It was a dark and cloudy morning, typical I’d say for the
Everett area at 4 AM on Aug 6, 2011. I
headed out the door, topped off the tank and zoomed over to the rest stop to
meet up with my riding partner Lloyd Gardner.
I got there a few min early so I fiddled around with this and that, made
sure my GPS was set for our first target – the Roza diversion dam in Yakima
Canyon about 3 hours away.
Lloyd
showed up and we were off at our 4:30 departure time and whisking down I-5 to
405 then east on I-90. We both had
liners in our coats and pants and we needed them over Snoqualmie pass at those
early hours of the morning and I enjoyed it as I knew later in the day we’d be
on a slow simmer! Snoqualmie pass has a
fair bit of construction and we were fortunate to zip on through without being
held up.
By the time
we reached Ellensburg and our cut off to Canyon road the sun was starting to
rise and it was beautiful. The colors
in the canyon were perfect for taking great landscape photos but we were on a
mission and had many miles to go so I just soaked in the colors and pressed on
to our destination. Upon arrival of the
GPS coordinates I could hardly see the dam in the distance and there was a dirt
road down to the dam. Lloyd mentioned
we could get our photo right here so we got the gear out and took a few shots
then hopped on and headed up the hillside where I thought we could get a much
better photo and… we stopped again and took a few more shots.
Now lets blast on out to the
freeway and head SE towards Heppner, OR for our next victim (Willow Creek
Dam). One of our goals for this trip
was to avoid the freeway as much as possible but sometimes ya gotta do what ya
gotta do so we hit Hwy 82 south to the Grandview area where we pulled off for
some gas. (There is a “Free right turn”
sign at the exit which I think is so funny I need to stop and take a
photo.) We got gas at the Shell station
then zipped across the street to McD’s for a wash-up and quick breakfast before
scooting to the next exit or so at Prosser where we got off the freeway and up
the hill onto county highway 221 which goes through farming country, rolling
hills, plenty of dust on windy days and you can see for miles and miles. When you approach the Columbia river area
you drive right past the Columbia Crest Winery
(just north of Paterson WA).
East on county hwy 14 and we’re back on Hwy 82 heading south over the
mighty Columbia River into Oregon.
In Oregon we continue on I-82 a few
miles to I-84 east to the Hermiston Highway (207). Along this county 2 lane road you can see windmills doting the
land to the west. If you are lucky you
can see Mt Hood or Mt Adam along the route too. This is a continuation of rolling hills and farm country. After 33 miles we hit the small town of
Lexington and then head SE towards Hepner.
The Dam “Willow Creek” is just SE of town and actually part of the
town. We meander our way through town
and come upon this HUGE dam.
It is
quite toasty by now and I take off my jacket and pants liners. We take photos and start heading back out to
the town. Now we’re both thinking if
this dam ever breaks the entire town will be wiped out completely, it is crazy
that they built the dam (or town) right there but that’s the way it is. Since we (Lloyd and I) were not completely
sure which way outta town to the next set of roads we wanted to drive on I
spotted a young hottie and pulled over for directions. With her dark gray painted fingernails she
motioned and gave us the directions we needed to get out to Willow Creek
road. As we zipped up the road we had
this vision of Deja Vu again. Of course
another great shot of the Dam or a better shot of the dam so, we stopped again
and took a few more shots.
Ok, now back on the bikes toward
Ukiah. The road along the reservoir was
nice and we twisted and turned until we were high up in the hills and after a
little while the rolling hills and baron landscaped turned to some rocks here
and there and pine trees. To me it was
starting to get beautiful. Up and down
we went and were making good time.
Lloyd led us right on down to the small community of Ukiah right off hwy
395. Back in Hepner I ask Lloyd if he
wanted to get gas and it was determined to head on to Ukiah. I felt we should have done it because it
would have been cheaper but… ya takes your chances. Lloyd was getting low on fuel and we had roughly 100 miles to
Baker City, He asked where the gas station was and I pointed out to a dumpster
across the street and said over there.
(I think is was some guy who had a 5 gal pail of fuel to pour into
Lloyds bike – ha, ha, ha). Of course
gas was about $50/gal but we filled up anyway. As I was approaching the window of the building to pay for my
fuel I see a rifle pointing out and shooting.
Well this is a small town in the middle of nowhere and this is the old
west so I expect these types of things.
As I get to the window another young hottie in a spaghetti strapped top
yells out that she wasn’t shootin at this guys dog but just getting close so the
dog wouldn’t crap on her sign. They were
friends and it was kinda funny. We
chatted and joked as I paid and then we were off.
Forest road (NF-052) I’d been on
many times and just love it, up and down and all around. The first time I zipped over this road was
many years ago (probably 10) with my late great riding friend Jimmy Bolin and
my other friend Pete Naylor. At the
time the land along the road was devastated by a fire and it was good to see
that the forest was starting to come back to life with small trees all over the
place. The road was deteriorating but I
kept zipping along as I was having so much fun in an area I felt quite
comfortable with. I wanted to stop at
Anthony lakes as that is just a typical stop on rides through the area (When the
Devlins host a ride from their place in Baker City) but I had passed the
entrance to the campground before I knew it so we just headed on down to the
valley below. The temps up in the
mountains was perfect for riding, upper 60’s – low 70’s but the lower we got to
the valley below the higher the temps rose and it was in the mid-upper 80’s by
the time we were approaching Baker City.
My friend Jim Devlin works at the John Deere dealer and I wanted to stop
in and say “Hi” but the place looked deserted for a Saturday so we went into
town and stopped for lunch at the local Subway. Of course as we pull in everybody and their brother decided to
pull in too but we got our food quickly and enjoyed the air conditioning.
Back out to the heat and onto I-84
for the jaunt down to Ontario, OR. A
fellow long distance rider unfortunately passed away on a Rally earlier this
year and has a son who is serving some time at a facility just outside of
Ontario so we zipped over and Lloyd
(who has been communicating with Sam) could take a photo of the
sign. I wanted to stop in to say “Hi”
but you just can’t do that kind of thing.
(There is a lengthy process involved, background checks, approval, all
sorts of other crap that is obviously necessary because some idiot screwed things
up for the average Joe to just go say Hi).
Anyway, back out to 84 to the town
of Caldwell Idaho where our next set of dams are. This is one of the 4 bonus dams but the trick on this one is
there are FOUR dams on this body of water that we needed photos of. Lloyd had the points set into his GPS and I
had photos of the different places printed out so between the two of us we got
it figured out. Seems there were two up
near the top of lake Lowell and then 2 more on the SE side of it. We got a little turned around here and there
but managed.
Next stop was Mountain Home for the
night. We wanted to take the back roads
to skirt around south of Boise but Lloyd was hot and tired and said screw it,
let’s just get back onto I-84 and beat feet to Mtn Home so we did.
The temps had reached 98 on my
thermometer and I was more than just simmering, the meat was falling off the
bone but both of us made it to Mtn Home and as usually Lloyd found us some
inexpensive rooms. The signs to the
place were new, fresh, and upscale.
The outside the had a new paint job and was kinda cool retro. The pool was very inviting crystal clear but
food was first thing on the dock so we tossed our stuff into the rooms (which
were next on the upgrade plan but not there yet…) and off to Taco Bell.
I just a soon would have liked to just blast
down to Wild Horse dam in Nevada since it was still sunny but Lloyd wanted to
chill which was probably for the better.
I had been bitten earlier on the legs from something so we stopped by
Albertsons and I picked up some medication and we got some milk and a few other
things for our early morning departure to Wild horse dam.
After a little bit of planning
Lloyd determined that our next day would be a long one (in the 780 mile range –
gack!). We had to go 125 or so miles
south, get Wild Horse dam then back then east and north to Dillon Montana for
the next dam (Clark Canyon dam). We hit
the hay and got up around 3:30 or so and were on the road by 4:11 on my clock.
It was pitch black, no lights, no
nuthin out there in the middle of southern Idaho. It was peaceful and no wind (yeah). We flew long the county road (51) for miles and miles. When the road was straight for a long time
we’d ride next to each other and put all our lights on so we could really see
out into the darkness. Sometimes I’d
lead, sometimes Lloyd. At one point
Lloyd was just flying (I’m sure he wasn’t aware of his speed) but thankfully we
were heading over a hill when a vehicle came over in our direction and zapped
us with radar. Fortunately we were at
or just under the limit. That would
really be a drag to get a ticket in the middle of nowhere at 5 AM in total
darkness because some cop felt the need to use his pen, grrr…
Anyway, we kept going and at one
point we saw a hillside full of deer grazing in the lights then later around a
bend everything in our lights was black.
I noticed that there were 7 or so wild horses in the middle of the road
and flashed my lights, we both stopped while they just slowly walked across the
road. There were some young colts with
the group and all were huge and beautiful.
One cool thing to see was the small desert mice that ripped across the
road, they were fast along with the young small bunnies. The next bit of
wildlife we saw was while Lloyd was leading and I didn’t see him point or
anything as he zipped through a turn and I narrowly missed it myself. I thought it was a raccoon but later he said
he thought it was a porcupine. I led
for a while and almost hit a bunch of bats in the Wild Horse Canyon and by now
the sun was starting to rise. We made
great time and got our photos of the dam, now time to turn around and head back
towards Mountain Home. I led heading
back up the canyon and saw more birds & bats then at one point almost hit
the porcupine and then we saw the wild horses again and this time there were
some very large sage grouse in the middle of the road and as I tried to go
around they moved and then took off, one of the females darn near took my head
off as it freaked out. I put my arm up
to deflect the large bird but luckily didn’t hit it. I did hit a small bird on a suicide mission a little later
though.
Now about the return mission to
Mountain Home - the only problem was Lloyd didn’t have enough fuel to make it
back and we looked at every gas station on the way down and only 1 looked like
we could use a credit card otherwise we’d have to sit around till 8 or 9 or 10
on a Sunday morning for someone to show up.
(Remember it’s about 6 AM and we have about 650 miles to go for our stop
in Missoula, MT for the night.) As
luck would have it that little mini-mart type store on the Duck Valley Indian
reservation had a card reader and we filled up, cleaned our visors, had a quick
bite and were now blasting north. There
was a bit of road construction on the way down and we lucked out on the way
back as everybody was still sleeping so no stops.
Just past the small community of
Bruneau we turned right on Hwy 78. A
few miles down the road you can see the Bruneau Sand Dunes state park. The dunes were HUGE and you could see them
from quite a distance. It was
interesting that in this farm valley were some very large dunes that looked
like someone had just dumped a bunch of sand right there but that’s the way it
looked. Shortly we were back on I-84
and heading east. Remember we wanted to
avoid the slab on this trip but since today was going to be a bun burner of a
ride we needed to make some time so the freeway it was. We did have sections of road construction
that got us down to 1 lane but for the most part we made decent time. I think our next stop was in Eden Idaho for
gas and a pit stop. There were some
Harley types there fueling too. A
couple of older gentleman struck up a conversation with us and come to find out
the guy I was talking to used to live up near Mt Vernon WA so I brought him up
to speed on the changes to the roads and all since it was about 30 yrs ago that
he lived up there.
Off again heading east, we saw a
ton of beautiful old cars and trucks on the road heading in the opposite
direction and when we got to Pocatello Lloyd pulled off. I was surprised as we were trying to go
further before our next stop but he said he was tired and nodding off so
another stop in at a Subway (I think it was about 10 AM), I wasn’t sure they
would be open yet but we’d been up for half a day already and were ready for
lunch. Fortunately they were open and
we got some lunch, I explained to the curious young guy making our sandwich
about the Damtour and we ate then headed north on I-15 toward Montana.
Today we really lucked out as I
thought we’d again be roasting in the sun but it was overcast most of the day
and that kept the temps in the upper 70’s, which were quite tolerable. I think our next gas stop was in Dubois. Lloyd was still having nodding issues so he
had a 5 hr energy boost drink as we talked to a guy on a nice Vmax coming back
from the Testicle Festival
http://www.testyfesty.com/ We were wondering where all these bikers
were coming from as we thought they’d all be heading to Sturgis for that
rally.
Next stop was Clark Canyon Dam
right off the freeway. We took a few
shots and the water was HIGH! There was
a picnic area and half the spots were under the water, you could see the roofs
of the spots and the water was at least half way up to the roofs. I saw a place at the bottom of the dam that
would be a good shot and when we got to the road to it, we found it was
dirt. Lloyd decided to bag it and I
decided to head down and got my shot down there. I took off my jacket liner and headed back up the dirt road.
It had been many years since I was
up on this section of I-15 (probably when I did my BBG ride back in 2000
http://ironbutt.com/ridecerts/getdocument.cfm?DocID=3
) I remember back then that at one
point I got blasted by a gust of wind and was blown across the lanes into the
other lane without even a blink of the eye so I wanted to be aware of this
happening again. Well sure enough at
one point on this ride I got blasted with a force so hard that it ripped the
back part of my tank bag loose. I
thought it was going to fly off so I grabbed it and swerved off onto the median
and slowly recovered from the blast while getting back onto the freeway. I had to hold the back end of the tank bag
on an off to our next gas stop in Deer Lodge.
That section of freeway south of Butte is just plain dangerous, it looks
fine but the winds are what is killer through there.
By the time we hit Deer Lodge I was
starting to nod and Lloyd was feeling good so he led and I followed till we
approached Missoula and I took over. We
got off the first exit and after going over the bridge hit some major road
construction but managed to make it to Higgins street and then it was a
straight shot basically to our home there.
We fueled up at the bottom of the hill and then had Management pull the
car out of the garage so we could park the bikes and not have to remove
anything. We chilled out for a few
minutes and got a little cleaned up before heading over to Applebee’s for
dinner. We slept like babies, as that
was a long day.
Up early again for the ride home,
Lloyd wanted to be to the freeway by 5 AM.
We would have made it on time, except his SPOT (
http://www.findmespot.com/en/ ) wasn’t
working right and it took AT LEAST ½ hour sitting by the side of the road while
he figured out how to turn it on (ha, ha, ha) then we got on I-90 and blasted
on west. There was minimal traffic and
the 30 miles of 1 lane construction near Superior was handled in quick order.
As we approached a small town
(really a gas pump w/a couple houses) called De Borgia about 18 miles from the
Montana – Idaho state line I noticed on the frontage road a huge animal loping
along. As I got parallel with it I saw
it was a juvenal moose with long gangly legs just trotting along in the middle
of the road, it was fun to see as I rarely see moose. Going up the pass I was in the groove and smoking up the road and
at one point got up to a truck that was flying also. I let him lead, the signs say the curve is a 45 mph curve and we
took them at 70-75 just crazy but I’ve done it in my truck to. Still way early in the morning Lloyd wasn’t
into it so he held back. I saw 41 on my
thermometer and was glad I had in all my liners.
Near Wallace Idaho I spied another
moose in the water having breakfast and shortly there after a pair of elk
having their breakfast too. Soon we hit
Post Falls, Idaho where we stopped for gas.
I was heading north to get Sullivan lake dam way up by Metaline Falls,
WA just a few miles shy of the Canadian border and Lloyd was heading west
towards home. We said our goodbyes and
off we went.
I decided to go through Post Falls
instead of Spokane as I always hit tons of stop lights going through
Spokane. As I headed north on county
road 41 I thought I had made a wrong decision with the slow traffic and
lights. I chilled out and slowly made
it to Newport then Hwy 20 further north.
I never did see a sign saying I was in Washington but I was. I arrived at the dam about 9 AM and was
happy with my progress.
I had seen a
fawn at a house in the forest on my way to the dam and kept my camera ready on
the way back to the main road but it was gone.
I did come across a family of wild Turkeys though and stopped to take a
photo, this freaked them out and by the time I got the camera ready they were
running down the road away from me so I took a few shots and chased them down,
unfortunately they ran into the bush before I could stop and take another
photo.
Later I stopped at the metal
grate bridge to take a few photos while a sheriff laughed at the tourist and
kept on going.
My last victim of this trip is the
North Dam in the town of Electric City near the large Grand Coulee Dam. First I needed to get there and headed west
on hwy 20. The best part of this ride
was that they just finished oiling the road for chip-sealing.
I drove easy through that section and made
it to the town of Arden and then south on 395 for a few miles to Hwy 231. What was really crazy was that I came
around a curve to see a two humped camel in someone’s pasture along with some
llamas. I almost turned around to take
some photos but just felt like getting home so I continued on my elevated pace.
At Reardon I headed west on hwy 20
and the rolling wheat fields are as far as the eye can see. Some spots were brilliant green which looked
nice against the brown dirt.
After I
took the turn off NW to Electric City I saw a few folks that were riding their
bikes in the middle of nowhere. I waved
and kept on going. It was hot at
Electric City and the dam but I got my shot and kept on going.
I was finally on the last stretch
heading home, Coulee City, Douglas, Waterville (the police were out in force
there) then down the canyon to Oronodo and turning West in Wenatchee. I was zipping along and caught up to this
guy on a black Harley type bike in brown fringe leather jacket and chaps. I waved and kept going, after roughly 200
miles or a tad more I decided to get gas in Cashmere. I pulled over and the guy on the Harley pulled in also. It was hot and I said Hi. I saw the guy taking off his jacket and he
said he was from Manitoba. He asked
about how to avoid Seattle. I had a map
and gave him a few ideas and then just gave him the map. This guy was a poser big time. He had a gorgeous bike but no luggage at
all, he had never taken a trip before as he was trying to wrap up his jacket
and chaps into a roll and time them to the small back pad with a leather
strap. I then got out a nice bungee
cord and took it over to him. I don’t
know if he used it but he should have.
He thanked me for the map and help and I wished him luck on his ride
over to the coast.
Leavenworth was the usual stop and
go, I figured it would be light since it was a Monday but NO. At the west end of time I see this flashing
reader board saying that there was construction ahead and to expect waits of 20
min or more, Oh great! Sure enough
about 15 min up the road and I come around a corner and as far as I can see is
stopped cars. I have not had lunch and
it was around 2-3 by now and I was starving.
I just turned off the bike and got out my jerky and water and ate and
talked to other folks walking around. I
was unfortunately in an area that had no trees, cliffs on both sides and the
sun was beating down on me like a rented mule.
About 1/2 hour later we were moving.
I was slightly impatient and don’t like to do it but decided that I
wasn’t going to tolerate people holding up strings of cars so I started
spanking them 4-5 at a time. I must
have passed a hundred cars, trucks, boats, rolling condos, etc. I kept the pace and just spanked and spanked
those cars. At some spots I saw
bicyclist heading up the pass, what the heck is that all about? The further I went the more I saw and I
waved and gave them the thumbs up. Some
waved most didn’t but I tried to encourage them. I remembered that there is a bike ride called the 3 past blast
or something like that and I’m sure this was part of that ride.
I pulled into the house around 4:30
in the afternoon and was happy to be there.
I called my folks and hopped into my truck met my mother who was
watching my dog for the weekend. It was
a long day but the family (me & the dog) is back together. A great trip, 2100+ miles in 3 days and a
bunch of dams. Another dam adventure
complete :-)
