I know I've talked about "The Fossil Run" before, after all what motorcyclist in the Northwest hasn't? The thing about this sport, especially going longer distance, is that its generally more fun and safer if you go with a group. The thing about group travel though is the difficulty lining everyone's schedules and preferences up. It always amazes me how much pulling teeth it is for some people to get Saturday-Sunday off from their "life" and "family" to go do something that they've said over and over that they want to do.
With that in mind eventually you say to yourself: "self, (because that's what I call myself) stop worrying about including everyone and just pick a date and go", and so I did. I invited twenty people and four (including me) showed up. Good enough, a small group is easier to fit into restaurants, gas stations, and motels.
Cast of Characters:
Double D - Street Triple 675
Flamin' Beans - Africa Twin (which he rides like its a big supermoto)
SalemCBR - CBR1000RR (good to have a famous YouTuber with us to record this momentous occasion)
LazyEye - SuperSport 939 (yours truly)
With our bags packed and tanks full we set out over the Santiam pass towards Central Oregon. We got a somewhat early start hoping to beat some of the heat and the traffic jam at Sisters, Oregon. We didn't beat the traffic and it turned into a passing/leap frog game pretty quick. Any head start dissolved near Suttle Lake when we came upon a wreck of a truck and learned there was a second wreck (of a motorcyclist) up ahead.
While waiting and chatting with ODOT first response and local SAR members, I learned that Life Flight was inbound for the motorcyclist. Oddly enough after circling once the 'copter didn't land and left the area. Later we found that he had died, another casualty of someone turning onto a major highway without looking.
The highway past Sisters is slow, congested, and hot. Especially with a cylinder between my legs. After the time we'd lost because of the wrecks we stopped in Madras for lunch. Apparently all the fast food places still had their dining rooms closed due to lack of employees. Drive throughs and motorcycles don't get along, so we had a real sit down lunch at Black Bear. Probably better than eating Taco Bell anyways.
North of Madras we finally turn onto a more interesting road and start some genuine canyon carving. To my dismay we got stuck behind a tour bus for several miles, which seemed like an eternity, and left me questioning what jackoff psycho decided to bring a friggin' tour bus out into the twisties.
The ironic thing about "The Fossil Run" is that Fossil highway from Antelope to Fossil is only 36 miles long. Its 36 miles that's pretty great, but only 36 miles. We travel hours and hundreds of miles to get to this 36 mile long highway. But I must digress, there were more tour busses out there. What. The. Heck. Editor's note: there's a church camp, ironically near the old Rajneesh Cult grounds, out there that imports people for indoctrination by the bus load. Back on topic. Not that going on "The Fossil Run" is detracted by this simply semantic problem, because just past Fossil is literally hundreds of miles of fantastic canyon carving.
After a rehydration and gas stop in Fossil we continued on to carve the canyons east and north. Past Spray we picked up Highway 207 which goes through the mountains and past an OHV area. Excellent twisties and on the downhill side (going north) there is probably ten miles of undulating curves following a river which of course I forgot to turn on my Go Pro for. Coming around one corner we got to test our brakes and stop on road to admire some cows that were hanging out on the tarmac.
West of Condon is open prairie with constant wind and Windmills. Its the kind of terrain where you test the phrase "if a curve is boring, go faster until it isn't".
The open terrain gives way to Cottonwood Canyon which has some excellent flowing curves and then back up into the open, and then back down into another canyon and on into Wasco. Trips like this are canyon carving in a very literal sense, as opposed to carving roads that follow a river but don't have a real canyon. Again, a semantic difference.
On we went into The Dalles and checked in to our motel and hit the pool!
Some of the local riders from The Dalles joined us for dinner. It took the restaurant quite a while to serve so we had plenty of time to catch up and plot future shenanigans.
The next day we had a late start after bike maintenance and another restaurant that served slowly (short staffed). Mostly we back tracked the way we'd come but a little bit more direct. While on Fossil highway we decided to stop to cool off in the John Day river, only to find that it was only knee deep!
No comments:
Post a Comment