In fourth gear, the new Royal Enfield Meteor 350 blissfully ticks down the Historic Columbia River Highway, a serpentine backroad that traces through the hills and tiny towns that rest atop the steep cliffs of the massive canyon carved out by the river east of Portland.
The road grants access to majestic Multnomah Falls and nearly a dozen other cascading cataracts of clear, crisp water, most now in full roar as the snow melts off the nearby hills and Mount Hood’s ski slopes. Tourists have started to return to the popular stretch of byway, but pre-pandemic crowd levels are still a ways off, so the roads are clear of the usual motorhomes and minivans as I bank the Meteor through turn after turn. Local motorcyclists know the tourists tide tables, and with RVs and gawkers at low ebb, bikes are out in force on what is, so far, the warmest evening of 2021 in Oregon.
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