Day 5 - 6 Rattlesnake Canyon Old Spiral Highway

Boomtown, NV John Day, OR John Day, OR Cheney, WA

Day 5 & 6, Sunday & Monday, June 3 & 4, 2007

Had a nice breakfast with the Strommers in Boomtown before heading off north on US-395. I self-diverted off 395 on CA-139 and CA-229 for a nice view of Mt, Shasta, but was back on US-395 soon enough and making tracks northward.

Old Canby bridge along CA-229 that lost it's 
|battle long ago with the twisty Pit River.

Approaching Lake Abert in Oregon.

At Burns Oregon I jogged east for a bit before heading north again to John Day for the night. The sections leading to and away from John Day are among the finest sections of US-395 you'll find:

More delicious cows. Seen in their usual hangout.


Along US-395 between John Day and Mount Vernon.


Along US-395 as it parallels Beech Creek

At Ukiah I cut east on OR-244 to La Grande, were a lovely young gas station attendant gave me directions across town to pick up OR-82 to Enterprise. Directions like turning at the 4H grounds and "…take a left at the cyclones…" she said. Hmmm, guess I'll know them when I see them. Yep, sure enough I turned at the grain dehydators. Somehow when I saw them I recalled the term cyclone. Funny, but when you live in San Diego you forget that stuff easily!

Ominous skies leading up to and north of Enterprise.

I toughed it out and waited to eat lunch because I remembered a cool spot at the bottom of Rattlesnake Canyon (OR-3 and WA-129) from last year that looked like it might be fun to stop at.

I got a shot of a GS gliding down the canyon (only to see nearly the same shot on page 52 of the June 2007 Rider Magazine later):

Can you tell what color the BMW GS is? 

Bogan's Oasis was a valuable stop. I met a one-eyed biker riding a Harley Springer, who along with another patron and the owner, encouraged me to enter Canada through Porthill on ID-1 rather than US-95, and to take an extra day and meander to Jasper via the ferries and hot springs along Kootnay Lake on HWY-3A. Great advice which I would follow and surprise Lisa with a great first day out.

Further north I was able to locate the bottom of the Old Spiral Highway climbing out of Lewiston, Idaho and finally back north on US-195 into Washington.

In Colfax I stopped for fuel and a local GS owner struck up a conversation. "Have you done US-12 from Montana into Idaho?" Man I wish I had a nickel for everytime someone's asked me that. I've really got to ride that sometime. He basically told me that the next time I'm up that way I am to swing by his work and grab him for the ride!

Near Rosalia I got detoured off US-195 and lost the time I was going to hunt down a geocache in the area. It was harbinger for the trip. I would basically give up on doing any geocaching on the entire trip.

I found Lisa's sisters house before 5pm, and we were all off to Sushi with her niece at "Raw" in Spokane shortly thereafter. That evening we packed, most notably our massive supply of hand and body warmers. No heated grips or electrics. Our plan was Hippo Hands (recommended by akphotog), warmers, staying dry and layers.

Lisa was ready to go. No hanging out for a day. The adventure begins anew tomorrow!

> Go to Day 7