Oregon trip on small bikes

[ed29]

TexasShadow and I escaped the heat, and the monsoon rains that hit north Texas a few weeks ago to visit her daughter in Oregon. We then spent 13 days living off the backs of a WR250R and a DR350 carrying food, clothes, shelter, sleeping accommodations, camp kitchen, and drinking water. Of course supplies of food and water were replenished daily as consumed.

Visiting was a hoot. Tanaya is a Harley mechanic at a dealership near her house and rides a customized Sportster converted to hardtail by replacing the shocks with aluminum rods. Pics to follow. Her friends are the best, loyal, warm, and close knit. I enjoyed spending time there with them. I also had fun riding Evan's modified Dyna Glide. Ape hangers, far forward controls. Talk about a dual sport rider out of his element! I learned yesterday that there is video of me riding that one too. Evan took the little blue bike for a spin. he came back exclaiming that it did not feel as fast as the speedo was saying. Seventy just did not seem fast, it was too smooth for a small bike at that speed. I know exactly what he means. We ate at Mo's, clam chowder of course. I walked in the cold ocean, breathed the salt air, and unplugged from routine. It was great.

After the visit we drove the truck and camper over to Prineville, dropping them off with Greg Munn. He runs High Desert Adventure there and was gracious in providing space and keeping an eye on out rig while we toured parts of the state. We will be back. I plan on participating in one of his organized rides.

Getting there was the first phase of the trip. 2.200 plus miles from here to Tanaya's house became somewhat of an adventure in and of itself.

We got a late afternoon start when a work day was done and made Dumas TX that night. Resources indicated there is a city park there that allows overnight camping. Sounded good to us! Rolling in as midnight approached we began our quest. First up was the city park I had marked as a waypoint based on map, and description from the resource. It turned out to be ball-fields, part of the school system. We fueled the truck and asked about the parks. Nothing was known by the locals, not even location of a single city park. Inquiries about RV parks netted and answer, so we headed that way. It turned out to be more of a mobile home park than an RV park. I was not about to set up there, at midnight, with no arrangements, connections, or idea of fees involved.

We set up in the ball-park parking lot. Trains passing by many times that night assured us of very little quality sleep. We got underway after breakfast, and at a rest/picture stop just inside of Colorado we spotted the beginning of trouble with the borrowed camper....

Just does not look right. Should not be a gap there. More to come....

 

[ed29]

The first full day of driving was basically uneventful. Out of Texas, cut a corner of New Mexico, deal with horrible traffic in Denver (wreck downtown on the interstate) and set camp in Wyoming. The next day we stopped for lunch and a visit with Lyle in Utah, dealt with rush hour traffic in Boise Idaho, and were pretty much worn out as we crossed the river into Oregon shortly before the sun was setting. We pulled up a couple of hundred miles short of the planned stop for the day to set camp along the Snake River.

Remember that gap??? It grew!

The front wall had separated from the right wall and the floor all the way across. At a time like this you have to ask yourself.... 'What would Red Green do?'

His answer and ours....

Duct tape and lots of it. Had we pressed on through the fatigue I am betting that the light aluminum sides would have peeled off like the top of a sardine can at freeway speeds. We were glad we stopped. Sunrise on the Snake was an early highlight too.

Leaving that camp for our last travel day we were pumped about being in Oregon.

We stopped at an overlook which is where the pan shot at the top of the thread was taken.

Stopped at Multnoma Falls for a rest and some pictures...

Almost there, won't be long now.... Counting down the miles on the GPS... fifty to go..... wait... what is that.... traffic is stopped. Of course there was a wreck on I-5 South of Portland which we learned of as we got jammed up in the snarl. I peeled off north instead and began searching for off freeway routes around the wreck. Good progress was made... until I found all of the other folks doing the same thing. That last fifty miles turned into more like eighty, consuming four plus hours. Most of that was spent stopped or crawling. We finally arrived. It was good to be there, and more than worth the struggle.

 

[RedPill]

Duct tape is your friend! It held my plane together when I had to make an emergency landing due to a fabric tear at the top of the windscreen.

 

[ed29]

Visit time

Phase two of the trip was spending time in the western part of the state.

Here is Tanaya's custom Sporty....

Hard-tail and all it is not just for show. It is her daily commute to the shop. Given her spirit, drive, and determination and knowing her mom all I can say is that apple did not fall far from the tree.

Here is Evan's daughter Nevaeh and her puppy Loci.

Oregon water crossing on the Willamette River...

Mom and daughter...

TexasShadow with her long eye attached.

We spent a day at the coast in Newport and Waldport, eating at the famous Mo's annex, taking in the murals, and absorbing the Pacific calm.

After a few days we loaded up the bikes again and headed for Prineville to start phase three of the trip.

 

[The Bruce]

 

[CaroleAnn]

Wow, nice trip. A couple of familiar places in those pictures. I've been suffering homesickness for a few weeks now and now you've really hit me hard. Newport is one of my favorite places on the coast and I recognize that overlook. I've stopped there a time or two on my treks to Eastern Oregon from Portland.

Thanks for sharing!

 

[M38A1]

This looks like the beginnings of a really nice trip.....

 

[ed29]

Off to drop the rig in Prineville... We had rain galore as we made our way through the valley and up the slopes of the Cascade range.

The camper continued to disintegrate. Rot has set in. Its owner had not used it for a couple of years and a water leak had developed. Everything not made of metal is falling apart.

Once east of the Cascade range the weather improved tremendously.

Parking the truck for its two week rest.

Wiley (or Wilber as he is sometimes known) tagged along on the journey.

One last look at so called civilization as we head to the Oregon back country.

The first day on the bikes was the longest planned ride of the trip. Two hundred plus miles of back roads and scenic drives to Crater Lake.

FYI... this I am sure is the condensed version of the trip report. TS has many, many more pictures and much better insight into the surroundings than I. Her report will be in much greater detail. I am just enjoying the ride!

Crater Lake....

http://s222.photobucket.com/albums/dd52/edhegarty/Oregon 2010/?action=view&current=CraterLakeRd.mp4


I have spent the last several minutes trying all manner of embedding that video. I have not had trouble in the past embedding from YouTube, not sure the bucket is giving me a good link. After I get some work done around here I will have another go at it.

 

[Simmons1]

 

[ed29]

Video around Crater Lake



Well, that solves that!

 

[Stromboy]

I'm glad to see y'all had Wilber along for security! Were you able to keep him out of the booze and tobacco products?

 

[sharkey]

Nice report so far. Been to Utah and Washington but never Oregon....yet.

I was laughing about the pop up. Remind me to tell you my horror story with our Aliner our first trip out. Mine was user error though.

 

[ed29]

I will get another day's ride cranked out before I get busy here.

After spending the morning exploring Crater Lake we headed generally east towards the Fremont-Winema National Forest. Paisley was the direction we were headed, with no set plan of where to camp. The forest map showed a few campgrounds along the way. We were playing it by ear.

The cool of the forest was a nice change from the wide open deserts.

Occasionally a high spot would afford a view of a lower valley, or another distant ridge.

Some areas showed evidence of recovery from fires past. Others had been worked over with thinning operations to manage fires yet to burn.

This was the case at the camping areas. Home for the evening was not the prettiest we saw, but was a welcome spot for tired riders to rest.

Planning for contingencies was a big part of the prep. This remote campground has only a hand pump for well water. So grab a bucket and pump some agua for clean-up and coffee. Hmmm... where did we stash that bucket???

Oh yeah... it was folded flat in the bottom of a side bag. Hiking specialty shops are a great place to shop for useful gadgets to pack on the small bikes.

Morning at camp brought a chill.

Our hydration packs had ice in the valves and tubes.

I caught the sunrise along the creek that was just north of the camp area.

Trout were feeding in the pools of this creek last evening. All was calm this morning.

Another day got under way, and I have to sort the next couple of hundred pictures looking for the dozen or so that are keepers.

To be continued....

 

[ed29]

I had forgotten that I left this story off in mid report.... Guess I will continue telling.

Navigation in the back country had a few challenges. Forest service maps were last updated 14 and 15 years ago on the two areas we were riding. Roads have been moved around by weather and other activities so the maps don't match what is on the ground everywhere. GPS has different roads yet, and names of roads on the map, the GPS, and on the ground can and are all different at times. At times we were up to six miles from the intended route while being on what turned out to be the right road after all. Following the dirt road most traveled at intersections turned out to be a good choice at times.

Wiley was having a good trip..

Roadside overlook on the way into Paisley.

After a delicious lunch in Paisley we split a slice of Marrionberry pie. Call it our Oregon pie run!

Texas plates on small bikes proved to be a great conversation starter wherever we stopped. Friendly folks all over Oregon seemed to have stories about time spent in Texas.

After lunch we rode Winter Ridge above Summer Lake.

Along the way we rode MY road. Forest Rd 29 must have been named in my honor in anticipation of this trip.

Well, maybe not, might just be a coincidence.

The forest was green and lush in most places. One spot was scarred by a fire, bit recovering rapidly.

At the top of the ridge is Freemont Point, named for the man that named the ridge and the lake. Circular naming I suppose.

Arriving at the town of Silver Lake we discover that there is no campground, the only gas station has closed for the day, and the only motel is full up. We discussed riding back out into the forest to make camp when the store clerk told us that camping is allowed in the city park. I present 'camp comfort'. All of this stuff is carried in or on the dry bag on the rack of the 250.

 

[ed29]

After breakfast and gassing up in Silver Lake we headed north to Fort Rock. We stopped at the historic village and looked over cabins, buildings, and implements gathered together from the early days of settlement of the area.

I need to find a washing machine like this for my new off grid place in the desert here.

A stop at Big Hole rounded out the day after making camp.

We decided to stay two nights and explore the area more thoroughly than if we rushed it all into one day.

From a hiking trail not far from camp our target for the next day shone in the sunset.

Fort Rock itself was next.

 

[ed29]

Hiking Fort Rock filled a great morning.

The scale of this place is hard to convey.

We had the place to ourselves for most of the morning. We met the volunteer caretaker hiking the place and enjoyed his input on what we were looking at and hiking through.

We will be back I am sure

Saddling up to leave we saw trouble on the horizon.

A hay barn went up in flames from spontaneous combustion. It would seem that the hay was too wet when it was baled. Fire fighters worked hard to contain the blaze to the barn and save the nearby house. At lunch this fire was the talk of the town.

After lunch we head toward Green Mountain Fire Tower.

The fella that works there was happy to give us a tour. Of course, he rode bikes years ago and was lusting after our little rides. Bet he has his own bike when we visit him again!

He told us about a primitive campground just below the tower that is not on the maps.

How could we resist camping here?

Great neighbors.

Awesome sunset, incredible stars, and peaceful quiet with no city lights.

We had been changing plans, adding stops and straying from planned routes, which adjusted out plans in some ways. The sand dunes and lost forest had been on our 'to do' list, but we had been warned against riding there on weekends due to drunk operators. Avoiding them this weekend turned out to be a good move. the fire tower guy (I am bad with names) told us that two people had been airlifted out and dozens more taken away by ground ambulance that weekend. Seeing those places on weekdays give yet another reason to return.