Category: Travel

Sam Hill’s Legacy, part 2

Sam Hill, creator of the Maryhill Loops Road, also built a full-sized reconstruction of England’s famous neolithic Stonehenge on the hills above the Columbia River. Nick and I visited it on our way home from our gorge adventure a few weeks ago.

Built as a tribute to the soldiers of Klickitat County who lost their lives, Maryhill’s Stonehenge is the first monument in the nation to honor the dead of World War I. A Quaker pacifist, Hill was mistakenly informed that the original Stonehenge had been used as a sacrificial site, and thus constructed the replica to remind us that “humanity is still being sacrificed to the god of war.’’

If you go, make sure to check out the information board, showing how people might have used it to mark the seasons.

On the open road

Riding the twisties near Neah Bay, WA
Copyright 2006 by Chuck Porter, all rights reserved

Two motorcycles, three Clif Bars, four days and 640 miles of twisty road are all you need for a weekend of fun! (At least, that’s what my dad and I thought sometime last fall.)

The weather gods looked like they were in a favorable mood last week, so on Friday, we packed our bags and planned our route, which consisted of a loop around the Olympic Peninsula, plus a day on Vancouver Island.

Saturday dawned cold, but clear - a very good sign! After a fill-up at the local Shell station, we took off for Port Angeles.

I don’t think my dad was fully prepared for the route I’d planned. A short ride up I-5 to Marysville and we were off on every teensy country rode I could find between there and La Conner. We stopped at the Deception Pass Bridge for a peek over the edge and then high-tailed it to the Keystone ferry dock on Whidbey Island. (We wanted to make the 12 p.m. ferry, so we could have lunch in Port Townsend.)

We made it with plenty of time to spare and traded pleasantries with the BMW riders in line ahead of us.

(A side note for Ducati enthusiasts: As we were riding off the ferry on the other side, we spotted a gorgeous Paul Smart 1000. Not only do they exist, but people are riding them too!)

Port Townsend is clearly a town that caters to motorcyclists; we spotted at least four designated motorcycle parking spots at every street corner. Lunch was at Bayview, a small restaurant with a view of the water. Food is decent and the price is right (about $8 for a good sized sandwich with a side salad). Don’t expect to get an Arnold Palmer, though. They don’t have lemonade.

On our way out of town we paid a brief visit to a friend of my dad’s. She has a collection of six amazing birds. Four of them are parrots (three green and one grey), a ginormous cockateal, and one other that I can’t remember. They talk and laugh just like humans (one of them even said “hubba hubba!” when we walked into the room). They’re a little creepy and fascinating at the same time.

We cruised along Discovery Bay to Sequim, rode out to Dungeness Spit State Park for a view of the water, and finished the day at the Red Lion in Port Angeles. Burritos and margaritas at Crazy Fish topped off the day.

We aimed for an early start on Sunday to catch the Coho Ferry to Victoria, B.C. At the ticket counter, we were presented with a stern warning that any damage to the bikes on the journey across the water was our sole responsibility. Remembering the chaotic storm waves that tossed the boat around last time I took the ferry, I reluctantly signed the waiver. Fortunately, the ferry provides ties to secure the motorcycles against tipping over. Security is entirely dependant on your ability to tie good knots, however.

Once in Victoria, we took off on Hwy 1 to Sooke and then Hwy 14 to Port Renfrew. Of all the roads we traveled on the entire trip, this one was my favorite. It paralleled the Straight of Juan de Fuca, but it was so twisty that almost 100% of your attention had to be focused on the next turn.

We made it as far as Jordan River before gas availability became an issue. (Note to self, fuel up in Sooke if you want to make it all the way to Port Renfrew and back.) We stopped for lunch at a small burger shack on the beach and chatted with a couple 749 and 999 owners briefly, before they continued on down the road. It was just as well, because within 15 minutes a pack of 30 riders, mostly on Harley Davidson’s, showed up. They were making an ice cream stop on the way to the pub in Port Renfrew. They departed only to be followed by a pack of about 20 “angry bees” (Japanese sport bikes) coming back from Port Renfrew. Clearly the ice cream must be good here, because that is all they stopped for too.

The sport bike riders departed just ahead of us, but we never saw them again. Too fast for us granny drivers!

The ride back to the ferry was just as fun as the ride out (maybe a little better actually, since we were more familiar with the turns).

Day 3 dawned clear again (boy were we lucky!), so we headed west on Hwy 112 to Neah Bay. It’s located on the Makah Indian reservation at the northwestern most corner of the Peninsula. It’s not much of a destination, but the road getting there was pretty good. The pavement could be better, but the views and the twistiness factor are excellent.

From there we headed south on Hwy 113 - the second best road on the entire trip. At 60 mph, the sweepers make you feel like a grand prix driver. Sweet!

In Forks, the road joins up with Hwy 101, which mostly parallels the coast.

Me on “Il Mostro” and dad on the “Friendly Bee”
Copyright 2006 by Charles Porter, all rights reserved

It’s a long ride to Aberdeen, and by the time we got there we were pretty much toast. 220 miles in one day is a lot for first-time tourers!

Aberdeen (home of Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain) is a moderately depressed mill town that used to be the center of a booming logging and fishing trade. There’s not much of either industry left in the area, but the town has yet to die completely.

We stayed at the Red Lion again. (It was much cheaper than the one in P.A. and included breakfast.) We each took long showers, letting the hot water soothe our sore bodies. After dinner and watching The Apprentice (a show which my dad was not impressed with), we fell soundly asleep.

Tuesday morning dawned cloudy and cool. We had faith in the weather man’s prediction that the day would stay dry and headed inland to Hood Canal.

The winding road from Shelton to Hoodsport to Quilcene has a number of nicely linked ess turns, great for riding.

After a short stop in Port Gamble for lunch we took the ferry from Kingston to Edmonds (bringing our ferry trip count to four!) and headed home.

Franz Joseph Glacier

It’s not every day that a team of guides cuts a staircase into the side of a major glacier.

New Zealand photo update: At least half of the pictures I took in New Zealand are now off the camera. The other half will come off tonight. Then it’s on to post-processing - the tedious task that turns ordinary photos into ... well ... better photos.

This picture was taken at the base of the Franz Joseph glacier. Tourists pay guides to take them up the glacier for a half or full day of icy fun. When I went, we crawled around in “worm holes,” jumped over crevasses and did a lot of stuff you’d never get to do on a guided trip in the states. It was good fun!

Lake Wanaka

Hello from the sunny shores of Lake Wanaka. The last few days have been an interesting journey!

Our first day of riding saw us across the plains outside Ch-Ch and over Porter’s Pass. (Yes, a pass named after me...or maybe not...) I’ve never cycled into a headwind quite like this. It was blowing so hard that I was reduced to riding at 8-10 mph on the flats and about 4-5 mph over the pass. At one point I simply got off and walked b/c it was faster. Four of us reached the summit together and stopped for a celebratory picture:

L to R: Tom, Howard, me, Kurt

Riding down the other side and over the hilly landscape on the other side was no better. I collapsed at lunch, completely wiped out. (I sagged the rest of the way to Arthur’s Pass and I’m not ashamed to admit it.)

Arthur’s Pass is a tiny (I mean TINY) little village that is the start of many a hiking and backpacking trip. My legs had freshened up a bit, so while Nick collapsed on the bed, I went for a hike to Punchbowl Falls. It’s really big (bigger than Snoqualmie Falls); the picture doesn’t do it justice:

It was a good thing that I visited the falls that afternoon, because not too much later a really big storm blew in. Nick and I happened to have a room on the windward side our hotel. All night long the wind thundered down the mountain, rattling the windows and blowing our door open to the outside elements. Yikes!

The next morning was no better. The whole crew dashed to the town’s information center in a downpour, where Nick and I picked up our trip mascot. He’s a little stuffed kea bird, which we named Hokey Pokey (after the caramelized candy you can buy here).

The rain never let up, so the bike ride down the other side of the pass was cancelled. We loaded up the vans instead and headed for Hokitika.

The drive down the Otira Gorge was spectacular, even if it was pouring down rain and we were in a van. Every where you looked, there were waterfalls. The river was brown with stuff being washed down the hillside. Occasionally we would even drive under a waterfall. This is a rainforest, like we’ve never seen at home, that’s for sure.

By the time we got to Hokitika, the skies had brightened and it had stopped raining. Nick and I stretched our legs on the beach (our first view of the Tasman Sea). We came across the remnants of a driftwood sculpture contest. The entries were extremely creative and big.

The next day’s ride took us to Franz Joseph and our first day off. Nick chose to ride a little while I went off and spent the day on the glacier. I have to say it was one of the most surreal glacier experiences I’ve ever had. Every where you looked, up or down, you’d see no fewer than 30 people climbing around unroped. The guides spend a good part of their day carving steps into the side of the steep ice faces. Without the steps, you’d need ice climbing equipment to negotiate the terrain.

Franz Joseph Glacier, terminus is roughly 200m above sea level

We wandered high up, in and out of tight spaces, before returning home in time for dinner.

We’re on a biking vacation though, so we were off the next day on our trusty steeds to Lake Moeraki - 72 miles away. The riding was probably some of the best we’d had on this entire trip. The headwinds we’d been battling on every day up until this point abated a little and the temperature was cool. Nick and I stopped at Bruce Bay along the way to eat a sandwich we’d packed and dipped our toes in the Tasman Sea. (I think we were the only ones to stop.)

The water was cold, but not nearly as cold as the Puget Sound.

We arrived in enough time to take Hokey Pokey for a walk through the rainforest to Munro Beach.

Between July and December, penguins breed on this beach. We weren’t fortunate enough to see the birds, but we did get eaten by sandflies. (Itchy!)

Let’s see, that brings us up to yesterday - another 70 mile day - from Lake Moeraki over Haast Pass to Makarora (a three building town). We stayed in cute little A-frame huts and met a man who owns 25 acres on Whidbey Island. (It’s a very small world.)

Today we had a rolling recovery day - 40 miles to the delightful little town of Wanaka. We rolled past a good portion of the lake before cruising over a pass called “the Neck” to Lake Hawea. Throw in a few sheep and it’s about as picturesque as the landscape could get!

After a bit of lunch in Hawea, we rode back towards Lake Wanaka and the town of Wanaka. I think I could live here: sunny and hot in the summer, a skiing and climbing paradise in the winter. Wonderful!

Tomorrow we’re off to Queenstown. We’re still undecided about how we’ll spend our day there, but I’m sure we’ll have plenty of options.

Greetings from Christchurch

Hello everyone!

We landed in Christchurch (ch-ch) two days ago and have been having a marvelous time. The city is very much like Victoria, BC in every way. The people, the cuisine, the architecture, all of it.

We’ve cruised around and managed to take in almost all of the city. I’m short on time, so here’s the reader’s digest of some of the interesting things we’ve discovered.

• Possums are apparently pests down here. Most of the wool for sweaters is blended with possum fur; it’s quite soft.
• Drip coffee doesn’t exist. You order a “long black” and get a long pull of espresso instead.
• Nothing in this country that was built by European settlers is more than 150 years old. It may look like it was styled after the older buildings in Europe, but it’s relatively new.
• It’s always windy.

We’re off today on our first real ride (we did a short 20k ride yesterday, it didn’t count). Pedaltours is dropping us off about 75k out of Ch-Ch and we’re riding to the alpine village of Arthur’s Pass. We’ll climb about 1500 feet today over 85k. It’s guaranteed to be beautiful!