Warmth. Dryness. Comfort. A crackling fire. A sizzling steak.
This is a list of things I did not have camping at Ukiah in Oregon. Having to set up my tent in the rain with not much tree cover, the inside was soaked. Thankfully, my air mattress is thick enough to keep me off of the wet tent floor. Morning came eventually, welcome for the daylight, unwelcome for rain still pummeling my immediate area. Once I juiced my tent and packed everything as quickly as I could, still in the rain, I waded my way back to the bike and set off once more, fording my way back to US 395. Turning south again, I passed the station at Dale, then continued onto Long Creek, there turning onto 402.
Things started changing up on 402, less “woodsy” and more sandy. This was a welcome change, because the forests of Oregon more or less looked like the forests of Idaho and Montana. In another welcome change, the sun was released from captivity and the rain and the roads dried up.
I didn’t catch it on this picture, but there were about 20 cows crossing this bridge when I first came upon it.
Once I passed through Monument, the roads even became fun! Low brush meant it was easy to set up a corner, as I had a good sight line through it.
Fun was had all the way to Fossil. Fossil is a neat little town. I rolled down the road a bit to the John Day Fossil Beds. I was on my way up the trail to see if I could spy any fossils when I stumbled across this previously undiscovered fossil.
Buried just beneath the surface, it was a chance find, but it is obviously the well preserved trachea of a brontosaurus. Unfortunately, it’s not public land, so I couldn’t excavate it, strap it to the VFR and sell it to the Smithsonian for enough money to buy all of Oregon. What rotten luck.
While I was examining my find, a flash of red caught my eye, and that happened to be Scott? (I’m terrible with names) on his BMW R100. We talked a while and then went our separate ways.
Riding through Antelope was pretty neat, as I had been reading about the Rajneesh cult and how the town for a period of time in the 80’s was named Rajneeshpuram. Before my time, but hard to believe that happened. Read up on the Rajneesh cult history, if you haven’t. It’s rather fascinating.
I headed up into Shaniko, where I stopped at a small store to purchase a can of Coke, lean against the bike, and soak in my dusty, Western, almost ghost town surroundings. Refreshed, (no, I haven’t been bought off by Coca-Cola, although, Coke, if you’re reading this, I’m all for it!), I set up towards The Dalles, on an amazing road. What a brilliant road! Great pavement, curves, elevation, scenery. This stretch has it all!
Once out of that stretch, things got flat, straight, and windy pretty quick. Pro tip: if there are hundreds of wind power plants, you’re in for a windy time.
In Bigg’s Junction, I was filling up when who should show up, but Scott(?) again on his BMW.\
I crossed the Columbia River over to Washington, then rode alongside the river.
Simply beautiful.
The Dalles was the location of the largest bioterror attack in US history. The aforementioned Rajneesh cult was running for 2 of 3 county seats and decided to keep people in The Dalles (the largest population in Wasco County) from voting by poisining the salad bars in 10 restaurants with salmonella. 751 people were affected, none died, thankfully, but the attack had the opposite effect, in that the non cultish people turned out in droves to vote against the cult members.
Riding down the road, I noticed a freight train on the Oregon side seemed to be taunting me into a race. Not wanting to back down from a challenger that was only several thousand feet longer than me, I accepted. It was a close battle, I would get a nice straight stretch and pull ahead, the train had the shortest distance, no traffic to worry about, and more or less straight tracks. I, on the other hand, had the power of the V4. Crossing the bridge back to the Oregon side, things looked close, and I was parked at my motel walking into the office when the train came rolling by. The train, obviously enthused, said nothing but WOOOOOOO, but I knew he knew he was no match for the Honda, no matter how much he tried to mask his feelings.
Today’s Takeaway: Don’t eat the salmonella colored salad
Guesstimated Time of Arrival 