Search for some Oregon landmarks

This past weekend Carolyn and I went in search of Crack In The Ground, Hole In the Ground, and Big Hole.  Don't you just love the way the early homesteaders gave such imaginative and romantic names to features around them?  These are all located in South Central Oregon near the town of Christmas Valley.  While it might seem that the town was one place they gave a whimsical name, it turns out it was named after a man who had a name somewhat like Christmas and it just morphed into the holiday name.  

Anyway, after a long day's drive we finally got to Crack in the Ground, and it was worth the effort.  

By the time we were done exploring Crack in the Ground it was too late in the day to look for Hole in the Ground, so we found a room at a Hole in the Wall motel. 

Actually, it wasn't bad at all except for somewhat thin walls, and the $43 rate was a real bargin.  

The next morning we headed out for Hole in The Ground and this is where taking the truck turned out to be a smart idea.  The roads were pretty primative 

Hole in the Ground was formed when lava rose toward the surface and encountered ground water, which turned to steam and built up enough pressure to cause a blow out crater.  

Next we went to Big Hole, which is the same kind of feature, only bigger.  The problem is that the crater is completely forested and no photo shows it very well, so I won't post any.  

On our way back we went through Sisters and then up to Detroit and then Estacada, Sandy, Troutdale and home.  Along the way in the mountains we saw lots of beautiful autumn colors.  

Total distance for the weekend was 660 miles on Good Roads.  

End of a Great Ride

Got home at 4:30 and beat the rain except for a few slight drizzles.  Total mileage was 2376.

Today was awesome.  It started out with the same freezing temps, but with the new battery I could run my heated grips and the vest both, so it was not a problem.  It quickly warmed up to mid 70's and stayed that way all day.

Central Oregon is hard to beat, and the stretch from Spray to Fossil, to Antelope and Shaniko is at least 100 miles of biker heaven.  To top it off, I had the road pretty much all to myself and I made the most of it.  I didn't stop to take pictures......I was too much in the groove plus trying to beat the rain, but what is a blog without pictures?  So here is the only one I took:

Road hazards; they leave slippery stuff too.

One thing about being on a motorcycle for six days is that by the seventh, you are about as comfortable with riding as you can be.  The bike and I become a unit, and my riding goes up a level.  It couldn't have happened on better roads, either, and I set a new personal best for using the edges of my tires.

The Stars Allign

I've had a couple of rough days of riding, but today made up for it.  It started out not too promising....the temp gauge on my motorcycle read 0 degrees Celsius (freezing) when I went to breakfast, and by the time I got underway it was 39 Fahrenheit .  But it wasn't so bad.  I was headed down to lower elevations and the sun was shining.  I was afraid to use my heated vest, but I did use the grip heaters and the battery gauge looked OK as long as I was moving.  The big relief was that the bike started at all.  It was a little slow to crank in that cold, but good old Kawasaki electrics got the job done.  I did decide to head in to the Boise area and get a new battery.  I had found a Cycle Gear store in Meridian when I was searching online last night, and as soon as I had cell service I gave them a call and found they had the right battery and would put it on a charger until I arrived.  When I got there I did some parking lot mechanics:

Old battery out:

New battery in:

It solved the problem.  Battery status light is happy.  Took about an hour total, but I gained that hour back when I went to Pacific time later in the day.  The battery is a maintenance free gel type that is guaranteed for life. 

The battery change caused a detour from my planned route but it wasn't far, and I caught back up to the planned route just as it was headed into the Hell's Canyon section that I was looking forward to riding.  Carolyn and I did this ride a couple of years ago and I new it was worth repeating.  By this time the temps had warmed up into the 70's, where they stayed for the rest of the day.......perfect for riding.  Hell's Canyon follows the Snake river and has some really nice curvy sections.  I had the road pretty much to myself and it was great.  Pretty scenic too:

Then after a few miles I got to another road that I was looking forward to.  I think it is known as the "Little Dragon" or something like that.  It is highway 245 between Baker City Oregon and Unity.  It is supposed to have more curves that the famous 'Tail of the Dragon" in South Carolina.  I don't know about that, but I do know it has far less traffic and some really great curves.  I had the road all to myself and was loving it.  It's a shame I can't show a good picture of it.....maybe Google Earth would  be the way to go.  I did take this Zumo screen shot:

Then I got to Unity, Oregon, where I am staying tonight.  Got a cute little room in the only motel in town:

Unity is an interesting burg.  I had dinner in the local bar where the bartender serves drinks and retrieves empties and money with this device:

He really didn't want me taking pictures that showed any of the local's faces.......I guess in case I was a government agent. 

Then I took a tour of the main street.  Half of Unity is dying and the other half is dead.  Take a look:

When is the last time you saw a phone booth?

Orv's next project?

These people probably moved out of the old house into the school bus:

Another project?

Well, tomorrow I head for the barn.  Still some Good Roads to ride, but all of them pretty familiar.  Carolyn tells me there is rain predicted for the last part of the ride, but I can handle that. 

Covering all the weather bases

Its hard to believe that four days ago I was riding in 100 degree heat.  Today was borderline cold, with temps down to the mid 40's, and high winds (predicted to be 40mph). So I have had heat, cold, rain, and wind.   The front that I rode through yesterday left some fresh snow on the mountains:

I passed through some pretty country that I hadn't seen before, though.  The section of highway 20 leading to Stanley, Idaho was particularly nice as the road travels along the Salmon river canyon.  Then when I got to Stanley, there were views of the Sawtooth mountains:

As I got closer to my destination for the day, Lowman, Id, I got higher and got into some clouds and slight drizzle.  I don't think I have been below 5000 feet since I entered Yellowstone park three days ago.  However, the place where I am staying had a feature that made everything fine:

A little store that sold individual beers and snacks to go with the hot tub. 

It's called the Sourdough Lodge, and it ain't fancy:

It also has no cell phone service or WiFi in the room.  I am writing this blog from the lodge restaurant. 

I may be developing some sort of electrical issues.  I have a voltmeter type of device I installed on the bike that shows the battery status.  It is a light that shows green when the battery is being charged and then yellow and red when the battery voltage is low or not being charged.  Today it would not stay green unless I had a lot of revs.  It caused me to shut off my heated vest when I wanted it on.  However, this evening I discovered I have at some time switched the high beam on, which adds another bulb and about the same wattage drain as the vest.  I'm  going to try disconnecting the low beam bulb, which is on all the time and see how it goes.  I would really like to have my heated grips and especially the vest since the temps tomorrow morning are supposed to be in the 30's.  I can always switch the high beam on temporarily if I want to make sure I am more visible to an oncoming car or one that might pull out in front of me.  The battery on the bike is the original, and is almost 7 years old and 98,000 miles, which is far beyond what my experience has been with motorcycle batteries. 

Museum of the West and other Adventures

This morning I  spent three and a half hours in this museum:

 
Most of the time was spent in the firearms museum, but there are three other parts that I also checked out......western art, native peoples (i.e., Indians), and Bill Cody's life and career. 

There are over 1500 firearms displayed on the main floor, and more in the lower floor that I didn't get to.  Here is a picture of the entrance:

One of the rifles in this display is the Marlin 39A that I bought when I was 14.  It wasn't my first gun, either. Different times, then.

The had a room full of hunting trophies:

And firearm displays consisting of almost every model made by every American gun manufacturer:

These are all Winchester model 94s, except for that one second from right, and I have one of those. 

They had some presentation firearms that were given to presidents.  Somehow I don't think the current president is going to get one.

And some of the machinery used to make firearms in the early 20th century.  There were some huge factories employing thousands of workers:

After I left the museum I went back through Yellowstone, but this time through the middle instead of the northern roads.  As I approached the park I could see some really dark clouds ahead, so I stopped to put on my rain gear.  Then, just inside the park I camp upon this guy:

I think that's a Griz, but Carolyn says she thinks there aren't any in Yellowstone.  At least he didn't pull this trick on me:

As I rode through the park there were some brief thundershowers with intense rain and even some hail.  And it got worse.  On the way from West Yellowstone to Idaho Falls, which is about 100 miles,  it rained almost constantly as I passed through cells of thunderstorms.  At one time the wind and rain were so intense I just couldn't ride.....I was afraid I would get blown over or hydroplane.  I pulled over to the side of the road and just sat there until it passed and got back to a simple steady rain.  By the time I got to Idaho Falls at just after 6pm I had definitely had enough for the day.

But, tomorrow is another day and it is supposed to be dry and relatively cool.  More Good Roads  ahead!

Yellowstone and the Beartooth Highway

On my way to Cody I went through the northern tip of Yellowstone park in order to ride the Beartooth  highway.  I had done this road several years ago and the ride was somewhat spoiled by road construction over a large portion of the road.  I figured this time it should be perfect with all that new pavement.......wrong again!  They were still doing construction and there were several delays, one right after the other.  But I managed to pass most of the traffic after the last delay and had a good ride with nobody in front of me all the way into Red Lodge.  I took a few pictures today but the only one worth showing was the obligatory Bison shot.  I have seen buffalo every time I have been in Yellowstone but never so many as this time.  I think the northern area of the park is most favorable for them as it is less forested:

Of course, every place there were bison visible from the road, everybody had to stop, and if I hadn't been on a motorcycle I wouldn't have been able to get past.  I only stopped to take this picture because the critters were crossing the road in front of me and I didn't want to piss them off and get gored by an angry momma buffalo. 

So now I am in Cody and planning on visiting the Western Museum tomorrow.