As you know, I’ve been planning my “Return to the North Country” ride for several months now. This is a follow up to the “Long Ride North” that I did last summer when I rode the Harley to Alaska. I’m scheduled to take off on July 11^th, which is coming right up. The whole point of the ride is to take my time and do some paintings. Now however, I’m thinking there might be the possibility of a “Plan B”  – the Pacific Northwest instead.

Yesterday morning, the Summer Solstice, I awoke to a nice little watercolor painting I have hanging in the bedroom that caught my eye. It was done by fellow artist Meredith Nemirov and is of a rugged coast line in Oregon with waves rolling against where the cliffs meet the ocean. Sort of foggy and a bit dramatic. I like it. So, I got to thinking about that rough and scenic coast line and all I’ve heard about it but have never seen. A few years ago I got on Highway 50 right outside the studio here and rode the Harley to the left coast and turned right up Highway’s 1 and 101 to the Oregon border where we turned inland. The little visual taste of that coast was spectacular and we vowed at that time we’d return someday.

Ha! Yeah, I’m thinking maybe this is the someday. The problem with “Plan A”, riding back up into Northern BC, maybe over to Whitehorse in The Yukon and back down the Canadian Rockies in Alberta is that there is a lot of country to cover, and if I’m going to stop and paint, I probably don’t have enough time to take it all in again like I want to since I’ve allotted two weeks. Trouble is that it’s so far up there that if I wind up running out of time, it’s a long way back. I don’t want to be rushed either way.

If I make a run into the Pacific Northwest, it’s closer, fresh country for me and has a fantastic scenic value for painting…or so I’m told. I may just go and find out for myself. As I check the map over and google images, it looks pretty appealing. If all works well I could get up to the San Juan Islands and maybe onto Victoria Island. This is all very much in a rough draft stage but maybe I’ll go head in that direction and make the decision when I get to Spokane, WA. As a compromise, I could slip into Southern BC and see what there is to paint there and head west, dropping back into the US around Bellingham, WA where I could catch a ferry over to the islands. Then depending on how much time I have I can work my way down to the Oregon coast. Or I could reverse that route and go into Northern California and do the Redwoods again and then work up the Oregon Coast getting as far as I can before turning back toward home.

Here’s a couple of images I stole off of the internet.

I’m just thinking out loud here but that’s sounding like a pretty good idea. It’ll be a whole lot cheaper too. Thanks for stopping by and I’ll keep you posted.