Bend OR and Crash.

So after Crater Lake I decided to stop by my new favourite store in Bend,OR, Trader Joes. I  just love this place. Trader Joes are all over, except Florida. Go figure. They have this Wheatberry salad with Apples,chicken,blue cheese and Wheatberries.........killer. 

I find a spot outside to park the bike.It`s on the side and there`s a picnic table. Perfect. I`ll eat,organize my gear and be on my way toward Mt.Saint Helens and points NW.

As I inhale my Wheatberry salad a passer by stops to remark on the bike and ask about my travels. So he sits and we talk awhile. My lunch companion Mark,is also a motorcyclist,having the same model BMW as myself and is a very well travelled cyclist as well, owning two long distance high milage bicycles. Mark offered lodging to this weary traveller and it couldn`t have come at a better time.
 At this juncture in my travels I needed to catch up on laundry and a shower,so as they say "Timing is Everything". After spending the night and getting my bits and pieces done, I bade a thank you and farewell to Mark and Bend and headed north to Sisters, up to 22 and Detroit,then over a Forest Gravel road to Estacada,just SE of Portland. From there it`s up to Sandy and then East across the gorge to the Bridge of the Gods. On  the way there I stopped by Touratech in Seattle to see Kimmo and the boys and take off the rear grab handle on the bike and replace it with the Touratech Luggage Rack extender and also get an MSR Dragonfly liquid fuel stove. 
My Jetboil started to die on me, so I decided that instead of carrying gas canisters of fuel for the Jetboil that if I switch to liquid fuel  I can use the fuel in the gas tank also.

"Black Hawk Down"

It was more of a "Dump" than a crash and except for a collar bone fracture I`m ok and so is the bike.

I took a Forestry Gravel Road, Lords Lake Loop Road off Hwy 101 in Washington State on the way to Cape Flattery. Since leaving New Mexico I have prided myself in staying off Blue Line roads (Interstates) and only taking Red Line (Highways) Light Red and Light Gray (Forest Roads, paved and unpaved). So this Forest road is not on any  maps other than the Forestry Service ones (which I managed to extricate from the charming Donna at the Forestry Service, thanks D), so of course I had to take it !!. And you get to see some scenery that most don`t get to see into the bargain, and should you decide to camp it`s free. Just make sure you have your Bear Spray.

  

It was a right turn OFF camber, so as soon as I saw it coming up I knew I was in trouble. I also had it in third gear instead of second, which negated any chance of compression braking, so I HAD to use the brakes, and on gravel thats not a good idea, so I just layed it down and hoped for the best. I dropped it down on the right side and as a result the right cylinder head jug and crash bar  dug in to the ground helping bring the bike to a stop nose down a few feet into a gully.

Well. as it turned out, it was a bit more of a gully. Right in front of the bike is a fallen tree, that's what the front wheel of the bike hot and threw me off and fractured my collar bone. Fortunately that tree was there. If it wasn't, I would have gone down another 15 or 20 ft.

After a few hours  these guys showed up on their once a day sweep,  and thanks to the FD Union sticker given to me by my buddy Keith from FLFD Station 2 in Fort Lauderdale, they went above and beyond what they were supposed to do. Five people pulling couldn`t get the bike out, so (unofficially)I just said to tie a rope to the front bumper, the other end to my crash bar and drag it out. it'll be fine, it's a BMW.

So I left it sit for a few minutes, let the oil drain back down to the bottom of the motor and it started right up. My shoulder and collar bone were wicked sore, so the guys followed me down the rest of the 4 miles or so off the gravel and onto paved road where they had a couple of paramedics waiting for me. Not much they could do really. If I went to a hospital all they were going to do was x-ray me, tell me I had a fracture and not to ride for two months, so that was NOT an option.

Just gotta......

Murph