The Dick Cz "We don't need no stinking KLR's to go on a dual sport ride" ride.
On April 6th, i met Dennis and Bernice Miles from the Dalles at Stevenson, WA. We rode up to Bingen for lunch and then went riding on the Cook Underwood road. It is a neat bluff road that overlooks HoodRiver. Then we decided to ride to Carson Hot Springs. That place has sure changed, used to be able to go there for a sandwich. Not now, they built a new lodge and very expensive and no food. Then i said why don't we ride up the Wind River Highway #30. This highway runs up towards Cougar, WA. It tees into #90 which runs to Cougar or east to #23 which connects Trout Lake with Packwood and Randle. North on #23 to Packwood and Randle are gravel roads but south on #23 is paved to Trout Lake. The loop from #30 to #90 to #23 to Trout Lake has two gravel sink areas. One is about a mile long and the other is much shorter. They are not bad and the scenery is fantastic. #90 goes by Lower Falls Park. It has pit toilets and a water pump and paved parking spots. It is beautiful, and the junction of #90 and #23 gives you an awesome view of Mt. Adams. You come out of big timber into a wide angle view of Mt. Adams. I am speechless (yes i am!!!!) when i come to this point. Of course it is usually later in the spring before you can make this run. Well we were going to try to go as far as we could. The enclosed pictures tell the story of our ill fated adventure.
When we turned onto #90 , we didn't go much more than a mile before we started seeing the remains of the 100 year storm that hit the area last november.
The locals said it was a special storm???
When i saw the first log mess on the road, i said "Well, i guess we are done". Dennis said he thought there was a way thru it.
He made it through with his trike so I had to try to get my scooter through??
Bernice was game to keep going also.
We went about 12 miles, under several logs and around a lot of jams and finally hit the snow too deep to get thru.
The round trip of about 24 miles took 4 hours. I thought we would never get out and back to civilization.
Turning the trikes into dual sport rigs and the scooter was a lot of work but i sure enjoyed the viewing of the devastation that mother nature showed us this day.
Dick Czmowski and Dennis and Bernice Miles
