Route 1 from Fort Bragg to 101 is a great road, just wish it wasn't quite so damp that morning. Freshly paved, it's in much better shape than during last year's BADGAS. Route 101 the coast was pretty average. The scenery was nice but nothing to write home about. Florence was a nice town to spend the night.

Route 36 was a cool road, moderately twisty with some really nice scenery. Route 126 had too much traffic on it, but being the only major thoroughfare between Eugene and Bend I guess that's to be expected. Route 242 was almost a goat trail (yay!) with some of the most eerie scenery I've seen yet, the lava beds at the top of the hill. It's going to take mother nature quite some time to reclaim that patch of earth.

We had a pretty spot on the Deschutes river to spend the night in Bend. The run up to East Lake that Jeff, Mark, Gunnar & I did that afternoon was one of the highlights of the trip. Smooth pavement that had teeth, as Mark put it, with seemingly infinite grip. It felt like I'd have to lean the bike onto the engine cover before the tires could possibly slide! Fairly twisty and a fast road!

It was bloody freakin' cold the next morning - glad I had my electric vest and warm gloves with me! Crater Lake was pretty impressive and the most beautiful scenery of the trip.

Even though they've only got 55mph speed limits, I'll say this for Oregon: they've got passing zones everywhere! Dotted yellow lines were the norm and double yellows the exception! It is still wise to be cautious, though, all those passing zones had plenty of places for left turning vehicles that could quickly ruin our day. There's no way California would allow passing zones in areas like that.

The long slog down 97 back into California was uneventful. I was hoping that Forest Route 15 would provide some goat trail action, but it was not to be :-( A nice road with a few twisty sections and a lot of nice fast sweepers. A few head of cattle here and there kept us on our toes. Into Burney where Karl showed us the Burney Falls where some of the Tarzan movies were filmed. A cool spot!

Another cold morning leaving Burney; it was down to 26 overnight! BBBBbbbbrrrrrr..... Lassen Volcanic National Park is a beautiful spot, though I thought it would be more like the lava beds we saw in Oregon. In this case, mother nature has reclaimed the area very quickly. Though when Mount Lassen blew its top it was more an explosion & mud slide rather than lava flows. The vistor center at the north end of the park has some cool pictures taken of the eruption in 1914.

Route 32 was another hightlight of the trip. A great, twisty road with elevation changes. It was tempered by the fact that we saw a lot of deer approacing it from route 89 though. I didn't want to kill another Bambi!