Last Hurrah

The proverbial "they" say that you should always say "yes" to invitations, because then you live more and more invitations follow. Back in 2020 during the pandemic a gent named Paul from Washington showed up on one of the local FB motorcycle groups asking if any locals wanted to go riding in the area. I had nothing to do, so I said I'd go. He was a decent fellow and we rode around my favorite spots on a cold autumn day. Fast forward to 2022 and the season was once again closing. I'd been thinking "I need to go to NorCal or something for one last tour of the season" when Paul messaged me and asked me to go east with him. I said yes and after some last minute time off requests I packed my SuperSport 950s.

Of course I didn't want to skip out on work entirely so I had to get a late start to the day after an important/but not important zoom meeting, so my first day was just getting out there. Lebanon over the Santiam pass is fun, but then it's all flat and slow until after Prineville. I chose to go the highway 380/Paulina route which is more interesting and lower traffic than running the main highway out east. Everything was going great until I saw a smoke plume up ahead.

Well that ain't good because that's where I'm heading! Maybe I'll miss it, right? Nope. As I got closer I realized it was a prescribed burn that had gotten way out of hand. Fortunately they hadn't closed the road because backtracking would have been several hundred miles and I may not have had the gas! My pictures don't do it justice but there were tall trees fully engulfed, right off the road. The level of heat was intense along with burning debris raining down. I didn't stop in the hellish debris zone for obvious reasons so my photo isn't as good. As it turns out the idiot in charge of the burn on National Forest land decided to do it on a dry/windy day and thus it jumped the map lines into a neighboring ranch land. But if you live in Oregon long enough you get used to the Feds screwing up everything they touch, like the National Forest management. The idiot in charge got arrested, I'm sure he'll get a slap on the wrist.

The rest of the ride into John Day wasn't bad and I found my traveling companion Paul was already there with his Italian machine, a 2009 Aprilia Tuono.

I've stayed in some cheap places, but at least this cheap place was clean and no frills instead of just cheap. Beers were had and maps were looked over. The next day we were up before the sun for some breakfast and then off. It was sunny at least but cold. Mid 40s in John Day and as we went east and up in altitude it dropped into the 30s. My bike was flashing the ice warning at me! Would you know it, by the time we reached Hereford so Paul could photograph a falling down barn that he's been photoing for years as it falls down, my ten year old heated gloves that have been to Prudhoe bay and back, finally quit. Not optimal timing...

By the way the boathouse at Hereford is brown and if you get this joke, we can be friends.

Dooley Mountain road, Highway 245, is sometimes called the tail of the dragon Oregon edition because of it's curves. Unlike the dragon in Tennessee it isn't crowded with idiotic tourists in rented supercars and bicyclists. Usually it's covered in gravel though because it's used as an ag haul road, but since it's "after" season for that it was amazing and clean! Lots of fun.

On the way in to Sumpter, Oregon we got stuck behind a NF Ranger LEO and I wasn't sure if he'd ticket me, so I didn't pass his slow federal ass. The gas station at Sumpter has premium so we topped off the tanks then headed out on Granite hill road. There's some great curves on the road and past the summit it fresh pavement for about 9 miles. Naturally we had to do a do-over and ran that section again because of how fantastic it was. At Granite Oregon we met up again then rode north on NF-73 and then NF-51. Neither are in great shape, although the NF-73 section to Ukiah was chip sealed in June but the idiots at the National Forest service never finished the job so it'll fall apart in two years.

NF-51 isn't in great shape but it's beautiful. The fall colors up in the mountains are just fantastic in late October.

There's gas in Starkey Oregon but we didn't stop there due to a communication problem. Turns out I'm pretty much entirely deaf when wearing ear plugs and a helmet. NF-51 dumps into highway 244 which is just awesome, we ran that east, dropped into Lagrande for a late lunch and gas, then came back and ran 244 west to Ukiah. The third world gas station in Ukiah is closed by the way. The day had just warmed up when it started cooling off again as we made our way south on 395 with a gas stop in Dale for the thirsty Aprilia. Dale only has regular and I had enough so I didn't fill up. Am I a gas snob? Yeah, I am.

The section of highway Ukiah to Dale has absolutely fantastic sweeping curves and it's worth running twice. South of Dale we turned on Middle Fork Road/Galena Road. The pavement quality is iffy but it's a beautiful ride and at times it was hard to keep focused on the road because of the fall colors. I have a tendency to cruise at 90 or so when I'm out in sparsely populated areas which runs at odds with trying to enjoy the view. That road ends at 7 near Austin Junction at 26.

We stopped there to talk about trees. I've lived in Oregon most of my life and had no idea there was a needle tree that turned yellow in fall and lost it's foliage. Of course that's also because the trees in question don't grow in Western Oregon where I live. The Tamarack (Western Larch) looks like a fir tree to my uneducated eyes so I though all these firs everywhere were dying! Nope, just seasonal stuff. The ride back to John Day on 26 was uneventful. So much uneventful that I practiced my weave and swerve on the way into the city, then spotted a parked OSP cruised. Oops. But he didn't light me up. So that was nice.

Over dinner we looked at maps again and also the weather report. We were attempting to get in this ride before the fall rains hit and that had been a good plan up until the weather forecast moved ahead. Once again we got up early and headed out as soon as it was light. It was cold and my heated gloves didn't work. I'd worn my summer perforated leathers because I'm still in summer mode, along with not bringing my rain covers and liner for my luggage. At least I had my Icon over jacket which blocks the wind and rain decently.

Out of John Day on 395 we got flashed by an OSP but not pulled. Everyone goes 80 out there anyways. Highway 19 is pretty great canyon carving up into Kimberly to top off the tanks, they have premium there. Then 19 on in to Fossil where we took a short break but didn't need to top off on their 87 octane. The funny thing is how many flocks of turkeys we saw. Paul almost ran one of them over. Lots of Does also, but all the Bucks are nowhere to be seen.

Due to a communication breakdown I ran Fossil highway ahead of Paul and only got stuck behind other vehicles once. It was great and clear. Then I ran up the twisties to Shaniko and back where I ran into Paul and said goodbye. He went north to Maupin where his van was waiting and I headed west towards home. 

Just past Sisters in the mountains I hit the rain. It was awful and misty with poor vis. At least my heated jacket worked but I realized I was a dummy for not riding with my pinlock visor, I couldn't see jack shit for two hours of riding through the mountains. Thankfully the road stripes are visible.

It's time for the yearly service on the Ducati, so that'll happen in a little bit. The problem with going on a trip is that the day after you start thinking about where to go next. If gas wasn't an issue... somewhere south. Like the mountains outside of San Diego maybe, those look cool on the Butler map.

Eastern Oregon Run June 2022

With my new job comes a lot of time off. Give us more money to compensate for the insane inflation and cost of living increases? Nah, we'll just give you time off. Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth I decided to actually take a large chunk of time off this year. In years past while employed the most I'd ever taken off was a week and the world seemed to come to an end (although they still laid me off later). My summer vacation is going to be two whole weeks, but I only spent parts of four days on this tour.

With fresh tires on the Ducati I set out Monday afternoon. The idea was to get into Central Oregon and then start the real riding the next day so I'd be fresher, so I slept in and leisurely got my stuff packed and ready to go. Nothing really that interesting up and over the hill.

In Prineville I realized I was in town way earlier than I needed to be and it was hot. So I dropped my stuff off and ran out to Bowman dam for a few miles of bonus twisties. Lots of fun, and not a lot of traffic on a Monday evening. Back in Prineville I ran into a hiccup. Because it was hot, more than a few restaurants were closed prematurely. Apparently nobody wants to work in a hot kitchen when the mercury rises, who would have thought.

Tuesday morning was nice and brisk. I ate leftover pizza and drank pretty bad in-room coffee then set out on highway 26. This was just getting to the cool stuff although there is some good curves on 26. Highway 207 North near Mitchell is where the cool stuff starts That's the genuine canyon carving and mountain riding. Naturally I ran into some road work but at least it wasn't hot and the delay wasn't long. Traffic was sparse and by the time I reached Hepner I realized I was far ahead of schedule. Here I'd been worried about being able to put down the miles and being fresh and alert for the last cool roads, and I was ahead and in good shape. I guess I'd gotten used to the slower rate I go when I'm coordinating with other people. Breaks, gas, food, and leaving the motel all take longer.

From Hepner I rode out 74 and then dropped down 395. The views are amazing and I nearly ran off the road a few times admiring the deep canyons and pine forests. Even though I wasn't cooking too hard, going maybe 75, a state trooper flashed his lights at me. I guess he knows what I'm about, even if he didn't catch me doing it. That slowed me down for a few minutes until I was sure he wasn't flipping around...

From Ukiah to Hilgard on 244 went by in a flash and I swear it wasn't because I was averaging over 90. Or maybe it was. Near the Interstate it smells like a waste treatment plant... because there's a waste treatment plant there as part of the state juvenile prison there. I hopped on the interstate into La Grande, found my motel, realized I was way too early to check in and stop riding, and then after riding around in the heat for a while I sat down to eat a sub-standard sandwich and contemplate a bonus road.

That bonus came in the form of another run over the Blue Mountains, this time on highway 204 from Elgin to Weston and back. Usually I don't like to backtrack, but it was either backtrack or hit the slab and I'm glad I backtracked. It's 40 miles from Elgin to Weston, so it was 80 miles of amazing curves up and over the mountains, impressive vistas, clear traffic. It was a challenge to keep my eyes on the road because after the alpine vistas and clear blue lake there are rolling hills of wheat interspersed with green hills of grass and purple and yellow wild flowers. I know, slow down, right? Wrong. A road like this, on a bike like mine, it would simply be criminal to go slow.

It was nice and cool up top then I slowed down on the less fun and more trafficked highways back into La Grande. I found a nice Asian fusion place a mile and a half walk from the motel and then settled in for the night. Of course I asked nicely and they let me part my bike under the overhang next to the lobby.

Wednesday I got out as soon as the temperature came up enough. Wait, what? Yes, it had cooled off a lot and I was going to go up in elevation. I cruised down the interstate to North Powder and fueled up. I asked the ladies working at the c-store there about road conditions (surprise they didn't know) then I set out. The road out to Anthony Lakes ski resort is curvy and scenic although not in great shape. It isn't a go-fast road, the views are good, but the road doesn't let you take your attention off it. I should have stopped for better pictures of the Elkhorn mountains but alas sometimes I put off an opportunity until it's gone. At over 7700 feet it got cold and I was wearing perforated summer leathers.

NF73 (Elkhorn Scenic byway) joins up with N52 (Blue Mountains scenic) in the valley where it got more pleasantly warm. This part of the road was nice and flowing and some jackoff had just chip sealed it. The seal job wasn't complete yet, so I was stuck riding near 40 miles on loose gravel on into Ukiah. If the pavement on this section was done, it would have been an amazing ride and some of the views are quite nice. Open terrain of mountains and valleys, trees, all of it currently green, and thanks to the late rains not smoked in.

At the bustling metropolis of Ukiah I stopped at a food cart at the public park for a burger. Good thing Penny's Grill is there because the other restaurant in Ukiah appears to have closed. One other thing about Ukiah, don't count on getting gas there, the station is janky as hell. Good thing I didn't need gas. Another motorcycle tourist parked there and we exchanged road reports. On my way out another hot red Italian machine parked next to mine.

I ran the rest of the Blue Mountains scenic byway on into Hepner. From Hepner I rode to Condon, this section gets really windy and today was no exception. Windy to the point of causing problems riding, but I made it. At Condon I took a break and re-hydrated. Not that it was too hot, just extremely dry. Once again I was ahead of "schedule" so I took a side run out through Cottonwood canyon and back. If a curve is boring, go faster until it isn't! Back in Condon for a Red Bull, water, and gas, then on to Fossil! Fossil highway had a little work done to it but was mostly clear. I made great time, stopped for a photo to make people jealous, then on into Madras for the night.

I ate the world blandest Cubano sandwich then went for a hike.

At the Madras mountain identifier park I watched the sun setting for a little while until the noisy children someone had brought up impacted my calm and I returned to my motel for the evening.

Thursday I got up and swapped road reports and riding stories with some of the other riders at the motel. They were heading East while I was heading West and I'd ridden some of the roads they were heading to.

At the Madras airport there's an air museum that's has quite a few flight worthy aircraft. I wandered around it for an hour although doing so in motor cycle gear got to me and I left early. I'll have to go back, probably for the air show in August. I didn't take pictures of everything, obviously. It blew my mind getting that close to a lot of World War 2 aircraft to see the level of complexity and engineering that they had. Sometimes being a tech person I get into the mentality that everything before the information age was sticks and stones, but seeing the B-17 and other aircraft re-arranged that bias.

After the museum I rode home. Nothing all that interesting other than some light mishaps in Sisters, Oregon (which always happens. That place is just cursed for me). First a nap, then some cleaning to do!

NorCal Tour 5/2022

You know that feeling when you think you've screwed up and you want to quit but you keep telling yourself (and others) "just go a little further and it'll get better" so you keep going and each minute of second guessing you get further away from home and further into the deep? Yeah. That was the first two hours of riding.

The plan had been simple enough. A good friend is leaving the state in June and we wanted to have a going away ride for her birthday. OK no problemo, we'll just ride down into Northern California where it's warmer. Naturally the weather decided to punish us for our hubris and instead of the normally balmy early May weather on the west coast we got a freakin' winter storm. For weeks before the step off it was looking bad, with snow hitting a lot of the higher elevation areas. Then the days before I got to agonize over forecasts along our route.

That's where we get back to "just got a little further". It was torrentially raining and fairly cool. When I met the other riders there was a feeling of, "let's scrub the trip, this sucks". But we stepped off on the insist that the weather would get better once we got south of the Willamette valley. It did truly suck. Torrential rain, wind, truckers trying to kill us. We had a late lunch break near Roseburg and laughed about how our gear was soaked. Good thing I have heated gear! The shell of the Alpinestars "Drystar" gear I have soaked through and the outer pockets aren't waterproof but at least the sewn in rain liner mostly kept me dry and the heated gear kept me warm.

One problem though was visibility. I couldn't see. My pinlock was mostly fog free but the visor seemed to have some awful distortion that made the rain and spray worse. More on that later.

Usually having an attitude of "just go a little further and it'll improve" just means riding in the suck for further but this time it paid off. South of Roseburg the weather cleared and all we had to contend with was the heavy traffic and truckers trying to kill us. By the time we rolled into Yreka we were all pretty well mentally shot from the ride, but when you ask nicely many motels will let you park your bikes under the overhang. Taking apart my visor in the motel room I realized my vision problems were because I'd missed removing one of the protective membranes they ship visors with. Dummy.

The Mexican joint we had dinner at wasn't bad, too expensive, too much food. They had a cool chandelier made of Tequila bottles.

Day one was just getting into the area. Day two is where the fun began. With full fuel tanks we made our way through the canyon of highway 263 up to highway 96. At 96 I checked out. "See you in Happy Camp" I said. Not a lot of traffic this time of year and I made great time, lots of in helmet smiles besides the one construction stop with a flagger. Happy Camp only has regular so I brought a bottle of 92 with me to dilute it with. Not that it'd kill my bike to run on a half tank of 87, but why risk it. Naturally we had to stop for big foot pictures.

Also naturally we ran into the obligatory local crackhead that wanted to talk to us about how cool our bikes were and how he used to ride. Uh yeah, sorry bro, can't hear you with my helmet on. Ah crud, I can't hear anyways, but no point in telling a crackhead I'm half deaf, he'll just yell louder!

By the way, Pectah Mart in Weitchpec, California on highway 96 has premium, which is where I waited for my group.

Driving into Hoopa I got stuck behind a minivan that was slow as hell and kept crossing into oncoming traffic. Lazy, malicious, incompetent, drunk? Dunno. Couldn't get past the gonk safely though because of their weaving. Once into Hoopa my opinion of the place as absolutely awful was reinforced as we got stuck behind every tribal emergency vehicle in the Hoopa district plodding along at five miles an hour for most of a mile because they were escorting two firefighters taking a jog on the highway.

Then pizza and gas in Willow Creek which is marginally less awful than Hoopa. But premium there costs $6.84/gallon which is awful. Past Willow Creek on 299 eastbound we had moments of "this is awesome" and more than a few construction zones and slow people. I was able to get by the slowness enough to open her up and the only times I spotted highway pirates they were already busy defrauding other drivers.

From 299 we went south on highway 3 towards Hayfork. Light traffic, good twisties. Gas in Hayfork then back on 3 to 36. California 36 is pretty damn cool. You could say it's the cherry on the sundae of doing a tour like this. But we were getting kind of tired by this point so it was slightly less cool. Also slightly less cool when we hit rain and torn up road 50 miles from Fortuna. After a break to get my heated gear back on I bolted ahead to get to the motel. I'm crazy or stupid or skilled because I was able to keep up a higher pace in the rain and bad pavement than others, but whatever.

As the "tour director" I'd chosen the spot we stayed at in Fortuna for two reasons: they have a hot tub, and they are across the parking lot from the Eel River Brewery which has excellent food. We dined and embarrassed the birthday girl then went back to the hot tub for a good soak. No pictures of the post-dinner activities including birthday spankings for obvious reasons relating to terms of service on blogger and that what happens on the road stays on the road.

One of our riders had to split early so the rest of us had a leisurely breakfast then departed on highway 36. At multiple points on either end of highway 36 there are signs indicating it is not advisable for trucks, but what did we see? A couple of big rigs heading out there. Dangerous. We made it past them finally and got to enjoy 36 in the dry with fresh brains. The weather had improved a lot and it was good fun.

The weather started improving so much I stripped off the layers I could and opened my vents. It got warmer as we headed east. Around one corner high in the mountains we spotted a Multistrada parked with the rider sitting in a lawn chair enjoying the view! Down into Red Bluff and it got really warm. The Drystar gear doesn't have a removeable rain liner which makes it suck above 77 degrees. It was mid eighties in the valley.

Initially our route was supposed to go through Lassen but the road wasn't going to open up until June so we hopped on slab up into Redding to get back on 299 east. In Redding I got us lost again on the way to lunch, then we got lost trying to find a Cycle Gear to get oil for the thirsty Triumph. At Cycle Gear I had a moment of thinking "maybe I should buy some mesh gear?". Fortunately I didn't because 40 miles out of Redding the temperature dropped into the 70s again and since we were moving I was comfortable.

299 has some amazing views going up the hill which we didn't stop for. Once I broke free of traffic along with the birthday girl on her Triumph we positively hauled balls up into the mountains. You can't see much of a person's face but when we rolled into Burney and stopped at a light, I could see her eyes smiling through her helmet. Yep, me too. Nothing quite like what we're doing. At Four Corners we waited for the slower riders for the last highway of the day.

Highway 89 must have just had a major hatching because we got plastered in bugs in just a few miles. Regardless the European bikes jack rabbited ahead and hauled more balls at big-ticket speed out 89, occasionally admiring the views of Mt Shasta, through the hills on in to the city of Mount Shasta for our final night on the road. Once again we had a hot tub and the staff let us park under the overhang.

bugs!

Someone left their key in their bike overnight...

Although it didn't absolutely ruin our motel experience but the Best Western's coffee is just weak and yucky. I drank three cups and it didn't hit me at all. Mediocre. Their "grab and go" breakfast was pretty lame too; just a couple granola bars, an apple, and a bottle of water. I guess they don't want their "complimentary" breakfast getting the way of the actual restaurant they have on site. More or less we broke up at this point, the FJR and SV heading to visit one group of friends in Medford and the Ducati and Triumph heading to another group in Medford. From Yreka to the border we managed a 90mph average, which surprisingly still gets me 43mpg on the Ducati in sixth gear!

After a good lunch with friends we hit the slab home and somehow managed not to get speeding tickets!

Doorstep to doorstep for me: 1193 miles.

Now time to clean the dirty Duc, change the oil, and decide where to go next.