Oregon attitude adjustment

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Bugnatr

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 9, 2005
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Location
The Woods of Peardale, CA
My RR from the other sandbox....

I've been pounding the work hours the last 30 days, needed an attitude adjustment that a good ride will provide. I called my Minnesota hometown buddy Dale who's retired in Truckee and has a K16. Asked him if he had ever ridden the "box" of northeastern Oregon? After explaining the rough boundaries as pretty much all roads above hwy 26, west of 97 to the Idaho border with the Columbia river to the north. As Fontanaman explains... there is no bad road in the box and I totally agree-no traffic either.

Dale is on board and with a call to George Escapfjrist who rustled up Fontanaman Jim to meet us in John Day Oregon Friday evening (thanks George for the logistics work) so we could ride the box on Saturday. I could go on about the great routes they led us but too busy riding to get any road shots. The morning has up close to the snow but the roads were dry and a bit dirty from winter. Apologize for the crappy cell pics.

Perfect riding weather with cool starting temps but mid 70's by afternoon

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A good time was had both riding and socializing at stops and in evening time.Sunday had the boys headed back to Washington. Dale and I had to get to Prineville to meet up with FJRay plus a couple of his homies to have lunch and ride a bit of his hood on our way back south toward Ca.

As always it's a pleasure visit with the Prince of La Pine.

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Oh, by the way Ray has the best mask ever. Joel from Harvest Depot the Ruben maker had these made up. "This mask is a joke just like my governor"

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Dale and I made it to Klamath Falls after leaving Ray near La Pine Sunday evening. Bugged out for Truckee and home for me this morning via Lava Beds National Monument. Sadly a lot of the park burned last year but still a great ride through the lava beds.

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Who needs pavement?

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Dale is pointing north to the box, we want to go back again.

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It was really good attitude adjustment ride but being able to share time with good friends made it so much better. I've said it before and will again...many of the best people I have met in the past 15 years have been the FJR folks. Just gets better as time goes by.

 
On my last long ride I went from my home in Salem, OR, to the Baker City Motorcycle Rally (cancelled the last two years for covid). I went through the middle of the state through Santiam Pass, to Redmond, and on to Baker City. The beauty and diversity of the country from the lush Willamette valley, to the mountains, to high desert, was incredible. The Rally rides around Baker were even more incredible showing all the diversity of my ride there with much shorter distances involved. That is some beautiful country. On the way there I stopped at the only place to eat in Dayville Oregon, the waitress said she loved her little town and when I asked why, she told me a story about how the town had taken care of her family when their house burnt down on Christmas eve. I wrote a song based on her story most of it on the bike while riding for the next few days (note: I love writing songs but this one was done when I was just learning to be a one man overdubbing band-it's sloppy}:   


I went yesterday to Detroit to check out last years fire damage. Lots of black trees and trucks and crews cleaning up. It was pretty sad to see such lush country dark, but a lot of tress managed to survive too. I was very struck by the hawks that were looking for food, having to look harder and being more apparent to a rider. The Cedars in Detroit was gone, a place I used to take my kids for breakfast when we camped along the Brietenbush River. You don't know what you got till it's gone, as Joni said. 

So, get out and enjoy!

 
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