BestScenicRoutes.com

Posts Tagged ‘Seattle motorcycle’

Glines Canyon Dam - by Scott Church

Continuing the relaxed nature of this trip, we weren’t in a hurry to leave the comfort of our sleeping bags. The sun began to warm the ground by the time that we woke up. This was to be our last day on the Olympic Peninsula.

After gathering our food from the bear-proof cabinet, we begin striking matches for a fire. The purchased bundle of wood is too damp to ignite. After many attempts with paper and evergreen branches, I ask the neighbor for some lighter fluid. He offers small fire sticks instead. Now we’re in business. One of our camping favorites is Spam and eggs on bagels or toast. The warm breakfast gives us the kick start needed to pack up and get on with the sightseeing.

We leave Heart O’ the Hills campground at the crack of… oh heck who am I kidding? It was 11 a.m. before we were back on Hurricane Ridge heading back toward Port Angeles. As soon as we reach town we turn west on Hwy 101 for a few miles until we turn South on Olympic Hot Springs Road. This pot-hole ridden road leads pat the Altair campground to one of two dams along the Elwha River.

These dams were built with absolutely no regard for the historical lifeblood of this area. No salmon can make it past the first dam. The dam won’t block salmon passage for much longer. This is the last year that the 100-year old dam will hold back the drainage from the Elwha Mountain Range. In 2011, the dam will come down and hopefully the salmon will begin to climb the rapids to their ancestral spawning grounds for the first time since 1910.

View of the Elwha River and Glines Canyon Dam from overlook

It is easy to see why the owner of the surrounding land, Thomas Aldwell was able to convince George Glines to finance the dam projects at this location. A strong water flow carved a deep and narrow gorge that allows the natural rock walls to do much of the work. The actual dam is perhaps 100 feet long and at 110 feet high. It isn’t a huge dam by any means, but it does hold back a very large amount of wate.r It was interesting to see man’s impact on this area. A future trip may be in order to see it restored to its natural free-flowing state.

Beyond the first dam the road turns to dirt. Many hairpin turns snake their way aboce the dam to a great lookout. The road ends and hiking trails begin just a couple miles past the Elwha Dam overlook. Now familiar with the road, I exercised my throttle hand a bit to make tracks back to Port Angeles.

We arrive to Port Angeles in late afternoon. Despite the heavy tourist traffic, most stores are closed as it is a holiday. A parade marches through town. We walk the parades’ flank and do some window shopping and walk into an antique store or two. Monica is a fan o fthe Twilight books and movies. The small movie theater in downtown Port Angeles is included in a few scenes of one of the movies. This being opening weekend for the latest Twilight movie, the theater and silly teeny-bop tourist trap Eclipse-themed stores are quite busy.

We take some photos and wave goodbye to the numerous cardboard cutouts of the cast members peaking out of windows throughout Port Angeles.

Sunshine Herb and Lavender Farm Sequim, WA - by Monica Ponce-McDermott

We didn’t make it as far as we would have liked. It was time to make our way back home. It is pushing 7 pm when we arrive to the ferry town of Port Townsend. Holiday travelers in their cars are beginning to form a long line for the Port Townsend to Keystone (Whidbey Island) ferry. I find my way around the line and up to the ticket booth. They take our fare for the ride to Whidbey Island and inform us that we’ll be on the 8:30 pm sailing. It happens to be the last sailing of the day. Not knowing the schedule, we are lucky to have arrived when we did. We have an hour to wait until the ferry boards.

We leave the parking lot and ride down main street. Port Townsend is a cute town. It deserves a weekend on its own. We walk along the streets and shoreline until it is time to get on the ferry. We will take the short ride back to Port Townsend in the near future. There is a 50’s themed diner and ice cream shop with my name on them earmarked for future indulgences.

As peninsulas go, there are three options for day trips (west side, north side and east side.).  This is the final article in the four-part series covering the Olympic Peninsula. The trip is  split up into separate articles by day. This allows you to pick and choose which parts best fit with your schedule and what you’d like to see. Time didn’t allow us to make the western Pacific Ocean portion of the Olympic Peninsula. Feel free to use the comments section to post ride reports and places that you have visited in the Olympic National Park. A future trip will include routes to the Hoh Rainforest, Kalaloch and Neah Bay.

The question of why I ride a motorcycle is asked quite often. It seems that the answer would be simple, “because I like it.” My weekend rides don’t elicit that question from onlookers near as often as my daily commute. People understand the weekend joy rides in nice weather. The aspect that they don’t get is the daily motorcycle commuting through whatever weather Mother Nature throws down upon us.

People are curious when they see someone taking a different approach to an everyday task. The other day a work colleague watched me putting on all of my winter riding gear and asked, “is it really worth it?” I actually responded from inside my HJC helmet with scratches on the face shield from constant use. I answered, “heck yeah it is totally worth it.” The steam rose from my helmet in the evening darkness under the dim lights of the parking lot. I then threw a leg over my warming motorcycle and headed for home along I-5.

That question sat in my head as I entered the freeway. Why do I like to ride so much? Why am I so passionate about motorcycling? Thoughts raced through my head as I scrambled across the backed up lanes of I-5 before settling in the carpool lanes at cruising speed. I definitely like the fact that I’m now passing thousands of cars and trucks simply because I have a motorcycle and can use the carpool lanes. The ease of maneuvering the single-track of my bike through congested Seattle traffic is definitely on my list of reasons that I ride.

That reason is good and all, but that alone wouldn’t make the added risks of riding pay off. Actually, I’ve always enjoyed adding a bit of risk to life. Climbing trees, jumping bicycles from ledges down steep hills, skydiving and training horses have all been things that I’ve enjoyed. Many poeple would hear that short list and say that I must enjoy motorcyling because I’m an adrenalin seeker. As much as that rush feels good, that doesn’t account for my passion for motorcycling.

The passion comes from deep within. So deep that those around me can’t help but get drowned in it. Motorcycling is a big part of my life. In fact, that might be the very reason for this passion of mine. I just simply enjoy living life.

A life well lived should have stories. The stories are comprised of the good, the bad and the “oh my God I can’t believe that just happened” moments.

Life on a motorcycle is a life of adventure. Like any good adventure, there are stories to be told. The good comes from a well planned ride through scenic areas and discoveries of unique places. There are stories of the bad from the near miss in traffic, or the time I learned the true value in late cornering for motorcycling. The holy crap moments can stand on their own or be a combination of the good and the bad. Sometimes these moments come when watching other riders learn a new and valuable riding technique.

The joy of life and adventure is the reason I ride. Sitting around a camp fire with fellow adventurers through life is always filled with great stories. That’s because they find their own path through life. A single track path blazed on two wheels that always leads to a good story.

A life of adventure is a life well lived. On two wheels there is always adventure. I just hope that I can take the good, the bad and live to tell the story. That is why I ride. Motorcycling is an endless pursuit of the next great story.