WFO-8 Day 8

Clarkston, WA to Winnemucca, NV. Oxbow Dam; Owyhee Dam. Rain about 20 miles southwest of Jordan Valley, OR. 545 miles+.

Oxbow Dam powerhouse

Owyhee Dam

SPOT map - full size

WFO-8 Day 6

Moscow, ID to Spokane, WA and back. Little Falls Dam; Upriver Dam. 275 miles.

Little Falls Dam

Upriver Dam

SPOT map - full size

WFO-8 Day 4

Tumwater, WA to Moscow, ID. Mud Mountain Dam; Rock Island Dam; Wapato Dam; North Scootenay Dike Dam. 488 miles.

Click on map for larger view.

Mud Mountain Dam. My bike really wasn't supposed to be on this observation platform, so I had to be ready to scram on short notice…

Rock Island Dam

 
Wapato Dam

North Scootenay Dike Dam (take 2)

SPOT map - full size

WFO-8 Day 3

Redmond, OR to Tumwater, WA. Rock Creek Dam; Fishhawk Lake Dam; Deschutes Dam. 364 miles.

It took me a couple of tries to find the turn-out for Rock Creek Dam — here's the STV map with the GPS track in pink:

Rock Creek Dam

Fishhawk Lake Dam

Deschutes Dam

Click on photo for a larger image.

SPOT map - full size

WFO-8 Day 2

I left Red Bluff around 9am, heading up I-5 into the mountains by Mount Shasta. The bike turned over to 50,000 miles near Lakehead - I took a couple of pictures.

I stopped for gas and a couple of t-shirts in Weed, and headed up US-97. I should have stopped for lunch in Klamath Falls, but kept going. Just north of town, on a section of US-97 with one lane in each direction, I was forced to the shoulder by a woman in a minivan making a pass. Luckily the shoulder was wide and smooth.

Carole called me just as I turned off on Silver Lake Road. I found a turn-out a mile or two down the road, and stopped to stretch and return her call (which was good news on a medical check-up). The rest of the run to the Thompson cut-off was quick, if you know what I mean.

Just after I hit OR-31, I cut south onto Silver Creek Marsh Road, and 14 miles later did some off-roading to a ridge overlooking the dam from the west. The new tripod worked perfectly.

I backtracked to OR-31 and got gas, then did a bunch of miles over 7k rpm in fifth, reaching Lapine at US-97. The highway was under construction, and I had a 15 minute hard stop at a flag man. I chatted up a couple of ladies on sport bikes heading to a rally somewhere in Washington state.

Traffic was slow through Bend, but picked up afterwards. The Motel 6 in Redmond is one of the nice, three-story ones, with interior corridors and smoke-free floors. I ate at the adjacent Subway and read for a while; later I walked down to the Albertsons for water, granola bars, and some popcorn. I watched about half of a Star Trek with bad audio sync.

Red Bluff to Redmond, OR. Thompson Reservoir Dam. 391 miles.

Click on each photo for larger image.

SPOT map - full size

CFR - Day 10

I had finished Killing Floor overnight, so first thing in the morning I headed to the big Barnes & Noble I had passed on the way into town yesterday to pick up Die Trying, the next book in the Jack Reacher series. (Reacher is kind of a cross between Quiller and Elvis Cole.)

After a quick bite, I headed south from Bend on US-97, with a bunch of other folks. At Diamond Lake Junction, I peeled off west on OR-138, which quickly became one of my all-time favorite motorcycling roads.

The first five miles or so are straight and reasonably fast, but I quickly became unreasonable. The highway takes a big turn north past Diamond Lake, then settles in to an excellent series of twists, sweepers, and mile-long straights.

I peeled off for the Toketee Dam, and met up with a group of four riders on cruisers, also doing the Dam Tour. We chatted a bit, and they snapped a picture of the FJR and me, holding the placard, in front of the dam. I hung with the guys for 15 minutes or so, then we each headed out on separate routes for the Hyatt Dam east of Ashland.

My route was to backtrack a few miles on OR-138, then southwest on OR-230 and OR-62 into Medford. More really fun riding. I stopped for lunch on the northern outskirts of Medford, gassed up, then headed down I-5 to Ashland.

At Ashland I went east on OR-66, and ran smack into a chip-seal construction zone. It was bad a few days ago when it was only the loose gravel on the road; today we got a lane closure, fresh oil, and even fresher gravel. After a slow log up the hill I hit the turnoff for Hyatt Lake, and pulled in to the day-use area to take my pics of the dam. Just as I was about to leave, the four guys pulled up behind me. They had taken a southeasterly route from Toketee, which I admitted was more scenic than my route. We chatted some more, and I found out that they're all retired, and they ride the Dam Tour together every year. A cool bunch of guys.

I slogged back through the fresh chip seal into Ashland, and headed south on I-5. I contemplated stopping off in Weed to buy a couple of t-shirts, but inertia overcame me, and I stayed on until Redding. Keswick is a few miles west on the Sacramento River. I took a couple of pics from the east side of the dam, then rode over to the west side for some better late-afternoon lighting. After a fill-up, I headed south to Red Bluff.

Over the years, I've stayed at various Motel 6's in Northern California including Redding North, Williams, Willows, and I think Yreka, but for some reason I never stopped in Red Bluff. The desk manager and I chatted for about ten minutes, about riding, motels, whatever, and I told him about my 5:45am air horn wake-up yesterday. He gave me a nice, clean, quiet room on the second floor. I got some KFC grilled chicken to go, and ate it in my room with my new book.

445 miles.

Toketee Dam

Hyatt Dam

Keswick Dam

CFR - Day 9

You know how a lot of newer cars will give you a beep or two when you lock the car from the remote? And you know how a few will even beep once or twice when you unlock the car? And you know how some guys put air horns on their shiny new pick-ups? Well, one of those shiny new pick-ups parked right outside my door — no more then five feet away. And at 5:45am, he decided to unlock his car. Yup — two air horn blasts, short but sweet, blasted me awake. Not my preferred way to start the day.

I couldn't get back to sleep, so I read Killing Floor for a while, then packed up and headed east on I-84. I stopped for breakfast at a Denny's in Pendleton, then headed south on US-395 to the McKay Dam.

I was feeling real good on the bike heading down 395. I had a good rhythm on the bike, and was having a lot of fun in the corners. There wasn't any rain, but it got pretty cold on the way up to the summit of Battle Mountain, so I put on my Widders and the wind liner. I turned west on Hwy 26. It was also a pretty nice road — except for the eight mile stretch of fresh chip seal and gravel that forced my speed way down.

The Motel 6 in Bend, OR wasn't as good as it's rate implied. I walked up to a Baja Fresh for fajitas, and finished Killing Floor.

332 miles.

McKay Dam

CFR - Day 8

Sunday dawned bright but cloudy in Nakusp. I headed south towards Castlegar, and stopped there for coffee and donuts at the Tim Horton's. You can't visit Canada without at least one stop at Tim Horton's, can you?

Heading west on Hwy 3 caused me to meet the approaching storm head on. I rode through the rain for a few miles before I stopped in the parking lot of a provincial park to put on my rain gear — better late than never. It rained off and on the rest of day.

I stayed on Hwy 3 to Hwy 41, and crossed the border at Danville. The woman at the guard station was quite nice — I pulled away early to clear the spot for the next car in line, and was about to drive away with my sunglasses laying on top of my tail bag when she called to me to stop, then walked out and handed me my glasses. Very cool.

WA-21 was pretty nice. The northern section was mostly in dense trees, but it opened up some the further south I went. I intended to go west on Manilla Creek Road over to the Grand Coulee Dam, but once I got there the road didn't look all the appealing, so I stayed on Hwy 21 to the Wilbur-Kelly ferry over the reservoir. The ferry was tiny - three cars at the most, plus a motorcycle or two.

Hwy 21 south of the ferry was a pretty cool motorcycling road, climbing up into the mountains, then back down to the flats. I headed west on US-2, and stopped at the Rainbow Falls Dam.

Hwy 17 took me south, and I stopped at what I thought was the North Scootenay Dike Dam. After I got back, I checked on things and realized that I had stopped at a little flood control dam instead of at the actual Dam Tour dam. Since I was within half a mile or so, the nice lady at the Dam Tour gave me credit for it, but I'm going to try to make it back there in August to get the real deal.

The Motel 6 in Richland, WA is on the bottom half of the Motel 6 desirability scale. For dinner I went across the street to Zips, a poor imitation of Lucky Boys.

406 miles.

Dry Falls Dam

North Scooteney Dike Dam

CFR - Day 4

I rode about 10 miles into Helena, which seems like a nice little town, and had breakfast at a McDonalds. The trip to Great Falls was very nice as interstates go, winding along the head waters of the Missouri River.

The Rainbow Falls Dam east of Great Falls was on today's list. I plugged the coordinates into the Zumo, and it directed me, right into a construction closure. Unwinding the closure required a 14 mile detour — they apparently don't believe much in railroad crossings — but I found it in time. It was quite windy at the overlook, but I managed to tie down my placard well enough to get in a few pictures. There was no good way to setup the mini-tripod to take a picture of me with the bike and the dam; I contemplated asking the couple in the parked car if they'd do the honors, but I decided they were either there for a drug deal or were otherwise unavailable, so I left it alone.

Leaving Great Falls I headed northwest, first on I-15 then on US-89. I wound up in Browning, MT, a sad Indian town with too much wind and too little money. The Mexican fast-food place had run out of rice, and wasn't sure when they'd have more — what? — but I found something to eat, and filled up the tank with 40 miles showing on the reserve odometer.

I got twisted around and wound up taking MT-464 north and then west into Babb, which was probably a good choice. 464 was almost empty, and quite fun to ride. From Babb I headed up MT-17 to the Chief Mountain border crossing. The Canadian officer was great, and we compared notes on great riding roads in southern Alberta and southeast British Columbia.

The Waterton Springs Campground is only a few miles north of the border, and turned out to be really nice. I found a great tenting site, far enough but not too far from the restrooms. I had a granola bar for dinner, did a load of laundry, and took a nice shower (at CDN$1 per 4 minutes).

The view of the Rockies to the south and west was fantastic, but once the sun set below them it cooled down quite a lot. I watched Iron Man on the Archos, and settled in for what turned out to be a very cold night.

From Clancy, MT to the Waterton Springs Campground in southern Alberta. 312 miles.

My campsite was at the star below.

Rainbow Falls Dam

CFR - Day 3

The rain had mostly cleared in the morning. I walked down to a Denny's for an omelet, and noticed something interesting.

Pasadena has a lot of intersections with combination left-turn signals. Traditionally, these start out with a solid green arrow for protected turns; when the protected period is over, the green arrow goes out, and the green ball indicates a permissive left turn period.

About six months ago, Pasadena installed a new version of these signals. The protected turn is still indicated by a solid green arrow, but for the permissive period it changes to a flashing yellow arrow. It sounds weird, but it actually works pretty well. (The part I don't like is that there are sections of Del Mar Blvd. by the Gold Line tracks where they have three intersections in a row, with old style, new style, then old style again. If the new style is the better way, do it everywhere. It's confusing to mix and match.)

Anyway, the motel and the Denny's are in a suburb (if you can call it that) of Pocatello named Chubbock. They are also using the new style left-turn signals with the flashing yellow arrow for permissive left turns.

There was the normal amount of rural traffic as I headed north on I-15 from Pocatello, but when I got to Idaho Falls it seemed like everyone got off. There was nobody left, and speeds went up accordingly, as I headed into Montana, where I stopped to put on my rain gear.

I got off in Dillon, MT for a bite to eat, and found it to be over 90° - which made me look silly in my rain gear and Widders. I had my first Dam Tour stop planned for the Flint Creek Dam west of Helena.

I got of I-90 at MT-1 heading west, and entered the fine city of Anaconda. I rode for the 5 miles or so through town at the well-enforced speed limit of 25mph. It took forever. The dam itself was nice enough, and Georgetown Lake was about what you'd expect, but it was fun to notch my first dam.

A navigational hiccup made me decide to backtrack through Anaconda. It was no better.

I stopped for the night at the Alhambra RV Park in Clancy, MT. The park itself is okay, but for $22 you get pit toilets, iffy running water, and no showers. To top it off, the place is about 20 yards wide, and sits between I-15 on the west and a semi-busy local road on the east. Bring your earplugs.

I had a nice grilled prime rib dinner at Chubby's, a nice local bar/grill on the other side of the freeway. I bought some water at a general store, since the water at the camp ground was intermittent.

From Pocatello, ID to the Alhambra RV Park in Clancy, MT, by way of the Flint Creek Dam on Georgetown Lake in Montana. 384 miles.

Flint Creek Dam

Signed up for Dam Tour 2009

If things go as planned, I'll be making two separate trips to the Pacific Northwest this summer. I'm all set for CFR '09 in Nakusp, BC, and the early word is that WFO will be held somewhere in Idaho, with my friend Hal (kaitsdad) taking over from Tim as RM.

Last year, someone sent me a link to the DAM Tour site, and it looked like a lot of fun. The idea is to visit 8 dams in Oregon, 8 more in Washington, and 4 more in neighboring states, between March 1st and September 30th. It was too late for me to sign-up for last year's riding season, but the stars aligned this year, and I'm all signed up.

Someone posted an unofficial, preliminary list of the 20 dams, and I've been playing with a route to and from CFR that would bag me 12 or 13 of the 20. One of the dams is on the Hetch Hetchy reservoir, and I figure I can bag that almost any weekend. The rest are all near Portland and Seattle — if I wind up going to WFO, I can make a detour for these ones, and if not I can take a long weekend later in the summer.

I'm really looking forward to it!