Eastern and Central Oregon fall colors trip

[XR1000]

Any cool ride ideas for Eastern or Central Oregon fall colors? If air quality stays reasonable, I'm planning an early October run down there since the usual British Columbia trip is still persona non grata. Taking the 800GT so I'll be sticking to pavement, but willing to ride a couple miles of gravel for campgrounds or awesome views. I'm gonna try stay away from the worst fire/smoke areas, so thinking no further west than Bend and no further south than Burns.

[Daboo]

Much of the areas I went through a few weeks ago are burned. I heard a million acres.

You might look for hiking trip reports. That would give you an idea of what is still doable, then look at the roads people took to get there. Maybe include a hike or two.

I'm going up with James tomorrow to Artist Point to see what the colors look like. The higher elevations will change sooner, plus when the first snow comes, the last section of road will close till next summer.

Chris

[Richard230]

Perhaps contacting the Oregon BMW riders club would be the way to go. Those guys live there and ride all over Oregon so they would know the current situation in the state and where might be the best place to ride right now.

[XR1000]

I just returned home yesterday from 5 days roaming around eastern Oregon and thought I'd give my experiences. The time of year, covid and current economic issues made it a wonderful and sometimes challenging trip. Mostly the campgrounds were empty but for a few hunters, fisherman and I hated to see (maybe) homeless. The 75 degree temps were a welcome change from the summer heat and the lower sun made for some awesome canyon and rock formation shadows. Fall is a time for people to slow down and except for a group of sportbike riders from tri-city area, everyone was mostly taking it easy. I talked with fisherman, hunters, bicyclists, business owners, ranchers and all seemed 2020 exhausted. Cecil an 82 year old from Baker City was taking his final ride of the season to the Hells Canyon overlook on his Goldwing trike. The older retired couple getting ice cream cones at 10am at the little store by bates junction and when I joked about it being too early, "never for me" was his reply. Through out the trip I saw friendly faces and felt a kinda bond with people who were out to shake off what they could of a tiring year. It's pretty hard to beat the Oregon roads, but when they are empty, it only adds to the pleasure of riding your pace and taking in the scenery. Around Kimberly, I circled back to check on a bicyclist who was fixing a tire just to check if he had tools and was ok. He was so happy and asked all about my trip, my motorcycle, me, etc., I had a tough time taking off. Apparently cycling is lonely travel. I found some neat new roads and saw those two words all road riders hate. (pavement ends)... I should have kept going. I had 1 can of chunky soup, 1 bagel, 1/2 bag of trail mix, 2 apples and whiskey. Hmm water, I was kinda low on water. It seemed just as nice going the 20 miles back, same friendly cows. I camped one night south of Maupin along the Deschutes River. The guy camped down a bit came over with a cold beer and he sat at one end of the picnic table and I at the other. The whole time mostly talking about dogs and fishing. He was sitting 2ft from my bike and never once mentioned it. I was half insulted and half refreshed. I can actually discuss something other than motorcycles... who knew. On the way home I rode the Yakima River Canyon to see if I could find the place where my wife and I went swimming as youngsters. The road was lovely, to bad about the fire, luckily the train tracks stopped it from getting to the river. Now back to the sport bike riders. In John Day I was looking down at my map when I heard someone ask, "say, mind if I ask you a personal question? You look older, so how long do you think we can ride?" Okay, now I'm mostly insulted.. but the guy (cant remember his name) asking said he was 51 and was riding with a bunch half his age. After a short conversation his buddies yelled "lets go grandpa" and he climbed onto his BMW 1000RR and off they went. Any riding is fun, but fall riding is like taking that last bite of pizza or last gulp of beer. You savor it.

[Daboo]

...The time of year, covid and current economic issues made it a wonderful and sometimes challenging trip. Mostly the campgrounds were empty but for a few hunters, fisherman and I hated to see (maybe) homeless...

We should meet up sometime and explore those roads together. I went down several of them myself, just a few weeks earlier. They are truly great.

I wonder if you'll get depressed. I went through a couple days feeling that way, wondering what was wrong with me. Then realizing I was knowing that the next big multi-day ride is a few months away. There's another get-together in Death Valley in November...and I actually seriously considered it. This wanderlust feeling gets in your blood.

I found the "covid and current economic issues" to have caused some wrinkles. Nothing you couldn't work around though. On the last trip to Oregon, we passed through the beginning of the fires outside Yakima. The other two riders I was with were looking for a toilet. It's the small things that can cause you issues and real discomfort. They were operating to the "good old days" where you could count on a McDonalds having a toilet you could use without making a big fuss. That doesn't work when they don't allow inside seating. But! ...grocery stores are all open, and have toilets you can get to easily.

Those are great pictures. Hopefully, you have more you can share.

Chris

[Richard230]

What I find odd is that there are a lot of open space hiking areas and county parks around the SF Bay Area that have remained open, except during high fire dangerous conditions, during the pandemic. These facilities are being very heavily used, with their parking lots being completely jammed by 7am on weekends and by 10am on weekdays. However, the agencies that run these areas have either closed their bathrooms, or closed half of the bathrooms, even though visitors to the areas have increased by a factor of four. So you know what happens then. People do what the bears do in the woods. I just don't see how closing bathrooms helps the environment or the visitors who just want to get some fresh air and exercise. I might add that most small businesses have signs on their front doors that say that their bathrooms are closed and my old standby of using library bathrooms won't work either as almost all libraries are closed to prevent virus transmission. Tracking down a bathroom while on a tour can be tough.

[XR1000]

It certainly does get into your blood. Yesterday as I was cleaning up the camping gear and putting stuff away, I found myself looking at my maps thinking "I should have tried that, turned there, stopped there, maybe I came home to soon". After deer hunting I do some dual sport riding here before the snow flies, then it's cold turkey until spring. Sure Chris, I'm always interested finding friends and reason to ride. 3 of my long time riding buddies have moved from the valley for fire fears and health reasons. We should work it out.

On this last trip, most of the state parks had the restrooms and showers closed, so unless you had a self-contained RV you were kinda stuck. Even a couple private campgrounds had signs at the entrance NO FACILITIES OPEN. I'm use to bush camping so forest service or BLM camping worked fine. Most cafes were open if they had outside seating and in the really small towns (that didn't exactly follow the rules, but who can blame them) the taverns were able to serve burgers and such. Gas stations and grocery stores had all the basics you'd need for camp eats. It's all good, just missed the races, events, rallies, Canada this year.

I certainly found some good pavement this trip, but I think my favorite stretch was between Fossil and Antelope and 293 over to 97. Brand new road and super flowing. The new road didn't have all the suggested corner speeds posted so it kept ya honest. You had to ride as fast as your eyes and instincts allowed. FUN!
Well back the the real world, I have yard work to do today.

[Daboo]

I think my favorite stretch was between Fossil and Antelope and 293 over to 97.

That is a great area. I plan to go back next summer to that area and do some exploring in the area of the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument. There's so much to see there, and some great roads to get to it on.



Chris

[Richard230]

Been there, done that. But not this year. No Chief Joseph Rally. Not having the rally and other events at the Grant County Fairgrounds must really be putting the economic hurt on that little town. It is really going to be a rough winter for the 1300 residents of John Day.