I am Nanuk of the North – dumb guy!! Why? What does EVERYONE expect it to do almost every day in the Great Pacific Northwest? Yes – it rains. What can every motorcyclist do to keep their machines from getting wet at night? They can cover them up. And the one night I don’t put on my cover was last night. I am Nanuk of the North – dumb guy!!
It gets light up here a little earlier in the morning than at home, like about 4:45. After a wonderful breakfast and more conversation, it’s time to say good-bye. It’s a steadier rain that yesterday morning, so on comes the rain gear and all the stuff to make me look like Nanuk. Brian tells me they actually get very little rain and it’s usually sunny in the morning this time of year. It seems that Olympic National Park gets all the water dumped on it before it gets to Port Townsend and then picks up more moisture on its way to Seattle. Just my luck.
I start by topping off the gas tank. You never know what you won’t run into. I traveled highway 101 between the coast and Olympic all the way to Olympia and it never got above the mid 50’s with varying degrees of drizzle along the way. My original intent was to re-visit Mt. St. Helen, and after a talk with a local guy at a rest area on I-5, I decided to approach it from the eastern side. This meant traveling rt 12 and pick up some of the national forest roads. While it was wonderful riding, you really feel kind of isolated because you rarely see another vehicle and kind of worry about anything going wrong. When I turned down the road to get to the viewing area for the volcano, I was promptly stopped by a gate proclaiming the road to be closed. It appears the snow is still too heavy at the higher elevations. Oh well – I still enjoyed the ride, and there were plenty of spectacular sights to be enjoyed. I rode all the way to the Columbia River and traveled the road to Hood River where Louise and I had a stop when we did our Columbia River Cruise a few years ago. This is a hot spot for wind surfers. I’m surprised they don’t run into each other, there are so many of them.
Well – the Cavs made it close in the last game, but the season is over. I never thought they would make it that far anyway, so a successful campaign was had by all and I’m sure they expect nothing less than at least the same for next year.
Go Tribe!
It gets light up here a little earlier in the morning than at home, like about 4:45. After a wonderful breakfast and more conversation, it’s time to say good-bye. It’s a steadier rain that yesterday morning, so on comes the rain gear and all the stuff to make me look like Nanuk. Brian tells me they actually get very little rain and it’s usually sunny in the morning this time of year. It seems that Olympic National Park gets all the water dumped on it before it gets to Port Townsend and then picks up more moisture on its way to Seattle. Just my luck.
I start by topping off the gas tank. You never know what you won’t run into. I traveled highway 101 between the coast and Olympic all the way to Olympia and it never got above the mid 50’s with varying degrees of drizzle along the way. My original intent was to re-visit Mt. St. Helen, and after a talk with a local guy at a rest area on I-5, I decided to approach it from the eastern side. This meant traveling rt 12 and pick up some of the national forest roads. While it was wonderful riding, you really feel kind of isolated because you rarely see another vehicle and kind of worry about anything going wrong. When I turned down the road to get to the viewing area for the volcano, I was promptly stopped by a gate proclaiming the road to be closed. It appears the snow is still too heavy at the higher elevations. Oh well – I still enjoyed the ride, and there were plenty of spectacular sights to be enjoyed. I rode all the way to the Columbia River and traveled the road to Hood River where Louise and I had a stop when we did our Columbia River Cruise a few years ago. This is a hot spot for wind surfers. I’m surprised they don’t run into each other, there are so many of them.
Well – the Cavs made it close in the last game, but the season is over. I never thought they would make it that far anyway, so a successful campaign was had by all and I’m sure they expect nothing less than at least the same for next year.
Go Tribe!
No comments:
Post a Comment