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This last weekend was our third attempt at completing a two day motorcycle trip. (Our first attempt was cut short by a broken shifter and the second had to be rescheduled at the last minute due to a Team Oregon Instructor prep class.) Fortunately the adage "third time's a charm" proved true in this case. We had a wonderful time; the weather and roads were perfect.
We started with four riders, myself, my hubby macavite "D" a friend we had ridden with before and a self proclaimed "newer rider who hoped that he wouldn't slow us down to much". Both friends planned to only ride with us for the first 150 or so miles as they had evening plans.
At 10am we left Portland and headed east on hwy 14. As usual, I took lead and hubbie sweep. All was puppies and roses until we got to Camas where we joined a long line up of cars behind a classic car caravan going 35-40 mph. Normally I would be more than willing to leapfrog my way up the line but they were closely packed and with a self proclaimed new and slow rider in the group I decided to be more cautious. They FINALLY pulled over at Beacon Rock so that the line of cars could pass (I counted at least 20 but I couldn't see all of the cars behind us.) We were then on our merry way.
At Underwood we headed north on 141 toward Trout Lake then swung east at BZ corner toward Glenwood. Last May, during attempt one, the BZ Corner- Glenwood road had been covered in tar snakes and potholes. It has since been chip sealed but it was long enough ago that the road was in decent condition and we had a great time riding along with Mt Adams in the background.
Lunch at the Glenwood café and we were off toward Klickitat. 142 south was as much fun as we remembered although there was more traffic on it this time. One the one lane section we ran into two trucks, one motorhome and about five bikes. Then it was down to Lyle where we parted ways with our friends and Steve and I continued on to Mary's Hill. We had a great break at Stonehenge and celebrated making it further than we had in attempt 1. From here on it would be all new roads. The rest of day one was spent on Highway 14 but traffic was light, the weather was perfect and the river views were fantastic. We pulled into Hermiston around 5pm where we checked into our hotel (Yeah in room Jacuzzi!) and managed to find a fantastic restaurant. (The Farmer's Kitchen).
Day 2
Left the hotel around 9am after a huge breakfast. We enjoyed a nice warmup ride down 207 into Heppner and then 206 to Condon. WOW! We had been told that the Heppner-Condon route was one of the best roads in Oregon and we have to agree. There was no traffic and the curves were perfect. Both of us were in the grove and just having a great ride. After a short break in Condon where we got the scope on roads, gas stations and restaurants from the locals we started out toward Fossil. The curves here were a little bit sharper but just as fun. I lost my grove a bit after a large bird did a fly by. I swear the wing brushed my helmet. It took a little while for the adrenaline to wear down from that.
We took a break at the John Day Fossil Bed and hiked around the rocks for a while. There were some great plant fossils and fantastic rock formations there. Antelope was practically a ghost town with abandoned buildings and storefronts. But the road north of Antelope toward Shaniko was fantastic. It was one of those stretches that we seriously thought about turning around and doing a few more times. Unfortunately my stomach was starting to demand lunch so we made our way toward town. Shaniko was an unexpected delight with a great sandwich/ice cream shop and lots of locals and tourists hanging around.
From Shaniko we headed out on 97 toward Maupin and then 197 to The Dalles. At this point Steve and I were both obviously tired and the butts were sore. We took a long break in a coffee shop in The Dalles (Yeah soft leather couches!!!). It was then back on 84 to slab it home. I needed another break so there was some lay down in the grass time at Multnomah Falls. We pulled in to our driveway at 6pm with 573 miles on the tripometer.
Overall a great trip with many roads we want to do again.
Steve's pictures are online at http://www.geekslair.com/hermiKlick/. I took a few more on my iphone that I hope to add to the site tonight.