Raven's Roads
Living an interesting life: the travels and musings
of motorcycling author Linda R. Moore

Jul 15, 2005

Highway 242 - Graduation Day

Oregon route 242 seemed to be a short cut that might be pretty. Without prior research, I saw that it was marked as accessible to vehicles up to 35′, so I figured there would be nothing that a motorcyclist couldn’t handle.

Ahem. It turned out that I wouldn’t accept money to take a 35′ vehicle up that thing.

It started off innocuously enough, a beautiful two-lane road going up into a lush green forest of old growth trees and ferns. Then the sky clouded over and a few speckles of rain fell. I simply slowed down and concentrated harder.

Then the cloud seemed to fall low, lending a misty quality to the air, and it got damper. I rounded a corner and whom!. Here’s what I saw.

Windy Point lived up to its name, with a blast of air shaking my cycle. I pulled over to gawp at the devastation. At first I thought I was seeing the remnants of a forest fire, but it turned out that it was a set of lava flows from some local volcanoes.

At the top, some 5200′, a squall of wind and rain annoyed me but I couldn’t resist exploring the bizarre observatory.

You can be pretty sure I was as cold and wet as I look, but the place was incredible. I just wish I’d had more time/better weather to poke around.

The way down was even more fun. The bends got tighter, real switchbacks, 15 mph, steeply descending. The rain fell hard at times, and this area was so densely forested that it was never dry. Whereas heading up from the east you didn’t have to ascend very far, from the summit heading east you descended at least 3000′. The road was slow, winding, fraught with danger from oncoming traffic with poor aim, and delightfully
challenging - far beyond what I normally do.

I cheered when I got to highway 126 and escaped…but after over 50 miles of this kind of riding, I figured I had earned my bragging rights.

:: brag ::

It’s just a shame there was no way I could photograph the really steep switchbacks. I would have to park up and walk. I am sooo glad I did this going downhill instead of uphill.

Figured that I graduated to the next level of riding today.

WHEEEEEE!