When we terminated the US Tour in December because of weather, we still hadn't hit all four corners of the lower 48 states - Blaine, Washington was a bit out of reach. We resolved to get there before a full year had passed since the start of the trip. With spring upon us, and the weather breaking, we finally found a short window of time in our schedule to make a quick (for us) run - just before our year ran out.

We ran up the center of California (on Highway 5) before turning northeast on Highway 97 to get east of the Cascades (it was raining on the western side). Mount Shasta is impressive in the spring when the weather is clear.

Most of the border between Oregon and Washington is defined by the Columbia River. We are on the Oregon side about to cross over to Washington and follow it east for a while before heading north to Lind (home of the annual Combine Demolition Derby - really). We'll return in June to see it firsthand!

We chose the lowest pass over the Cascades (at 3,022 feet) to get to the coast. It was a good choice - we didn't get precipitated on (the other passes did).

We made it! And before the year ran out! Blaine is a little coastal town that has a flavor closer to a New England fishing village than what you normally find on the west coast. The entire coast between Seattle and Canada is gorgeous with the San Juan Islands on the water side and the Cascade Mountain Range on the other. If only it didn't rain so much, it might be a wonderful place to live!

Since the rain let up for a few days, we followed the Pacific Coast Highway (101) south for a while. This stretch is in Upper Oregon.
The PCH is one of our favorite roads and we have travelled almost all of it at one time or another. Maybe one day, we will take the time to ride it from Mexico to Canada in one continuous trip!

We can never pass through Tillamook without stopping at the cheese factory. You can watch as they cut and package tons of aged cheddar (and get a taste of the product).

After heading back inland (to pick up some speed - the coast is wonderfully scenic, but slow) we again passed Mount Shasta. It pretty much dominates the central area of Northern California.

We were slightly ahead of schedule, so we chose to head south around Mount Lassen and Lake Almanor and included a stretch of another favorite road, Highway 49.

This trip also added two more states to the year's count (to total 44) and another 2,300 miles to the year's total milage (to put us at around 33,000 - each).

All in all, a most excellent year of motorcycling!