At long last my journey would be coming to an end. I woke up early and was determined to make it home by the end of the day. Riding out of Bend at 6am was by far the coldest I had been on the entire trip. It got so bad at one point that I was forced to pull over and warm my hands up on my exhaust a couple times. Eventually the sun came out and I was able to continue feeling somewhat warmer. I made my way up twords Mount Hood through the forest up there. I wound up on a paved logging road that was only ONE lane! The forest was thick and the road was barely wide enough for even a single car. If a car, or a fucking logging truck, were to be coming in the other direction neither of us would have much reaction time to get out of the way. Because of this I slowed down and was pretty cautious. It was a nervous hour or so, but I made it out the other side without seeing a single car the entire time. I just kept heading North and eventually made it to Hood River, Oregon for an early lunch.
From there I crossed the Columbia River into Washington and worked my way up to Mount Saint Helens. I could have just gone the easy route and hit I-5 to get home but that would have been boring as shit and I still had plenty of time. As I made my way closer to Mount Saint Helens I noticed that they had just opened the road up to Windy Ridge which goes up the East side of the Mountain. This was a VERY cool road as I rode right through areas that were still devastated by the explosion twenty years ago. All the trees were completely barren and grey and on their side, very erie. Once up closer to the mountain I saw Spirit Lake which had a large amount of trees floating in it still. I got some pictures and headed back. They call it Windy Ridge for a very good reason. It was so windy up there I was afraid my bike would actually fall over while I was walking around.
From there I made my final trek back home. As I was getting close to Tacoma I came upon two guys riding two-up on a little Buell. The two of us played follow the leader for a little bit passing cars and hauling ass around corners as much as possible. It was a lot of fun as I hadn't ridden with anyone else my entire journey. Finally, I made it home all in one piece after almost 3,000 total miles ridden. The bike was a complete mess and was covered in bug guts. I even pulled a full size dragonfly out of the hinge of my front brake lever. Considering everything it was a fantastic success as me and my bike were in one piece and I got in a fantastic amount of riding experience in just a week.
Day Seven Route
Pictures
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