bobbybob Posted January 25, 2009 Share Posted January 25, 2009 I am posting days 2 & 3 in a separate thread to address the issue of "browser overload", which would happen (to some) if I appended more pics to the Day 1 thread. So here we go. Link to comment
bobbybob Posted January 25, 2009 Author Share Posted January 25, 2009 Day 2—Tuesday--Condon to Joseph Did I mention the weather? Have you ever seen such gorgeous days and cloudless skies? The high desert nighttime temps were around 35 and warmed to around 65 except in higher elevations. Elevation averaged around 3500 ft. except when traversing mountain ranges. Today we cross the Blue Mountains on the way to Joseph. After a peaceful nights rest at the Hotel Condon, we headed east towards Heppner. The Condon-Heppner road has been called by some “the greatest motorcycle road in the PNW”. They may be right. This view greeted us almost immediately upon leaving Condon. If you look closely, you can see our road exiting the canyons way off in the distance. This is gonna be fun! A few miles of smiles later, looking back on the canyons we just came thru…. Between Condon and Heppner…. At Heppner, we took Natl. Forest Rd. 53 through the Blue Mountains to Ukiah. A very scenic but chilly drive-around 5300 ft. elev. This road closes in the winter due to snow. Ukiah…. Today was short on pics as we spent most of the time just enjoying the ride instead of gawking. Finally made it to Joseph. There is a bronze foundry there that supports the many bronze sculptors in the area. Here is someone’s handiwork. Nice. Wallowa Lake and the Wallowa Mountains are right at Joseph’s back door. Some peaks in the Wallowas exceed 10,000 ft. The 2 lower ridges framing Wallowa Lake on either side are actually “moraines” or debris fields from a glacier that passed this way…a few weeks earlier. Day 3—Joseph--Hell’s Canyon--John Day On Wednesday we headed south from Joseph on NF Rd 39 to Hells Canyon and the Snake River. Hells Canyon is the deepest canyon in the US! Leaving the rim of Hells Canyon, we descended about 4500 ft. into the Snake River valley at Oxbow Dam. The Snake River looked cold and blue. The highway beside the river was a twisty funhouse with plenty of eye candy. Small world--we stopped at a riverside park a few miles north of Oxbow and ran into these characters. Nick Harris-center (“Deadboy” from the BMWST forum) and his riding buddy-left. They were up from Cali making almost the same run but in reverse order! We followed Nick and company back south along the river until they took NF39 back the way we had just come. We were dodging the gazillion bicyclists doing the Cycle Oregon thing sharing the road between the Snake River Dam and Halfway. http://cycleoregon.com/route.htm We ran into this guy out of Portland riding “my bike”---who was assigned to “escort” the bicyclists. I like those crash bars. He said the OR. SP has a grand total of 6 RT’s . And he’s got his…lucky dog. Leaving Hells Canyon towards Baker City we skirted the eastern Wallowas thru the desert. There was a constant 30 mph head and cross-wind that just about beat us to death—all the way to Baker City. Between Baker City and John Day….a more serene ride than earlier that day. Curb Queen just had to go sit on this fake stagecoach along the way. Finally—John Day. I liked this industrial park sign on the hill overlooking John Day. Chains and sprockets. Super 8-John Day. Convenient, clean, cheap. The 3 C’s for Beemer riders. GREAT riding today!! More to come tomorrow. Link to comment
Deadboy Posted January 26, 2009 Share Posted January 26, 2009 That was an amazing coincidence Bob. Link to comment
vfrcauv Posted January 28, 2009 Share Posted January 28, 2009 Bob, Great set of photos and report. I like the Trooper Beemer and Jan's rental bike color. Bill Link to comment
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