Annual Autumn Adventure (AAA/2007)

[Bill_Anderson]

Five of us from the PNW Roadriders met up Friday morning (10/5) at North Bend, WA., about 30 miles east of Seattle, for our four day ride through eastern Oregon, northern Idaho, and northeastern Washington. At Heppner, OR, we met up with another member and his friend from Umatilla. In the interest of getting into John Day before sunset, headed to Ukiah via Willow Creek Road/Forest Service Road 53. This is where the "adventure" in Annual Autumn Adventure Ride began.

An unusual early October snow storm had moved through the area just ahead of us. We hit snow around 4,000 feet and the accumulation increased as we gained elevation. Below is a photo taken at the start of the snow belt. The snow got much deeper as we gained elelvation. We rode in ruts of wet pavement plowed by earlier vehicles through an accumulation of slush. Around 5,000 feet the ruts narrowed to a width of one tire track through about 4 inches of slush.

The surrounding trees were coated with fresh snow, creating a beautiful winter scene in the first week of October. Descending the east side, we rode out of the snow at about 4,000 ft. Looking east as we approached Ukiah, we could see the storm was moving south through the area of our planned route on Forest Service Roads 73 and 52 between Ukiah and Sumpter. One rider had to return to Umatilla. The rest of us changed plans and rode US 395 directly south to John Day.

There was fresh snow in the trees on the tops of the 4,000-5,000 foot passes between Ukiah and John Day, but the road was bare. All in all, it was a very beautiful ride through the early snow and we arrived in John Day shortly after sunset.

Mark Turbo arrived in John Day after dinner. He had his own snow encounters on the ride fom the Portland area.

[Bill_Anderson]

With the storm passing through Friday, we were uncertain as to which roads would be passable to bikes Saturday morning. We decided not to ride Hwy. 245 over Dooley Mtn., but take US 26 to Oregon 7 on to Baker City.

Before gearing up, we noticed a gentleman admiring our bikes. He introduced himself as Bill Hutchinson, the man who prints the famous "Come Ride with Us" map of the John Day area. Bill said that he wanted a photo of a sport touring group for the next edition of the map and asked if he could photograph us in a group rideby. Before Bill left to retrieve his Harley and riding gear from his shop across the street from the motel, I took a photo of him standing between Mark Turbo and another member.

We met up at the view point east of Prairie City off US 26. Below are some photos I took while waiting for Bill to return with instructions. We ended up doing three runbys before we had to leave. I am glad we got the opportunity to meet Bill and thank him for printing the maps. I hope he got a photo of us which he can put in the next edition.

The sun broke through on Hwy. 7 and we had a great ride. There was no problem with the road surfaces, so we decided to ride Dooley Mtn. when we got to the intersection of Hwys. 7 and 245. We rode Hwy. 245 south over the summit as far as the two hairpin turns, then turned around and rode it back north to Hwy. 7. I live over 500 miles from Dooley Mtn. and had never ridden the road before the Spring Break trip. I have now ridden it four times this year!

Our member from Umatilla led us on Oregon 203, a realatively unknown road between Baker City and LaGrande via Union. This is a great road. It has long sweepers through high, arid sage brush hills and tight twisties along Catherine Creek through the southern flanks of the Wallowa Mts. Mark Turbo nearly got us some fresh venison outside of Union.

We ate lunch at a truck stop outside of Island City. Mark's Ducati was starting to sound like it was "Turbo charged" (pun intended) with a high whine
which was only getting louder. That and a rapidly wearing rear "tyre" caused Mark to break off after lunch and head home along with the member form Umatilla.

[Bill_Anderson]

After lunch near Island City, the remaining five of us headed out on Oregon 82 to Enterprise. Friday's snow had us changing our original plan of taking Hwy. 86 from Baker City to Halfway and Forest Service Road 39 over the Wallowas to Joseph. The ride through the Wallowa Valley between Wallowa and Enterprise is beautiful in the fall.

We headed north out of Enterprise on Oregon 3 towards the canyon of the Grande Ronde. The ride down Buford Grade on the south bank of the canyon was great despite the usual gravel in the curves until you cross into Washington. I noticed that Oregon has replaced those beat-up, rusty red-brown guard rails with new shiny silver ones like you see in Washington.

We passed up pie at Boggans Oasis at the bottom of the grade. As there were no vehicles ahead of us, I was in a hurry to head up Rattlesnake Grade on the north bank of the canyon before the curse of trailing slow vehicles in the twisties caught up with me once again. The ride up was fantastic as we were the only ones on the road. After crossing the summit of Rattlesnake Pass, I enjoyed the majestic panoramic view from the high plateau between the hamlet of Anatone and the top of the Anatone Grade above Asotin.

I think the Anatone Grade has the best road surface and banked corners of all the grades in the area, it is just not very long. I managed to pass one pickup and enjoyed the ride until I got behind a slow moving car near the bottom at Asotin.

We got into Lewiston at sunset and had our usual dinner at the Italian restaurant next door. It was the night of the annual homecoming dance at my alma mater, Lewiston High School. Several couples were eating dinner at the restaurant. One member remarked how the formal attire makes the 17 year old girls look 22 and the guys 12.

No one checked out the kareoke at the motel's tavern as it would have been no good without Mark Turbo there to sing his annual rendition of "House of the Rising Sun".

[Bill_Anderson]

We found out that about 80% of the rooms at our motel in Lewiston were occupied by people attending a three week commercial truck driver's school. I noticed two of them drinking beer in the hallways of the motel before 9:00 Sunday morning. WOW !!!!!

We made the obligatory run up the Spiral Hwy. above Lewiston before heading east on US 95/12 along the Clearwater River to catch Hwy. 3 north to Deary. At Deary we left Hwy. 3 for Hwy. 9. The autumn colors on the eastern edge of the Palouse between Deary and Harvard were beautiful. There is a bush whose leaves turn bright red to contrast with the yellow leaves of the trees.

At Harvard we turned NE on Hwy. 6 to catch the twisties over the Hoodoo Mtns. This turned out to be a mistake as a drizzle at the higher elevations created a slippery looking road surface which prevented us from enjoying the 25-35 mph curves. Had I known about the rain, I would have stayed on Hwy. 3, which parallels east and stays at a lower altitude. We rejoined Hwy. 3 near Santa and followed it north into St. Maries where we stopped for lunch.

After lunch we headed west out of St. Maries on Hwy. 5. This is a short but
beautiful road which twists along the south shore of Lake Chacolet. A big thanks to the folks in the two big American sedans who pulled over to let us by. Marv, our 71 year old member in the yellow 'Stich atop the Honda Blackbird, gave the middle finger salute as he passed the a$$hole putting along in the small Japanese SUV who would not pull over into one of several marked turnouts.

At Plummer we headed north on US 95, which is or will soon be four lanes most of the way to Couer d'Alene. This surprised me, but I have not been on that road for over 35 years. US 95 is continuous traffic stop lights north of Couer d'Alene nearly to Athol, but there is no way around it.

After Athol, US 95 becomes more scenic but still fairly straight as you head north to Sandpoint. Between Westmond and Algoma we headed west on Dufort Road, which avoids Sandpoint. This road is not technical, but it does wind through some very scenic countryside covered in autumn foliage.

We crossed the Pend Oreille River at Priest River and headed west on US 2, then took Hwy 20 after crossing into Washington at Newport. From Newport, Hwy. 20 heads north up the Pend Oreille Valley. The highway is fairly straight, but the autumn colors were the best of the trip. Cannonball Adderly's version of "Autumn Leaves" with Miles Davis's solo kept playing through my head as we rode along.

Hwy 20 turns west at Tiger and climbs out of the valley into the mountains through a series of 15-30 mph hairpin curves. It was on a straight stretch through the mountains that I had my close encounter with a deer. I saw it standing on the side of the road and quickly came to a full stop as it ran across the road in front of me.

At the recommendation of Bill Wahl, we spent the night in Colville at Benny's Colville Inn. The lobby is full of stuffed fish that Benny and his family have caught.

[Bill_Anderson]

I think this was my favorite day of the trip as the weather was the best and most of the roads were new to me.

We headed a short distance south from Colville on US 395 before turning SW at Rice-Orin Road. This road wound through the hills and worked its way to Adis-Gifford Road, which we took over the hills to the Gifford-Inchelium Ferry on Franklin D. Roosevelt Lake, another name for the slack water of the Columbia River behind Coulee Dam.

We took the free ferry to Inchelium, then took the Twin Lakes and Bridge Creek roads over the south end of the Kettle Mts. between Inchelium and Hwy. 21. Although it had some rough spots, this road may have been my favorite of the entire trip due to its combination of twisties, beautiful autumn
foliage, and no traffic. I took a few photos at our rest stop at the junction of Bridge Creek Road and Hwy. 21.

We proceeded a short distance south on Hwy. 21 to Cache Creek Road which runs west over the next set of mountains to the village of Nespelem on the Colville Indian Reservation. We had to repair a cracked fairing caused by a "no speed" low side when one member came to a stop and put his foot down on pavement covered by a very fine layer of sand.

It was here that the Final Five began to split up with one member departing directly south. The remaining four took the Columbia River Rd./Tribal Road 142 which parallels Hwy. 153 and runs NW towards Omak. It is a very a very desolate road which runs through sage brush hills and basalt cliffs.

We rejoined Hwy. 20/US 97 at Omak and stopped for lunch at Okanagan. Our group was halved as two members headed home straight south on US 97 while Marvelous Marv and I turned west on Hwy. 20, where I had my best ride ever over the North Cascades Hwy. There was no traffic! On the west side of the summit, we only had to pass one car and a pickup pulled over for us. My advice for anyone riding the North Cascades Hwy. is to do it on a
weekday after Labor Day.

We took Hwy. 530 from Rockport through Darrington to Arlington, then
south on I-5. I took the first Everett exit to avoid the PCZ (Permanent Construction Zone) through Everett.

[RobertVP]

Hey Bill,

Thanks for the pics. That first picture in the snow looks like a lot of fun - not. At least you found some dry roads to enjoy!

A friend of mine and I took a quick trip a couple of weeks ago into Northern Oregon. One of these days I will have to find the time to post them.

Thanks again,

[rickmillertx]

Bill, I really enjoyed your story. It is fun to read about people riding in totally different conditions than we have here in Texas. Snow? Maybe I should gripe so much about heat.