Check list for a very good day on the road

Wake up...look out the window of the motel...the sun shining with blue sky
~check
Coffee
~check
Call Nancy
~check
Looks warm out...don't need the long underwear today
~check
Pack the rain gear
~check
Check the cameras, cards, and batteries
~check....double check
Brush my teeth
~check
Load the bike
~check
Check the gas 
~check
Find the local spot for breakfast
~check
Make sure I am still on the route
~check
Roll on the throttle
~check
Stop often to make photos
~check
No Highway Patrol in the area when I accidentally exceed the posted speed limit
~check
Only cross traffic is four legged, runs quickly across the road and is quite small
~check
Sun on my face, wind on my back all day
~check

It was a very good day.  Traveled through the Great Basin area of Oregon today. 

North from Lakeview, OR HWY 395 becomes straight and narrow.  Extends to the horizon as far as the eye can see.

Albert Lake.  Formed over 10,000 years ago.  Glaciers and melting ice formed ancient lakes within the Great Basin.

Massive uplifting of the earth created dramatic cliffs and ridges throughout the area.

Open road reaches to the horizon.  Passed fewer than a dozen cars all day. Sun warmed my bones.

Cliffs and ridges give way to gentle sage covered hills.  Clouds dot the sky as if added with a paint brush.  Each curve in the road carries with it a new view of the landscape.

The largest pine trees in the United States once proudly reached to the sky here.  Unrestrained timber harvesting in the 1920's left few of the remaining giants.

The road carried me across incredible landscape today...a perfect day...

~check

Emails tonight from all my special friends

~check and thank you

What a check list...

~check

Kickstand down tonight John Day, OR

~check

be strong, be safe, Carlan

Sharing the stories

Talk with the locals.  They know the history.  They know the weather patterns.  They have been telling me this past week..."never seen this type of weather in over 80 years living here".  Rain, sleet, snow, wind, cold.  That's what the Eastern Sierra and I have experienced the past few days.  Sure happy I have my long underwear.  Leaving Gardnerville this morning heading into Reno it seemed the sky opened up with more water than I thought clouds could hold.  

At Susanville the sun began to peak through the clouds.  Four lanes of HWY 395 suddenly turned into the traditional blue highway.  For a moment I thought I had missed a turn.  LA traffic disappeared, that familiar feeling of the open road began to seep into my bones.  Rolling on the throttle, wind in my face, feeling of being one with the landscape and road grew stronger and stronger.

The high desert was covered with new spring sage.  Mile after mile the beauty and wonder of the landscape filled all my senses. 

Crossing into Oregon  Goose Lake came into view.  Goose Lake is a large alkaline lake on the Oregon-California border.  Like many other lakes in the Great Basin, Goose Lake is a  pluvial lake that formed from precipitation and melting glaciers during the Pleistocene epoch.  At an overlook I met George Steward.  He moved to Goose Lake with his family eight-two years ago.   Within fifteen minutes George shared the history and his stories of the area with me.  Invited me to have breakfast with him in the morning.  Remember...talk with the locals.

It is all about sharing.  Sharing the stories, sharing the history, sharing the photographs, sharing the experiences, sharing our world.  I received an email from a long time friend tonight.  Sometimes, I wonder if anyone out there actually reads my traveling rambles.  He said..."Wow, to have just a bit of your eye and talent to document our beautiful world.  And the ability to ride free and find it."   Thanks for those thoughtful words.  Makes me want to share it even more.

Kickstand down in Lakeview, OR tonight.  No rain so far.

live free, ride free,  Carlan

Rain, sleet, riding in the clouds

Two days of clouds with sun breaks where the majestic Sierras have been sharing their beauty.  Stayed at Tom's Place last night near Independence.  Tom's Place was originally built in 1917 by a German man named Hans Lof.  It all started with a much needed gas station to fuel the traffic moving up from Southern California.  Lof built a cookhouse, added a store and corrals, then started packing people into the mountains for a wilderness getaway. In 1923, Thomas Jefferson Yerby and his wife, Hazel(stage actress, Jane Grey) purchased the business for $5,000 and Tom build the original Tom's Place Lodge in 1924.  People really started getting into the fishing here in the mid 20's, and there was a lot of traffic to Yosemite. The Lodge has not changed much since 1924.  No wi-fi, no TV, only fly fishing rods from the 20's on the wall.  Met some great folks in the bar.  Good food, great conversation.

Sierra Nevada is a Spanish term meaning "snow-covered mountain range".  Riding with the mountains on my left for two days, watching the light hit the jagged peaks, the wonder of how this mountain range formed continues to amaze me.  The Sierra runs 400 miles north-to-south, and is approximately 70 miles  across east-to-west.  More than 100 million years ago granite formed deep underground.  The range started to uplift 4 million years ago, and erosion by glaciers exposed the granite and formed the light-colored mountains and cliffs that make up the range.  The uplift caused a wide range of elevations and climates in the Sierra Nevada, which are reflected by the presence of five life zones.  I have experienced all those climates during the past two days.

Yesterday north on HWY 395 near Lone Pine I stopped at Manzanar.  The Manzanar National Historic Site was established to preserve the stories of the internment of nearly 120,000 Japanese Americans during World War II and to serve as a reminder to this and future generations of the fragility of American civil liberties.  I remembered the story Ansel shared about making the photograph of Mt. Williamson during the days of the internment.  How seeing the morning light on Mt. Williamson had given the people hope for a new and better day.

Leaving Manzanar twenty-five miles of single lane twisties off of HWY 395 on HWY 168 led to the grove of Bristlecone Pines in the White Mountains. The Bristlecone Pines are the oldest known trees on Earth. Many of the trees are over 4,000 years old.  At an elevation of over 10,000 feet some of these trees grow only 1/100th of an inch per year.

Back to the rain, sleet, riding in the clouds part.  This morning at Tom's Place the clouds were on the ground, light snow, heavy rain was falling.  Weather report was the same for the next two days.  Spent an hour getting the "foul weather" gear on and headed out.

Remember the saying....a good picture is worth a thousand words...ok...so much for the words.

By late afternoon the sun poked through the clouds as I crossed into Nevada.  Dry pavement never looked so good.

Kickstand down tonight in Gardnerville,NV.  Looking out the window of my motel room it is raining hard again....

be strong, be safe, Carlan


 

The king of the easy-riding chopper style.

For the 395 assignment I am running down the highway on a special HOG project bike.
Harley says..."The Wide Glide combines old school attitude with 103 cubic inches of V-Twin engine to rattle minivan windows."  Yea...I think I have been rattling a few windows.  Actually, got my heart to thumping nicely.

Out of the LA traffic.  Mile by mile the white noise in my head began to disappear.  By the afternoon I am in the zone.  Wind on my back, rolling on the throttle, feeling one with the road.

Into the Eastern Sierras

Pearsonville, Hubcap Capital of the World

Bleachers looking for a crowd

Keeler Beach Resort, Owens Lake

Television set waiting to tell a story 

Motorcycle art

Mt. Whitney hiding in the clouds

Kickstand down in Lone Pine tonight.  Cobwebs  gone.  Heart  thumping.

be strong, be safe, Carlan