I have been looking back at the year 2008 and my motorcycle adventures. I have really been lazy the last half of the year and even though I took a couple of nice trips I failed to document them very well. Well I guess it is better late than never so here we go.

In the spring I took a riding class with the Sheriffs Department and the next day I went on a group ride with some riders from South Bay Riders a local internet rider fourm. I had a great time although even in the next to slowest group I felt like I was riding a bit faster than I wanted to.

This is a nice shot on a local ride in July. It is just the beginning of a forest fire that would burn many thousands of acres of forest in the Big Sur area.
In July I took a wonderful ride through the mountains to Crater Lake Oregon. Iwent over a number of high sierra passes. This is Sonora Pass.

This is Monitor Pass.

At the end of this day I was in beautiful Lake Tahoe. I took this at sunset.

The next day I continued riding north through the mountains. I saw a lot of nice country along the way. This was taken at a place called Childs Meadow. It was one of my mothers favorite places.

The highlight of this day was a ride over Mount Lassen an active volcano. The road here was awesome.

Here at the top of the park is the volcano itself. The nicely paved road had changed into a 9 mile stretch of gravel and dirt that the construction crews were watering constantly to keep the dust down. It was a kind of nerve racking for a while but I made it through ok.

I spent the night in Burney. Here is a nice little place called Baum Lake. I have spent many an hour fishing there with my family over the years.


Near Baum Lake is a place I found where someone has built these metal sculptures out of various kinds of discarded tanks and such. I really like the one with the wiener dog.


On the way back to my motel from Baum Lake I saw this buck. I am glad he didn't run out in front of me on the road.
I finally made my way to the meet up with the folks from about.com motorcycle forum.


Crater Lake was awesome and so were the folks from about.com.

After the ride around Crater Lake it was time to head for home. I spent the night in Medford where I took this picture of a C-97 and my V-strom.

A last stop along the way home. What a great trip.

In the fall I was able to take one last trip before years end. This was a 2 day trip over Ebbits Pass to Lake Tahoe. I didn't get any pictures of the pass but I would have to say that this is the most intense and technical road I have ever ridden on. It was great. The next day I went to check out the old Donner Pass area. I wanted to ride through the abandoned train runnels that were built by the Chinese in the 1800's.


The train still goes over the pass but now they use a much longer tunnel that was built in the 1900's.
Hear is a nice shot of the old Lincoln Highway Rainbow Bridge on Donner Pass.


Well that's about it for 2008. I hope to take a lot of nice trips in 2009. Stay tuned for more.