PCH day 3

Today started out in Klammath Falls where it was 48 degrees and mostly clear skies. The rain from yesterday had pretty much moved on and it looked like today was going to turn out great.  I headed north out of town on highway 97.  The highway skirted along the edge of Lower Klammath Lake for many miles. I decided that we do not have lakes in AZ. We have puddles.....

Three years ago while passing through the area, Clay Jones and I went to Crater Lake to see the sights.  When we got there, we couldnt see the lake very well due to tons of haze and smoke in the air from wilfires burning hundreds of miles to the north.  The lake is supposed to be beautiful and it was in the general direction I was heading today so I figured I would give it another shot.

I checked weather.com and found that the temps would be in the mid 50's with partly cloudy skies at my estimated arrival time.  Perfect!

I took the Crater Lake turnoff and started up the mountain range.  More beautiful scenery punctuated with rustic old barns and farm houses. 

As I climbed in elevation however, the temperature dropped.....and dropped.....and dropped.  Soon snow lined each side of the roadway and a dense fog, or cloud, set in.

When I reached the entrance to the park, "Mr. Ranger, Sir" told me that as bad as it was at the gate, it would be worse at the lake and that I probably wouldnt be able to see anything.  I paid my $5 and went in anyway because if nothing else, I could ride through the park and go out the north exit rather than backtrack over what I had just covered.

The ranger was right....Here is Crater Lake in all its glory!

So much for the weather.com and their forecasting abilities!  Unless, they were forecasting the temp at the Crater Lake sign which was a few thousand feet in elevation lower than the lake....

After Crater Lake it was a stop at a roadside diner in Chemult for a cup of hot chocolate and then on my down the road towards Portland. I was in pines most of the day and for many miles it reminded me of the stretch of 260 between Payson and Heber.  But, for most of the ride, the forest was so thick, so vibrant in colors, and so spectacular I could hardly contain myself.

The forest, lakes, streams and waterfalls were nothing but glorious.  I expected at any moment that Big Foot would step out from behind a tree and that around each corner would be a big black bear with a salmon in its mouth.

Again, the pictures just dont capture how awesome everything was.  While taking the picture of the above lake, I got a text from Ang. She was on the ground in Portland.  It took her three hours to get there and It took my three days........I think I got the better deal!

We met up at the hotel and it was great to be with her again.  We scouted around Portland looking for some cool place to hang out and have dinner but all we found were transients, medical marijuana places, and the like.  If there is a nice part of Portland we couldnt find it.

Dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings about a mile from the hotel......of course we rode about 20 miles to find it!

Getting to Portland was awesome.  I never had a time table to stick to or a destination I had to get to other than arriving here on Wednesday.  Today was 325 miles.