NW Newsletter. NW Regional. 1 NW Regional 3 Calendar of Events 4 Ride Report Coast Range Ramble. August 2011

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1 NW Newsletter August 2011 NW Regional By Charlie Gary Summer was just an ungranted wish before this last weekend (7-22/25). I got home from the Regional two days ago, and I couldn t be more pleased with how everything went. Even when I had a flat tire on the way home, circumstances worked in my favor. Monday afternoon in Ellensburg Dan Paulsen and I walked out of Arby s thinking we were going to mount up and ride west into the sunset- wait, sorry, sunset should be raincloud - only for me to discover one of the tires on my trailer was flat and wobbly. We walked out to the street to see what was available for tire repair and, wouldn t you know it, there s Les Schwab Tires two hundred yards down the road. We rode down there only to discover they didn t have my tire size in stock. No problem, the guy working there puts the tire back on the rim with a new valve stem and inflates it to find the leak. He finds a hole in the tread, dismounts the tire, patches it from the inside, mounts and inflates the tire, discovers his patch leaks, dismounts the tire, does a better job with the second patch, mounts and inflates the tire, checks for no leaks, tells me to replace the tire A.S.A.P. since it looks ready to come apart, and remounts the wheel on my trailer, complete with torque wrench for final tightening. All that for free, and it was only about forty five minutes from the time we spotted Les Schwab to the time we were getting back on the freeway. I N S I D E T H I S ISSUE 1 NW Regional 3 Calendar of Events 4 Ride Report Coast Range Ramble continued on page 2 Some times life is good, as the sky had been clearing the whole time the tire was being fixed. We didn t see any more rain until we were a few miles west of Snoqualmie Pass. Rain was the farthest thing from our minds Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Central Washington was being graced with warm, sunny weather. Friday s high temperature was 78 degrees F, Saturday was 79, and then it jumped up to 88 on Sunday. As soon as I got into town Friday afternoon I stopped by Legend Harley Davidson/Suzuki/Kawasaki/Yamaha and picked up the bags we loaded the information packages into. Then I went to the Super 8 and met Tim Rieb and his wife, Donnie. Tim helped with route suggestions and area information before the event, and he also was the one who picked up the booklets from the Wenatchee Chamber of Commerce. While Tim and Donnie put info packages together I went outside to hang a COG banner that was visible from the street. As soon as I began hanging the banner in front of the hotel COGers began coming out of the woodwork. The rest of the afternoon and evening was spent talking with and registering folks, eating the dinner Bob Rainey was kind enough to bring me, unpacking and then hanging out in a fun little dive with good prices. Saturday Roland Vetter led a ride to Republic for lunch, and the return route included a run down the east side of Banks Lake. For anyone who s never ridden WA Hwy 155 along side Banks Lake, it s a sight to see and a great road to ride. continued on page 3 Newsletter 1

2 continued from page 1 NW Regional It was a dicey decision for me to go on the ride knowing I was hosting a dinner that night, but I got back just in time to load the door prizes into my trailer and sit through three cycles of a traffic light before getting out onto the road downtown. I beat most everybody to the restaurant and was in the midst of getting things together when I discovered someone at the restaurant had not communicated our dinner buffet menu to the staff. We winged it and went with individual orders from the menu, and I must admit I came away glad the mistake was made. Everybody got to eat what they wanted, and the food was top notch. If you find yourself hungry in Wenatchee, I recommend the Applewood Grill. Every plate looked like it was being submitted for an advertising photo session, and the flavors matched the appearances. Once we were done eating we had door prizes provided by the wonderful folks of Beartooth Kawasaki in Red Lodge Montana, Taylor Motorcycles in Woodburn, Oregon, Whitehorse Gear and ROADGEAR. I must say it was fun giving out leather vests that didn t fit. info packages together I went outside to hang a COG banner that was visible from the street. As soon as I began hanging the banner in front of the hotel COGers began coming out of the woodwork. The rest of the afternoon and evening was spent talking with and registering folks, eating the dinner Bob Rainey was kind enough to bring me, unpacking and then hanging out in a fun little dive with good prices. Saturday Roland Vetter led a ride to Republic for lunch, and the return route included a run down the east side of Banks Lake. For anyone who s never ridden WA Hwy 155 along side Banks Lake, it s a sight to see and a great road to ride. It was a dicey decision for me to go on the ride knowing I was hosting a dinner that night, but I got back just in time to load the door prizes into my trailer and sit through three cycles of a traffic light before getting out onto the road downtown. I beat most everybody to the restaurant and was in the midst of getting things together when I discovered someone at the restaurant had not communicated our dinner buffet menu to the staff. We winged it and went with individual orders from the menu, and I must admit I came away glad the mistake was made. Everybody got to eat what they wanted, and the food was top notch. If you find yourself hungry in Wenatchee, I recommend the Applewood Grill. Every plate looked like it was being submitted for an advertising photo session, and the flavors matched the appearances. Once we were done eating we had door prizes provided by the wonderful folks of Beartooth Kawasaki in Red Lodge Montana, Taylor Motorcycles in Woodburn, Oregon, Whitehorse Gear and ROADGEAR. I must say it was fun giving out leather vests that didn t fit. Some times life is good, as the sky had been clearing the whole time the tire was being fixed. We didn t see any more rain until we were a few miles west of Snoqualmie Pass. Rain was the farthest thing from our minds Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Central Washington was being graced with warm, sunny weather. Friday s high temperature was 78 degrees F, Saturday was 79, and then it jumped up to 88 on Sunday. As soon as I got into town Friday afternoon I stopped by Legend Harley Davidson/Suzuki/Kawasaki/Yamaha and picked up the bags we loaded the information packages into. Then I went to the Super 8 and met Tim Rieb and his wife, Donnie. Tim helped with route suggestions and area information before the event, and he also was the one who picked up the booklets from the Wenatchee Chamber of Commerce. While Tim and Donnie put Newsletter 2 After dinner and door prizes some of us went back to the same dive as the previous night, and a plan was hatched to take over the world. Sunday morning that plan was exchanged for a long ride on the Cascade Loop. Other folks did short rides to places like Mission Ridge or Leavenworth, but six of us left town going north on U.S. 97. Continue on page 4

3 A C T I V I T I E S C A L E N D A R O F E V E N T S Sat 08/13/11 8:00 AM NWCOG Volcano Run, Randle WA Contact: Dan Paulsen, Ph danodemotoman@yahoo.com Sat 08/13/11 10:15 AM Alaska Second Saturday Ride, Anchorage, AK Contact: Gary Benson, Ph bensonga@gci.net Sun 08/21/11 9:00 AM Hood Canal Ride to Eat Real Food Chimicum, WA Contact: Jack Carney, Ph jackpcarney@yahoo.com Fri 09/02 Sun 09/04/2011 Ride the Ribbon, John Day, Oregon Contact: Bob Pappalardo, Ph bobpappalardo@q.com Sat 09/10/11 10:15 AM Alaska Second Saturday Ride, Anchorage, AK Contact: Gary Benson, Ph bensonga@gci.net Please visit the calendar and forums often for the latest info on these and other rides/events. As fall approaches get out on your Connie and catch some highway bugs. Dude s Report A business trip to Nashville the week prior to the NW Regional took longer than expected and scuttled my plans to attend. Nashville is usually a pleasant city. During my stay I woke at 7:00 AM to learn it was already 85 degrees. Fortunately the temperature didn t exceed the humidity which hung at 90 percent. Afternoon monsoons were hot showers. I had a long planned trip to ride to Glacier National Park and the NW Regional seemed like the perfect springboard for departure. Sometimes the force just isn t with you and this was one of those times. Sorry I missed I finally managed to depart from Seattle for Glacier on the Tuesday following the regional. The weather was near perfect mid 70 s and I away thrilled with the idea of departing from s, faxes, phone calls and meetings. Montana is a state that is easy fall in love with. Big Skies and 2 lane speed limits of 70 MPH. Very few cars even with vacationers on the road. Both the bike and traffic had been well behaved I arrived at West Glacier late Wednesday, and found a vacant campsite. It s good to sleep under the stars. I broke camp early the next morning and headed up the Road to the Sun. Little did I know that this year there was a celebration on National Park funding. There were officials dressed in bright green vests with red flags who wanted everyone to participate in a celebratory parade. They wanted a big parade so they wouldn t let the parade begin until there were at least 50 vehicles. I took my place in line and waited for the signal to begin the parade. I leaned that in celebration of this new funding the Road to the Sun road had been renamed Road to the Construction zone. Newsletter 3

4 Ride Report Coast Range Ramble VIII, June 4 th By Steve Mustoe Once again the Goddess of Motorcycling smiled on our annual June Coast ride. After a week of crummy weather, bad enough to turn back a couple of Reno COGers who had hoped to attend, the skies cleared, the sun came out, and the roads dried. Rhonda and I were joined for breakfast by Portland COGer Dan Stombaugh, local FJR pilot Mark Stafford, and Francisco Rios. Francisco was temporarily without a bike so he drove down from Portland to do the ride on my VFR800. We lingered over the usual French toast, chicken apple sausages, cantaloupe, and copious quantities of Italian roast coffee until someone suggested we get off our lazy butts and do some riding. Just outside Elmira we were joined by COGer Phil Reeves on his C10. The back roads through the Coast Range were surprisingly empty of cagers, but their absence was more than made up for by motorcycles. It seemed like every biker in Western Oregon was out enjoying the first really nice day in ages. Despite all the recent rain the roads were mostly free of debris, though some of the curves required more than usual throttle restraint. Lunch at Leroy's Blue Whale in Yachats was excellent, as usual. I had the fish and chips, of course. We continued South on Hwy 101 to the Heceta Head overlook where the obligatory tourist shots were snapped. Traffic was a little heavy around Florence, even after we headed inland on Hwy126, but once we turned off on twisty OR 36 we were largely on our own. Phil split off shortly after Low Pass but the rest of us stuck together till Veneta where we descended on Our Daily Bread for some fabulous Marion berry pie (just like I described in my Rider magazine article). All agreed it had been an exceptional day, an excellent ride, and a very rewarding culinary experience. The only real problem arose when we arrived back at my house. It was very, very hard to pry Francisco off the little yellow bike. I think he has developed a serious case of VFR lust Regional continued When we got to Pateros we turned left on WA 153, and at some point turned off onto small roads which took us into Winthrop the back way. After a break we went west on WA 20, which is a bucket list ride for many. We stopped at the Diablo Dam overlook after noticing the Washington Pass overlook was closed, and then we went down the mountain to gas up and eat lunch at the Marblemount Diner. Lunch was good, and the air conditioner blowing on us was a welcome change from the heat outside. After lunch it was more westbound travel on 20 until we turned south on WA 523. Jack Carney, Rich Lucero and Rick Cone split off in Arlington and made a run for the ferry, and the other three of us headed east on Arlington Heights road before heading south toward Granite Falls on Jordan Rd. On the south side of Granite Falls was Menzel Lake Rd, Woods Creek Rd, Bollenbaugh Hill Rd, Old Pipeline Rd. and then Reiner Rd down to U.S. 2 where we took another break and bid Roland farewell as he went home and Dan Paulsen and I headed east on 2 to return to Wenatchee. We were glad to be going east, as westbound traffic was stop-and-go for many miles. We entered the highway at mile marker 22, several miles east of Monroe, and the westbound traffic was backed up to mile marker 33. I can t imagine actually planning a return route westbound on 2 on a Sunday afternoon. I would rather go to the dentist. All in all we did about 400 miles. The last 100 we cruised at a nice, easy pace up and over Stevens Pass, and I must say I love riding that road. The rivers and mountains make for scenery that is so picturesque I kept wanting to stop and take pictures. Someday soon I ll do a solo ride and stop for photos every five minutes. Once back in Wenatchee, Dan and I ate dinner at Denny s and hatched a plan to ride U.S. 97 to Ellensburg and Canyon Road to Yakima before cutting west on WA 410. We set our ETD to 9am, and I headed back to the hotel and caught the end of The Mark of Zorro, with Douglas Fairbanks and Noah Beery. After the movie ended I had a chance to reflect on the weekend, and once again I came away with a huge appreciation for the type of people who join COG and come to these events. My first rodeo seemed to have come together without too much in the way of things not being what they should, and in the morning I was going to enjoy a nice ride home. The thunder woke me up Monday morning. The window was cracked, and I could smell the rain. After getting dressed I packed up my stuff in the room, and as I began putting it in my trailer it began to rain. Of course, when I was done loading out the rain stopped. Newsletter 4

5 Regional continued I pulled around to the front of the hotel, and Dan and I decided to skirt the big, ugly storm clouds running up the east side of the Cascades by going southeast, then south to George, WA. We then got on I-90 and headed west, and after passing through Vantage we pulled off at the rest stop and pulled on whatever wet weather gear we had stashed. We talked with a couple who had just come back south from a ride to Alaska, and they pointed out that in their last 35 days of riding, three of them had been sunny. They were ready for some better conditions. After donning our Monday Best we headed off into the storm, and I didn t mind having to tone it down so a KLR could keep up on the hills. It was pretty wet, and the windmills were maxed out. We pulled into Ellensburg with the intent of eating at Rodeo City BBQ, but they are closed on Mondays. We went to Arby s instead, and that s where I experienced the low point of my trip. You already know the rest of the story, and if that s the absolute worst thing that happened in association with the Regional, I ll take it and wear an ear-to-ear smile. I want to thank all 31 attendees for being decent people. I m not much of a group joiner because sometimes people are people, but COG is one group of people I look forward to being around. So, who s coming back for more next year? Newsletter 5

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