Two More Bridges

The weather forecast for Thanksgiving called for a dry day. We didn't have any obligations to fulfill or traditions to uphold, we suspected that everyone was where they needed to be and off the roads, so what to do but go for a ride?

We went online and found a couple four covered bridges we hadn't been to so I grabbed the Benchmark map and quickly came up with a route. I'd travelled the route about ten years earlier and the best I could remember is that it was paved so off we went.

The first stop was Hayden Covered Bridge just west of Alsea.

Kissy kissy

When we pulled up and dismounted we heard a train whistle yet there are no trains up here, I know this because like bigfoot, there are no tracks. We walked through the bridge and discovered on the other side that one doesn't necessarily buy property in the country to be quiet. Believe it or not, some buy property in the country to make noise and this person was doing a fantastic job of dropping property value with every blast from his air tank. It was time to get getting.





We rode west down Hwy 34 to the Five Rivers turnoff and made our way south to the next covered bridge on our route.

Five Rivers Bridge or Fisher School Bridge

I was scoping out a possible future geocache spot and Brandy caught me, she's such a muggle.

We had two more bridges to get and were further south on our route. We had to get down to Hwy 36 via NF32. Like I said, I've been through here before but 10 years ago, the road got twisty but then the yellow centerline disappeared and it got narrow.

The narrower the road, the more leaves and debris build up. We recently experienced a serious wind storm last week and I started to wonder how clear our route would be.

Brandy was doing fine so we decided to carry on.

It was slow going and I have to hand it to her, she happily poked along behind me.

I eventually stopped to check our GPS reading and confirm we were still on the map.

Where are we?

A car went by while we were stopped so I knew we were close to some sort of civilization. Although I have to admit after passing some hunters and a lone mushroom picker I was considering leaving a trail of bread crumbs to find our way back.

A couple miles down the trail we came upon this. Ah crap, it's getting late and we've got to be 30 miles deep into 10 mph roads. I take note of the tripometer at start points, intersections and mileage posts so I knew we were only 10 miles from the main highway.  I checked the map again and found a gravel road that would get us around and out but we had to hustle. I don't mind the dark but my riding partner does not so we needed to get to a main road we were familiar with before dark.

It was a steep descent out of the woods and if I learned anything from watching Man vs. Wild, Survivorman and Dual Survival I knew we were on the right path. It wasn't long we were riding up to Triangle Lake where we stopped to to tinkle before mounting up and booking it for home.

She told me to make a face.

We had to surrender the last two bridges for another day, as it was the last 20 miles home was in the dark but we knew the road and made it safe and sound. What a great way to spend Thanksgiving.

-

All the leaves are.....

The weather has been on and off rainy lately but we did have an absolutely fantastic day recently. It cleared off and I was able to go for a mid-week ride to blow the stink off so I left the dirty dishes in the sink and took off in search of autumn colors.

Western Oregon just doesn't have the giant maples that offer the beautiful picture book leaf colors you find in the Eastern states and provinces but plenty of evergreen conifers and oak trees.

If you look hard enough though you can find a vine maple or two amongst the greenery and moss.

Does an orange bike count as fall color?

I hadn't been up to the top of Marys Peak yet this year, so the ride up was long overdue, let alone never being up there mid week. I actually had the whole mountain to myself for a few minutes.

And from the top of one mountain you can get a great photo of another across the valley.

Mt. .Jefferson

I have been busy with Team Oregon teaching my first two classes the last two weekends of September. A mentor was with me in the classroom in case I messed up, froze of stage fright or missed something and of course to evaluate me. It wasn't Irondad, but a longtime instructor and leadership council member much, much higher ranking than Dan and twice as difficult. 

(I'm kidding, everyone at Team Oregon is so encouraging and helpful). 

Needless to say, the extra effort and time I dedicated beforehand paid off and I completed the requirement to meet standard in two consecutive classes. I am a now full certified instructor and I just taught my last class of the year, solo.

My first range last Spring

Next year I'll work on becoming a mentor myself and pay it forward. What a great program!

Déjà tune...

Something is really irking the troubadour in me, three songs have been released recently and I can't help but think where have I heard this before? Why are artists doing this and does anyone else notice what's going on or is it just me? Either way, this is how my brain works.

The first one took me awhile to put my finger on, much to Brandy's dismay I whistled the tune over and over and over again until it finally came to me. The single is from Jason Mraz titled "I Won't Give Up" not the whole song but the bridge at 2:14 in the video.

If you don't want to listen to the whole song here is the link to the sections I am referring to: http://youtu.be/TdN5GyTl8K0?t=2m14s and http://youtu.be/tpGRdX5sUAs?t=26s 




At 2:14 it sounds very much like the same as 0:26 of Afternoon Delight by Starland Vocal Band.




Now that I have you whistling to an earworm of Afternoon Delight, the next song was easy to figure out, whenever it comes on the radio I immediately think of the song that predates it.

The piano intro and riff that Kidd Rock used for his song All Summer Long...





is from Warren Zevon's Werewolves of London!!!




You have to admit that one was either an intentional tribute or blatant theft, I'm sure you all pick up on that one.


The third one may not be familiar to many as the song that Pink's new release "Blow Me One Last Kiss" reminds me of isn't that well known, but I like it.

At 0:42 here http://youtu.be/3jNlIGDRkvQ?t=42s

"Blow Me One Last Kiss" rings awfully familiar of "Earthquakes and Sharks" by Brandtson



and 0:46 here http://youtu.be/tTIUDsb2XGs?t=46s


Anyway, that's my warped mind and the wonderful world of music that resonates in my head and my helmet.

-

Kissing Bridges

My bestest friend played hooky from work today to steal me away for a motorcycle ride.  With the change of the season and fellow bloggers posting about the leaves turning color, we packed a picnic lunch, grabbed the maps, fueled our bikes and headed for the hills on a scenic tour in search of autumn.

It has been a very dry summer around here, we haven't had any rain since June and it has remained quite warm making it hard to believe it is fall and the end of September.

We headed East crossing the valley floor and it wasn't long before we discovered that the leaves haven't changed yet so we went in search of other symbols of fall and what better than covered bridges.

Larwood Bridge - Built 1939 - Crabtree Creek

 Covered bridges were designed to protect bridge decks from the weather and deterioration, but they also protected lovers from sight and became known as "kissing bridges".... so we did.

Larwood Bridge - Built 1939 - Crabtree Creek

I had a feeling that this was going to be a good day... 

as more bridges meant more kissing... 

so off we went in search of another.

Hoffman Bridge - Built 1936 - Crabtree Creek

Then another...

Gilkey Bridge - Built 1939 - Thomas Creek

And another...

Hannah Bridge - Built 1936 - Thomas Creek

Then another...

I told you it was going to be a good day.

Shimanek Bridge - Built 1996 - Thomas Creek

 We found one last one in Stayton which was rebuilt after the original burned down in 1994, the year we met. 

Stayton-Jordan Bridge - Rebuilt 1998 

All this kissing was getting pretty hot and we didn't want the bridge to burn down again so we headed for home. It was a great day, we had a lot of fun and look forward to finding the rest of Oregon's covered kissing bridges. 

Thanks for the day out sweetheart, I love you. 

<3

Sena SMH10 - Keeping it Simple

We recently received a pair of Sena SMH10 BT3.0 bluetooth headset and intercoms as a gift and although I've been anxious to try them out, I had to first figure them out.

I am not particularly a gadget guru or electronics wizard by any means, mechanically inclined sure, but when it comes to new fangled electronic devices my patience wears thin, fast. So it better work right and it better work right now.

So I took both units out of the box, read the first page or two of directions and went after getting them charged. Although unlike Chris' report from Everyday Riding, ours came with two 12v power outlet chargers and not a wall charger his did, which I found to be odd. Fortunately our phone charger fits and works just fine, but if we absolutely need to we can charge both units while we ride... once I wire a 12v outlet to Brandy's bike (mechanically inclined +1).

Mounted to my helmet, (below my GoPro camera mount).

While the units charged I mounted the bases to our helmets, tucked the ear pieces inside and ran the wires along the helmet lining. The mounting bracket slides between the helmet shell and liner then fastens like a clamp with a couple of allen screws (easy mounting +1).

Stock photo from senabluetooth.com

Once both units were charged we hooked them up, donned our helmets in the house and tested them. The first push of the button we were welcomed by a soft spoken female voice and cheerful "hello" greeting, next I was in crystal clear communication with Brandy.  Where the Sena excels is that both units came from the factory paired with each other, way to keep it simple. Sonja also praised the simplicity of the Sena in her blog.

For the past several years, we've been using walkie talkie type radios with push to talk buttons on the handlebars requiring too many wires, not only tethering our helmets to our handlebars but literally tethering us to our bikes. Whenever we wanted to stop and take a picture we'd have to untangle ourselves, dismount, unplug our helmets, take a photo, walk back, plug our helmet back in, mount our bikes and make sure our wires were out of harms way in order to ride safely. We've had to replace two microphones because of fragile soldering and delicate wiring, the last one broke on our trip home from Enterprise, I could hear Bobskoot and Brandy talking but I couldn't verbally respond, relying only on hand signals and head nods.

Apropos

The Sena eliminates all of this and gives us the ultimate freedom from wires, cords, buttons and radio mounting locations in exchange for just a few ounces on the left side of our helmets. I can't even begin to describe how well designed and fantastically simple the Sena is, we went for a ride today using the VOX feature and it took both of us several miles before we finally re-trained ourselves not to reach for the phantom PTT button. We could both talk without having to cue the microphone, wait for the delay or have to talk over the hiss of the radio interference. We talked to each other today in normal conversation tone and volume and it was wonderful. Although the Sena is capable of so much more with its other bluetooth features, I'm happy simply using it as we did today.

Thank you Santa and thank you Sena.