Friday afternoon I dashed out of the house to get a ride on Marmot Road before the rains came. The eastern half of the road had dust and gravel across both lanes because the road department had come along and scraped the side of the road (to kill weeds or something) and it pushed all the debris onto the road surface. They swept over the top of it but left a slick layer of dust and gravel.

I reached Lolo Pass Road and turned around for the return ride and the rain started. Within minutes it was raining hard and all that dust had turned into mud. Combined with a lot of wet, fallen leaves, Marmot Road became almost as slick as an ice rink.

I took my time and used very smooth throttle, brake, and cornering action and fortunately made it home wet but without incident.

Saturday the rain went away so I put my camera in my top case and headed up the Clackamas River Road, veering south onto Fish Creek. I stayed on fire roads and was soon traveling on gravel and dirt. My goal was to take photographs of the fall colors, but most of the road was lined with conifers and I didn’t get any decent views of nearby mountains until I got above 4,000 feet elevation.

I stopped a few times and took some pictures, but most were uninteresting (which is why they aren’t posted here). I made it back down to the main highway but hadn’t had enough riding so I turned right and rode up to Ripplebrook Ranger Station before turning around and heading back home.