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Motorcycling Though Western Oregon
The Interview
With a fourth ride guide under his belt ,
Motorcycling Through
Western Oregon, we sit down for a candid interview with the
author, Tom
Mehren.
- Your introduction to the book primarily covers most of the
design on the cover. Why was that so important to discuss?
TM: This is simply one of the hardest covers I’ve ever
had to develop in the series. Western Oregon doesn’t have
volcanoes (we consider them Central Oregon), giant mountains or
other strata to define it. It’s a unique geography to be sure,
but you can’t sum it up in a single shot. For me —riding around, slinking into the next corner and coming out is
what it’s all about. So I placed what I thought was the epitome
right on the cover. A local rider enjoying a day out, some
farmland and Lobster Valley Road. You don’t go to Oregon and
miss Lobster Valley Road.
The first chapter is a series of discussions. Do you think
anyone cares?
TM: While riding through
the area, I
wound up with all these questions. Who made this? How do they
maintain the roads? How did the roads come to be? What’s going
on here economically that’s making these roads so great? It went
on and on. I figured other riders are
going to have these same questions. Eventually I realized
we need to have these
discussions. And you know how it is with motorcyclists—one guy
does all the talking while the rest just listen—so here I was
doing all the talking. Babble, babble babble
… but seriously,
doing the research on this was informative to me and hopefully
it will be to the readers too.
You actually promote a section of I-5 as a great road. Why?
TM: Right. The section between Roseburg and Grant’s
Pass. It’s part of the Applegate Wagon Trail. Turns out what was
good for the goose was good for the gander!
Like the section of I-84 between southeast of Pendleton into the
Blue Mountains. You do that in a car and you know you just gotta
go do it on your bike. Ditto here. If you haven't done either on
your bike, it’s time you did.
You live in Seattle. Do you think you spent enough time
riding the roads there?
TM: No. I wish I had a
few solid decades to do that. I wouldn’t mind living there and riding them over and over.
But the book takes its own form. It’s me out there digging in and finding this stuff,
so those with precious time get to enjoy it without burdening
themselves following RV traffic up 101.
The rides come in four flavors. You include a description,
turn-by-turn directions and a map, and if someone wants the GPS
files they can get those too. Wouldn’t one or two solutions
suffice?
TM: I’ve been doing this long enough to know, humans
don’t all work the same way. My personal choice is maps and GPS.
Others like turn-by-turn and I’ve learned a lot is gained in the
descriptive. Now, if you put them all together, what could
possibly go wrong? On Oregon back roads
—still a lot! OK—that’s why we also make the GPS available. I could not have
completed the book without the GPS files I wrote in advance.
The Steinman Overcrossing is the equivalent of a freeway
onramp from the aerial photo in the book. Why is it such a big
deal?
TM: For starters it’s not on a freeway. Secondly, it’s
a bizarre moment for anyone who has some directional ability to
imagine that they should be turning to the right when instead
they’re going to make a left, but what kind of a left? A FAT
left. And who in their right mind designed a road this way back
in the 1900s? None other than Sam Lancaster and Sam Hill,
who happened to be the creators of US 30 from The Dalles to
Portland. That is major road making history.
You had a terrific bee sting during the pre-ride. Tell us
more about that.
TM: I didn’t include it in the book because it had
nothing to do with it,
really. On the second day during the final pre-ride segment, I
hit the campground east of Ashland at Hyatt Prairie. After
taking off my glove I realized a bee had
nestled his way between the gauntlet and my sleeve. When he
hit
my flesh he dug in deep and gave me a nasty bite. Not a big deal
until two days later when my hand swelled like a blowfish. My
doctor said ‘keep your hand elevated’ which was a joke since I
had another five days of riding to go. It finally receded after
about two weeks and now I need to carry an epipen. Christmas
gift—hint hint.
Favorite place for coffee?
TM: It has to be the Blue House at Vernonia. But I
knew about the place when they had their spot to the north,
west of Mist. A great little Greek place that has now found a
better home and expanded their offerings. If you gave me two
choices I'd also add Railroad Avenue Station. The coffee is
fine, but the cheesecake is to die for.
McMenamin's comes up several times in the directories. What’s
your take on their empire?
TM: Local corporate megalomaniacs! We love these
people. They make things more magical every time you stay at one
of their places or dine with them. If you’re tired of giving
your money to outside corporate monsters who are sitting on
their/your cash, spend it with these guys locally.
Honestly—we missed a few places that should have been included
like the Grand Lodge in Forest Grove. McMenamins has always been
a good partner in our book distribution, ever since we released
our Gorge book to the masses in 2006.
What about 101? You skipped it.
TM: Purposely. No doubt, it’s a great road. Even
better if you ride it outside of the months between Memorial and
Labor day. But all you need is a paper map or less to go up and
down it.
I figure most folks will hit it at some point anyway. My job was
to get them to it and get them away from it when they were ready,
and the book does that pretty well.
What’s the big deal about crediting the printer and the
bindery?
TM. When we began publishing books through Mixed MEDIA
back in 2004, we used local printers.
In 2008 it was suggested to me that we start looking at using
China as a publishing destination. While it would have been
cheaper, there were three things that didn’t appeal to me. #1:
Turnaround time would have been longer. #2: It doesn’t put money
back in the pockets of people nearby and #3:
If there was an
issue in the final output how well could we deal with that?
We’re at an advantage from all three points when we publish
locally.
Gorham Printing in Centralia does a great job printing our book
and the output on this one was stunning. Rose City Bindery in
Portland uses an elongated-tip-and-bend process on the spiral
bind, so the book won’t unravel on the first day of stuffing it
in a tank bag. This pair of entities can print and deliver in
less than three weeks. From China, the shipping time alone would
be three weeks.
Will the book be released on Kindle?
TM. As you may know, we’ve started testing with
kindle, but not on tour books. I’m not opposed to
it. We're going to test that this coming spring.
The food descriptions are tough. What does it take to
please your appetite?
TM: The food has to be good and good for you. That’s
not often the case when you’re out on the road. My preference is
to eat nuts, dried fruit and beef sticks, getting
a slice of cheese here and there and some fresh fruits and
greens when I’m riding alone. But you’re gonna want
breakfast, lunch and dinner at some point. We can subject
ourselves to junk food all day long and all we’ll do is feel
bloated, crap funny and die sooner. Riding motorcycles is fun,
and the longer I can do it the better. |
