Road Trip 2008 Oregon & N. California

This past week four of us embarked on a 2,340 mile road trip to the best parts of Eastern Oregon, Central Oregon, Southern Oregon & Northern California. I've done a lot of road trips over the years and this one ranks as one of the best ones ever, it was the combination of great friends and spectacular motorcycling roads that made this one stand out. Best of all their were no tickets and not even close to any get offs. ...

Day 1 Bremerton to Baker City 531 miles​

Route of Day 1

fromort Orchard, WA to:John Day Hwy/S Main St/OR-19 @45.232250, -120.185040 to:Granite Hill Hwy @44.748900, -118.206110 to:Baker City, OR - Google Maps




When riding to Eastern Oregon, it's almost mandatory to go through Carson and ride NF-25 and Wind River, here is a pic from our first break point at the McClellan overlook




After stopping for lunch in "The Dalles" we just had to take a slight detour and ride the Rowena Loop



Holy Hell, Now were having some fun!!!





Taking in the local scene in Ukiah, 2 out of the 3 were packing heat because of the large amount of money that was being paid out for the mushroom harvest, before we were allowed to pump gas in the only gas station in town, we had to swear we were not liberals these guys were a kick in the pants and I'm not joking about there hatred for liberals



After doing our best to tame one of our favorite roads on the trip, the Duc 848 took a rock through the radiator and we limped into Sumpter to find this scene in the middle of nowhere, wish we could have checked it out but we needed to get to Baker City to do a little MacGyver with J-B Weld..This stuff is amazing!!!

 

Day 2 Baker City to Yreka 545 miles​

After applying a generous coat of JB Weld the night before to the Duc's radiator, the boyz begged me to wake them up extra early so we could check if the 848 would hold water :mrgreen: the tempory fix worked perfectly and we had the Duc put back together and back at the hotel by 7:30, here is a bad pic of the tempory fix



Found a great little place for breakfast in Austin Junction, so we saddled up and rode the 45 minute ride on 7, unfortunately we knew there was a huge bicycle race on Hwy 7 so we took it easy till we got past the lead group about 20 miles down the road, here is a pic of one of the best restaurants on the whole trip



After railing some truly spectacular twistys for 3 or 4 hours, we changed the route a bit and decided to head to Northern California via Hwy 97, the 120 mile stretch on Hwy 97 to Klamath Falls after riding some of the greatest roads in Oregon was truly painful, this was really the only boring stretch of the whole trip but it still somehow managed to be the most talked about



My buddy Mike not paying no attention to the sign and looking a little intense after Hwy 97 :mrgreen:



Hwy 66 Oregon :mfclap: Must say all of the reviews of this road are true, even though we felt a little cheated not being able to ride it the way we wanted at 7:30 p.m. looking directly into the sun

 

Day 3 Yreka to Eureka to Yreka 400 miles​

This day started off with the group separating, Mike & Dave going with the original plan of Hwy 96, 299, 101 & 36 and me and Brad riding down to Redding for some new rubber and eventually meeting up on Hwy 36. But the one thing I did learn is that a tire will go 90 miles with steel showing, let's just say I was glad to arrive in Redding :sweatingbullets: I'm still in shock that my sport touring tire (Road Attack) only went 3,600 miles so I promptly switched to a 2CT



When we arrived in Redding, It was hotter than hell to go along with the bad air quality, but Brad being the good christian man he is assured me that hell is much hotter :devil:



The mandatory picture at the beginning of Hwy 36



After not being able to do any real riding till after 1:00, me & Brad wasted no time scrubbing in the new tires and promptly got rid of the chicken strips on Hwy 36, a lot of roads you read about are overrated but Hwy 36 is not one of them, In a 80 mile stretch, we only seen approximately only 10-15 cars and no Leo's, it's just the perfect mixture of tight technacal twistys mixed with 90 mph sweepers, it's probably my favorite road of all time :mfclap:



The group finally merged together around Mad River and started heading toward Hwy 3 via Hwy 36 again, the great thing about our group is we take turns leading because we all have similar paces & riding styles and know what to expect, the ride from Mad River back to Yreka on Hwy 36 & 3 are what motorcycling is all about to me, peg scrapping good times!!!

Mad River



Hwy 3 & 36 intersection



Hwy 3

 

Okay this is really wetting my appetite to get down there. I applaud your efforts Rick. So how was the trip home?

 

Wow what an awesome trip!!! I've been to Ukiah many times (family lives there) and I am surprised one of them wasn't sitting in front of the store! :lol:

 

those roads look awesome RW !!! going to try and get the time and do 4day weekend in August down that way thanks for the insight. being canadian dose that mean i should stay away from Ukiah LOL

 

wow. what an awesome looking trip! i'm not gonna lie - the 848 looks cool. i wonder if it feels cool. i wonder if it still feels cool after so many miles.

thank you for sharing the pictures!

 

Day 4 Yreka to Dean Indian Memorial Road to Crater Lake to Aufderheide to Madras 418 miles​

It's hard to follow up riding Hwy 3 & 36 but this day came very close, for the first and only time on this trip, we scheduled a non motorcycle bliss type road and thought we would check out Crater Lake, I'm not usually one for checking out tourist type places but this lake had the most beautiful water I've ever seen. After taking in Crater Lake, we headed to one of our most anticipated stops on the road trip to check out Aufderheide, Oregons version of NF-25 but with better road conditions. Aufderheide "NF-19" was some of our groups favorite roads. It was also the first night we arrived at out motel room before dusk, the night included everything from $113.00 bar bills to WWE style wrestling :thumbsup:







My squid riding buddies at "Grandma House" in Yreka, couldn't resist taking this picture because we ride fully geared, thanks for the breakfast recommendation Stuka & LGN001



Thanks to another forum I frequent, I learned about Dead Indian Memorial Road, great 40 mile set of twistys on the way to Crater Lake





First of many wonderful sights at the entrance to Crater Lake, I swear they hire all of the girls who work there on appearance :yo:



A Picture of Crater Lake, pictures don't do this lake justice



Group picture of the bikes



Of course there had to be a solo of the VFR



After the 100 mile non stop ride to Oakridge, we took some of the locals advice and ate a great lunch at Mannings Cafe at the mouth of Aufderheide



From the southern end of Aufderheide, I was thinking this road is overrated, it was narrow, dirty & over grown with brush & tree's, but after 15 miles of these conditions, the next 60 miles were pure bliss :mfclap: It reminded me of the 7 mile stretch of Wind River with it's perfect road conditions & ultimate knee dragging type corners, this road is a must do for any 2 wheel enthusiast

Picture from the beginning of Aufderheide



Now were talking, it's go time!!!

 

Day 5 Madras to Fossil to Bremerton 418 miles​

Since day 4 was the first night we was actually in our room before 9:00 p.m., we decided to make this night in Madras our party night, so day 5 actually started with 3 of the 4 of us still in the local bar. The next morning with everybody but Brad waking up with mild hangovers, the 848 lead the group through the Fossil region and rode like a man possessed, it was go time all the way from 293 to Condon without a single break :mfclap: After making our way to "The Dalles" for lunch, it was time to re visit Wind River & Curly Creek for one last bit of true corner carving before making our way back to Woodland on 503. After waving goodbye to Dave who was staying in Longview, it was slabbing time for the Kitsap boyz back to Bremerton to conclude one of the greatest trips of all time.





Big bad navy bully provoking late night drunken brawl



R-Dub comes back with a huge body slam to put Navy boy back in his place



80 miles of roads like this



Damn that went by fast! Getting our bearings in Condon



After 9 month's in Afghanistan, this Pole started looking good to Mike :mrgreen:



One last picture of the group from the Road Trip, from left to Right- ( Brad ) (Mike ) ( Rick ) (Dave ) see ya in 2009 from Idaho, Wyoming & Montana:mfclap: