800 miles in 2 days. - 8/4/10
Filling up at the North Bonneville Chevron
Hamilton Mountain and Little Hamilton Mountain
checking out how shiny and clean Suzy is.
If you are a regular reader you know that Suzy likes trains.
This old locomotive is at the Burlington Northern Santa Fe station
Wishram, Washington
This is a pretty good camera... this freight train is coming at us at 60 MPH!
Wishram is this tiny little town that you'd never know was here unless you
were an avid explorer. The Pastime isn't a bad little saloon and burger joint.
Not much else here though. Well, except for some awesome scenery in the high desert.
The view of Wishram taken from Wishram Heights.
That's the bridge to The Dalles, Oregon across the Columbia River
Below: The view to the East. That's I-84 in Oregon across the river.
Stonehenge, just past Maryhill, Washington
Below: The War memorial at Stonehenge
These were all built by an eccentric railroad tycoon in around 1920.
He also built the home that became the Maryhill Museum.
The bridge across the Columbia River to Biggs Junction, Oregon
Below: The view towards Goldendale, Washington. It's always very windy here
so it's a good location for wind turbines. Lots of wind turbines!
A little Washington State Park and fishing hole off of Route 14
Not much here except for some really poorly behaved kids.
Below: McNary Dam, Umatilla, Oregon
Walla Walla, Washington. A nice little town.
Below: More trains for Suzy
The main drag in Walla Walla. A little too Yuppie at night for me, but...
Talk about being in the middle of nowhere!
Just outside the Ghost Town of Tollgate, Oregon
Elgin, Oregon. More trains!!! Suzy's happy
...and old cars too...
The Elgin Town Jail...
and for those not in the hoosegow, Elgin offers refined, cultured entertainment..
These folks have themselves a nice spread out here in the wildreness
We stopped in the shade in their front yard. No one came out with shotguns..
Cameras really don't show the immense depth and width of Hells Canyon
A four point buck ten feet away from me is apparently
aware that hunting is illegal in National Forests...
I had planned of running Forest Road 39 to Oxbow Dam and the Snake River, but....
Not many paved roads and few gas stations out in Eastern Oregon.
The least objectionable option was to back track 100 or so miles to Elgin
Found a shady spot on a hairpin turn with a nice view.
Temps in the high 90's by midday. There was a lot of road resurfacing
and many miles of loose gravel on route 82 so we're not all that wild
about going back through all of that...
So.... it would have been a very nice day, but.... about 20 miles out of
Lostine, Oregon, black clouds started forming. By the time we got to Elgin
it didn't look good. The guy at the gas station said a big storm and 60 MPH
winds were heading North. Not much cover out here so I figured I'd try to
outrun it. Mostly we did although we did get clobbered by some golf ball
sized raindrops as soon as we pulled out of the gas station.
We could have gone North the way we came but decided to head for La Grande
instead. Managed to stay ahead of the storm even though it was heading our way.
Decided to get on I-84 (I hate Interstates) and head for Pendleton.
Warm and dry again but the storm wasn't far behind. Turned North on I-82 to
Umatilla. Thought about staying there since it was about 8PM but there is
nothing, and I mean nothing in Umatilla. Got on route 14 and headed West.
Beautiful sunset and sometimes you just feel like riding through the night.
Got back to Portland at 01:00. Very tired after a 500+ mile day.
Stopped to look at the sunset over Roosevelt, Washington.
Ride to Mount Rainier
Ride to Cape Disappointment
