A beautiful ride to Hagg Lake on a hot, sunny Sunday

What's amazing about living in the Pacific Northwest is that no matter how many rides you do, it always seems to be that there's another beautiful bit of nature yet to discover.  I'd never even heard of Hagg Lake before yesterday's ride.

I met up with the Portland Scooter Social Club in Northwest Portland.  We started with six bikes - at first, the Vespa/Piaggio contingent was in the majority, which made me happy. 

Ready to ride.

Our fearless ride leader, Gina, with her trusty 250cc Piaggio, had helpfully posted the turn-by-turn directions of the ride on the group's Facebook page.  

Twisting forest roads gave way to open farmland dotted with picturesque country churches.  We kept a pace of about 40-45 mph, slower than the Oregon Scooter Club generally goes, but Gina has a different philosophy - she wants to see the landscape and enjoy the ride, and her approach leads to a more relaxed ride that's just as fun as when the OSC pushes the throttle around the twisties.  

We followed this route until we got to Dave Hill Road, which suddenly ran out of pavement and left us on very unpleasant gravel.  We stopped, regrouped, found a way around that involved Highway 47, and made it to Hagg Lake.  (There was a closed road that we had to get around, which necessitated the detour to Dave Hill, but Google had mentioned nothing about the road being gravel, thus the detour from the detour).  

Who the heck is Dave Hill and how'd he get a road?  And why wasn't he good enough for pavement?

"Hey, Dave Hill, you want a road?"  

"Sure."

"It'll suddenly run out of pavement for no reason, is that ok?"

"Whatever."

Before we got to the lake proper, we stopped for refreshment at a cute convenience store and waited to meet up with two more riders.

A convenience store.  How convenient.

A Burgman and an automatic motorcycle joined us (and the people riding them, of course), and the Vespa-Piaggio majority was lost.  Sad days.  

From the convenience store it was a quick and beautiful ride around the rim of Hagg Lake, and then we stopped in at a parking area and took in the vista.  

I love doing panoramic photos on my phone.

There were dozens of people enjoying the lake, camping, hiking, riding jet skis, playing with pets. A scene both bucolic and idyllic, and a nice break from what had been a beautiful but very warm ride.  

After a time, we adjourned to McMenamins Grand Lodge for lunch, sitting in the shade for good food and conversation.  From there, it was about an hour from Forest Grove to home.  

Random musings:

-At one point we were two miles from Kansas City.  I didn't think we'd ridden that far. 

(Oh, that Kansas City).

-The parking area at Hagg Lake was called the "C-Ramp Recreation Area."  I wasn't sure I wanted to recreate my cramps.  

-I continue to have a huge smile plastered all over my face when I ride my new scooter.  

-I unlocked an achievement while riding to meet up with the group before the ride.  I took the top deck of the Fremont Bridge across the river, which is a wide highway far above the river that's always been a little scary to me.  Never would have done that on my previous scooter.