We departed the motel in Lewiston, ID shortly before 7am and headed back into Washington. We turned south in Clarkston for Asotin along WA129. After climbing out of Asotin ( a fun twisty road), the temperatures were in the high 40's. I needed to add my Gerbings so we made a quick stop. It wouldn't be the last stop for clothing adjustments. The ride down Rattlesnake Canyon was tremendous with very little traffic. The ride back up on the Oregon side was equally nice. We rode a bit farther and Neil then decided he needed his full complement of Gerbings so we made another stop. It was then a nice ride down OR 3 to Enterprize and then to Joseph, OR where we refueled around 9am. One of the service station persons struck up a conversation with us and complimented us on our choice of bikes and was especially enamoured with the electric clothing. We then headed east on the Imnaha highway with a turn south on FS39 on our way to the Hells Canyon Overlook.
FS39 is one of those magical roads that's really well surfaced, in the middle of nowhere or very close to it, and virtually absent of traffic on this Sunday morning of my 63rd birthday. We carved the curves and eventually showed up at the overlook. Not much had changed except that of my favorite stumps had deteriorated and blew over. We enjoyed some fig newtons and took in the sights. While there was nobody else there initially, but by the time we left, the parking lot was very full. In fact a Triumph Sport Touring bike showed up and it was the same bike we had seen the previous day at the Cle Elum cafe. We enjoyed a brief conversation with this couple. Then Neil had a little incident with his reverse switch sticking, but that was soon remedied and we were on our way south on FS39 again.
We ended up following a very large Dodge pickup for about 20 miles because we couldn't get around him. Finally we did and enjoyed more of the twisties by ourselves. We connected with OR 86 and headed west into Halfway where we sought out some lunch. It seems that the rodeo was going on in Halfway and there was only one restaurant open (Stockmans) and it was closing at 2pm. The Hells Canyon burger was terrific! We then headed for OR86 again and rode that up over the hill towards Baker City. It got extremely windy and we had pretty severe side winds during that leg. At Baker City we headed north to LaGrande on I-84 for our next refueling stop and we buffeted by more winds on that leg as well. It was very tiring riding.
Leaving LaGrande, OR, we headed a few miles north to the OR244 exit where we were rewarded with some extensive gravel riding due to the reconstruction of the offramp. This was navigated with ease and soon we were heading west on OR244. It was full of nice sweepers along the river and we passed a muzzle loading encampment. Not long after that, we came to NF51 which was a new road for me. We headed south on this VERY nice road and took a break for more clothing adjustments (read that it was cold at around 42 degrees and we were at 5,000 feet and greater in altitude).
There was a section of NF51 that became very rough but eventually it ended at NF52 which had a better surface. NF52 led us to NF73 and then to the old mining town of Granite and then Sumpter. Sumpter was having a 3 day flea market and things were closing up as we got there. But the real treat was being able to see, photograph, and board the gold dredge. We probably spent 20 minutes on the dredge trying to visualize what it would have been like to work on it. According the the history placard, this dredge mined a cubic yard of gold in its work history which is about 9 tons. Convert that to ounces and you'll have some feel for the significance of this dredge. For those who haven't seen a dredge, it's essentially a large floating piece of machinery that uses the buckets shown below to scrape up the rock material and deposit it in the dredge where the gold is removed and the tailing are deposited out the back. Essentially the dredge digs it's own hole!
Leaving Sumpter, we headed for OR7 which would take us to US26 and into John Day where we projected we'd be spending the evening (assuming there's no rodeo, etc. that would use up the available rooms). Arriving in town we spotted the Little Pine Inn (866-575-2100) and pulled in. The desk clerk was very friendly, quoted a favorable rate, and we had lodging for the evening. I would recommend staying here. He recommended the OUTPOST for dinner. While unpacking the bikes another biker , Ben, on a very nice HONDA crotch rocket engaged us in conversation. He was from Lewiston and had left this morning as well although he didn't take the circuitus route that we did. Ben was very pleasant to talk with and we enjoyed our time with him. Dinner was next and it was just okay. The ribeye steaks were a bit tough even when cooked medium rare.
Walking back to the motel, the city streets were pretty quiet with most of action taking place at the Dairy Queen. We agreed to leave at 7am again in the morning and put in another long day. Today's riding was simply spectacular. There were lots of twisties, great scenery. The only downsides were the wind in the one 100 mile section, and the low temperatures.
ODOMETER: 397 miles
Game Spotted: A dozen or so deer in several different groups; lots of free range cattle on the road (NF51)
Non-Riding Highlight: Sumpter Dredge
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