Last Hurrah Ride - 2022

[Burnspot]

I posted a small compilation, I think, in another thread, but now I'll attempt to recall some of the events and imagery from Bob and I's ride out to La Pine, OR for the Last Hurrah meetup. This will likely be a multi-post deal; fair warning.

The full image stash, uncaptioned (except where the pic isn't mine) is located within my SmugMug account here (400+ images)

August 25th, 2022
The start of the trip for me. A mere formality; I rode the 190 or so miles up to Bob's house, from which we'd launch the following day.

The bikes staged and ready for the next day.


August 26th, 2022
Off we go! We left at the crack of dawn and headed west, eventually winding up on US33, which we followed for the better part of the day. It was on this road where I learned the right-hand lean limits of my Super Tenere and the T-Rex skidplate; the ST doesn't have a feeler peg on the right side...the skidplate earned a battle scar and I nearly had a brown moment. Luckily grip and composure was maintained and we carried on.

Taking a break outside of Franklin, WV to take on some snacks (we'd skipped breakfast earlier).


Later in the day, we stopped by the Iron Pony, in Columbus, OH, where we both ended up buying some new Tourmaster gloves and marveling at the selection.


We reached our hotel for the night in Richmond, IN.


August 27th, 2022
Our goal for the day was Iowa City, Iowa, but before that, we had some things to see and people to meet...

Antique Archaelogy, Le Claire, Iowa (pretty neat!)








A good man in a toy store...


Bob's photo of us.


A bit later in the day, we pulled into the Iowa 80 Truckstop in Walcott, Iowa, where we met up with Craig (CraigRegs).




Bob's photo of us.


I think it had just about everything, including a truck inside...


Leaving the truckstop, Craig led us on a great ride through his hometown and through Iowa City, winding up in Coralville, IA for the night. Craig returned to his place nearby to clean up while Bob and I unpacked the bikes, toasted the ride, and prepared for dinner. Craig returned with a car and shuttled us just down the road a bit to a fantastic steak house...and treated us to dinner! Craig, thank you very much for that!

Just outside the restaurant, on the river.




A bit blurry, but you get the idea.


Highly recommend this place!




More to come!

[Burnspot]

August 28th, 2022
A wet start to the day. Craig rejoined us in the morning and ran with us for a few hours in the rain before peeling off to make his own preparations for the trip out to La Pine. First though, we visited Brooklyn, IA and the hometown of Marine Corporal Harold Keller. Corporal Keller was one of the six Marines who raised the flag on Mount Suribachi, during the Battle of Iwo Jima; a larger, more visible American flag, replacing the original that was there and creating an iconic image from World War II. John Wayne's boyhood home was here also...we did not visit that.







After saying our goodbye's to Craig, we carried on. The rain eventually quit and it was back to hot and dry riding.

Foreshadowing...


After a long day, we arrived in Chamberlain, SD for the night at the Bel Aire Motel. It wasn't the greatest looking place on the outside...


We had to wait for the manager/owner walk back down the street from the grocery store, before we could check in. For the inconvenience, he "upgraded" us to his best room.

Each bed had its own TV and bathroom, plus there was a kitchen. Super deluxe and probably one of the best rooms we had on the entire trip...in the middle of nowhere, lol.

As it was getting late on a Sunday, our food options were limited; however, the local pizza joint was open.

Bob in thought, over a beer...


Excellent!

We may have gotten very drunk that night...at least I may have. I suffered a tragedy in Chamberlain...my beloved, worn out Yamaha hat was lost. It was a good hat and will be remembered; I hope that if one of the locals found it, that it's enjoying a new life.

August 29th, 2022
The goal for the day was Red Lodge, MT, around 600 miles away; we would pickup Big John along the way in Spearfish.

Breakfast in Chamberlain, at Al's Oasis.


A bit later in the day, we stopped at Wall Drug, in Wall, SD.



I managed to find a replacement hat at Wall.

We carried on..


As we were closing in on Spearfish, Googlelina threw us a surprise detour (we exited the interstate and could not re-enter, so...)
Bob did not enjoy this 15 mile dirt break; my bike did.






We stopped by Big John's spread in Spearfish, then we continued on, party of 3. We saw some stuff and I had a hankering for mashed potatoes...














We pulled into Red Lodge, MT after a very long day. Tomorrow would see us run Beartooth and Chief Joseph Highways! Just down the street from the hotel, the flood damage from earlier this year was VERY evident, with a large section of the road washed out (but drivable) and at least one structure half ripped away. That said, they're working to fully recover!

We enjoyed some burgers at the small food joint across the street from the hotel.


More to come...

[Burnspot]

August 30th, 2022
Today was to be a big day of riding, with our day's destination being "The Outpost" (Pterodactyl/Kevin) NW of Helena, MT. First though, we were going to hit Beartooth Pass and Chief Joseph Highway...twice. Image-heavy post here.

How it played out...


What a spectacular set of roads! Breathtaking views, good pavement, and relatively little in the way of traffic.

Bob getting to know a Chipmunk.




I had no food for the little guy, but he checked out the camera.




As we know, the older we get, the more important pit toilets are...we stop along the pass...




Some quick photos.


























At the curve in the distance, there was a pilot car stop sign section, so we turned around and re-ran Chief Joseph and Beartooth back to Red Lodge.












On our way back, on the Beartooth section, we picked up some HD riders that were hoofin' it pretty good above treeline.






I was photopooped after that, so after Beartooth and Chief Joseph, we stopped in Red Lodge, once again, grabbed some ice cream, and then proceeded to make our way to "The Outpost" (Pterodactyl's spread in Silver City, MT), around 260 miles away. There, Kevin and his wife treated us to a fantastic dinner!


This place was amazing! So quiet, apart from wildlife, and, of course, BIG SKY.


Disneyland...


Tomorrow, Bob and I would pick up the trail again and head south...

More to come!

[raYzerman]

The Chief Joseph never gets old and the Pterodactyl's are awesome!

[Burnspot]

August 31st, 2022
We woke up to a chilly, mid-30's morning with the goal of reaching my brother's house, in Star, ID, by the end of the day. Lolo Pass was our first target for the day. Bob and I said our goodbye's and hit the road.

No sunlight yet and, if I recall, this was a stop to don more warm gear along highway S 279, lol.


Along US12...some hints of smoke starting to appear. What a great piece of road though; we really didn't see any significant traffic and the pavement was excellent. It warmed up and would top 107 by the time we reached Star.








A good perspective of the flight deck. A Quad Lock holds the phone and a MotoPumps mount holds the GPS up front. As Waze on my phone indicates, it was a fun road!


Starting to get a bit hazy...


Then the smoke really shows up. We didn't see where this was coming from, but it was everywhere.


We followed US 12 as far as Kooskia, where we turned south on Highway 13 and then, after a short distance, Googlelina had us turn right, onto a steeply-climbing road called "Old Stites Stage Rd". This road was chip sealed and loose, so we took it easy. The road climbed to the top of a butte and then turned into a series of straight legs with 90 degree turns, as it crossed the butte diagonally through farmlands. We were behind a black pickup truck for pretty much the entire 10-15 mile, or whatever it was, run across the butte.

A somewhat blurry photo, but the black pickup is in front of us. Bob wasn't interested in hot dogging this loose chip seal, so we motored along at 35-45 mph, staying behind the pickup truck. Meanwhile, the temperature was nearing 100 degrees at this point.


Still behind the black pickup truck...


As we approached the town of Grangeville, ID, just south of the Idaho County Airport, the road finally returned to normal pavement. At this point, Bob called out on the intercom that it was time to pass the pickup truck and get some airflow going to counter the heat. We made the pass at a sane speed (55mph, as it turns out, heh); no sooner than we passed the pickup truck, the truck lit up like a Christmas tree...it was an undercover sheriff! With no shoulder on the right, we pulled over on the left, in front of some industrial facility. There was no shade and it was hot as hades, while we waited for the sheriff. The sheriff was all business; he walks up to us and asks if we saw the 35mph speed limit sign...we did, as we were making the pass (the first speed limit sign in probably 10 miles). He nabbed us going 55mph in the 35, he explained. Bob and I were extra courteous, as one should be, and explained our desire to cool off after that really slow section of road and thought it was "back to normal" on the regular pavement. Sheriff responded that we should've stopped and pulled off our gear, if it was too hot. He took our paperwork and returned to his pickup truck. While he was no doubt running our plates and seeing if we were east coast felons on the run, Bob and I contemplated how expensive the tickets would be and if he'd slap a reckless charge on top of it...all the while downing copious amounts of water in the blazing heat. Eventually, the sheriff emerged from his truck and I immediately noted that he only had our paperwork in his hand. He approached us and proceeded to give us a tongue lashing; we nodded in agreement with whatever he said. He handed our paperwork back to us and started to walk off; Bob called out "Thank you for your service!", to which the sheriff turned and said, "Thank you!", then got in his truck and sped off...all business. We thanked our lucky stars; I imagine the fact that we minded our business behind his truck for all of those preceding miles, along with our veteran plate frames may have helped a little bit.

Running south on US 95, as I recall.




A stop for ice cream in Riggins, ID (a tradition of ours, lol).


As we approached Cascade, ID, the smoke from a large fire was clearly visible.






We wound up passing fairly close to it.


Passing it by...


After a long, cold then hot day, we finally arrived at my brother's house in Star, ID. He once owned an FJR, but now runs with a 2014 Super Tenere and a WR450. We enjoyed a great night of food and storytelling.





Tomorrow would be our push to La Pine.

More to come!

[CraigRegs]

Excellent report so far, Scott! Looking forward to seeing the remaining days and miles.

[wheatonFJR]

Wow Scott, this is AWESOME! I was feeling the mashed tater cravings too there for awhile.
Can't believe you lost your Yamaha hat!!

[Burnspot]

Wow Scott, this is AWESOME! I was feeling the mashed tater cravings too there for awhile.
Can't believe you lost your Yamaha hat!!

Ha, yea...I was bummed about it, but I'll live, lol. I have a spare.

[escapefjrtist]

Great report and pics! Good to meet you again in La Pine Scott. Hope you finally got that Tenere cleaned up!!

~G

[Burnspot]

Great report and pics! Good to meet you again in La Pine Scott. Hope you finally got that Tenere cleaned up!!

~G

Aye! It was good meeting you again as well! The ST may finally see a wash this weekend.

[Burnspot]

September 1st, 2022
After a nice breakfast and saying our goodbye's, Bob and I departed my brother's house for La Pine. We didn't expect the day to be that exciting since we were taking the "boring" way, as Big John put it. I took few photos on this leg, but essentially, we were riding from Boise (Star's just west) to the first dot under Bend; a short 325 miles:


We stopped in Ontario, OR, right on the border with Idaho, to fuel up and hopped on US 20. It's been years since I was last in eastern Oregon, when I used to drive trucks, and I had forgotten just how barren it was...farmland dotted with desert essentially. It reminded me a lot of southwestern Colorado. In any case, we carried on and eventually reached Burns, OR, where we stopped at a CVS to pick up some sinus medication. I was disappointed in not seeing a big sign for Burns when we rolled in; I would've stopped for a pic.

Adding to the library of knowledge for my Super Tenere...the fun way.

We didn't really think about it too much as we rolled out of Burns and headed for Bend; we'd run about 130 miles on our fuel since Ontario. Once again, back out in the scrub desert landscape, the miles clicked by...an apparent squatter's tent along the road in the middle of nowhere...an abandoned town...a sign saying no gas for 99 miles....wait, what? The sign announcing "no gas" was MILES outside of town, in the middle of nowhere. The distance from Ontario to Bend is 260 miles, at Burns, we were at 130 miles (halfway) and the "no gas for 99 miles" sign was way outside of Burns (30 miles outside), with nothing but sage bushes keeping it company. We both looked at our fuel state; Bob called out that he should make it...I wasn't so sure. While the Super Tenere is fairly close to the FJR, its 6 gallon tank will hit reserve before the FJR...it had been our gauge to judge when to fuel during the entire trip up to that point, lol. After a few minutes of silence from me, I said, "f@$k it, let's keep going and see what happens." For the remainder of that leg, Bob called out the miles to the next gas station while I called out my range, contemplated outcomes, and continuously flipping between pages on the S10's fuel display.

Every once in awhile, we'd come upon signs of human activity and a chance for gas, only to find long-abandoned gas stations and buildings. 50 miles outside of Bend, my S10 hit reserve. There was a lot of silence over that last bit, lol; however, Bob would call out "Ah, you'll make it" every once in awhile. I was on the fence; I really had no idea just how far the S10 would be able to run on reserve as I'd never tested it. As we edged closer to Bend, my optimism grew; the road finally started to have a shoulder, should I need to pull off, and there were more signs of life as trees became more prevalent along the road; Bob was in reserve at this point too. FINALLY, we reached the outskirts of Bend and spied the holy grail...a gas station! We had to make a left turn to get to it and I remarked how funny it would be to run out of gas while waiting for the light, but the S10 made it! We pulled into the gas station, shooed off the attendants wanting to do the fueling (a law in Oregon, but bikes can take a pass), and let the S10 drink up the liquid gold (it was expensive). In the end, the Super Tenere took 5.5 gallons of fuel; it ran 50.5 miles on reserve and got 263 miles out of the tank (almost the exact map distance of Ontario to Bend). Bob was optimistic for the entire ordeal, but it was nerve-racking for me, heh.

We took a small break after fueling up, and then made the final 30 mile hop down to La Pine; we'd finally made it! Big John and the Pterodactyl's had already arrived, along with a number of other folks. It wasn't long after that we'd found the local purveyor of fine spirits and toasted our interesting ride that day.


The bike was a bit dirty and dusty after the trip, but performed flawlessly.




For Thursday night, John had organized a dinner just down the street from the hotel, at the Harvest Depot...the food and staff were fantastic!


The parking lot social kicked off afterwards, but you'll have to refer to others for those pics as it seems I didn't take any.

Crater Lake National Park was on the agenda tomorrow and I was looking forward to it!

More to come...

[Burnspot]

September 2nd, 2022 - Event Friday
Today's goal was simple; visit Crater Lake National Park. Crater Lake required no reservation to get in and was only around 75 miles south of La Pine.

Friday morning in La Pine; the number of bikes has grown...


The ride down to Crater Lake was easy, with pretty much only trees to look at, though off to the west we could see a lone mountain peak with a stream of smoke shooting off to the north behind it. A few new west coast friends joined us.

There wasn't much of a line to get into the park when we arrived and the run up to the crater was nicely dramatic.




The rim is just ahead in the pic.


We pulled into the very first pull-off and checked out the information; Bob took note that there was only a single way to get down to the lake...we'd be checking that out.


Behold.


An absolutely gorgeous place! Very steep drops down to the water. We chose to ride around the rim counter-clockwise for the day.


















Stopping to check out a small waterfall along the backside of the rim. If I recall, the signs in one area said the crater averaged 12 feet of snow in the winter while the highest point of the crater, Cloud Cap, averaged 40 feet of snow each winter!










At some point, it was just Bob and I; the rest of our group had split off for lunch at the visitor center. We eventually circled around the rim and found Cleetwood Cove Trail, the one trail that led down to the lake, near the end of our circuit. It's a 2.2 mile round trip and a brutal hike for those not normally accustomed to long hikes; more about that later. We wanted to do it; however, we did not have any hiking gear with us, so we decided to return on Saturday.


The start of the trail down. The heavy breathing of folks returning was a bit of foreshadowing for us, lol.


Bob and I returned to La Pine and found that a full pulled pork dinner, with alcohol, was on tap. Earlier in the day; however, we'd made the decision for some Chinese food that night, picking the highest rated restaurant in the area, which happened to be just beside the hotel.


Holy cow, was it good!


After dinner, we retired to the parking lot social for the night.


More to come!

[wheatonFJR]

Wow.

Thanks for the beautiful trip photos and report.

[Cav47]

My oldest son and I walked down the trail that you are taking about. It was tolerable but I was glad I had a pack mule to carry the backpack/hydration on the way back up.

[Festus]

GREAT ride report and photos! Thanks for taking the time to do it, it's greatly appreciated!

[bigjohnsd]

Outstanding!

[Burnspot]

September 3rd, 2022 - Event Saturday
Saturday morning, we awoke to a thick haze of smoke (note the sun):


The smoke was a cause for concern as it was a real irritant/risk to anyone with any sort of breathing problems; the photo doesn't really do it justice...it was pretty thick. Undeterred, Bob and I, along with Craig, Don, Jeremy, and Sam struck out for Crater Lake; Tyler, unfortunately, opted to stay behind and avoid the smoke.

The first part of the ride was very smoky and I thought that perhaps the smoke I'd seen streaming off the mountain to the west the day before had changed direction...that wasn't the case. As we reached the town of Crescent, it was as if we had stepped out from behind a curtain; the smoke cleared and the sky was once again blue. I looked off to the west, to spot that mountain (it was probably the volcano, Diamond Peak), expecting to see smoke; there was NO SMOKE emanating from it today. The smoke surrounding La Pine was originating from yet another fire. Here's our route, for context.


Once we got into the park, we made our way up to the rim and turned left to head for Cleetwood Cove, the one access point to the lake. Crater Lake had a bit of smoke on it today.


We parked in the lot across the road from the trail, converted from riding attire to hiking attire, and made for the trail. It seemed innocent enough to start. As I mentioned in the previous post, it's a 2.2 mile round trip, but it also includes a 700 ft elevation change for extra fun.


The trail has a few straight sections with steep zig-zagging sections in between. It was VERY steep and, since it was essentially pumice, slippery in spots. People are directly above and below, so the warning signs are to be heeded.


It's as precipitous as it looks.


At one of the hairpin turns, we found an artist at work.


The views were magnificent.


Craig, Sam, and Don marching ahead. The photo lies...it was very steep; Sam decided to retire not long after (a wise man).


After what seemed like an eternity, the shoreline came into view; we still had a bit of a hike left. You can see the trail zig-zagging below.


We eventually arrived at the lake shore! There was a little building, housing the tour boat concession, a dock, and a few boats (helicoptered in).


Making our way to the shore, we doffed our shoes/boots and gingerly stepped into the ice cold water. The stones made it both painful and tricky to get in.


Jeremy surveyed the waters from atop a boulder and...did a cannonball into the lake.


Craig, Bob, and I.


I'm not sure how I should word the following, but we had a mission to carry out; a mission to lay our friend, Jason, to rest in the lake. Since Tyler was unable to make the trip, she entrusted Bob with her portion of Jason's ashes. Jason would have absolutely LOVED this place and we were honored to take part in bringing him here. It wasn't easy.





Jason will forever be a part of that beautiful place.

Craig and Bob


Beautiful.


Once we'd gathered ourselves, it was time to tackle the return up to the rim. I took no pictures of this as I was too busy trying to catch my breath...it was a TOUGH hike back to the top for a bunch of old guys. We stopped for breaks here and there and marveled at the young woman hiking up with her child strapped to her back.

A parting shot of Crater Lake.


No one passed out; we made it back to the top! Bob had missed getting a stamp in his passbook the day before, so we wound up going clockwise around the rim in the process of getting that done, while a few of the group headed back to La Pine. We eventually completed the circuit and made our way back to base.

The night's festivities kicked off with drinks and the banquet.






We partied into the night. Tomorrow, we set off on the next leg of our adventure.

More to come!

[Intech]

Reading this makes me feel like I was there! Wait! I was! Great report Scott.

Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk

[CraigRegs]

Scott, this has been a truly epic report! And you haven't even left La Pine yet!

[Panman]

Good stuff, it was nice seeing you and Bob again.