Monday Apr. 27th, 2015 - NE Oregon mountain roads in an FR-S
Been checking temperatures around the Umatilla Forest. Finally came up a bit and the passes are clear and dry. Going to take a trip down there for a couple days to run some awesome roads that I've always wanted to, but never did.
Yet.
Blasted out of Seattle on 90 over the pass then turned right on 97 south through Yakima, Topenish and Goldendale, over the Columbia on 97 South. I've heard ORP is out that way, but I didn't see any obvious signs along the way. Should have looked it up, but that wasn't the reason for this trip. Out around Moro I saw a street view camera car parked by a mini-mart. It said Bing on the side though. Guess they're going to duplicate everything all over again.
The fun didn't really get started until about 3pm when I turned east at Shaniko. Hwy 218 Shaniko, Antelope, Fossil is a road I've heard about for years on motorcyle foums. They were absolutely right. Straight out of Shaniko the road dives down a wash with a dozen or so nice tight turns, but then straightens out for a few miles.
Then! Dropping down into Antelope for a couple thousand feet is curve heaven. At the top I even met a streetsweeper finishing up a corner tidying operation. Sweet! The road was imaculate all the way across the valley and back up another couple thousand feet on the other side. Wanted some pictures over there too, but there was no shoulder to pull off without a half mile hike to get to a view. Excelent surface all the way to Fossil, then 19 to Spray.
Some pictures going through the Clarno Conservation Unit
At Spray, I turned north on 207. They've been doing some shoulder work north of town and the road had dust and rocks all over. Might be the next sweeper job on the list this week. The road over the summit in the National Forest was ideal though. Up a steep escarpment around lots of tight gulleys it's another road to drool over. At the top, it's long sweepers down a gradual slope with the occasional 25 indicated to keep you awake.
At Heppner I turned east on 74. Another high mountain pass heading toward Pendleton. It compares favorably with the rest of the roads I picked out today. Nice, nice, nice. Stopping over at rodeo town tonight. Rolled in about 7:30pm.
Features: Magpies! Snakes flattened by others. A peasant, no, pheasant that made me stop in the road. Deer legs. Just single legs every once in a while. Several of them on various roads. Keep the radar tuned up. And quail. Buzzards.