Wow, I don't even know where to start! 
What a beautiful day for a ride today.
Late last night I found out my friends would watch Travis my son so I could go on this ride today. Knotso organized the ride as the weather forecast for this day was going to be great and it was.
Got up at 6:30 and go my son dressed and fed and took him over to my friends house then rushed home and changed into my riding gear and headed South to hook up with Knotso at our meeting spot at an exit on I-5 South of Tacoma. This is an hour ride for me and boy was I frozen when I got there. Knotso had been waiting about 10 minutes so we were ready to go. It was 34 degrees when I got up but the sun was shining and it warmed up pretty quick to about 45 by the time I met Knoto at 8:15.
We got back on the Freeway and headed down to hook up with Turdle and his wife Melissa and a friend of theirs on a Fat Boy (Scott). Took us an about an hour with some heavy traffic but in between the traffic we opened it up and were doing 85 trying to get down the highway as fast as we could. Got there almost on time about 15 minutes later than we planned.
Now the 5 of us head further South to hook up with the Portland, Oregon group that was coming up our way to meet up with us. Big Mike organized this group of 6 or 7 bikes. There was 3 Big Dogs among them.
We finally made it into Castle Rock and as we are pulling into town from the North we see a group coming into town from the South and lo and behold it's Big Mikes group. Funny that you can tell this is the group you are suppose to meet cause there was some Big Dogs in the group! This is the first time we've met any of these guys. We stop and have lunch at this "hole in the wall bar & grill that had great food. After an hour of taking pictures and making introductions we are back on the road again led by Turtle heading Northeast to the Mount St Helens park.
The weather had warmed up to about 60 now and it was a great ride. The park at the upper levels was closed due to snow and the time of the year but we road up all the way to the road closure and stopped at a lake called "Spirit Lake" that was created back when the mountain exploded back in 83 or whenever it was.
Even though we had climbed to over 3500 ft in elevation it was real warm compared to earlier in the day. I think it made it up to 60 degrees by mid-day. We took a lot of photos and enjoyed the sites for an hour. Finally it's about 2:30 in the afternoon and both groups have a lot of miles to go so we head back home. We made several stops on the way down the mountain to take pictures of the scenery on this spectacular day.
What a day it was. Started off cold and by all standards was cold all day but the sun made it just right for us Pacific Northwest riders. And there was no rain today! :2thumbs:
I would like to thank Knotso for putting this all together and Big Mike for organizing his group from Portland OR and to Turtle and his wife Melissa for leading the group up the mountain of St Helens. And lastly to all the new friends we made on this great ride.
Ok, here are the pictures and a link to many more. Enjoy them as the large group of us sure did enjoy this great day in the cold Pacific Northwest.
Pacific Northwest Ride pictures by Raywood59 - Photobucket
Slide show here:
Image hosting, free photo sharing & video sharing at Photobucket
What a beautiful day for a ride today.Late last night I found out my friends would watch Travis my son so I could go on this ride today. Knotso organized the ride as the weather forecast for this day was going to be great and it was.
Got up at 6:30 and go my son dressed and fed and took him over to my friends house then rushed home and changed into my riding gear and headed South to hook up with Knotso at our meeting spot at an exit on I-5 South of Tacoma. This is an hour ride for me and boy was I frozen when I got there. Knotso had been waiting about 10 minutes so we were ready to go. It was 34 degrees when I got up but the sun was shining and it warmed up pretty quick to about 45 by the time I met Knoto at 8:15.
We got back on the Freeway and headed down to hook up with Turdle and his wife Melissa and a friend of theirs on a Fat Boy (Scott). Took us an about an hour with some heavy traffic but in between the traffic we opened it up and were doing 85 trying to get down the highway as fast as we could. Got there almost on time about 15 minutes later than we planned.
Now the 5 of us head further South to hook up with the Portland, Oregon group that was coming up our way to meet up with us. Big Mike organized this group of 6 or 7 bikes. There was 3 Big Dogs among them.
We finally made it into Castle Rock and as we are pulling into town from the North we see a group coming into town from the South and lo and behold it's Big Mikes group. Funny that you can tell this is the group you are suppose to meet cause there was some Big Dogs in the group!
This is the first time we've met any of these guys. We stop and have lunch at this "hole in the wall bar & grill that had great food. After an hour of taking pictures and making introductions we are back on the road again led by Turtle heading Northeast to the Mount St Helens park.The weather had warmed up to about 60 now and it was a great ride. The park at the upper levels was closed due to snow and the time of the year but we road up all the way to the road closure and stopped at a lake called "Spirit Lake" that was created back when the mountain exploded back in 83 or whenever it was.
Even though we had climbed to over 3500 ft in elevation it was real warm compared to earlier in the day. I think it made it up to 60 degrees by mid-day. We took a lot of photos and enjoyed the sites for an hour. Finally it's about 2:30 in the afternoon and both groups have a lot of miles to go so we head back home. We made several stops on the way down the mountain to take pictures of the scenery on this spectacular day.
What a day it was. Started off cold and by all standards was cold all day but the sun made it just right for us Pacific Northwest riders. And there was no rain today! :2thumbs:
I would like to thank Knotso for putting this all together and Big Mike for organizing his group from Portland OR and to Turtle and his wife Melissa for leading the group up the mountain of St Helens. And lastly to all the new friends we made on this great ride.
Ok, here are the pictures and a link to many more. Enjoy them as the large group of us sure did enjoy this great day in the cold Pacific Northwest.
Pacific Northwest Ride pictures by Raywood59 - Photobucket
Slide show here:
Image hosting, free photo sharing & video sharing at Photobucket
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