Stop Time: 1800 PDT
Start Location: Crater Lake NP, OR
Stop Location: Yakima, WA
Lodging: Best Western
Dinner: Outback Steakhouse
Miles Traveled Today: 330
Weather: 26-85, Sunny
Even though I didn't set the clock, my intent was to get up early enough to see the sun rise on Crater Lake. That I did! WOW, was it ever COLD this morning. The official temperature in the lodge was 26 degrees and my bike thermometer showed 27 degrees. Quite a heavy layer of frost on my motorcycle in the parking lot. For sure we would have to wait for a warm up before departing as a Harley does not include a defroster!!! (although probably should for what it costs!!)
So here is the pic of the sun coming up over the edge of the crater. Quite a site. Funny, although it was in the 20's, I didn't really feel cold. I guess I had already got used to the colder temps having been in them for about a day now. After a few cups of coffee, I ended up hiking about 3 miles on the rim trail, just pausing and enjoying the views and taking a few pics along the way. I talked to Bill and Marty and told them to just go on to breakfast without me this morning.
I took a bunch of pictures this morning. Just like the evening before, as the sun rose and I walked along the rim trail the view of the lake constantly was changing. Here are just a select few of them.The pictures speak for themselves:
This was my shadow next to a rock column. I thought it was kinda cool as the rock shadow looked somewhat like a face.
It warmed up into the upper 40's around 10 am so we packed up to take off. We had called Wildhorse Harley Davidson in Bend, OR a couple of days ago to see if they would work us in for an oil change if we just stopped by today. They said they would and should get us done in about an hour. Most Harley shops will do that for traveling motorcyclists, although I have been to a couple that would not do that, but that is definitely the exception rather than the rule!
We said our goodbys to Marty and he headed on South as we headed North ready to make it on to Blaine, WA for our last corner checkin. We knew it would take more than a day to get there so we planned to spend the night around Yakima, WA.
We had to stop at the North entrance station since I had been talking to Bill on his CB a few times coming out of the park but I wasn't getting any response. Hadn't mentioned it, but since riding in the Tropical Storm back in Florida, Bill's LCD display on his radio had gone blank. Apparently some water got into it and shorted something out. The radio and CB continued to work, it's just he couldn't tell if it was on or if the volume was turned up. We found that the CB volume had gotten accidentally turned down when we stopped. Fixed that and we were back on our way.
We made it to Wildhorse Harley Davidson around 12:30. The folks there were super nice and took our bikes right in for the oil change. They even made us a fresh pot of coffee! Kinda funny, our home dealer in Richmond is Steelhorse Harley as is where we got our last maintenance, now we were at Wildhorse Harley for our next maintenance.
The ride up US 97 was a nice ride. Not much traffic and nice scenery. The best part was coming down into the Columbia River gorge and coming back up out of the gorge. That was some fun, scenic riding.
We made it to a Best Western in Yakima, WA and ate dinner across the parking lot at a Outback Steakhouse. We were ready to head on to Blaine and our final corner tomorrow!
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