There, now that introductions are out of the way, let's get on with the story.
About 6:30, I was finishing up getting ready. Since I have the new bike, I packed more than I normally would for a day ride. I wanted to see how things are going to fit and ride in preparation for my week long trip. Anyway, at 6:48 I was pulling out of the yard. We had arranged to meet and leave from Art's house. After meeting his wife, and his final prep, we left his house at 6:59.
I was in the lead, and I pushed a little aggressively going up the Asotin grade, scraping my floorboards on most of the corners.
As we were coming up to the top of Rattlesnake grade, we came around the corner and there were two very large bull elk with very large antlers in velvet. They are beautiful animals, but not something you want to come up on quickly while riding a motorcycle. It didn't take them long to disapear into the trees to the right of the highway. Just beyond the elk was a car pulled off the side of the road with a man recording the elk. We can only imagine his thoughts as we came around the corner. "Today's headlines, two motorcyclist trampled by elk." A little past the man, I pulled over and said to Art... "On that note, do you want to lead?"
Art did take the lead down rattlesnake grade. We stopped at Boggans Oasis. We had both already eaten breakfast, so we didn't order much. During our conversation, he did ask if I had scraped (which I mentioned that I did above). He said it had been a while since he had. At 8:00 we continued on our way, headed towards Enterprise.
We stopped a little north of Enterprise to take a quick look at Scott's land. A few days before the trip I asked Scott where it was so we could take a look. When we were almost there, I knew if was coming but it still kind of snuck up on me and I grabbed my brakes a little hard. Art went right on by before he got stopped. See! This is why we ride on opposite sides of the lane, cause you never know when the idiot in front of you is going to slam on his breaks. We went back to the gate and walked a little ways in. I have to say, Scott has a very nice southern view.
Once done, we head on our way towards Enterprise. Once there, we stopped and filled up. We discussed some options for the day and then headed to Joseph. We went through Joseph so we could see how the lake was looking. And here are a couple pictures of what we found.
Going back into Joseph we took the turn onto highway 350 and headed for the hills. We made a turn onto the Wallowa Mountain Rd which was much rougher with more pot holes than what I remember from the last time.
Granted, the last time was eight years ago. We finally made it to the Hells Canyon Overlook.
We took some time to walk around, take some pictures and enjoy the scenery.
Art took a little time to make an adjustment to his fuel injector module on his bike.
It was dying on him every once in a while.
He was thinking that something with the fuel injectors were overheating and automatically killing the motor.
As we headed on down the road, we got onto North Pine road which had a road construction next 13 miles sign. That sign was soon followed by a "Loose Gravel" sign. Then we came upon said "Loose Gravel", I said to myself, "well, this ain't good". The "gravel" was very large for being called gravel. I can only guess they were rebuilding the underlying rock foundation for the road before they repave. Luckily, the road wasn't like this for the entire 13 miles. It was only a short stretch, but there were sections of road work spread out through the 13 miles. We then reached highway 86.
The sign in front of us said fuel 10 miles to the south west and 5 miles to the north east. We were already going to be traveling north east, so we thought we were good. However, when we got to the store where the fuel was supposed to be, low and behold, no fuel. There were some old pumps without hoses and a sign that said new pumps coming soon. We went inside and asked where the next fuel was. She said 15 miles south west or 22 miles west towards Cambridge. We were heading to Cambridge and our fuel was not in critical condition so we weren't too worried.
When doing my "research" I had thought that there was a place around oxbow to eat, so as we headed that direction, I passed the turn that the lady had mentioned and went a little ways into oxbow. We didn't see anything, so we turned around and followed the road towards Cambridge. At 13:15 we finally came upon the "Gateway Store & Cafe" where we stopped to eat. They had pretty good hamburgers. When we went back out to the bikes, we had a little friend on Art's highway bar. They did have a fuel pump with an above ground tank at the store as well, but we did some calculating and we had plenty to get into Cambridge.
At 14:12 we pulled away headed for Cambridge. 22 miles later, we pulled into Cambridge and stopped to fill up. While here, a couple pulled up on a BMW dual sport really loaded down. They were riding some of the dirt roads and camping. The gentleman, speaking to Art, said that he had the same bike and he really liked it. We chatted a bit about where we had all been and where we were heading, and then they went on their way. Shortly there after so did we.
We didn't have any planned sites to see for the rest of the trip, so you would think that the rest of the story would be boring... But wait... There's a surprise coming up... Anyway, we headed north on highway 95, we got to new meadows and turned north (staying on 95) and after another 28 miles we pull off into the rest stop 6.6 miles south of Rigins at 16:27 for a break. As we were pealing off gloves and what not Art caught a glance of his back tire and noticed something on it. However, when he got down and took a closer look, it wasn't something "on" his tire, it was something missing from his tire. Right down the center was a narrow strip of it's steel belt showing. The tread on the rest of the tire looked fine and except for the strip down the middle it still looked fine. Which is why it surprised us both. He had also just checked his tires the night before and they looked fine. I mentioned to him the I had noticed once when he was in the lead a "spot" on his tire, but I thought he had run over something that had left a mark on it. In hind site, it must have been the beginning of the rubber comming off the steel belting. So, rather than risk having a blowout, he talked with the caretaker of the rest area and was able to put his bike behind a fence and leave it for the night. I rearanged my stuff and for the rest of the story we road two up.
So, while I was putting the story together, I did some checking and if you look real close at the picture of the bikes from our lunch stop, you can see the line down the middle of his tire.
Once all was arranged and we were ready to roll, we pulled out of the rest area at 16:53. Stopping in Riggins to fill up and Art made a few phone calls. I was also able to add some air to my back suspension. After all calls were made we continued our journey.
The next "exciting" thing was as we were coming up on white bird, I was following a large pickup as we passed a few other vehicles while we had double lanes. The pickup pulled into the right lane which I thought was a nice gesture to allow us to pass. However, as I spead up a bit I soon found that the lanes were actually going to be merging back to one, so I had to break and get back in line behind the pickup. No, it wasn't a close call or anything, but being two up, it's a different story. Once we got to the other side of white bird as it starts going up White Bird pass and we got a double lane again, we were able to get around all the vehicles in front of us.
We stopped in Grangeville to top off the tank. Um... Yea, then we kept going.
Our next stop was in the little itsy bitsy town of Ferdinand. We stopped by the Halfway Cafe. I know the owner Mike a little and I used to work with his wife Kim a long time ago. I had brought with me a mail tube that had been sent to my address by mistake, and the intended recipient just happened to be a realive of Kim's. Kim was there waiting tables and we got a chance to chat a little. She said to tell everyone hi, so.... Everyone, Kim says "Hi".
While we were there we ate supper.
Once we were done, we made the final 45 mile stretch home. I dropped off Art at his house at 20:43 and chatted with him and his wife for a minute before heading to Bert's. (I had to turn on the water for their garden).
And finally, I pulled into my yard at 20:57. All in all a successful ride. I am, however, wondering if I have spent too much time around Scott. It used to be that anyone that went a an "adventure" with Scott had some kind of miss-hap. Maybe he rubbed off a little.
- Trip Statistics Summary:
- 409 Miles
8h 48m Moving time
14h Total Time
AJ's Crazy Biker Adventures
