The local Oregon BMW club throws a party every year in mid-June at John Day, Oregon, near the Oregon fossil beds. It's a hoot, with plenty of great roads, usually dry weather, often hot, and camping on grass at a well-appointed county fairground just a coupla blocks from the main street. There are several small motels in town, and this weekend one of their beds will be where I lay my head at night.

I leave tomorrow, early arvo, motelling in Carson, Washington (at a hot spring), before heading east on WA state highway 14 on the K1300GT through the Columbia River Gorge, then crossing either at The Dalles, or further along as the feeling goes. The roads leading there take a rider through towns with interesting names like Dufur, Maupin, Shaniko, Antelope (anyone recall the Rahneesh era from the 1980s?), Fossil, Spray, Condon, Heppner and Ione. One road I always like to ride is Bakeoven Road. I don't know the provenance of the name, but I like the road as it rises from the town of Maupin in the Deschutes River valley (whitewater rafting), twisting and winding like a motorcyclist designed it, up onto a vast, treeless prairie.

After the rally I'm heading to Bend, to visit friends. Home Tuesday. It should be a quick thousand plus miler, with MUCH better weather than last weekend's.

i'm on my way, should get there Friday. It would be nice to run into ya! Maybe a poor choice of words, you know what I mean.

caveman wrote:i'm on my way, should get there Friday. It would be nice to run into ya! Maybe a poor choice of words, you know what I mean.

Look for a red K13 and a tall blonde. I don't stand out as much.  

I'll be the grey goatee'd, pot bellied, middle-aged chap with the...wait a minute. That's like walking into a bar in Daytona or Sturgis and yelling out, "Hey you, with the black leather jacket, tough stickers, chain drive wallet, and the beard!"

As a waitress said to me once, in a cafe along Route 66 in Arizona, "The Harley guys are dressed like pirates and the Beemer guys are Power Rangers."

It'll be good to catch up after 6 years.

Taking a different path, and time to 'smell the roses.'

The old Hotel St Martin at Carson Hot Springs. The new hotel is outside of the shot, and not historically worthy of unclusion.

Mineral baths and towel wraps. Most pleasant. There's also side by side pools of 59°f water and 105°f.

A meandering walk in the forest.

A view through tall pines to the other side of the Columbia River near sunset.



Wildflower season: lupine, wild pea, & etc.

Dense stands of cedar.

The way back to...

...this, to settle beside and recount the day over a sip or two of Jameson's.

Gunna be 95° in central Oregon today. Coolvest soaking as I type.

A warm summer night requires a dose of deet for the mozzies, or a nicely leaning K bike.

Two Wheels Better wrote:
A warm summer night requires a dose of deet for the mozzies, or a nicely leaning K bike.

Lying and drinking beer. You Ozzies are better at that than us Americans. My hat is off to you.

a couple of dozen riders met at McEwen Station in the Elkhorn Mts., for the two hour return tourist train ride to the Sumpter goldfields. It sits an hour or so east of John Day off OR Highway 7, and the day was warming fast. The train ride was enjoyable, open windows in old, wood-framed cars, 13 mph maximum along rickety rails. The bikes sat in a row facing the rising sun from 10am on 'til early arvo.

Three of us on two bikes decided to head further east to Baker City to enjoy lunch and a longer ride home.
About ten miles out I heard what sounded like a large piece of rigid plastic rattling rapidly back and forth, but only for a moment. Next slow roling corner, at 70 mph it recurred. I pulled to the gravel shoulder to have a squiz while my riding buddy stopped behind. The front tyre, a six year old Continental Road Attack 2 Evo GT had two large hard boiled eggs, and several pigeon eggs around the tread's circumference. The tyre had 60% tread life still left in it. One of the bumps was raised enough to contact the mudguard's inner surface.

It was pretty extraordinary, and alarming. We'd done some at speed overtakes earlier in the day when it was still only 28° c (82f), and now it was approaching 35°, or 95°. I had my pillion jump onto my buddy's bike and the two set off ahead to sort a shady layby. I resumed rolling at 10mph with my hazard lights on but the feeling in the front was wobbly and 'soft', though the tire never lost air. Thinking ahead, I spotted a double mattress chucked behind a guardrail - it was either going to be a long night ahead, and we'd need a place to sleep, or I'd have a useful, albeit large, tool to support the bike while removing the front wheel.

The latter was true.

A German-accented rider on an F twin stopped to assist, and I told him about the mattress two hundred metres back. He thought it folly to wrestle the thing along the gravel edge so walked straight out and with some authority, which perhaps is a cultural thing,  or fully understanding the emergency, flagged the first pickup he saw, down. They stopped, he negotiated, meanwhile I continued several hundred metres ahead to a shady area off the tarmac. The mattress was delivered. 

We now had all the tools we needed. Off came the wheel while the bike sat secure and steady but ready for a lie-down if needed.

Meanwhile, I've rung the few dealers in Baker City to search for a new skin. One had two options. They are mainly ATV, quad & dirtbike dealers round these here parts. A Michie Pilot Road 2 will have to do. "But we close at three" was the service manager's response.

A mother and adult son out camping from Idaho stopped to offer water, and also help. They agreed to drive me and the wheel the distance east, waited while the tyre was mounted, and drove me back to the layby, regaling me with stories of their lives, in some detail, but they were lovely. I filled their fuel tank in thanks.

Meanwhile, nearby, a small gathering of bikes had accumulated. A pair of women riders had been rounding the bend ahead of us, and one had low-sided her cruiser. Their story would take some urgency.

I never did see Caveman at the site, and hope he got somewhere allright.

The mattress was placed carefully between two small pines. At least it had made it a few hundred yards further along in its own personal journey.

I take it that the tyre had delaminated? Sheesh but yes, that was close.

Dai wrote:I take it that the tyre had delaminated? Sheesh but yes, that was close.

I never took the time to look inside the carcass as the service manager threw it on his used rubber stack. Best guess is a band stressed and the air was looking for the easiest way to the surface, in multiple places.

But the coming together of multiple random people to assist in the remedying of the tyre was a sight to behold, and in hindsight, an incredible thing.

My sorry arse was very lucky. I had precious cargo aboard.

TWB,
I never did see the red barn door (maybe next time). I was on the blue 75s and camped up by the road at the entrance. I too had some difficulty with my bike in that I rolled into the rally on two cylinders. Turned out to be just some improperly gapped spark plugs. Had to buy 6 plugs 3 for the bike and 3 chainsaw plugs that had the nubs to get the wires to connect the bike into.
Instead of doing the railroad thing I took the cornering class, glad I didn’t ride with you, I’m still a newb!

Which way are you headed now the rally's ended? The CCR in Cashmere, Washington is this weekend. Early arrivals allowed Wednesday arvo. It runs through Sun day morning. It won't be as hot as the Oregon rally was throughout, with warm nights and possibly cloudy days. There are some good roads further afield from the actual rally location.

TWB,
Had to head back east, some of us still have to work! Maybe next time.