road with a 25mph symbol mean you had better be going 35 and under, but no the twists and turns of this section were more like 45-60 no problem. Oops, I mean it was all 25mph riding all day long!!
It appeared after 19 miles of this, the road started to shrink. Yep shrink, from two lanes down to one and a half. During this shrinking of the road, our eyes had to become even more alert, as the road condition was starting to deteriorate as well. There were sudden depressions or dips in the road. Some places had been painted as a warning, and I guess that if we had been going a bit slower we would have seen them in time. Oh well, we made it through. During one of the bends in the small road, I stopped to ask Dan how much further it was. He said he thinks he remembers from last year it being about 5-10 maybe even 20 miles still down the road. This came with an expected warning of gravel being our road surface sometime soon. This was my first image of Dan sort of knowing where he is and sort of not knowing where he is, while telling me of his ride down here last year and suddenly not knowing where he is. He eventually had to ask some hunters where he was and how he could get home, or at least out of there.
We carry onward to the end of the pavement and onto the gravel forest roads. I had already spoken to Dan about my minimal dirt riding and he agreed to keep it under 30 for now. This is a good thing with the deep, loose gravel that made the front and rear of the bike seem unstable moving back and forth. About nine miles onto the gravel, we come up to a spot called Baby Shoe Pass. Here the sign had several pairs of baby shoes on it, as if babies randomly walk by tossing their old shoes onto this pole. Weird!! There has to be a story about this some place. Oh well, we pass this and Dan turns right and says our campground is just 100 yards down the way. Um, why does my GPS say we are on FS 2334, when we should be on FS5601 and Olallie Lake? Dan says, well there is a lake here, I must of thought it was Olallie!!
I make a quick decision to break out one of my several DETAILED maps to find where we are in conjunction to Olallie. We pretty much need to turn around go back three miles and turn off where we remember seeing a truck turn off. Ok, so back over the Baby Shoe pass and onto Olallie campground. We find out arriving at 5pm on a Friday evening to a campground that only has five spots isn’t a good thing and have to look elsewhere for our evening of fun.
Fortunately we find right next door is Takalak Lake. We are lucky to find a spot at this hour of the day, but have to pay $15 instead of the $5 we thought we would have to pay at Olallie. I guess they have us by the short hairs on this one. Nice little campground in the middle of um nowhere!!! We walk up to the resident worker and his 5th wheel camper at spot # 1 to pay our money. Each of us had $15 bucks on us, and we had to pay for two nights. There was a catch, we needed firewood, and a bundle of it was $7. We talked the old guy into us bringing him tomorrow nights rent to him tomorrow, while still reserving the site for both nights. Dan gave the guy the money for rent, and started to grab the pile of wood. The worker pointed to which pile to take as he starts to give me my change back for the wood. He hands it to me, and I ask him if he would actually like me to give him my ten dollar bill I had in my hand since he did already give me my change. He just didn’t seem to remember he didn’t get my money first. Good thing I did!! He agreed and off we went with wood in arm. Oh, I did pay the guy!
Now comes the camp set-up, fire prep, erecting the tents then of course just chilling. Dan and I decide to have a make shift race of setting up our miniature tents. Miniature to us for those who haven’t seen our stature. Ok, Dan wins this, but only by a pole clip or two. Not more than two minutes pass and Dan insists on getting the fire going sooner than later. I think he states this by the sudden discovery of prehistoric mosquito’s larger than most birds flying around. Good thing I brought my 100% DEET!! He insists the smoke from the fire will ward off these flying nuisances. I think I counted 13 of them on his bare arm, since he only had a short sleeve short on. It was warm out as I asked him if he wanted one of my long sleeve shirts. Nope I am fine and roasting.
Fire!! To preserve our $7 bundle, we both decided to gather some additional tinder. A short look around presented us with plenty of pine twigs and fresh saplings good for a quick spark and hot flame. I think Dan had watched Paul Bunyan a bit too often as a kid, as he pulled out his hatchet with a handle of 6 inches. Hey, how is that working for you? Would you like to use my longer hatchet and even my folding saw? Nah, I am alright. Three swings and, sure I might as well use it to ease the situation. I will have to admit here that I was sitting at the picnic table simply observing the harvest of tinder Dan had gathered. I couldn’t help but laugh as he had now moved onto two inch diameter branches that were just lying around. Every little branch, and every 20 inches of log Dan wanted to cut. I argued this point by saying, just throw in the whole 8 ft length and as it burns, then keep sliding it into the fire.
With the fire now going and Dan sweating we managed to take some time to actually sit and enjoy the fire. Well I guess I was already sitting in the chair I had brought, although I did help in the cutting of some of our wood at times. We both had decided it was time to snack on the gourmet dishes that were probably worse than the meals Martha Stewart had while in jail. Ah yes!! We feast like kings, ok peasants!! We both pull out or own stash of pork and beans, ravioli, jerky, nuts and granola bars. We poured the beans in one pan and ravioli into another. They both make it to luke warm temperature. Dan speaks out, this isn’t warm enough. Ok, I toss back towards the heat of the fire, and get the stuff boiling. This is now too hot for me. Alright Goldie Locks, enjoy your sleep tonight as well with those three bears in your tent too! We had both decided that if our significant others were here, there would be some sort of comment made about not having something good enough to eat. Neither of us cared, as we enjoyed the company at hand and the smoke filling the air above. Now if we had only something better than warm water and a couple of Gatorades.
After glancing at the maps of tomorrows ride, we agreed to discuss it further tomorrow. It was now approaching time to hit the hay. A wonderful day has passed filled with laughter, riding and great scenery. Night!!
STromTrooper Ride
Gifford Pinchot National Forest
July 17 – 19th
2009
July 17th,
The time is upon me to leave on a trip to south central Washington. This for me is a 3 day weekend ride with some fellow V-Strom motorcycle enthusiasts from the internet. I am heading south of my residence here in Issaquah towards the Gifford Pinchot National Forest, home to Mt. St. Helens and her eruption back in 1980. This is the first little bike trip since I have been married. It has been long time since I have done a trip of any kind by myself since knowing Kiki, my wife. It’s not like she hasn’t been telling me to get out and do something like this, because she has all along. Much the same as when she told me, if she was going to marry me, I must always own a motorcycle. This is something every man dreams of hearing!!!
“What time is it now?” I say to myself as I start to look at the clock every ten minutes thinking and calculating of how long I have before I absolutely need to leave. This starts some two hours before the 11:30 departure time even gets here!! Oh crap, I am not showered yet, the dog needs walked and I have to throw my pile of essentials actually onto the bike. No problem, I can sit here an extra ten minutes to catch the last part of this t.v. show. So now 10:00am approaches, and I leave to walk the dog, further compacting the necessary time needed to drive 90 minutes south to meet up with Dan a.k.a. ScriminBanshee from the internet StromTrooper forum.
11:00am roles around as I am going through the packing ritual. Tent check, sleeping bag check, lantern check, second lantern check, flashlight check, where’s the second one? I have my hatchet, saw, two knives, multi-tool, cook-set, tank of cooking fuel, air compressor, Slime tire fix goo, tire plugs, water tablets, 100% DEET, four empty bottles to carry water, camelback water backpack, fishing pole, lures, sinkers and such. I have my Washington detailed atlas, Gifford Pinchot detailed flat maps, GPS. Oh rat’s Kiki wants me to print out the area and maps of where we are staying. Back into the house I go to print these off. Done!! As I quickly head back to the bike, I might as well carry a load of prepared packages of food down to the bike. I don’t really notice the time yet.
“Really?” It’s 11:45!!! Dammit!! Man I hope Dan isn’t that upset with me. I know I am going to be late now, when my phone rings. Dan how are you? It looks as if I won’t be there till after 1:00pm now. “Ok, no problem!” as he says we have all day to get there and no rush at all!
Off to the shower I go, in, out, clothes on. Scan the counters, the table and the bed to make sure nothing is left behind. Wallet, cell phone, jacket, boots, helmet and four pairs of assorted weather condition gloves!! You never know what you might get out there traveling around!! And I can’t forget my safari style Columbia hat. Thanks Kiki!!!
Nothing like starting a trip and all geared up ready to go click into first gear, and gander down at the fuel gauge, only to find some petrol needs to be added. One mile down the street, I get the gas, and off I go I-90 west 5 miles to I-405 south 12 miles then S.R.167 south for some time to where I run into Puyallup area. Right off of the highway I head south on Meridian Ave S for seven miles. Well, that was the plan!! Nope! How about crawling south for seven miles to where Dan is meeting me! It looks like everyone from the area is heading south on this Friday early afternoon too. Man I am really going to get it for being late, late, late!!! Ok, so 30 minutes later, I have just finished the short seven miles and pull into the parking lot where Dan is PATIENTLY waiting for me to arrive.
Hey, how are you, good to see you. Are you ready to head out? Yep! Ok. We are off heading south on the ever congested Meridian Ave. I yell over to Dan and ask how far will the traffic be like this? He said not too far down the road, where we can then split off onto another road which offers a few bends in the pavement. Twisties for you motorcyclists!!
Our plan is to drive south to Morton on S.R. 7, but only after briskly driving through Eatonville and Elbe. Our last main gas fill-up before heading down to the campground was here in Morton at the Chevron. As Dan quickly pointed out, it seemed more like Grand Central Station back in NY. Locals, travelers, bikers from every direction seemed to be filling their stomachs and tanks with appropriate liquids to continue on their journey, wherever that may have been. While we were at it, Dan and I got a Subway sandwich thinking it may be the last decent food till tomorrow. We had this thought since neither of us had packed the freezer on the bikes loaded with T-bones we could cook when the campfire actually got going. For us, it was more like, “I got pork and beans!” Dan says “I have four cans of ravioli!” So our subs weren’t that bad.
Our next plan was to head 17 miles east to Randle, then south on forest service road 23 to our campground of Olallie Lake, or so we thought!! We make it to Randle and Dan says it is oh maybe 20 some miles or so. The first stretch will be pavement winding its way through the forest. It did to say the least while trees formed a canopy over the width of the road!! There were series of switchbacks with 35mph posted, then some with 20mph posted, and of course something right in the middle, 25mph signs. If you aren’t an avid motorcyclist, this is the part where smiles on our faces become larger than one of a toddler on Christmas morning. I personally think these signs were a bit low on the markings. I think of a road with a 25mph symbol mean you had better be going 35 and under, but no the twists and turns of this section were more like 45-60 no problem. Oops, I mean it was all 25mph riding all day long!!
It appeared after 19 miles of this, the road started to shrink. Yep shrink, from two lanes down to one and a half. During this shrinking of the road, our eyes had to become even more alert, as the road condition was starting to deteriorate as well. There were sudden depressions or dips in the road. Some places had been painted as a warning, and I guess that if we had been going a bit slower we would have seen them in time. Oh well, we made it through. During one of the bends in the small road, I stopped to ask Dan how much further it was. He said he thinks he remembers from last year it being about 5-10 maybe even 20 miles still down the road. This came with an expected warning of gravel being our road surface sometime soon. This was my first image of Dan sort of knowing where he is and sort of not knowing where he is, while telling me of his ride down here last year and suddenly not knowing where he is. He eventually had to ask some hunters where he was and how he could get home, or at least out of there.
We carry onward to the end of the pavement and onto the gravel forest roads. I had already spoken to Dan about my minimal dirt riding and he agreed to keep it under 30 for now. This is a good thing with the deep, loose gravel that made the front and rear of the bike seem unstable moving back and forth. About nine miles onto the gravel, we come up to a spot called Baby Shoe Pass. Here the sign had several pairs of baby shoes on it, as if babies randomly walk by tossing their old shoes onto this pole. Weird!! There has to be a story about this some place. Oh well, we pass this and Dan turns right and says our campground is just 100 yards down the way. Um, why does my GPS say we are on FS 2334, when we should be on FS5601 and Olallie Lake? Dan says, well there is a lake here, I must of thought it was Olallie!!
I make a quick decision to break out one of my several DETAILED maps to find where we are in conjunction to Olallie. We pretty much need to turn around go back three miles and turn off where we remember seeing a truck turn off. Ok, so back over the Baby Shoe pass and onto Olallie campground. We find out arriving at 5pm on a Friday evening to a campground that only has five spots isn’t a good thing and have to look elsewhere for our evening of fun.
Fortunately we find right next door is Takalak Lake. We are lucky to find a spot at this hour of the day, but have to pay $15 instead of the $5 we thought we would have to pay at Olallie. I guess they have us by the short hairs on this one. Nice little campground in the middle of um nowhere!!! We walk up to the resident worker and his 5th wheel camper at spot # 1 to pay our money. Each of us had $15 bucks on us, and we had to pay for two nights. There was a catch, we needed firewood, and a bundle of it was $7. We talked the old guy into us bringing him tomorrow nights rent to him tomorrow, while still reserving the site for both nights. Dan gave the guy the money for rent, and started to grab the pile of wood. The worker pointed to which pile to take as he starts to give me my change back for the wood. He hands it to me, and I ask him if he would actually like me to give him my ten dollar bill I had in my hand since he did already give me my change. He just didn’t seem to remember he didn’t get my money first. Good thing I did!! He agreed and off we went with wood in arm. Oh, I did pay the guy!
Now comes the camp set-up, fire prep, erecting the tents then of course just chilling. Dan and I decide to have a make shift race of setting up our miniature tents. Miniature to us for those who haven’t seen our stature. Ok, Dan wins this, but only by a pole clip or two. Not more than two minutes pass and Dan insists on getting the fire going sooner than later. I think he states this by the sudden discovery of prehistoric mosquito’s larger than most birds flying around. Good thing I brought my 100% DEET!! He insists the smoke from the fire will ward off these flying nuisances. I think I counted 13 of them on his bare arm, since he only had a short sleeve short on. It was warm out as I asked him if he wanted one of my long sleeve shirts. Nope I am fine and roasting.
Fire!! To preserve our $7 bundle, we both decided to gather some additional tinder. A short look around presented us with plenty of pine twigs and fresh saplings good for a quick spark and hot flame. I think Dan had watched Paul Bunyan a bit too often as a kid, as he pulled out his hatchet with a handle of 6 inches. Hey, how is that working for you? Would you like to use my longer hatchet and even my folding saw? Nah, I am alright. Three swings and, sure I might as well use it to ease the situation. I will have to admit here that I was sitting at the picnic table simply observing the harvest of tinder Dan had gathered. I couldn’t help but laugh as he had now moved onto two inch diameter branches that were just lying around. Every little branch, and every 20 inches of log Dan wanted to cut. I argued this point by saying, just throw in the whole 8 ft length and as it burns, then keep sliding it into the fire.
With the fire now going and Dan sweating we managed to take some time to actually sit and enjoy the fire. Well I guess I was already sitting in the chair I had brought, although I did help in the cutting of some of our wood at times. We both had decided it was time to snack on the gourmet dishes that were probably worse than the meals Martha Stewart had while in jail. Ah yes!! We feast like kings, ok peasants!! We both pull out or own stash of pork and beans, ravioli, jerky, nuts and granola bars. We poured the beans in one pan and ravioli into another. They both make it to luke warm temperature. Dan speaks out, this isn’t warm enough. Ok, I toss back towards the heat of the fire, and get the stuff boiling. This is now too hot for me. Alright Goldie Locks, enjoy your sleep tonight as well with those three bears in your tent too! We had both decided that if our significant others were here, there would be some sort of comment made about not having something good enough to eat. Neither of us cared, as we enjoyed the company at hand and the smoke filling the air above. Now if we had only something better than warm water and a couple of Gatorades.
After glancing at the maps of tomorrows ride, we agreed to discuss it further tomorrow. It was now approaching time to hit the hay. A wonderful day has passed filled with laughter, riding and great scenery. Night!!
