After two of the best days of our riding lives, Pam and I left Baker at 08:30 on Sunday. It was obvious that we were headed into weather as we retraced the tour route, but we buckled down and adopted a less aggressive line on the corners up to Sumpter. However, the elevation played a greater part in our discomfort than the driving rain as we went into the Malheur. Cold, we stopped at Austin Junction for coffee and breakfast. We couldn’t have asked for a better rest stop. The food and service were excellent. We met a couple of fellow bikers there, plus an old rancher from Long Creek who expressed a certain incredulity that we were into another 300 miles of this before reaching home. I think he found some black humor in it all!
We had finished our meal and were bracing ourselves for the next section when the rain shifted gears and we could hardly see across the road. It suddenly eased though, and we were off again. On the way down the hill we met a couple of bicyclists fighting their way up the grade from Prairie City – there’s always someone worse off then yourself! Further down towards Prairie the sun peeked out through the clouds and we actually started to warm up. Through John Day, Dayville and Spray we had great motorcycling weather and cranked it up through the deserted valley road. We met some guys at the road works in between Spray and Fossil and followed them for a few tens of miles into Fossil.
At the gas pump in Fossil, I promised Pam we would stop for a Pepsi in Condon but somehow we just kept going after we got to the top of the hill. Then things got really hairy. I suppose the fact that they built a darn great wind farm up there should’ve told me something but I was kinda surprised by the ferocity of the wind on the plateau – it almost seemed that it had it in for us on a personal basis. Right near the bottom where you cross over the John Day again, I almost got knocked sideways and from there until Wasco we slacked off to about 50 and spent many anxious miles coping with the hail, rain, cold and gusty wind. Getting into Wasco we went right over to the Wasco Grill and found a totally warm reception, hot coffee and kick-butt biker chilli. Just the ticket! By the way, these guys were totally supportive and prepared for a crowd on Friday but I guess few of us stopped by. I know from our own experience that we had to gas up in The Dalles and then pressed on through Wasco and didn’t feel like stopping. Wasco, unfortunately, doesn’t have a gas station.
After Wasco we got back on the I84 at Fulton Canyon but then deviated from the route by running across to Dufur. We allowed ourselves the ultimate luxury of a hot spring bath at Carson – believe me, the aches, pains and bone chill of the previous several hundred miles were well taken care of by the mineral water!
From Carson it was a pleasant, stylin’ blast home to Ridgefield stopping only for some chicken to grill and one last bottle of red wine to cap off this fantastic weekend.
To Eric and Steve, thanks for putting together the framework for the rest of us to flesh out in our own way as riders; to the people of Baker City, your hospitality is now legendary as far as I’m concerned; and to our fellow riders, all I can say is that I was proud to be in your company.
Hells Canyon Rider
