2008 XS 30th anniversary, Idaho Aug 15-20

[Jeremy_Sells]

Denny - I am in and cannot wait! This will finally give me a chance to use all 3 pieces of my luggage! Ratbyk, it will be great to see you too! I really need to get my passport renewed - damn it! Anyhow, as the time draws near, maybe I could lead us through Oregon - my favorite road starts in Reedsport and heads towards Eugene! This is great, see you all soon!

[ratbyk]

Hi Jeremy, I'm looking forward to riding with you to. Bring your brother, He rides very, very well. (like you)
That run from Reedsport east towards Drain on Hwy 38 is real biker country. Unbelievable scenery through the canyon with the river rushing along beside you. Good pavement, sweepers, elevation changes and little traffic. Whoopee, bring it on!
See ya

[Jeremy_Sells]

Ken - Highway 38 is awesome, but remind me to show you the route along the Smith River which shows up on some maps as State Route 48. This runs from Reedsport and comes out near Crow, OR and uses a few newly paved Forest Service roads as well. Great fun, along the Smith River and NO CARS!

See ya -

[oldbull]

30th ann ride

I live in Port Angeles, WA - ferry goes out of town to Victoria BC from here - must have passports as of last January.

From Astoria up the coast to Forks, WA then across to Port Angeles is a GREAT ride along the Pacific most of the way - from Port Angeles to Kingston / Edmonds ferry puts you North of Seattle then North to highway that cuts across East to WA/Idaho border is a beautiful ride all the way - going over the pass from Coerdlane leaves out the passport thing - another very important thing to remember even with a passport if you have EVER had a DUI Canada will not let you cross there border.

[wa407mpp]

I was planning on taking that route across Washington instead of going into Canada, because of my limited time frame and wanting to spend some time with family in North Idaho while I'm over there. Also for those who haven't heard about the ferry problems we're having in Port Townsend you may experience long waits, because they scraped all of our ferries for the P.T. to whidby Island route and replaced them with a single smaller ferry, so when summer tourist season starts it may take a full day to get over to the other side. So plan accordingly,If this is your planned route.

[ratbyk]

Thank you for the warning fastmover. That is a bummer. I use this ferry quite often in the summer. Hopefully bikes taking up less space will find a spot to, "tuck in".

[oldbull]

Last I heard was passenger only on Port Townsend ferry's

[wa407mpp]

They leased a little under sized ferry from Pierce County or somewhere, the first day of sea trials they were hit by the wake from a container ship and got 2' of water in the car deck and had to return to the dock to dry out, then high winds caused them to cancel the trails for a few days. Which pretty much makes it worthless on windy days, which is every day around here. Being state employees and tired of listening to our merchants moaning about all the lost sales, they have decided that it is safe for the tourist to ride at least until they loose a few. As for myself , I think , I'll wait for the new ferries to be built if they ever are.

[Dennyz]

Thats a bummer about the P.T. ferries.

The run up to P.A. is a great run also. We might be able to jump across to Victoria and out to Sydney to Tsawwassen.

I hate to cut out the Hwy 20 run as it is considered to be one of the best cycle roads in Washington. We could drop back in at Sumas to pickup 20. Then back into Canada at Osoyoos. It would be a long day.

Ferry rides are getting pretty spendy (something like $40 for both). To make th P.A. ferry from Oly in time for the early sailing is not too bad (on the road by 8:00am).

Any other suggestions?

[wa407mpp]

Dennyz

I'm not sure if the ferry situation will improve as the summer progresses or not, hopefully it will, I'll try to keep you posted. As for the best way to make a run at Canada I think OldBull's idea is good if you can't go through Port Townsend you could still go around through Forks and east on 101 to Discovery Bay and catch Rt. 20 to Rt. 19 and double back to 104 and on to Kingston and catch the ferry to Edmonds. If you take 101 north to Rt 20 it will add an extra hour to your day because it is such a slow road especially in the summer when it is full of motor-homes, but either route around 101 is going to be a long day if you still plan to get to Canada the first day out of Olympia. If you go by way of Vancouver Is. you will have to catch two ferries and I've heard there can be some long waits there too, the guys north of the border would know more about that than I do though. Maybe some of the riders along the route could join in with some information about what to expect in the way of tie-ups and problem areas, that could help you plan the ride. By the way I ride or drive Rt. 20 everyday to and from work,opps! maybe I shouldn't have said that.

[JASONSR1]

This sounds like it's gonna be a blast and perfect timing for me to get in two rallys in one. I can go to my VFR rally "The Kootenay Hootenanny 2008, PNW and Western Canada VFRD Meet In Nelson, British Columbia " and then meet you guys up in Canada and catch up with you guys there. This gonna be fun fun fun, i can't wait!!

J

[oldbull]

you're in Puyallup - I'm in Port Angeles - give me a shout and we can do toh Hwy 101 loop some weekend

[JASONSR1]

Sounds good to me! I do it all the time with some ridin buddies and its allways a good ride..

[jkorn]

I really like this idea. The qestion is how many miles per day. I tend to like the lower number so you can enjoy the day or at least mix up the days. Mt & Id would be great.

Originally posted by Dennyz
Perhaps a "rolling rally" would work. Plan a route that takes us across southern Canada, down through Idaho (maybe western Montana) to southern Oregon and back up the west coast. There is some might fantastic riding along this route.

Span a week from weekend to weekend with meeting places along the way.

We could have maybe 3 separate days to meet and hang out. Like Sunday, Wednesday and Saturday. Riders could join in when the gang comes through or near their area. A few may want to make the whole route.

What do you think?

[Dennyz]

I better get my butt in gear and get a site setup for this thing.

how many miles per day?

I have not mapped it all out yet, but it is looking like under 400 miles a day for a couple of days, then a day off. It does not make sense to have too long a ride each day. We might get into a long day down in the south east corner of the loop just because there is not much out there.

We need to find 3 meeting place in north/central west Idaho, south eastern Oregon/Northern Nevada and the coast of Oregon somewhere.

If we can't or don't want to nail down a camping place, we could sleep where ever worked and meet up at a central dinning establishment to figure out the off day. Any thoughts?