roderunner Posted July 4, 2018 Share Posted July 4, 2018 The plan - to ride from Seattle to Pike's Peak to watch the annual "Race to the Clouds" and return while taking in as many interesting sights as we could find along the way. Day 1 - Left Monroe, WA at 5:50am to meet my brother-in-law from Gig Harbor, WA at Hwy 18 and I-90 at 6:30 am. He overslept so I took a picture from the on-ramp while I waited... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Supporting Member betoney Posted July 4, 2018 Supporting Member Share Posted July 4, 2018 This thread headline caught my attention as I was just researching a road trip to Pikes Peak yesterday, - 14,114 Feet high!! I will follow your progress on this with great interest. Daily photos as well as a route map would be cool. Stay Safe. ***2015 Candy Red FJ-09*** Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roderunner Posted July 4, 2018 Author Share Posted July 4, 2018 An hour or so later he arrived and we got on our way. We took I-90 to Ellensburg then headed SE on I-82 to Yakima to grab an early lunch at Miner's Burgers. Then we continued down I-82 into Oregon and joined I-84 heading East. We took a brief rest stop near Pendleton, OR... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roderunner Posted July 4, 2018 Author Share Posted July 4, 2018 This thread headline caught my attention as I was just researching a road trip to Pikes Peak yesterday, - 14,114 Feet high!! I will follow your progress on this with great interest. Daily photos as well as a route map would be cool. Stay Safe. Thanks! We actually left June 20th and returned home June 29th (the race was Sunday June 24th). If your trip is imminent and you are looking for specific info let me know and I can address things more quickly, otherwise I will try to recount the trip day by day. Yes, a route map would be easy to do and a great idea, thanks! Where are you leaving from? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roderunner Posted July 4, 2018 Author Share Posted July 4, 2018 We camped the first night at Red Bridge State Park in Oregon... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Supporting Member betoney Posted July 4, 2018 Supporting Member Share Posted July 4, 2018 I'm not exactly sure WHEN, I'm planning it for either after Labor Day or next year around Memorial Day. My brother is from Sumner and I am in Olympia and another riding buddy lives in Bend, Oregon. ***2015 Candy Red FJ-09*** Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roderunner Posted July 4, 2018 Author Share Posted July 4, 2018 Map of first leg... Around 328 miles. Not real ambitious, but we intended to enjoy the trip and leave time to stop if we found interesting places. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roderunner Posted July 4, 2018 Author Share Posted July 4, 2018 I'm not exactly sure WHEN, I'm planning it for either after Labor Day or next year around Memorial Day. My brother is from Sumner and I am in Olympia and another riding buddy lives in Bend, Oregon. Very cool, you will love it! I will definitely give you my impressions of our route there and back and some thoughts on what I might do differently. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bamarider Posted July 5, 2018 Share Posted July 5, 2018 I'll be following this, as I'm looking foward to your report of the race and prerace events. I started to do this trip myself, but didn't due to the heat and wild fires in southwest Co., had planed to tour the the state after the race. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roderunner Posted July 6, 2018 Author Share Posted July 6, 2018 I'll be following this, as I'm looking foward to your report of the race and prerace events. I started to do this trip myself, but didn't due to the heat and wild fires in southwest Co., had planed to tour the the state after the race. We heard some good feedback about the prerace events but we only made it into Colorado Springs around 6pm the Saturday night before the race. Some kids we sat with during the race talked a lot about meeting Travis Pastrana and seeing all the cars at the prerace event but we didn't get to see that. It sounded pretty cool though, I would have loved to get a close look at the cars and motorcycles before the race. We sat at the "Halfway Campground" I believe it was called. I think that was one of the larger camping areas but we just came up in the morning. We left Colorado Springs around 4:30am and got to our spot a little before 5am. We picked the spot because it was the fastest part of the course. We sat directly across from the guy with the radar gun who was taking top speed readings for each driver/rider. We were on the left side of the course and you can see us at the 2:37 mark on this video of a middleweight record breaking run. I am in the purple sweatshirt and Todd has an orange sweatshirt. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Supporting Member betoney Posted July 7, 2018 Supporting Member Share Posted July 7, 2018 We were on the left side of the course and you can see us at the 2:37 mark on this video of a middleweight record breaking run. I am in the purple sweatshirt and Todd has an orange sweatshirt. I love that video. It was actually his 2017 run on the 1290 Superduke that piqued my interest in riding Pikes Peak. And lets not forget the ultimate (and most insane) Pikes Peak hillclimb video. ***2015 Candy Red FJ-09*** Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bamarider Posted July 7, 2018 Share Posted July 7, 2018 Sounds like you had a good time, I've got to do this next year. I would like to get there early in the week and see at least 1 motorcycle practice and a car practice and go to the pre race event on fri evening. Did you have any problems finding a place to camp or did you make reservations ahead of time? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roderunner Posted July 7, 2018 Author Share Posted July 7, 2018 Sounds like you had a good time, I've got to do this next year. I would like to get there early in the week and see at least 1 motorcycle practice and a car practice and go to the pre race event on fri evening. Did you have any problems finding a place to camp or did you make reservations ahead of time? I made reservations for an Air-bnb in Colorado Springs a couple months in advance, but then a couple weeks before our trip those reservations got cancelled due to a bedbug infestation, but I still had no problem finding another one. I didn't investigate camping because I wanted to have a place to lock up my gear and travel lighter on race day so I got the place for the night before and the night after the race. I mainly wanted to travel light because I thought we would have a chance to ride the course either before or after the event. That didn't really work out since we rode in before daylight and were just happy to find a spot and then after the race they funneled everyone down the mountain. We went back the next morning on the way home to try to ride to the top, but it cost $25 and we would have to wait almost an hour for the road to open so we decided to keep moving and see other things. In retrospect I think camping there would have been a pretty good option but I didn't go through the process so I don't know the details. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roderunner Posted July 7, 2018 Author Share Posted July 7, 2018 Day 2 of our trip was from Red Bridge State Park in Oregon to Twin Falls Idaho. There were thunderstorms the night before and we woke up to rain showers. We quickly packed up the tent and all our gear and headed East off the mountain. Once we got down onto the plains the rain stopped and the sun came out and we dried off pretty quickly. This was our shortest travel day at only 312 miles. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roderunner Posted July 7, 2018 Author Share Posted July 7, 2018 Twin Falls was a cool town on the Snake River just off I-84 that my brother-in-law knew about and wanted to stay at. Shoshone falls was very scenic... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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