Wednesday – Travel Day
We left Idaho City around 10 am. After a stop at Flying J to get gas and
propane, we were on I-84 headed to Ontario OR where we exited and followed
20/26 to Vale and on to Unity OR. Most
of the way was through rolling hills filled with crops and cows. One section had us following a creek that had
outrageous fall colors in the trees along its bank. 
We had planned to camp at one of the campgrounds
west of Unity. None of them had spaces
that we felt we would fit into so we found a gravel pit across from the Oregon
CG on FSR 2665. We were surprised to find an ATV trail that leaves from Oregon
CG. Hope to check it out tomorrow. The
cats are having a great time going on walks and chasing rodents.
Wayne with Andy
Bailey and Andy join us for a walk
Thursday—Ride Day
It was pretty brisk this morning when we got up, there was ice
on the puddle next to the coach. We had
a 27⁰
nighttime low. At least we had propane this time and as a result we had
heat. The last night we spent in Idaho
City(IC) we were so low on propane that we opted to do without heat during the
night as we had to run the fridge. That
night the outside temp got into the mid 20’s and it was 40⁰ inside when we got
up. Chilly! Thank goodness for our generator. Once we were awake we started that puppy up
and turned on the small electric heater we carry with us. It took a while, but
we did warm up.
Today we waited to get out of camp for our ride until the weather warmed
up, leaving around 10:45. We’ve never
been to this location before, and neither had anyone else we’d talked to, so we
did a little experiment. While we were still in IC, I used my computer and its
Topo program to design 3 different routes.
They inter connected looking like a weird figure eight on the map. I had found an old (1990) Wallowa-Whitman
Forest map when we were packing up the house, and we put it to good use. I compared the map and computer and found many of the roads I wanted to use
were not on our map so I reworked the routes to match the map. For most people this would not be an issue,
they would have put the routes in their GPS and away they would go. Unfortunately for us our only GPS is on
Wayne’s dirt bike, his Gas-Gas and he was riding his KTM. We are in the process of researching to find
a GPS for my bike. With a GPS we would
not have had to stop to check the map so frequently, and we wouldn’t have
missed that turn that would have cut out about 10 miles of highway at the end.
But the votes are in, and the day was declared a great
success. We started up the road we are
camped on and then wound around through the rolling hills filled with bright
yellow and gold Tamarac/Larch trees. They are so cool looking, with their
Fir-like needles that turn color in the fall.
The roads followed small creeks and went through areas that showed
evidence that the Forest Service has been brushing and thinning. As a result, with no underbrush and fewer
trees, there is not as much fuel on the ground should a wild fire start. And the forest just looks cleaner and
well-tended. We also went through some
very old burn areas. I thought of my
riding partner of 30 years, Raydonia, a number of times today. She would have loved the ride we did
today. Each route was about 40 miles
long and they each ended on Highway 26 near where we are camped. All of the roads, even the primitive ones
where in great shape and the fall colors were fabulous to see. 
We only had one tree down on the road and it
was easy to get over, which was good as Wayne’s chainsaw is mounted to his
Gas-Gas, with the GPS. See a pattern
here?
After crossing the highway for the
first time, we got on Oregon State Route 7 and went to the site where the
Tipton Station used to be located. From there we went back south almost to US
26, but turned and traveled parallel it to the east. In this section we really missed having a GPS
as a road that is on our map had actually been washed completely out. So we turned around and took a road that the
map showed as not going through, but I thought my Topo program had said do go
through. This time the map was right, so
we turned around again and headed out to the highway, where we could by pass
that area and get back on track. 
We found the OHV trail several times
We
found the OHV trail we had seen the start of in that campground. This road took us to the Unity Reservoir where
we once again crossed the highway, and went south on Cemetery road. This T’d into the South Fork Burnt River
Rd. We found another OHV trail off this
road. This road connected with roads we had been on earlier in the day. This is where we missed a turn. We should
have turned right, but the road had a different number than listed on the map,
so we by passed it. A GPS would have
shown us that this was the right road. That road would have taken us back to
camp; instead we ended up back on the highway. I was a little bummed that we didn’t see much
wild life on this ride, just one coyote and a single doe late in the day. It was a 130 mile ride, and we had a great
time.
Crossing Highway 26
Along Unity Reservoir Rd
Fire in the distance
Friday—Travel Day
Silly Deer
Today we headed to our friend’s place in Crooked River Ranch,
outside Terrebonne, north of Redmond. We
left camp before 10 am under cloudy skies that held a hint of smoke from the
fire we could see while riding yesterday.
US 26 is a beautiful highway, lined with evergreens and Larch. Shortly after we started I came across a
small herd of mule deer in the road.
Even after they jumped off to the side, they still didn’t run away. Don’t they know it is hunting season? I flashed my camera taking this picture, and
that made them run up the hill, thank goodness.
We drove through rolling hills, mountain passes with 7% grades and
through really cool, narrow slot canyons. Despite issues with my Tom-Tom we
managed to get to Bob and Cindy’s around 3 PM.
We’ve known them for years through riding, and stay at their place in
Quartzsite AZ in the winters, but this is the first time we’ve been to their
Oregon home. Bob and Cindy have a great
collection of old cars and trucks, in various stages of life, as well as dirt
bikes. They have a dual sport ride
planned for tomorrow.
Cindy's Model A
Bailey and the deer in Cindy's yard
The deer know the rules, no hunting in the housing developement
Saturday—Ride Day
Today we went for a ride with Bob, Cindy and their friend
Bob to Mitchell for lunch. After a quick
side trip to Terrebonne for gas, we headed out on Highway 97 to catch a road to
the east that took us out through the ORV park and over into the range and
ranch lands. We saw some huge working
ranches, including the Hay Creek Ranch.
We then went over to Ashwood, this little town that has rest area where
we stopped to add more clothing layers.
It was cold at this point, but not near as cold as it would get before
we got to lunch. From Ashwood the other
Bob took over the lead and took us up(it’s colder the higher you get) and over to
Highway 26, down to FSR 22, where we turned and went even higher up in
elevation. It was so cold I couldn’t
clear the fog from my helmet shield, so I had to ride with it tipped open. Talk about cold! There was snow on the ground, but at least it
wasn’t falling from the sky!
We had lunch at the Little Pine Café in Mitchell; hot food
and hot coffee really hit the spot. From
there we went a different way back to Ashwood.
We went down the highway to the Painted Hills road that goes out to one
of the John Day Fossil beds. We didn’t
stop to look, because it was way too cold.
That was also why I don’t have many pictures of this ride, too cold to
stop and take my gloves off. We saw lots
of deer on this section, some in sets of 2 or 3, and one herd of about 20. 
We did stop at this one ranch, look closely
at these horses, the third one from the right is actually a cow elk.
On the way back we were in race mode. We were racing the sun, racing the rain,
racing birds and racing cows. We beat the
cows, but it sure was funny to see Bob herding these 2 cows while on his
bike. Cows are so dumb. They manage to get off the road, but they
keep running alongside us. If they would
just stop, we would be by them and be gone.
But this one cow decided to keep running and when we stopped around the
corner to look at some rock formations,
she was still running and went right by us again. Racing birds is fun; they swoop down, fly for
a while at head level, and then soar back up and away. We lost the race with the rain clouds. We got caught by this one storm cell, but
rain gear came out and all was good. We
almost beat the sun; it had just gone down by the time we got to Cindy &
Bob’s place about 6:30 pm so we did come back in the dark. At 237 miles, it was officially the most
miles I’ve ever put on a dirt bike in a single day. It was a great day.
Sunday and Monday:
Rest days
You’d think after a day like yesterday we would have slept
in and rested. Oh no, Cindy and Bob go
to breakfast with friends every Sunday at 7:30 in Redmond. So we set an alarm and got up at oh dark
thirty and had a great breakfast with them and their friends. We spent the rest of the day doing
maintenance on the bikes, up-loading stuff to the blog, and visiting Sue,
another friend of ours who also lives in Crooked River.
We spent Monday in Bend shopping at Costco and finding this
cool little shop called The Growler Guys.
They are located in the building at the Shell station across the street
from Costco. They have a wall of beer
taps, like about 20, and they have all local microbrews. We had brought our growlers with us, so we
had them fill 4 with good beer. That
should hold us for a while!
Tomorrow(10/24) we plan to leave Crooked River Ranch heading for our
next major stop in the Reno area.
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