XT660R Heaven

XT660R Heaven
Life on the road is fab...

Thursday 10 July 2014

Oregon - Gilchrist - Crater Lake - A bit of a day off...

Today is a day off from the TAT, we all slept in until at least 7am... then a lazy morning followed with the bikes getting a wash & a firkle, off to the Mohawk for a relaxed breakfast, then a blast on HW97 to Crater Lake, all nice & easy riding... happy days...

Crater Lake is well worth a visit, there is a road all the way round so you don't even have to walk very far to see some truly beautiful scenery, the massive crater filled with azure blue water, there is plenty of old snow still sat on the hillsides setting off the greenery of the forests all around. Its even got its very own Wizards Island, how cool is that??? A great place to just chill out for a few hours...

Wizards Island!!!








The round trip from Gilchrest is about 140 miles, with the approach road off Hw97, a 30 mile straight line, even the Romans couldn't have built a straighter road than this one!!

It's not all been fun today though, we seem to have had a run of shite restaurant stuff, overcharged at breakfast, a real arsehole who runs a very dirty little diner at the junction of the Crater Lake road & HW97, then the last one was we had to wait ages for our food  in the place we chose to eat after walking out of the shitty guys place. The food was OK when it arrived but this area does not seem to be as agreeable socially as all the other places we've visited on this trip, apart from the Gilchrist Inn lady, Marlene.

We've also found out that in the town of Bend, about 40 miles to the north of Gilchrist, there are loads of bike shops, including a KTM dealership, so tomorrows plan is to go look for a chain & sprocket set for my bike, try to find the KTM dealership & get the bolt drilled out & replaced on Brian's kickstand. So more firkling with the bikes tomorrow... Then hopefully a trip to Smith Rocks for a look at that & a possible play in the dirt roads around there.

On another note, there is a new off road trail park called the Three Trails area, that has opened just outside of Gilchrest, it has 63 miles of trails to play on...

PDF of trails link: 
Film Links :

Now it's time for some more beer, wine & olives, then a lazy evening... happy days!!