There's a destination highway that connects Idaho near Kamiah to Montana at Lolo, near Missoula. You might have heard of Lolo pass. This year for part of summer break I wanted to hit it, so after agonizing about routes and weather for longer than necessary I finally made some motel reservations and set a date. The plan was like my usual, leave on a Monday, return Friday, hopefully miss the 4th of July traffic. Monday came around, and I was off.
Traffic from Western Oregon into Central Oregon was relatively light on Monday morning. Still, past the mountains it's boring for a while, just getting to the cool stuff. Lunch in Madras, fuel, then onward. I hit Fossil highway for the first time of the trip then continued on along through the canyons of highway 19. I almost hit two deer and saw a herd of elk. My route split off 19 then went up 402 towards Monument and Long Creek.
At Long Creek I fueled up. They have premium and they aren't price gouging for it just because it's the middle of nowhere. 395 North. Just short of Dale Oregon I hit wet weather. The pavement was full wet and when I found the rain I pulled over to put on my Icon over jacket and Klim waterproof gloves. According to the forecast there were supposed to be light showers and a low chance of thunderstorms. Well, guess that forecast was a little off. Too bad because there's some great corners on that section of highway and I had to dial it back.
By Ukiah the rain had lightened up a little and I ran across a red VFR800 parked across from the "Gas station" there. I asked if he needed fuel, since the station there isn't much more than a guy that'll sell you some gas from a can. He had enough to make it to La Grande so we were off. Just outside of the town we passed a Sheriff but he didn't light us up. I passed the VFR rider and showed him what the more nimble Supersport could do. He finally caught up with my near Hilgard and we chatted for a while about bikes.
While eating I looked at the forecast. The "slight chance" of showers and thunderstorms where I was heading had turned into a 80% chance of rain. Damnit. I was geared for a shower, not real rain. For that matter, I don't have real touring tires I'm still on sport tires that are near the end of their mileage.
The next morning La Grande was in the middle of a torrential rain storm. Checking the forecasts along the route I'd planned I saw the next three days turning into thunderstorms. It's hard to make a decision to scrap a vacation, but that's what I did. I cancelled the next night's motel and decided to retreat to Central Oregon where it's dry. The rain followed me back on Ukiah highway. I was more cautious this time because of the full wet conditions.
As I came around a corner I had to come to a stop because there was a herd of sheep in the road. Easily five hundred sheep being herded along. It took me a few minutes to idle may way through the herd but then I was riding on wet sheep shit for miles afterwards. Guess you can add that to the collection of other dirt and grime.
395 north was still wet but not as much of a driving rainstorm. Low traffic. Too bad it wasn't dry, there's some great curves there.
Highway 19 is more fun but sedate enough for my post-lunch inattentiveness not to be fatal. Gas in Condon then south in Fossil to run Fossil-Antelope highway again. Mid-week the traffic is sparse, but unfortunately the last five miles or so are fresh chip seal from last year and it shedding, so the grip sucks. On a side note more than a few of the roads I'd planned to use I had to scrap because of chip seal operations. Some were announced on the state website, some weren't.
Heading northwest out of Condon on towards Cottonwood canyon, the stretch of road is one of those places where everyone goes 80+ because the road it long curves, there's nothing out here, and the next city isn't for miles. Never seen law enforcement out there, so imagine my surprise when I passed a sheriff. He lit me up and ticketed me. Fortunately he wrote it for 70 in a 55 instead of whatever I was actually doing. Still takes the fun out of things. Especially trying to keep it down the rest of the way to The Dalles.
Without a reservation I had to visit a few places before I found a motel with a room. Looking at the forecasts I decided to try to make my way back east again and ride the Baker City - Sumpter - Granite - Ukiah route. Cross your fingers? 390 miles for the day.
Going south out of The Dalles on a major highway sucks but there's only so many options. My plan went off rails when I turned on Shears Bridge road which has some cool corners and found they were actively chip sealing it. I waited there a few minutes and realized they were waiting for the fresh oil to set, that's going to take a while, so I went back to the highway and south. At Maupin there's a cool complex of corners on Bakeoven road, then the road goes up and over the prairie.
Bakeoven road is good for opening up the bike and has some long sweepers, even a few tighter turns, so don't get too distracted. It dumps into Highway 97, then you can go to Shaniko. There's a cardlock gas station there but they only have 87 octane and diesel. While topping off with 87 I saw someone had left a large bottle of octane booster on top of one of the pumps. Maybe that was Central Oregon hospitality or maybe someone was sabotaging dumb city slickers with their fast cars. I didn't sample it, too paranoid. My bike ran fine though on the diluted tank as I ran Fossil highway... again. Good reason to leave the ECU stock and have an oxygen sensor.
Pretty much I backtracked the way I'd already gone. Fossil to Monument to Long Creek then up 395. While riding north I spotted some dark clouds that weren't on the forecast.
Instead of going north to Ukiah and running that again I turned on Middle Fork road towards Galena. This is an open range area so you can't go too fast because you might hit a cow. It's a fun road though even though the further I got the more I realized I was riding right into possible thunderstorms. When I got to the highway 7 junction I saw the clouds were hanging on the mountains over towards Baker City. The cafe at the 7/26 junction was closed that day, so I went out 7 hoping for the best.
Well shit in one hand and hope in the other, see which fills up first. Once in the mountains the thunderstorm hit. I realized just how screwed I was since my rear tire was past the wear bars. 7 is the only route into Baker unless you go further east and take 245. I put on my rain jacket in the middle of the storm and idled my way back. The water was coming down so fast it wasn't draining and I didn't risk anything past thirty miles per hour!
By Austin junction the thunderstorms had fully developed in almost every direction. I went West, it was the best chance of getting out of it.
Pictured, see that place where the clouds are dumping? That's where I'm going.
I rolled into Prairie City just before the thunderstorm and found a cafe to eat lunch in. I'm out of rear tire and don't want to just hang around for the next two days while the storms clear. The error in my planning for the day was thinking that the forecast for Baker City applied to the mountains nearby. Nope. The mountains were going to stay rainy for the next two days! With that I decided to call it and head for home.
Pictured: shop window cats in Prairie City and some rock formations west of John Day.
I stayed the night in Prineville since I was exhausted. Finished riding home the next day.
Lolo pass will still be there later in the year. Better to not crash trying to push it. It was ill-advised to embark on a trip like that with as little tire life that was left, but I overestimated the mileage I could get out of them. As soon as I got home I cleaned my bike and messaged my friend with a tire machine. That evening I had my half used Pirelli Angel GT2s back on the bike, the oil changed, and already thinking about what's next. I had two thousand miles before the desmo service, so I need to schedule that.
Hey Tim, I hope you eventually made it to Lolo Pass, '23 was a pretty good year. Hope you are still at it. Cheers
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