Slushy Road to Mineral (2023-01-22)

I wanted to finally check out the town of Mineral in Lewis County, and the roads seemed fine everywhere, but they ended up getting snowier the further up in elevation I went. By the time I hit the last road to get to the town, it was covered in slush and I went down maybe 100 feet after turning onto said road. Mineral will have to wait until the weather warms up a bit.

Even though the conditions weren't quite perfect for a long ride, I felt like I'd become rusty at motorcycle riding and really wanted to get into it. My rustiness really showed at the beginning of the ride, but I gradually felt into my usual groove.

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Past rides in the area:

From Fire to Paradise (2022-09-10) (Album)

Chinook Pass and Yakima River Canyon (2022-06-25) (Album)

Elbe II (2022-02-12) (Album)

Carbon River Entrance by Motorcycle (2021-08-28) (Album)

Flaming Geyser State Park & Black Diamond (Album)

More after the break…

Around Puget Sound (2022-10-15)

Went to the Olympic Peninsula the long way around to escape the smoke. Needless to say, it didn't quite work.

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Albums from past rides:

Elbe II (2022-02-12) (Album)

Puget Sound Motorcycle Shops (2021-11-13) (Album)

Hood Canal by Motorcycle (2021-06-18) (Album)

North Puget Sound (2021-06-12) (Album)

Wilkeson by Motorcycle (2021-05-02) (Album)

Part of why I was so itching to go on this ride was because I wanted to try out the exposure bracketing feature on my camera. I would've greatly preferred going into the mountains, but that was unfortunately where the worst of the smoke was.

More after the break…

From Fire to Paradise (2022-09-10)

I originally intended to see White and Chinook passes, but the Goat Rocks fire forced me into Mount Rainier National Park. Needless to say, I wasn't too unhappy about it.

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I'd always thought I'd see Paradise for the first time with my dad since he likes to ride motorcycles through Mount Rainier National Park, but things didn't turn out that way.

Previous albums from the area:

Chinook Pass and Yakima River Canyon (2022-06-25) (Album)

Greenwater (Album)

Morton (Album)

More after the break…

Aberdeen (2022-08-22,23)

What was supposed to be an overnight visit to a small city turned into quite a situation! My partner and I rode over on my Triumph, only for a nail to flat the rear tire. While that was getting resolved (see the blog post for more), we were limited to walking due to rideshare being pretty much unusable out there. And all of that walking really hammered home the sad state the city's old buildings were. Really sad such an old city is in such poor shape.

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Past albums from the area:

Aberdeen II: Hoquiam (Album)

Aberdeen (Album)

Shelton (Album)

More after the break…

Artist Point (Mount Baker) (2022-08-13)

Rode to the end of the Mount Baker Highway.

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While working on these photos, I was still learning how to properly handle white balance, so please be kind!

More after the break…

Descending Palouse to Cascades Trail (2022-07-30)

My partner and I had originally planned to ride the Snoqualmie Tunnel together, but she was too afraid of it. However, I was still able to follow our original plan and meet her in North Bend after riding the length of Iron Horse State Park.

Geotagged Album

Albums from past rides on the trail:

Fall Colors on the Palouse to Cascades Trail (Album)

Palouse to Cascades Trail/John Wayne Pioneer Trail III (Album)

John Wayne Pioneer Trail II (Album)

John Wayne Pioneer Trail (Album)

Bicycle Quarterly Un-meeting 2015 (Album)

More after the break…

Mountain Loop Highway (2022-07-16, 17)

I could keep up speed better than the cars.

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This is my first album where every photo was processed from the RAW rather than the camera JPEG. I'm still learning the process and have since improved, but I decided to leave these largely alone since finishing the album.

When planning this ride, something that worried me was how Snohomish County said the gravel section of the Mountain Loop Highway was closed. I asked about this in a few places, and someone pointed me to the US Forest Service map, which showed it as open. Since I always had the option of turning back in the event the information was bogus, I went for it.

Albums from past rides in the area:

Barlow Pass and Lake Roesiger (2020-10-24) (Album)

Silverton (Album)

Barlow Pass II (Album)

Barlow Pass (Album)

Verlot (Album)

Granite Falls and Lake Roesiger (Album)

Granite Falls and Arlington II (Album)

Granite Falls and Arlington (Album)

Darrington III: Whitehorse Trail (Album)

Darrington II (Album)

Darrington (Album)

Oso (Album)

More after the break…