Tom's E. Ore. 6-Day Tour – The Steens and Wallowa Mountains

Big bikes, big adventures, big fun!

Moderator: Tawmass

User avatar
Tawmass
Site Admin
Site Admin
Posts: 1443
Joined: Mon Jun 07, 2004 7:47 pm
Location: Shady Cove, Orygun
Contact:

Tom's E. Ore. 6-Day Tour – The Steens and Wallowa Mountains

Postby Tawmass » Tue Jul 13, 2010 10:09 pm

[All pix can be seen HERE, FYI)

Our vacation started off with a three-day, July 4th Weekend on Saturday at Bryan's house for a barbeque, complete with fireworks (he launched a few while holding it in his hands - what a nut! Check out the look on his face!), then the annual glider contest. Everyone received a small, wooden plane to assemble and then toss off Bry's back hill. The combination of crosswinds and lack of experience had us all laughing! I also got to give his pinball machine a whirl! I also got to do some jamming with Sarah, complete with the Blues Festival music playing over the radio in the background. And notice the little "GPS" on her bike. :wink:
ImageImage
ImageImage
ImageImage
Image
Image
Image

The next day was yet another barbeque, this time at Scott and Mary's place. Roger & Sue, Kerry & Tammy also were there. Nice apron Scott.
ImageImage

Monday
On July 5, Donna and I loaded up my purple BMW R100GS lovingly dubbed “Barney, the purple-headed warrior” and headed East – destination: Frenchglen, Oregon. We got up early, but after all our packing and double checking everything, we didn’t really head out of the driveway until around 9am. Oh well, we were on vacation – who cared! We later realized that we left my pistol on the coffee table at home - doh!

We started out heading from Tualatin to Estacada, and then made our way on the back highway to Detroit Lake. It was a beautiful morning and the turns just kept us smiling. We pulled in for breakfast in Detroit Lake and continued east on the Santiam Highway afterwards. From there we soldiered onward towards our day’s destination of Frenchglen, Oregon. Along the way we wicked through Bend, Millican, Brothers, Burns, then headed south through the Malheur Wildlife Refuge, then landed into the massive town of Frenchglen around 6:15. Dinner was being served at 6:30 – perfect! Speaking of dinner, when we unloaded the bike, the mosquitoes came out in force. In fact, there must’ve been a mosquito flare sent out because they absolutely swarmed us and we both donated at least one quart of blood! And speaking yet again of dinner, it was over the top! No really, it was all home cooked, family style, tasty and tons of it! We visited with some other couples from Australia and Newberg. After that we were absolutely stuffed like a Christmas goose. I also discovered that my trusty Canon Camera had a problem with dirt or something in the sensor and was horrified to find out there were spots or smudges in the pictures - ugh. It was a long day, Donna had her first exposure to Monkey Butt (her first trip on a motorbike!), and we hit the hay early.

ImageImage
Image
Image
Image
Image
ImageImage
Image
Image
Last edited by Tawmass on Thu Jul 15, 2010 5:30 pm, edited 19 times in total.
You don't stop riding because you grow old, you grow old because you stop riding.
Image

User avatar
Tawmass
Site Admin
Site Admin
Posts: 1443
Joined: Mon Jun 07, 2004 7:47 pm
Location: Shady Cove, Orygun
Contact:

Postby Tawmass » Tue Jul 13, 2010 10:15 pm

Tuesday
We awoke early, had coffee and plotted our day’s route. Little did we know how our day would end. We decided we’d head south on the exterior Steen’s Loop, come back counter-clockwise to the Frenchglen Hotel and stay the night again. I was stoked to get up to Kiger Canyon and get the most awesome shot as the sun rose, but the gates were up due to snow - very bad timing on my part. We pointed Barney southward into the high desert. With the sun coming up, it was stunningly beautiful, and at the southern most point, we crested a pass that was around 5500 feet in elevation – brrrrr! It was actually cold. We then descended downward into the town of Fields, Oregon – yet another metropolis. I love these small towns – the people are friendly, courteous and genuine. It looked like yet another great place to stay the night.
Image
Image
Image
Image
Image
Image

After topping off Barney with petrol, we pointed the handlebars northward for a few miles, then the pavement ended and became freeway gravel road. After about 20 or so miles, we came over the top of a rise and were presented with the Alvord Desert Lakebed. Wow, it was stunning – flat and white for miles! We eventually found a place to descend onto the dry lakebed and ran Barney through the gears. What an eerie feeling! Whether 8mph or 80mph, it was a surreal feeling racing across the flats!
Image
Image
Image<<<CLICK HERE for a short video
Image
Image

After that experience, we continued north and pulled into the roadside stop for Alvord Hot Springs. There was already a couple from Nevada inside the water, so we elected to skip getting neked and joining the fray. No tag team today.
Image

Continuing north, we slowly came out of the lowland vistas and gained altitude again into incredible scenery of green and sage. After around 50 miles of gravel, we hit pavement again. As an adventure bike, Barney fares quite well. We came to a T in the road on Hwy 78, of which we turned left towards Princeton after admiring some ‘interesting’ graffiti on the highway.
Image

We hit some road construction as the temperatures rose. Afterwards we stopped for a break and contemplated heading back to the Frenchglen Hotel. After discussing the negatives of the hordes of mosquitoes that held us hostage inside the Frenchglen Hotel, we decided to try something else. I brought up the idea of checking out this place I’d heard of (north of Burns in Seneca) called the Bearcat Lodge. I’d heard from my friends that it was a very weird/nice place and that the owner was very arrogant. They said it would probably be worth one night’s stay, but they wouldn’t stay again. (It turns out I should have adhered to their input.) We pulled out my trusty iPhone, found the Bearcat Lodge’s phone number, called and made a reservation. A nice lady answered the phone and said there was no problem, so we were set for lodging.

After that we decided to continue the historic Steen’s Loop. The next stop was the old Pete French Round Barn. WTF you ask? This barn was very ingenious in its day in that being round; it allowed the livestock to exercise in circles and break them during the brutal winter months.
Image
Image
Image

After that we took some back gravel roads that descended into the town of Diamond and its historic hotel in the same namesake. We stopped for a few minutes and checked it out. We must stay there sometime in the future!
Image

From Diamond, we headed onto the Diamond Craters attraction. I had some tracklogs from some bro’s in Bend that headed through the area. We tried a couple routes that would take us through the Malheur Wildlife Refuge, but upon trying out the two tracks, we quickly realized that a lack of true knobby tires limited our access in deep sand. So we turned around and decided to make our way to Burns, then to Seneca to the Bearcat Lodge.

The Bearcat Lodge
The Bearcat Lodge was such an interesting experience, that we’ve decided to give it its own section! CLICK HERE to listen to appropriate background music while we describe what happened next.

We gassed up in Burns and pointed Barney north towards Seneca. Soon Barney started complaining about low voltage in the lights and GPS. WTF? I stopped for a couple pictures and there wasn’t even enough juice to start the motor. Fortunately I was parked on a hill and could bump-start the motor. Damn! Clearly my battery must be going bad I figured.

We pulled into the quaint town of Seneca and immediately found the Bearcat Lodge on the left (easy, since there were a couple motorbikes out front). We pulled up in front and parked. I knew I didn’t have enough battery to start Barney, so was glad to get to a spot where I could investigate what was wrong with Barney’s electrics. There was a lady on the deck cutting up some mushrooms and we asked if it was okay if we parked there. She said yes and introduced herself as Carol. About that time a side-by-side came up and Carol introduced her partner JW, who was driving, and another guy Greg (from Olympia), who had just showed up to stay at the lodge also.
Image

We exchanged intros and niceties, then JW started telling us about the place and commenced to just say, “Follow me; I’ll give you the tour!”

“Cool!” we thought and followed in his wake. The Bearcat Lodge is the old lodging of the Hines Logging Company from back in the day. JW informed us that he and Carol had put two million into renovations thus far and were still continuing. JW took us over to meet his bobcat "Bob", but Bob was snoozing and wasn't too interested. We entered the front doorway and immediately we noticed the intricate details of the place. Plus there was a stage just inside the front door complete with lights and guitars. Guitars? Holy smoke, JW and I shared multiple interests: bikes and guitars! He escorted us throughout various rooms talking about the themes and history. Then he took us into his bar on the second floor, pulled out some homemade tequila and poured us both a shot, explaining how it was made. Donna and I both gladly accepted the offer of tequila (yet another common bond – I’m a major tequila fan!) and JW told us about how he made it with good Agave from Mexico, then infused it with cinnamon and other spices. Wow, it was really great. We swilled it down like candy, and he topped off our shot glasses again. He told us how he’d raced the Baja 1000, he had a Harley drag-racing bike of which he had some sort of world record with. Donna mentioned that I had raced the Baja too, and he said something about her talking too much.

“Follow me. There’s more!” he said. We headed towards the north end of the lodge, he opened up the final northern door, which dropped off outside, and we all laughed. He lamented about how the entire town was against him and the ‘Sentucky’ locals were all just hicks and how he’s lost one of his cats in a hit-and-run and it was probably due to the locals. He also mentioned that it was no longer a lodge, but some sort of invitational place for friends and that they could leave what they felt like as payment in the room. He took us through his and Carol’s bedroom and we continued to admire the deco and furniture.

This is where things got weird.

Throughout JW’s tour, I occasionally made some comments and it even turned out we had mutual friends, of which he didn’t really speak too highly of. Clearly he was the kind of person who liked to brag and tell his stories. I figured that it was his place and I’d just let him have his day in the spotlight. He continued to banter on about his being a guitarist with Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, jamming with Leo Kotke, etc. At one point, Donna found a huge, walk-in closet and chimed out, “Honey, come look at this!”

JW suddenly and sternly said loudly, “Hey, I’m talking here!” and continued on with his stories.

Donna was very excited and again said, “Honey, come look at this – it’s awesome!”

JW again said very loudly this time, “I said, I’m talking here!”

Donna continued to be excited about the closet, then JW growled and – just walked off down the hall.

WTF? The place got quiet. I went to see what Donna was talking about and also admired the closet, as she said, “I’ve always wanted a big walk-in closet like this!” Then she said, “Where’d he go?”

I shrugged my shoulders; we looked at each other in dismay and headed down the hall and down stairs. Upon our arriving at the bottom of the stairs, Carol approached us and said, “You know, JW thinks it’s best if you two find a different place up the road.” We were stunned and in an extremely awkward situation and offered to apologize to him, but Carol said, “No, apologies won’t do anything and when he gets like this, it is just best to leave.”

WTF? WTF? This was so weird. Okay, so I gave her my shot glass, apologized and we headed back out the front door, where JW was talking with Greg by his bike. I decided to take the high road, held out my hand to shake his and said, “Sorry JW for offending you and thank you for the tequila.”

He just turned away and said, “Just leave!”

WTF? Now we were really in a pickle: Barney wouldn’t start and we were asked to leave his residence. Donna was clearly upset and I wasn’t sure if I could bump start Barney. JW and Carol went back inside, while Greg offered a semblance of help in our now dire situation. Greg fortunately had a portable Battery Tender charger (thanks Greg!), so I pushed Barney around to the side of the lodge. I plugged in the Battery Tender into Barney and just waited. Donna was visibly upset and we both couldn’t believe how we’d been treated. Obviously JW has his normal arrogant ways, and when the attention wasn’t fully on him, it broke the thread of his typical operation and he threw a temper tantrum. He wasn’t even man enough to tell us to leave – he sent Carol.

I sat there for a few minutes as the battery charged. After about 5-10 minutes of waiting, (and Donna walking down the road, since she wasn’t going to spend another minute on his property.), I hit the start button and Barney thankfully came to life – yes! I picked up Donna and we headed north to John Day in search of a hotel.

We made our way through Canyon City and John Day, not knowing if there would be a room available. There was some sort of event going on in the John Day area and we were lucky enough to find the very last room in the city – a smoking room, nonetheless we were happy to use it. Actually it was probably a good thing JW asked us to leave – this saved us from having to endure his endless drivel about solving world hunger or curing cancer no doubt. I consider myself to be a very easy guy to get along with and was looking forward to talking music, bikes, etc. with him, but JW clearly has ego, gender and anger issues. Googling "JW Everitt" shows a wake of issues, a few are even positive. Unfortunately ours was the opposite. Enough about that.

Image
Image
Last edited by Tawmass on Sat Jul 17, 2010 9:20 am, edited 8 times in total.
You don't stop riding because you grow old, you grow old because you stop riding.

Image

User avatar
Tawmass
Site Admin
Site Admin
Posts: 1443
Joined: Mon Jun 07, 2004 7:47 pm
Location: Shady Cove, Orygun
Contact:

Postby Tawmass » Wed Jul 14, 2010 12:08 pm

Wednesday
We awoke to a beautiful morning in the striking town of John Day. What a great place! Our first mission was to find mocha, and then we headed back to the hotel for me to work on Barney’s electrics. Upon getting to the battery, I remembered that I’d replaced the battery with a gel version 1.5 years ago, so no need to add water and the battery sure as heck should’ve still been in good shape. Okay, the battery is fine, then what? I yanked out the headlight bulb and had an epiphany - the bulb had long since been burnt out on low beam and the circuitry automatically enabled the high beam on low beam. I peered closely at the bulb and noticed it said 55w-100w. Huh? Stock is 55w-60w, so the previous owner must’ve installed the 100 watter and it’s common knowledge that the older GS Beemers do not have much of a charging circuit. So we then walked down to the local Napa Store and purchased a standard 55w-60w replacement bulb. While at the store, Donna learned about how to go snipe hunting, plus also learned that you do not touch a halogen bulb (after she’d touched it). :D

We hiked back to the hotel and I installed the replacement bulb and fired up Barney. Cool, I had lights at both high and low beam. But wait, high beam was still on during low beam. WTF? After some investigation, it appears that the BMW switch couldn’t handle the higher wattage, so was somehow damaged. No worries, I’d just run on high beam, which I normally do anyway, and 60w would allow the battery to charge back up, so we were good. Just don’t run on low beam. Barney was only slightly bruised, but not beaten!
Image
ImageImage

We loaded up trusty Barney and headed east. A coworker buddy of mine snowmobiles at Sumpter, so I wanted to go by there just for grins. Our goal for the end of the day was to get to Joseph, Oregon at the base of the Wallowa Mountains. We headed into the little burg of Prairie City and decided to have morning mocha again. While there, we decided to have lunch and befriended a local who had an antique furniture and jewelry store. Long story short is that Donna found an old 19th century diamond ring and REALLY liked it. She made an offer on it, but wouldn’t know the response until the next day.
Image
Image

We headed towards Sumpter and the scenery got better and better. We came by the old ghost town of Whitney, which literally was a ghost town and everyone had left.
Image
Image
Image

When we came to Sumpter, it was hotter than a two-dollar pistol. We first toured the old mining dredge in Sumpter (very cool!); then absolutely had to get something cold, so we hit the local watering hole. Inside were colorful locals telling stories of the area and how to get to the top of a mountain that had a “phone to God”. What’s that you ask? Evidently somebody had nailed a telephone at the summit of one of the local peaks along with a sign that said, “Phone to God!” Cool, but it was too rough for us to ride up – two up - dang.
Image
Image

After that we continued north and stopped in the old ghost town of Granite. Wow, very cool old place with historic cabins and rich (literally) history!
Image
Image
Image

After that we encountered a herd of elk, rode miles and miles of twisty, awesome roads, then caught Hwy 244 and headed east to La Grande. Wow, was it hot by then.
Image

We eventually came to Enterprise and decided to grab a room, since we’d heard that Joseph was pretty small and rooms might not be available. Enterprise was a great place to stay with the Wallowa Mountains as a stunning backdrop to the south. It was a good day.
Image
Image
Image
Image
Image
Last edited by Tawmass on Thu Jul 15, 2010 4:54 pm, edited 1 time in total.
You don't stop riding because you grow old, you grow old because you stop riding.

Image

User avatar
Tawmass
Site Admin
Site Admin
Posts: 1443
Joined: Mon Jun 07, 2004 7:47 pm
Location: Shady Cove, Orygun
Contact:

Postby Tawmass » Thu Jul 15, 2010 10:30 am

Thursday
We awoke early to a beautiful sunrise in Enterprise. I went for my usual “in search of” mission for morning mocha. I found some granola place that smelled like incense and was playing soothing acoustic music in the background. They also had a hollow-body, custom electric guitar sitting on the floor and the nice lady let me strum away for a few minutes. It was nice to get a mocha and a gitfiddle fix.

Our goal today was to go see Hell’s Canyon, come back to Wallowa Lake and take a trip up the tram. We loaded up and headed southeast to the Hell’s Canyon Overlook attraction. The backdrop of the Wallowas on the way was breathtaking.
Image
Image
Image

We started off on the Imnaha Highway, then turned right onto the Wallowa Mountain Loop Road. This road was major twisty and dropped down into the valley with switchbacks not unlike some in Europe’s mountains, then wound back up eventually to the Hell’s Canyon Overlook. This was our first time to Hell’s Canyon and it was truly phenomenal! I did not know that it is actually deeper than the Grand Canyon. Truly awesome!
Image
Image

We eventually backtracked a ways, then headed north on the gravel road #3955. This road was in decent condition and only about five miles into it we encountered the scene of an accident where a water truck had gone over the edge of the road. It appeared to have done about one full rollover and rested against a fir tree – crazy!
Image
Image
Image

Further up this pristine valley were remote ranches and vistas. There was even a few tempting swimming holes! Approximately 37 miles later we descended into the very small town of Imnaha. The old store was gone and only the bar/store/restaurant was open, so we happily stepped in for anything cold. We went through a few barley pops pretty fast due to the high temps, plus visited with the locals. One lady even played her fiddle for us – it was great! They also updated us on the water truck accident. Evidently the driver crashed the truck the day prior, then bolted. That must've been an interesting call to the insurance company...
Image
Image
Image
Image
Image
Image

Soon thereafter we realized we needed to beat feet if we were going to make it back in time to take the tram ride, so we loaded up and headed back via the Imnaha Highway. By the time we got to Wallowa Lake and to the tram, it was 4:15pm. Only problem was that the tram closed at 4pm – doh!
Image

So we grabbed a room at the only hotel in Joseph, cooled off, then walked downtown in search of some cool refreshments and hot food. After that we walked the streets of Joseph and happened by an incredibly good pianist rocking out on classic blues songs, so I was obviously enticed. The place is called The Embers. That’s right, The Embers. CLICK HERE to watch a short video of this young kid rocking out! We enjoyed his music for quite awhile, then turned in for the night.
Image
Image
Last edited by Tawmass on Thu Jul 15, 2010 4:52 pm, edited 1 time in total.
You don't stop riding because you grow old, you grow old because you stop riding.

Image

User avatar
Tawmass
Site Admin
Site Admin
Posts: 1443
Joined: Mon Jun 07, 2004 7:47 pm
Location: Shady Cove, Orygun
Contact:

Postby Tawmass » Thu Jul 15, 2010 3:35 pm

Friday
We were once again up bright and early for the tram ride; however it didn’t open until 10am. No worries, we had plenty of things to do and see. We meandered our way to Wallowa Lake, stopping to pay respect to Chief Joseph’s Grave, dodging a couple Bambi’s alongside the road and walking around the tourist shops on the south end of the lake. Then we finally hopped onto the tram.
Image
Image
Image
Image
Image
Image

The ride up was spectacular as we got higher and higher. Once at the top, we unloaded at the restaurant, where we hiked about a mile out to a point to the north – what a view!
Image
Image
Image
Image
Image

After a cooling iced tea at the restaurant, we descended back down. Before we fired up Barney and hit the road, Donna called and confirmed her bid on the ring – she got it!
Image
Image

Then we hit the long hot road heading towards our day’s goal of Ukiah. It started to get hot across the flats before La Grande. Heading west again north of La Grande it was really hot and we had to wait in the direct sun during road construction – oof. Fortunately we started to gain altitude again afterwards and the temps at least became palatable. We stopped at Lehman Hot Springs, but it was closed for some reason, so we continued our way to Ukiah and booked a room at the Antlers Inn. I’d stayed at this funky place almost 15 years ago, and it hasn’t hardly changed. We again went directly to the local watering hole to cool down. Our waitress wore two watches for reasons unknown to me, then we befriended the locals of Tom and Mark, and oh, the stories they had! They informed us that Lehman Hot Springs was closed due to the owners violating DEQ laws by running their sewers into a local stream – whoah! We went back to the Antlers for a little nap amidst a torrential downpour with lightning, then returned to the bar again and stayed late into the night listening to more tall tales by Tom and Mark and others. They were hilarious! What else do you do in Ukiah?
Image
Image
Image
Image
Last edited by Tawmass on Thu Jul 15, 2010 4:56 pm, edited 1 time in total.
You don't stop riding because you grow old, you grow old because you stop riding.

Image

User avatar
Tawmass
Site Admin
Site Admin
Posts: 1443
Joined: Mon Jun 07, 2004 7:47 pm
Location: Shady Cove, Orygun
Contact:

Postby Tawmass » Thu Jul 15, 2010 3:38 pm

Saturday
We were up early again, hit the coffee pot, made plenty of noise on the squeeky floors of the Antlers Inn, loaded up the two-wheeled horse and headed towards the Fossil Beds National Monuments. As we were riding along, I became aware of my dwindling petrol situation, but then we pulled into the town of Dale (don't blink) and I snagged gas and grabbed a quick picture for one of my bud's, Dale. :-)
Image
Image
Image

After many miles of twisty turns on Highway 395, we made a short jaunt up towards a lookout. Unfortunately it was gated at the top and the dirt was quite muddy for the pathetic road-like tires that Barney was sporting, so we elected to turn back around. It was about this time that I spotted a coyote trotting across the side of the road and Donna was elated - her first coyote!

We continued south on 395, then turned west at Long Creek towards Kimberly and Monument. Wide open vistas and no traffic greeted us. We turned left on Hwy 19 and headed down to the first (of two) areas of the John Day Fossil Beds National Monuments. Incredible how the soil has eroded over the years to display critters from millions of years ago.
Image
Image

Heading further south, we came by Dick Creek, of which I immediately had to snap pix of with my cellphone and send to two people who are the namesake! :-)
Image

Then we came to another historic roadside attraction, which was an old sheep ranch titled Sheep Rock. Supposedly it got its name from the rancher who shot a sheep literally on the rock, then left the skull on top of one of his buildings. The three-hole outhouse was a nice touch. After a tour through the ranch house, we went out to the barn, which was actually quite impressive - check out the old generator and batteries!
Image
Image
Image
Image
Image

It was pretty warm, so after our guided tour by the ranger, we headed down the highway in search of some old petroglyphs that he said he only told a few people. After arriving, we searched and searched, then eventually found them. Pretty cool and we don't know how they survived the blasting of the original road construction.
Image

We then pointed the bike west on Hwy 26 towards Mitchell. After a number of miles I saw a tree on the north side of the highway and I couldn't figure out what sort of weird leaves it had. Once I got closer, I realized what the leaves were: shoes! Yup, the tree was full of various shoes thrown into it not unlike powerlines.
Image
Image

So we continued west eventually arriving in Mitchell. It was time for a frosty, cold one and some lunch, so we relaxed. Soon a couple BMW GS's arrived. We introduced ourselves to Charlie & Debby from Arkansas. What were they doing in Mitchell? The BMW Owners of America were having their annual national rally in Redmond the following weekend. Charlie was in charge of each morning's coffee orchestration at the rally.
Image

Donna and I discussed if we wanted to just continue home or stay one more night. We decided we'd stay in Maupin and headed north up the road on Hwy 207. (didn't realize until about a couple hours later that I forgot to turn out to the Painted Hills area. Dangit - next time!) Once we hit the town of Fossil, we turned left onto Hwy 218 to Shaniko. The road was sweet until just before Shaniko. Shaniko is literally almost a ghost town on top of the prairie. We then turned north to Maupin by way of Bakeoven Market Road and the wind was howling till we descended into the canyon to Maupin. We hit another local pub for dinner and refreshments again. There was only one hotel open in Maupin and it looked questionable, so we decided to marathon it the rest of the day home, riding into the sun.

It was nice to be back home, but what a great trip!
-Tom
Image
Image
Image
Last edited by Tawmass on Fri Jul 16, 2010 3:08 pm, edited 4 times in total.
You don't stop riding because you grow old, you grow old because you stop riding.

Image

User avatar
Tawmass
Site Admin
Site Admin
Posts: 1443
Joined: Mon Jun 07, 2004 7:47 pm
Location: Shady Cove, Orygun
Contact:

Postby Tawmass » Thu Jul 15, 2010 3:50 pm

The Totals For The Week
Image
Image
You don't stop riding because you grow old, you grow old because you stop riding.

Image

hanksmybuddy
kickstarting the bike
kickstarting the bike
Posts: 2
Joined: Tue Aug 25, 2009 8:17 am
Location: Bend, Oregon

Postby hanksmybuddy » Fri Jul 16, 2010 4:46 pm

Don't feel bad about JW at the Bearcat Lodge. I stayed there with a friend about a month ago for the first time. The guy is a major egotistical nut job. Trust me, be glad you left or you would of had to listen to his non stop verbage about ........HIM! He's a friggin psycho case!

E-Ticket
WFO
WFO
Posts: 55
Joined: Thu Jul 31, 2008 8:27 am

Postby E-Ticket » Fri Jul 16, 2010 6:23 pm

Way cool report ... and awesome pics, Tawm!
Glad that you and Donna had such a great trip. :D

It was a kick looking at your pics - they're a combination of a couple of trips that Susan have taken as well!

We usually do the Enterprise/Joseph/Hell's Canyon route riding over to Boise via the back way.
They are even cooler roads from Hell's Gate on to Horseshoe Bend and beyond.

We did the Paisley/Lakeview/Wildlife Preserve/FrenchGlen loop on the mo-mo's (sportbikes) one summer.
We had so much fun we took our Katooms (dual-sported) back, stayed at the FrenchGlen Hotel and did Steen's Mt. and Alovrd Desert.
You absolutely have to go back some day and do the Steen's Mt. Loop. It is definiately worth it!
The ride report dissapeared off of OMRA Offroad for some reason - but a couple of pics from ThumperTalk:

http://www.thumpertalk.com/forum/showth ... ght=steens

And all of the pics from Photobucket:
http://s485.photobucket.com/albums/rr21 ... =slideshow

Once again, glad you guys had a ball! E-Ticket
"AYHIN"

Mine: '12 KTM 350 EXC-F ("Wee Beasty"); '99 Honda VFR 800i Interceptor
(AMA Member)
Wife: '22 Kawasaki KLX 140R F; '04 Honda CBR600 F4i (AMA Member)

User avatar
brad21
in second gear
in second gear
Posts: 19
Joined: Mon Oct 30, 2006 7:24 pm
Location: Bent, Or.

Postby brad21 » Fri Jul 16, 2010 10:33 pm

Nicely done Tom and Donna. Funny and not surprising about the JW encounter. Me and the fam made it up into the Steens/Alvord last weekend. Awesome!

bbtowns
pulling in the clutch
pulling in the clutch
Posts: 6
Joined: Mon Aug 04, 2008 8:19 am

Nice pics

Postby bbtowns » Mon Jul 19, 2010 8:51 am

Good job Tawm, excellent trip report. I'd say your experience with JW was pretty average unfortunately, I've heard people who have had great experiences there and awful ones. You did an admirable job catching the look on my face as I shot off that fireworks. They should put a sticker on those things warning you not to shoot them out of your hands, how was I to know?!
Bry

Juraf32
kickstarting the bike
kickstarting the bike
Posts: 1
Joined: Tue Mar 02, 2021 7:02 pm

Re:

Postby Juraf32 » Tue Mar 02, 2021 7:54 pm

Tawmass wrote:Wednesday
We awoke to a beautiful morning in the striking town of John Day. What a great place! Our first mission was to find mocha, and then we headed back to the hotel for me to work on Barney’s electrics. Upon getting to the battery, I remembered that I’d replaced the battery with a gel version 1.5 years ago, so no need to add water and the battery sure as heck should’ve still been in good shape. Okay, the battery is fine, then what? I yanked out the headlight bulb and had an epiphany - the bulb had long since been burnt out on low beam and the circuitry automatically enabled the high beam on low beam. I peered closely at the bulb and noticed it said 55w-100w Cartons déménagement pas cher. Huh? Stock is 55w-60w, so the previous owner must’ve installed the 100 watter and it’s common knowledge that the older GS Beemers do not have much of a charging circuit. So we then walked down to the local Napa Store and purchased a standard 55w-60w replacement bulb. While at the store, Donna learned about how to go snipe hunting, plus also learned that you do not touch a halogen bulb (after she’d touched it). :D

We hiked back to the hotel and I installed the replacement bulb and fired up Barney. Cool, I had lights at both high and low beam. But wait, high beam was still on during low beam. WTF? After some investigation, it appears that the BMW switch couldn’t handle the higher wattage, so was somehow damaged. No worries, I’d just run on high beam, which I normally do anyway, and 60w would allow the battery to charge back up, so we were good. Just don’t run on low beam. Barney was only slightly bruised, but not beaten!
Image
ImageImage

We loaded up trusty Barney and headed east. A coworker buddy of mine snowmobiles at Sumpter, so I wanted to go by there just for grins. Our goal for the end of the day was to get to Joseph, Oregon at the base of the Wallowa Mountains. We headed into the little burg of Prairie City and decided to have morning mocha again. While there, we decided to have lunch and befriended a local who had an antique furniture and jewelry store. Long story short is that Donna found an old 19th century diamond ring and REALLY liked it. She made an offer on it, but wouldn’t know the response until the next day.
Image
Image

We headed towards Sumpter and the scenery got better and better. We came by the old ghost town of Whitney, which literally was a ghost town and everyone had left.
Image
Image
Image

When we came to Sumpter, it was hotter than a two-dollar pistol. We first toured the old mining dredge in Sumpter (very cool!); then absolutely had to get something cold, so we hit the local watering hole. Inside were colorful locals telling stories of the area and how to get to the top of a mountain that had a “phone to God”. What’s that you ask? Evidently somebody had nailed a telephone at the summit of one of the local peaks along with a sign that said, “Phone to God!” Cool, but it was too rough for us to ride up – two up - dang.
Image
Image

After that we continued north and stopped in the old ghost town of Granite. Wow, very cool old place with historic cabins and rich (literally) history!
Image
Image
Image

After that we encountered a herd of elk, rode miles and miles of twisty, awesome roads, then caught Hwy 244 and headed east to La Grande. Wow, was it hot by then.
Image

We eventually came to Enterprise and decided to grab a room, since we’d heard that Joseph was pretty small and rooms might not be available. Enterprise was a great place to stay with the Wallowa Mountains as a stunning backdrop to the south. It was a good day.
Image
Image
Image
Image
Image

It all really makes you want. Thank you very much for these fascinating stories.


Return to “Adventure Riding”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 7 guests