Portland to Glacier Park in Montana and back. What a fantastic trip on the windiest roads of four states. Almost no freeways involved and every road a motorcycling delight; both on tarmac and into the back country.

The wind farms and wheat country of Eastern Oregon, the rolling scorched Palouse, up the Clearwater River in Idaho and Lolo Pass over the Bitterroots into Montana, Seeley Lake to Whitefish, mountain trails to Bowman Lake and Polebridge, Going-to-the-Sun Road in Glacier Park, Flathead Lake and the St. Joe River back to Pullman, Lewiston Hill and Rattlesnake Grade to Boggan’s Oasis and along the Grande Ronde to Joseph, Wallowa-Whitman Forest and Hess Road into the Hells Canyon, across the Blue Mountains to the Painted Hills and dirt roads to Antelope via the Rajneeshpuram, then the classic ride home through Shaniko, Maupin, and Mount Hood.

Around 2200 miles of some of the finest motorcycling roads in the world with stunning vistas, friendly folk, ghost towns, amazing colors, and just enough technical dirt to raise the heart rate and justify our collective investment in adventure motorcycles and lumpy types. Hey, we’ve got these bikes so we’d better get into trouble before we get home.

Too many highlights – I will always remember chasing a Great Horned Owl down a freezing forest road near Upper Whitefish Lake and then having it look down on me before flying off, the St. Joe River from St. Regis to St. Maries, having the camp site to ourselves at Kamiak Butte in the Palouse, the Grande Ronde Rive to Troy then the dirt road out of there to Flora, Muddy Creek Road from Mitchell to Rajneeshpuram.

But most of all … the shit-eating grins on every one of my fellow travelers’ faces each evening.

Photos: in front of Bowman Lake in Glacier Park, freezing still morning at Upper Whitefish Lake, Huckleberry Bear Claw in Polebridge, Grizzly Bear encounter, Grande Ronde River from the road from Troy to Flora.