Oregon

A collection of 57 posts

May/Jun '18 Premium Content

Expedition Idaho: Where Memory Lane Isn’t Paved

Going the distance can mean so many different things. For wanderers, it typically refers to making a trip longer than expected, by choice, or sometimes, by forces beyond our control. For others, it just means that you’ve gone, or are going, as far as you can. Last year I

May/Jun '18

City Escape: Eugene, Oregon

> This loop southwest of Eugene includes forests, rivers, lakes, state parks, and stirring views of the Pacific Ocean. Southwestern Oregon is filled with stunning scenery and this escape is a good sampler of what the region has to offer. This ride is best taken from late spring through early fall,

Jul/Aug '17 Premium Content

The Dalles, Oregon Shamrock Tour®: Exploring the Columbia River Gorge Area

The Columbia River Gorge’s breathtaking vistas owe its heritage to a series of geological cataclysms during the last ice age. A huge 2,000-foot-deep glacial lake had formed over present day Missoula, MT. The ice dam, impounding the glacial melt, gave way, sending a massive torrent of destruction down

Mar/Apr '17

City Escape: Portland, Oregon

> Fuel up at See See Motor Coffee in northeast Portland and head west through the Coast Range to explore Oregon’s logging heritage and see where Lewis and Clark spent a soggy winter in 1805-06. The city of Astoria thrives as a port and tourist destination, and winding roads along

Jan/Feb '16 Premium Content

Southeast Oregon: Empty Land Full of Adventure

As I open my eyes and look out of my tent, the Milky Way has almost an overwhelming brightness, and I momentarily feel as if I’m being catapulted through space before I realize that I’m just lying in the middle of a remote high desert road. After months

Sep/Oct '15 Premium Content

San Francisco, California to Seattle, Washington: The Unusual Route

For simple navigation it would be easy to connect both cities via Highway 1 along the coast, but the inland route, including an occasional coastal intermezzo, promises much more diversity. Wow! This is steeper than it looks on television—and much better. We don’t know what to do first.

Jul/Aug '15 Premium Content

Trans-America Trail, Colorado to Oregon: Detours, Broken Bones, and New Friendships

As if on cue, my new riding partner, Luke Swab, rolls into Fairplay, CO, on a Yamaha WR250R, where I am waiting to meet him by the side of the road. I’m relieved, yet I’m apprehensive to have a riding partner. The first half of the journey had

Mar/Apr '15 Premium Content

California and Oregon: High Sierra Hoedown

Call it unfinished business, if you will. In 2006, I collected a Ducati Multistrada 1000 DS from Southern California Motorcycles in Brea, CA, and set off to tour the northern Sierra. My trip would include most of the famous Golden Chain Highway, California 49, through the foothills and over the

Sep/Oct '14 Premium Content

Portland, Oregon to Seattle, Washington: The Scenic Way

I’m standing in a fine Japanese garden, and I’m looking at a volcano—an exotic combination. I didn’t have to go too far. This is neither Tokyo nor Mount Fuji. I’m in Portland, OR. Toward the east, the snow capped peak of Mount Hood is clearly

Mar/Apr '14 Premium Content

Idaho, Washington, and Oregon: The Lewis & Clark Trail

By fall 1805, the Corps of Discovery was following Lolo Pass through the snow-covered Bitterroot Mountains. The men were near starvation when Sergeant John Ordway recorded in his journal: “We followed down the main creek about 4 miles had nothing to eat but Some portable Soup we being hungry for

Jan/Feb '14 Premium Content

Salem, Oregon Shamrock Tour®: Over the River and Through the Woods

Dense stands of old-growth conifers line ribbons of smooth asphalt that climb from the crashing waves and rolling fog of the Pacific Ocean to the desolate lava fields and craggy peaks of the Cascade Range. Despite 30-degree temperature swings, the weather is perfect. Welcome to Oregon. Early on a July

May/Jun '13 Premium Content

Longview, Washington Shamrock Tour®: Volcano Craters to Foggy Seashores

Scanning my map, I quickly realize what an incredible motorcycling wonderland I’ve arrived at. There are not many locales where you can visit the ocean, the rain forest, the mountains, and the desert in a few hours. Oh, and did I mention that three national parks and one monument

May/Jun '13

City Escape: Portland, OR

> This route includes some of the most breathtaking scenery in the northwest United States, from sweeping vistas atop Mt. Hood to the geological wonder that is the Columbia River Gorge. Spring, summer, and fall are all glorious seasons to experience this road trip. Length Approximately 184 miles. Meet-up Spot Starbucks,

Jul/Aug '12 Premium Content

Oregon and California: An Adventure Ride Fills the Soul

I know there is something special pulling me to this adventure besides the quiet, seductive whisper of nature and the luring temptation of being solo on the open road. The goose bumps throughout the entire journey tell me there is more to this ride than exploring new and beautiful country

Sep/Oct '11 Premium Content

Nevada and Oregon Ghost Town Tour

As we crest Harrison Pass on the Pony Express National Historic Trail and begin our descent into Ruby Valley, the route is clearly visible, winding across the treeless lowlands and ascending the Maverick Springs Range. The sense of openness is almost overwhelming and gives pause as I wonder what went

Sep/Oct '10 Premium Content

Reader Ride - Shaniko, Oregon

Don't call it a ghost town; Shaniko, OR, has maintained a population of 30 people. A far cry from the turn of the 20th-century town that billed itself as "the wool capital of the world." By 1911, a competing railroad line diverted much of the town's wool traffic and Shaniko

Jan/Feb '10 Premium Content

Oregon Backcountry Adventure

I hear a loud CRACK just outside the tent and bolt upright from a deep sleep. My sudden movement sends the visitor thundering away through the brush. With my heart doing double-time, my hands fumble around the tent for the headlamp. Once in hand, I switch it on and shine

Sep/Oct '09 Premium Content

Shamrock Tour® - Ashland, Oregon

On November 27, 1941, travelers on US Highway 99 south of Yreka, Caifornia were astonished to find a band of men blocking the road and waving hunting rifles. They handed out a Proclamation of Independence, which informed one and all that the State of Jefferson was in "patriotic rebellion against

Mar/Apr '09 Premium Content

Reader Ride: Klamath Falls Trip

I could hear the alarm growing louder the more I gained consciousness. I could see the sunlight peeking through the blinds letting me know that it was time to get up and get this ride started. A stiff cup of coffee and a shower finished, I was loading my gear

Jan/Feb '08 Premium Content

Along the Trans-America Trail

After surviving the unexpected floods in the Utah desert caused by the most rain the area had seen in the last 60 years, Jeff and I are on to the next, and hopefully drier, state of our cross-country motorcycle adventure. Goat Trail to Iceberg Peak In the far northwest corner

Jul/Aug '07 Premium Content

Canada to Mexico - Off-Road Excerpts

If you're up for it, this rugged, cross-country adventure could be the trip of a lifetime. Roaming from spectacular valleys where antelope caper to high plateaus where wild horses still run, we crossed river rapids and deserts and the undisturbed wilds of the western ranges. We stirred up the dust

Sep/Oct '05 Premium Content

Shamrock Tour® - Eugene, Oregon

"Skinner's Mud Hole" is hardly a name civic boosters would use to attract settlers to a new city. But in 1852 that's what everyone called the township Eugene Franklin Skinner established on the banks of the Willamette. Following his first spring there, when the swollen river had turned the area

Jul/Aug '05 Premium Content

Medford, Oregon

Commitment isn't what it used to be. Each New Year's Day millions commit to lifestyle changes that last, on average, two weeks. Couples vow " 'til death do us part," yet divorce is commonplace. True commitment  -  a parachute jump, for example  -  offers no escape. Like the rockslide I'm stuck

Mar/Apr '05 Premium Content

The Land Chief Joseph Lost

On a blue-sky July day in tiny Joseph, Oregon, a carpet of golden grassland stretches north to the horizon, hemmed by a line of sturdy, white-topped mountains. So much land, so few people. You'd think there would have been enough to go around. And there almost was. Until some shiny

Nov/Dec '04 Premium Content

Shamrock Tour® - Portland, Oregon

As we dismount in the parking lot of Mount Hood's Timberline Lodge and gaze at the still snow-draped peak that towers above us, Christian proclaims, "I'm blown away. It's like God created the world in six days, and then on the seventh, He took the best parts and built Oregon.