West Region

Sep/Oct '04 Premium Content

In search of Washington's Coastal Mountains

At a Canadian Vintage Motorcycle Group meeting the president looks over and says, "Robert's just back from an interesting trip."And perhaps a bit too smugly I begin to sketch the details of my recent tour of Washington's Olympic Peninsula; 700 miles in three

Jul/Aug '04 Premium Content

Southeast Oregon

It was my fourth visit to Oregon in a year. After taking in the tall-treed majesty of the Cascades, the rambling golden grasslands of the northeast and the soaring ridges of the Wallowa Mountains, I was expecting my meander around the high desert of southeast Oregon to send me to

Jul/Aug '04 Premium Content

A Short Ride the Long Way

It's 6:30 on a July Saturday night in The Dalles, Oregon, a tidy lumber town on the Columbia River. Snagged in a street festival, we crawl the stop-start traffic, boiling inside our leathers, engines pinging, clutches slipping. I spy an outdoor time and temperature display: 102 degrees!

May/Jun '04 Premium Content

Shamrock Tour® - Kalispell, Montana

Sprawled just north of Flathead Lake in northwest Montana, Kalispell is a terrific spot for a shamrock base. To the east, you have the magnificent Rockies and Glacier National Park; north and west, the rambling peaks of the Salish and Cabinet Ranges; and then the 28-by-15-mile lake and the Mission

May/Jun '04 Premium Content

Northwest Wyoming

Yellowstone, the world's oldest national park, is one of the five most endangered in the country. A study in contrasts, the 3,400 square miles (2.2 million acres) of parkland are protected from development yet overrun by smog-spewing RVs and snowmobiles; it's wild and dangerous

Mar/Apr '04 Premium Content

Hot Springs California

The hot springs of Paraiso, Esalen, and Tassajara are known as the 'Ah Spas.' Line them up for an afternoon ride, and you're in for some serious Central California soaking. Pick the right day and you may meet actor Branscombe Richmond and his wife Lei. As

Mar/Apr '04 Premium Content

Northeast Oregon

During my saunter around Northeast Oregon, I realize John Day is a big deal in these parts. There's John Day River, the John Day Fossil Beds and John Day City. Not bad for an ordinary member of John Jacob Astor's 1810 fur trading expedition on its

Jan/Feb '04 Premium Content

Central California

Back in the States after escaping the heat wave in Europe, the Neuhauser family  -  Christa, Manuel, Florian, and I  -  are still on the run. This time it isn't the heat; it's some unbearable NC humidity. Thankfully, our next big adventure calls us to Central

Jan/Feb '04 Premium Content

Northern Colorado

Riding northern Colorado means climbing through the Rockies and cruising past wide-open cattle country. The roaming up and down near the Wyoming border encompasses some of the most thrilling areas for motorcycling we've experienced. It's a perfect day for motorcycling. Fresh pine-scented air blows by and

Nov/Dec '03 Premium Content

Oregon

A rite of passage for aspiring long-distance hikers, the Pacific Crest Trail is a pristine wilderness path skimming the ridges of the Sierra Nevada and Cascade Ranges from Mexico to Canada. Its 2,638 miles overlook some of the continent's most spectacular scenery, from the purple deserts of

Sep/Oct '03 Premium Content

Idaho

Standing in Idaho City's dirt-lined, deserted Main Street, it's tough to imagine how it was 140 years ago. With more people than Portland and over 250 thriving businesses, it was a bawdy, lusty town where whisky was cheaper than water  -  and life cheaper still. Why

Sep/Oct '03 Premium Content

Canada: Alcan 5000

Routine city riding is not the recommended training regimen for motorcyclists planning to take on the Great White North in the Alcan 5000. Huddled with fellow rally participants in the doorway of the "World Famous" Rancheria rest stop somewhere along the Alaska Highway, we sip from our Camelbaks,

Jul/Aug '03 Premium Content

California: From Monterey to Ojai

When we go to a special location for a round-trip excursion or for a shamrock, the question always arises about the way we should choose to get there. Most of the time we use interstates or major highways. Oh, God, is this ever boring! But during our last trip to

Jul/Aug '03 Premium Content

Cruising Oregon's Scenic Byways

I must go down to the seas again,to the lonely sea and the sky,And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by;And the wheel's kick and the wind's song and the white sails shakingAnd a grey mist

May/Jun '03 Premium Content

Wine Country, CA

Warm gusts push me left and I fight back, leaning right. The mile-wide Carquinez Strait not only funnels the Sacramento River's watershed to San Francisco Bay, but, so it seems, all of the San Joaquin Valley's winds. I've just another quarter mile of the

Roundtrip Tour Premium Content

Riding Along Route 66

You may know how it is. You're sitting through a long, cold winter evening beside the fireplace and dreaming about tours while the bike hibernates in the garage. Years ago I was in this situation. The fire crackled and Pink Floyd played in my headphones while I read

May/Jun '03 Premium Content

Hawaii: Surf to Summit

For a lesson in atmospheric physics, riding a motorcycle up a volcano is tough to beat. And Maui provides the perfect lab: the 40-mile, helter-skelter Haleakala Highway. Rising 10,000 feet in 40 miles, it's the longest continuous climb in North America. And they say it's

Mar/Apr '03 Premium Content

Return from Redmond

Redmond, Oregon: Early Sunday morning. I awoke to the sound of zippers. Nothing signals the end of a rally more than the swoosh of sleeping bags being stuffed into compression bags and the sound of tent flaps opening. Over 6,000 tents were spread out at the BMWMOA national rally;

Winter '02 Premium Content

Baja California

Baja. In the world of off-road racing and riding few words conjure the kind of reverence associated with this legendary peninsula. For almost 40 years Baja has hosted one of the greatest off-road races in the world, the Baja 1,000. Located on the western coast of Mexico, the state

Winter '02 Premium Content

Washington State

Bonnie and the others invited along for a week of laid-back motorcycling  -  cruising Washington's beautiful Mount Rainier and the Cascades  -  had commitments at home in New Jersey. As for me, I was as free as Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper, and Jack Nicholson in the 60'

Fall '02 Premium Content

California: Mendocino Coast

Our excitement is undeniable - accelerating pulses, shallow breathing - as we climb on the plane jetting us to a most beautiful part of California: Highway 1, between San Francisco and Eureka, where the scenic seductions of Marin, Sonoma, Mendocino and Humboldt counties thrill us in the coming days. The

Summer '02 Premium Content

Cruising Central California's Missions

There's a small window of time for comfortably riding between California's central coast missions. It begins with the blooming of the blue wisteria and ends when they lose their blossoms. You'll even catch yourself looking for these flowers along your favorite roads in the

Spring '02 Premium Content

West Coast Wonders

Most famous for their gorgeous coastlines, Washington, Oregon and Northern California offer any visitor an array of sights and sounds. But further inland the Pacific Northwest also harbors a host of surprises for the motorcycle traveler. This time out, the Promised Land lies between San Francisco and Seattle  -  the

Spring '02 Premium Content

Highway 50 - Coast to Coast

As the days of my retirement drew closer, the most asked question by my co-workers was "What are you going to do when you retire?" My standard answer, "It's not what I'm going to do but what I'm not going to

Spring '01 Premium Content

Blue Mountain

Driving through the Rockies means getting a real out of this land of wonderful landscapes, fantastic lookouts, rockin' backroads and friendly people. Andi Seiler got it. The radio is turned up. Steppenwolf's 'Born to be Wild' is resounding from the speakers, sunshine is back after