Sounds like some big ass flying ants Rob!!
Glad you were able to still go, we have my wife's sisters family here from Idaho for the long holiday weekend, couldn't have bailed out for a full day ride...
No worries Jay, next time!
Google maps shows I did just 2 miles shy of 500 miles. Turns out NFS25 is still block by snow!?! Of course I didn't find out until I rode all the way in from the North side, to find the gates locked here 46.323935,-121.972511 (paste this in Google search, then show maps). That's also the area where I encountered the giant mutant flying ants! Someone really should go up there with a Geiger counter and take some measurements, just to see what's going on out there.
I would not recommend NFS25 until they do some serious repairs either. It took quite a beating last winter. There are frost heaves and numerous sections where the road abruptly drops by a few inches. There's also a bridge that was taken out by a debris flow. The temporary bridge is one lane wide, with 2x6 planks for decking, some of which are curling on the ends (up to 2 inches). It was a real challenge given that most of the road damage was in shaded areas, and the definition was just not there to see it until you were into it. On the plus side, if the bags were going to come off my 2010, they should have done so on that road.
It's sad, as this is the only completely paved route around the back side of the mountain. The alternate has about 12 miles of gravel, or go all the way to SR97.
You can also add OR202 to your bucket list. Great run, with only a few areas of rough pavement. Just be sure to slow down when you go through the Deer and Elk refuge. That's where I found the first deer I chased off the road. The second was on WA SR6, about 20 miles after passing a bunch of silhouette animal cut outs along the side of 101 (including a doe with 2 fawns, munching grass). I saw it in the distance, standing like it was going to walk across the road, but it was shaded there, and the head to body proportions looked wrong, so I thought it was another cut out. I then made a high RPM pass of a car, and just as I was getting the cruise missile reigned in, bearing down on it, the 'silhouette cut out' turned and ran into the woods!
Anyway, so are you going to install the exhaust yourself? What did you decide to do about the center stand?
