idaho ride report - part three , the ride home idaho to california

[billmonahan]

Sunday morning, after hearing late Saturday night that the firefighters would be moving into the campground where we had held the Stanley Stomp at 11:00 Sunday morning, I packed up after a cup of coffee and headed out, saying my goodbyes to my friends both new and old, and trading e-mail addresses. After being ushered through the roadblock at the fire site, I stopped in Stanley to check the oil and tire pressure, drank my O.J., and sped off down Idaho 21 towards Lowman. I had breakfast at the Sourdough Lodge which is just before Lowman if you're heading SW, then I took the Garden Valley/Horseshoe Bend road on to Idaho 52 which brought me into Payette. At that point I decided to head up to Hells Canyon and then up into the Wallowa Mountains, originally Chief Joseph's territory. I crossed over into Oregon at Oxbow and turned north after Pine Creek. The scenery was beautiful but certainly not as spectacular as the Sierra or the Sawtooths, but the air was cool and pleasant. I motored about 80 miles before emerging from the forested mountains in Joseph OR. I didn't stop there, and continued on along until I met the Grande Ronde River around La Grande OR. In LaGrande I stopped at the Safeway to stock up on beer, drinking water, breakfast items, some chicken wings, potato salad, and I was now ready to find a site to set up camp and rest. Out of LaGrande I found Oregon 244 and turned south there, scoping out campgrounds until I found one I felt like sleeping in, which was about 7 miles northeast of Ukiah, OR...the Bear Wallow Campground. Didn't see any bears there, though, and gave myself a nice bath in the morning, by heating up pans of water and mixing it with cold water in a gallon jug....it felt good to be a little cleaner, I had been eating a lot of dust the prior nine days. After my bath I headed south and passed through more of the Wallowa-Whitman Wilderness and National Forest, riding through some beautiful high desert and mountains to emerge in John Day, where I passed Bjorn on his KLR 600 riding the other direction towards his home in Oregon, wherever that may be. Then down to Burns where I got a Subway sandwich, loaded with peppers and onions and tomatoes. It was a nice change from the all-meat diet they eat at the Stomp. After lunch it was time for the grind, a couple of hundred miles of eastern Oregon desert, the northwesternmost portion of the Great Basin. I passed by Wagontire, pop.2, Alkali Lake, and Lake Abert, into Lakeview, where I was glad I didn't need to stop for any reason. I did stop in Davis Creek for coffee, and finalized my plans for the evening. Instead of staying at Eagle Lake and passing some time with my friend Jim, the campground host there, I would go on to Susanville, mostly because there is not a good store I know of in Alturas, which I believe is a Modoc Indian work for "ain't shit there". So it was a long grind into stiff headwinds to Susanville, where I got another sixer of St. Pauli Girl and some victuals and headed for the free campground on the Milford Grade, which I believe is called Lauman Campground. I spend a pleasant warm summer evening there, drank four of the St. Paulis, took a couple of Excedrin PMs and got a great night's sleep. The next morning I got up and had coffee, packed up, thinking about seeing my little doggies when I got home, and took the switchbacked Milford Grade over the Sierras and into highway 49. There is a picture of the Milford Grade in the files, I posted it today while fooling around trying to send a jpg attachment with no success. After that, it was a very nice ride down 49 into Downieville, then down Marysville Road, on to 20, and across the Valley. It sure seemed hotter than usual on the west side of the valley, and it was. I had to stop at Cache Creek and jump in, skinnydipping, since no one was looking. When I got home, those little doggies were sure happy for some reason! Backroad Bill ps. There is also a nice pic of riding into Yellow Pine I put in the file, and a couple of others too. The KLR ran purr-fect for the entire trip, which was almost 3000 miles all together.

[Tumu Rock]

On Fri, 18 Aug 2000 13:09:49 GMT, Jim Jackson wrote: On another note, in SC we have no helmet laws and I feel pretty much the same way about the young guys on the +100hp super sport bikes riding around with sunglasses, tank tops, shorts and sneakers. They are more interested in looking cool than riding. I hope too many of them don't have to learn the hard way. ______________________________________________________________________ I found this pic while wasting time at work. WARNING : EXTREMELY GRAPHIC. Do not open in front of children!! This picture gives new meaning to the term "open-face helmet". I will never again complain about sweating in my Arai. here it is: http://vagina.rotten.com/motorcycle/ dat brooklyn bum _______________________________________________________ Say Bye to Slow Internet! http://www.home.com/xinbox/signup.html