The best laid plans of mice and men...

...can go down the toilet pretty quick. With that said, there is almost always a suprise around the next corner, some of them quite pleasant.

I took a three week vacation this summer, and at the start it seem that every turn was away from my planned journey. I originally had planned to head east over the North Cascades in WA then due east from there to other locations... The day my friend and I left, the forcast for the Cascades was heavy rain, thunder and lightening... hmmmm not the best riding weather so the plan changed, south to Olympia for the night (as we had gotten a late start.)

From Olympia, we decided to do the northern portion of the Oregon coast. While sitting in Astoria OR having fish and chips for lunch, a gentleman came along and commented on our bikes then asked if we had plans on riding in the area with the forcast for high winds and 2.5 inches of rain for that evening...

Change of plans... East along the Columbia to Hood River, over Mt Hood and down to Bend OR that night. It made for a long day, but we stayed dry and the trip was worth it. We left Bend in the morning and headed to Crater Lake, if you haven't seen this beautiful spot, put it on your list of places to go. We saw it despite the torrential down pour on the way there.. We ended that day in Klamath Falls OR.

Took a nice slow ride the next day up through OR and ended the day in Burns OR. The next day was also a bit long but well worth the ride, and the point of this novella...

We left Burns and headed towards Boise. We then turned north through Idaho City and up through the Lowman Pass... Oh My Gawd!!!! Why have I never heard of this stretch of highway before? Sure, it's not the Sawtooth or Beartooth, but what a sweet stretch of road through some beautiful country. We ended our day In Stanley at the top end of the Sawtooth and regretably had to head north due to time constraints, but there is always tomorrow for those places we haven't been...

This stretch of road south of Lowman Idaho was a pleasant surprise on a trip that looked to be going nowhere at it's start. Maybe I was being pushed this way just to find it...

http://www3.telus.net/drbar/pics/Lowman%20Pass.jpg

Sounds like a great trip. Some of the best rides are the ones we don't plan.

Margaret

Thanks for the heads up.

Planing a 3 mo.trip(loving retirement) next summer,from No.Tx. to the Picific,then just rattle around trying to hit every good ride between there and Ak. Thought I had it covered , but missed this one. Thanks agean.

Lobo Hufiano

Orphan Wolf