Heading west through John Day on US26, it was a literal ghost town. The sidewalks were really rolled up. We were filled with anticipation of some great riding through the John Day Fossil Beds country which is some of the best riding in the Pacific NW.
The variety of geologic formations are simply stunning. On more than one occasion we commented that some of the formations belonged in Utah, but here they are in Oregon.
These few pictures don't even begin to do creation's beauty justice.At OR19, we headed north to Kimberly, Spray, and Fossil where we found a mastadon.
Leaving Fossil, on another amazing stretch of road (OR218) and we stopped around 10:30am for breakfast in Antelope. This was an excellent choice! After breakfast we spotted an old church which we walked over to it and photographed it. It dated back to 1897! Antelope has an interesting history and is worth googling it.
One thing that was amazing us today was the scarcity of cars on the road on this holiday weekend. At times we rode for an hour without seeing another vehicle. On this day very few cars passed us and we passed only a few who lingered too much for our taste.
Leaving Antelope we headed for Maupin and took a break at the city park which is located on the shores of the Deshutes River. We watched rafts launch and took care of personal business.
A fellow from Bellingham approached us with a compliment about how quiet our motorcycles were. We enjoyed some pleasant conversation (which happens very frequently when I'm riding and come to a stop) and he ends up suggesting a route that we consider taking. We say, "What the heck, let's do it!". It was a very pleasant ride down the Deshutes River for about 7.5 miles to Sherar's Bridge. Arriving at Sherar's Bridge, I commented over the CB to Neil that I've been here before. Back in 2003 my wife and I came in from another direction and it was a real treat then and as much so now. You'll see in the photos that this is a cut in a lava flow that accelerates the Deshutes River through it. The Indians have fishing perches out over the river and it's very spectacular. Again, google Sherars Bridge Oregon and you can learn more about it.
Old Meets New!
After taking a few pictures, we headed up OR216 to find the little town of Dufur. We did a quick drive through and it was a quiet day in Dufur. US197 took us north to The Dalles where we took one of the few free bridges across the Columbia River. We rode south along the Columbia with some pretty strong wind gusts to Bingen where we re-fueled at the Texaco. Wanting to get out of the wind, we headed north on WA141 for Trout Lake and the opportunity for Neil to ride WA141 and FS23/90 for the first time. Along FS23 there's a nice lookout for Mt. Adams where we stopped for some pictures.
The rest of FS23 was very twisty with some frost heaves and joined up with FS90 which had a good surface for a while before turning to a gravelly pitted road for about 3/4 of a mile which we navigated easily. Just before the intersection with FS25 we took a rest stop at the Eagle's Cliff general store. It was then a nice ride up FS25 with a brief sobering moment when we encountered a tow truck and a number of sheriff vehicles at a corner. They were recovering some vehicle that went over a small cliff.
Leaving FS25 and Woods Creek Road, we changed our plans and headed west on US12 to Morton for another fuel stop and a small dinner. We were having so much fun it was now 6pm and we had at least a couple more hours of riding in the dark. Dinner at the Plaza Jalisco was great as judged by the evidence of what was left of a shredded beef taco salad.
We then headed north on WA7 to 161. At one point a deer jumped out in front of Neil and as I passed the point, I spotted another deer where the first one came from. Further on, Neil noted that my left headlight went out and we decided to take a short break at the South Hill Mall area where I changed the headlight bulb in about 10 minutes. What a difference the headlight change made! It was then a nice ride through the congestion (the first of the trip since Ellensburg on day 1) and up WA512/WA167/I405/WA518 to my home (actually Neil peeled off on I-5 for his home as my bedroom door wasn't open for him :) ).
It was a great three days enjoying riding together through some great roads and scenery. I would encourage you to find a riding partner and just get out and ride. There are so many rides and so little time. This last picture epitomizes what we riders long for: twisty rides, especially in our rear view mirrors because it means we just rode them.
Daily Statistics:
Daily Mileage: 455 miles (longest day)
Total Miles: 1212 (may not agree to daily tally)
Game Spotted: Quite a few deer (one relatively close call); one large Mastadon
