Oregon Columbia River Gorge to Rt. 12 into Montana?

[JR356]

Might have some interesting times coming up the eastern Sierras too.

Apparently large bug infestations,swarms,hitting the area as reported in our newspaper yesterday.Fortunately not the stinging kind!

Hopefully gone when you pass thru.

 

Lots of Sierras fires too so may have road closure issues,smoke,fire suppression traffic issues in some locations.

 

JR356

[Doug_Baliko]

Have the rains in Idaho over the last couple of days helped with putting out the wild fires?

 

Doug

[MikeRC]

Doug:

 

Unfortunately the winds preceding the rains resulted in some of the fires getting larger. Much of the rain yesterday and today never even reached the ground. Forecast is for a 20-50% chance of rain over the next week in north-central Idaho (higher in Washington).

 

At least it has cooled down a bit.

 

But you are going to see lots of evidence of recent fires between Lewiston and Lolo Pass, especially around Kamiah.

 

A better website may be this one: Incident Information System

 

Mike Cassidy

[Doug_Baliko]

Thanks for the update. Hopefully things will improve over the next week.

 

Doug

[Doug_Baliko]

Well we're on our way. Arrived in Gallup, NM after 650 mile run. Mostly slab today but at least it wasn't too hot. Tomorrow is another day of slabbing to Barstow, CA. That will be the end of the boring riding. After that the Sierra's and Yosemite. Then the coast.

 

Doug

[szurszewski]

Glad to hear you're rolling - wave when you come through Portland

[JR356]

Well we're on our way. Arrived in Gallup, NM after 650 mile run. Mostly slab today but at least it wasn't too hot. Tomorrow is another day of slabbing to Barstow, CA. That will be the end of the boring riding. After that the Sierra's and Yosemite. Then the coast.

 

Doug

 

 

 

JR356

[Doug_Baliko]

We arrived in Arcata, CA this evening. Some wild temperature swings today. We started off in Bridgeport, CA at 28 degrees, then after a couple of hours of riding nice mid 70's weather most of the way until we hit Red Bluff. Then we were in the high 90's until we got into the mountains west of Redding and then to the coast.

Lake Tahoe was beautiful. And routes 89, 36, and 299 were great roads to ride. Tomorrow we head up the coast. 101 all the way, then cutting in to Portland and up to Vancouver, WA for the night. Weather has been perfect so far, as is tomorrow's forecast. Knock on wood!

 

Doug

[szurszewski]

Sounds like quite the day - weather was drizzly and cool around Portland Sunday but supposed to be nice (75, partly cloudy) Monday... hope you enjoy our part of the coast!

josh

[Doug_Baliko]

The Willow Creek Road becomes Forest Service Road 53 and yes, that's the one you want. Out of Maupin you could head South on 197 but Bakeoven is a nice shortcut through some interesting and remote country.

 

When you get to Fossil you do have a choice to either go through Condon or head South to Spray and then hit Kimberly, Long Creek and then 395 to Ukiah. Probably a little longer but not by much and more tight twisty's.

y

 

Bob,

Thanks again for your route suggestions. We rode from Vancouver, WA to Enterprise today and your suggestions were great. Nice roads and nice country. Plus great weather.

 

Doug

 

[Danny caddyshack Noonan]

We caged from Boise to Missoula today. 13, from 55, to 12 was a pretty drive. 12 was very nice. Light traffic. 2 construction stops and easy passing. No fire activity at the moment.....regardless of the signage.

[Doug_Baliko]

We also rode 12 from Lewiston to Lolo after coming up 3/129 from Enterprise. No fires and beautiful weather. Very nice! We're in Salmon, ID for the night.

 

Doug

[Danny caddyshack Noonan]

Doug

I hope you enjoyed the run through the Bitteroot Valley and up the grade as much as I did a few years back. Love this bit of the country.

[JR356]

Stayed in Salmon on my way to the BMWMOA Rally.

Still recognized a lot of buildings from when I was there 40 plus yrs ago every summer to visit Grandparents.

Salmon has not grown a lot,which was suprising.

Unfortunately could not find their house,likely torn down in past due to size of their lot.As the saying goes,can't go home again!

 

Enjoy the rest of your trip.

 

JR356

[Doug_Baliko]

Peter,

We had a great ride through there. Lovely country!! We really enjoyed it. Thanks.

 

At this point the trip is winding down as we turn toward home.We're in Montpelier, ID tonight after our run down 93 to 75 from Salmon. A wonderfully scenic ride with the Salmon River with us for hundreds of miles!! We then cut across 20 to 26 to Montpelier. Tomorrow we're heading through Colorado to Raton, NM, and then home on Saturday. Not a drop of rain the entire trip. Just outstanding weather!!

 

Doug

[MikeRC]

What a difference 24 hours makes! I was working down the coast the day before you and had quite a few hours of Pacific Coast "liquid sunshine". That and everyone from Portland seemed to be headed for or on the coast since it took me 45 minutes to get the 19 miles from Astoria to Seaside.

 

Mike Cassidy