"What a goofy pooch", I thought as I played with the Frontier Motel owner's dog who had come out to supervise and help us pack up our bikes that morning. He got me hooked into playing a game by standing motionless and staring intently at a small pinecone. Because of the intensity of his stare I thought at first he was staring at a critter of some sort rather than the pinecone. Finally, I bent down, threw the pine cone and the game began. Each time, he would perform the same routine; fetch the pine cone then return it whereupon he would back up a few steps and start the staring business again. We had a grand old time until I tired of the game. He was a neat dog but it was time to go eat breakfast and get on the road.

After eating our fill at Bucky's restaurant just down the street from the motel, we took Highway 71 out of town and continued our trek. We had not gone very far when we suddenly began to descend into the Snake River valley and Hell's Canyon (?) on some very twisty and scenic roads. Highway 71 wasn't even marked on the map as being scenic but it should have been. We were riding in the early morning shadows as we wound down the east side of the canyon. The western side took the full brunt of the sun which made it glow a brilliant wheat color. This combination of dark, shadow filled roads and the brilliant wheat colored canyon wall on the opposite side capped by a brilliant blue sky was quite breathtaking. I couldn't help but think as I rode around the numerous curves in the fragrant, cool morning air that it was a great day to be alive!

We crossed into Oregon and the Pacific Time Zone at Brownlee Dam on the Snake River where the road continued on its twisty path up the western side of the canyon. At the top, near the town of Oxbow, we hooked a left and got on Highway 86 and headed for Baker City. This stretch of road took us up small mountains covered with dried vegetation then down into lush, green, alfalfa and hay filled valleys. Finally we arrived at Baker City where we got on Highway 7 and headed to its intersection with Highway 26.

Highway 7 was a sport-biker's dream. It was almost 50 miles of awesome winding roads through the Malheur Forest. This road was in extremely good condition and was well cambered in the proper places as it wound its way through the lowlands then up into mountain passes. I couldn't help but think that my Sunday morning riding group would have thought they had died and gone to heaven if they'd been able to blast down this scenic road with me. It turned out to be just one of several good sporting roads that we would travel while in Oregon.

We said goodbye to Highway 7 as we turned right on Highway 26 for the long ride west to Prineville where we would change roads again. Shortly after getting on this route we stopped at the town of John Day and had lunch. Everything in the vicinity was named after John Day... John Day the town, John Day River and John Day Fossil Beds National Monument. Sort of reminded me of Texas where everything is named after either Davy Crockett or Sam Houston.

"John Day, John Day,...hmmm! Why does that name sound so familiar?" I thought as we made our way through the countryside west of town. Then I remembered. It was near the town of John day that STOC member Dale Wilson had his now famous encounter with a deer. He chronicled this gory incident in an article entitled "Tinkling Brass Casings" <WARNING: This link contains graphic language. Dale is not shy about his feelings... :-) >. He was only doing 60 mph or so when he saw the deer that would severely damage his ST1100. We were going faster than this so I was extra vigilant and scanned the roadside ahead of me the best I could. It is said however that those big road rats only jump out in front of you when you least expect it. That was certainly the case with the bambi that decided to commit suicide with Dale's help.

Being a geologist, I was interested in seeing the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument. To get there we proceeded through Mt. Vernon then through a beautiful canyon named Picture Gorge that cut through darkly colored volcanic rocks. A right turn on Highway 19 took us to the visitor's center. There we saw a pretty awesome collection of vertebrate fossils from the Tertiary Period (1.8 to 65 million years ago) that had been collected from the immediate area (Vertebrate fossils are from animals that have a backbone).

Behind the visitors center at the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument. The hills in this picture and in the surrounding area are the source of many rare Tertiary period (1.8 to 65 million years ago), vertebrate fossils. These fossils include mammoths, giant turtles, and Eohippus, a long extinct species of early horse that was barely a foot tall. (NOTE: See links at bottom of this page to learn more)

After a good rest in the air conditioned visitors center, we hopped on our bikes and doubled back to Highway 26 where we turned west. The road remained nice and curvy as we made our way through the Ochoco National Forest to Prineville. At about this point it became flat, hot and dry as we got on Highway 126 for the short run to Redmond.

At Redmond we stopped at a gas station across the street from an airport that was filled with Forest Service fire fighting aircraft. These planes were taking off at fairly regular intervals to fight some of the fires in the nearby mountains. We could actually see the smoke from some of these fires from the service station. While watching the planes land and take off I was struck by the enormity of the fire fighting effort. The financial resources it took to fight these fires must have been incredible. No wonder the penalties for starting wildfires are so severe.

While in the service station inside I noticed some of the people staring at me and finally one of them asked if I was a fire fighter (I had on my HiViz Yellow riding jacket). I had to disappoint them when I told them it was a motorcycle jacket. Good assumption I guess given that half the state of Oregon was on fire. Once our service station rest break was over we got back on Highway 97 and rode the sixteen miles to Bend, where we had decided to stop for the night. We got clean, cheap rooms at the Dunes Motel about a half mile from the highway.

After cleaning up and resting a bit we went walking in search of a place to eat. The road we were on was full of fast food joints but I was in the mood for some "real" food for a change. I was getting sick of hamburgers. We finally found an all you can eat buffet in a nearby shopping center and pigged out. On our return to the motel, we met another motorcyclist by the name of Eric that had just checked in. He was riding a beautiful blue BMW K1100RS that he had just bought in Illinois or Wisconsin, and he was on his way back to California. After saying adios to Eric, I went back to my room, entered some notes in my trip journal, then hopped in bed in anticipation of the next day's ride. The following day would be one of beautiful but smoky scenery and great roads. It would also see our STeeds in the company of many other ST's as we arrived in Ashland for the official start of WeSTOC '02.

****************************************

** NOTES on the life and times of the fossils found at John Day Fossil Beds National Monument:

The vertebrate fossils at John Day National Monument are from a period in the Earth's history known as the Tertiary. This period immediately followed the Cretaceous, which ended 65 million years ago. The termination of the Cretaceous period saw the end of the 165 million-year reign of the dinosaurs and the beginning of the age of mammals. The destruction of the dinosaurs and many other species that resulted from the asteroid impact at Chicxulub, Mexico, got rid of the competition that kept mammals in check. Once this competition was gone, the few mammals that existed during the age of the dinosaurs began to flourish and evolve in the early Tertiary to fill the newly vacated environmental niches. Five geological epochs came and went during the Tertiary as the mammals evolved. These were the Paleocene, Eocene, Oligocene, Miocene and Pliocene. A dazzling array of mammals arose during these epochs, some of which made it through to today and some of which became extinct long ago.

Next Day

Previous Day

Back to WeSTOC '02 Main Page