Trip Report - First Sunday Ride, October 7, 2001

Trip Report - First Sunday Ride, October 7, 2001 - Quartzville Rd.

10-7-2001

Sunday dawned gray and cool; clouds were high and the sky was completely overcast. The latest weather prediction called for rain later in the day. Ajax was newly shod with bristling D205s, ready to scratch pavement. It was a perfect day for riding.

We left the house at 8:30, quick trip to the Chevron to fill both tanks and out of town toward Scio. As it was early and I didn't have to be at the meeting place until 10:00 am (or so I thought, best to double check sometimes) I decided to take a route via back roads, Lacomb, Berlin, Sweet Home, to the Foster Lake Scenic Overlook on US 20 outside Sweet Home. Left on Cole School Rd. (commonly called Roller Coaster Rd.) and up and down the big hills. Only a few miles on the clock but holy shite, batman, these tires are quick. No doubt about it these tires will lean, quickly. Plenty stable at speed but low speed maneuvers are now almost effortless. No difference from the Pirelli Dragons in straight-line handling, plenty stable, just the willingness to lean in a hurry.

Over the ridgeline I went and down towards the Thomas Creek drainage, cross the creek (river), and across OR 226 to Richardson's Gap. Long straight, high speeds, no traffic. Two stop signs, spaced miles apart, later and left toward Lacomb, a right and a few curves, another stop, another left, few more curves, a stop, cross LaComb drive to Bellinger Scale Rd. Now here's some fun and a chance to scrub in the sides of the tires. Up over this ridge, diving in and out of third and fourth gear sweepers and decreasing radius curves. Bellinger Scale turns into Berlin Rd. that turns into Pleasant Valley Rd. and there's Sweet Home. Ajax and I are early (yeah, right!) so lets not ride into town. Left on N. River Rd. up the north side of the South Santiam to Foster Lake from the other side. More nice corners, mostly third gear, and a neat little run up to the dam. Cross the dam, left on US 20 to the overlook. I think, since I'm way early, I'll go on up 20 a few miles and come back.

Wait; there is a whole group of bikes and riders at the overlook. Quick u-turn and back to the overlook. Dumbass me thought we were meeting at 10:00, but no, meeting at 9:00 am. Lucky for me they were still sniffin' bikes.

Jim Hiler is there on his V65 Sabre, so is Jim Hutchins on his new model Goldwing, Rich ? on a BMW, Dale Thoma on a Buell M2, Lenn Neal on a Vulcan, Jay Bennett on a MotoGuzzi 1100 Sport, and Steve Jackson on his ST1100. I have ridden with both Jims and Steve at previous FSRs. Everyone else is new to me. After some bike sniffing of my own and a few more minutes of BS, off we went.

Steve took off in the lead followed by Lenn at just a bit past 9:30 or so. The rest of us strung out behind with me on the V65 Magna bringing up the rear. Left onto US 20 and left again past Foster. (This left turn, by the way, is missing from MS Streets & Trips.) We started off at a "spirited" pace and the road/pavement was clean and clear, traffic was light to non-existent. Foster now behind us and quickly up to Green Peter and beyond. At some point Lenn pulled out and over, I figured to "ride his own ride" as he did pull back in behind me. Perhaps our pace was a little too much, but whatever, we never saw him again except for fleeting headlight in my mirrors. Soon too, that disappeared.

We continued up Quartzville Rd. past Yellowbottom to a right turn for McQuade Creek Trail where we made our first stop. At this point Dale on the Buell turned around and headed back. Steve mentioned we probably wouldn't see Lenn as he was a new rider and had probably also headed back.

After a few minutes we mounted up and headed out. Quartzville Road, now FR 11, began to climb and we started to gain some serious elevation. The road continued to be clear although it was now one lane with turnouts. Turnouts seemed to placed at every curve and corner however. Occasionally we had to dodge rocks or "dusty" patches of gravel. In some few sections we found gravel completely across the road either from filled sunken grades or slides. For a forest service road in the Oregon Cascades this is expected.

The twisties also became a bit tighter with an exciting mix of banked curves with steep drops on one side or the other. I rode with heavy use of second and third gear with a very occasional burst into fourth. In too short a time we made the crest and passed the five-way intersection of FR 11 and 10 and other lesser roads. Descending toward OR 22 was no less fun than the climb and scenery was fantastic, both up and down. I am going to have to figure out a way to mount the digital camera to the handlebars.

Highway 22 was quickly in view and as I suspected, (been a very long time since I was this way), we were on Straight Creek Rd. We went left, north/west on 22 headed for Detroit. Traffic on this well used east/west route was moderate to light for a Sunday morning. Steve kept us at a "no-ticket" pace all the way through Marion Forks to Idanha and Detroit. In Detroit we stopped at the Korner Post "Eatery" for lunch as it had been posted on the Bikers list as a MC friendly restaurant.

By now it was close to 11:30. As the six of us pulled in to park Rick the owner appeared and asked about us, who we were, if we had any club affiliation, etc. After doffing our gear we entered the Korner Post and were steered toward a seating area to accommodate the entire group. More BS with Rick, menu perusing, ordering, and finally lunch. The Korner Post is definitely biker friendly, maybe slanted toward Milwaukee iron, but Rick stated he has an old GS1100 and a cruiser that I don't remember the make of.

The food looked good when it arrived although my chiliburger, in honor of missing the Horseshoe Bend Chili Burger Run on Saturday to stay home with my wife who got the day off and earn kitchen points, was not so hot. Everyone else's burgers looked great however. Jim, how was the bowl of chili?

After lunch I took the lead in an effort to keep the Albany crowd off the standard run down to Mill City to OR 226 from Lyons. Continuing our quick run west on 22 we exited south at Gates instead as I led us across the Santiam back to Gates School Rd. On to Kingwood past the Gates International airport, down the long straight, (107 on the Sigma), past Rock Creek, through the south side of Mill City to Mill City-Lyons Rd. Blasting to Lyons left on 226 for a short leg up the hill to Kingston-Lyons Dr. Right on KL, a few twisties, up the hill, nice view of the Santiam canyon, a few more mild twisties, to Kingston-Jordan Rd. Left on KJ connecting to Sandner across Cole School Rd. to Stayton-Scio Rd. We continued left of SS to Scio where I pointed the group in the direction of Albany and head back Stayton-Scio to Stayton.

All in all a great ride and I was home early, more kitchen points!

I think this ride would be great coupled with an extension after lunch of FR 46 through Breitenbush to OR 224 and Estacada or even all the way to US 26 at Timothy Lake and Mt. Hood via forest roads. I don't know if they are all paved toward Mt. Hood. I'll have to take the truck before it snows and find out.

Looking forward to the November FSR; where're we goin'??

Trip Stats:

Total Distance: 164 miles
Rolling Time: 3 hours 16 minutes
Average Speed: 50 mph
Top Speed: 105 mph

I've posted the few pictures I took here: FSR October