Adventures By Guy

I woke up at 0630 and thought wow, I will get out early and it will be cool. Then a good friend called and we were chatting and almost an hour had gone by. Put him on speaker and started packing. Said goodbye and turned the shower on and nothing but cold water came out. 5 minutes later still cold water… hmmmm, maybe they have the water hooked up backwards. Turned it towards cold and got hot water!!! Yay… The day is already getting better. I soon had everything packed but before I loaded the bike I put it on the centerstand and blasted the front rotors and pads with a whole can of brake cleaner. Front brakes have been doing very well so far.
I loaded the bike and then looked for the key… Oh, I put them in the fridge so I wouldn’t forget about the Mexican food. Yep. Cold keys and cold food. 3 minutes in the microwave and I had a delicious hot breakfast eaten on the porch of the motel on a cool 65° F morning. After that I hopped on the bike to head out to the gas station and another riding buddy called to check up on me. Then my sister called as I headed out and I warned her I could run out of cell coverage at any moment. We had to call each other back a couple of times. Meanwhile I was rolling along through a pleasant 🌄 and I made the decision to try and follow a route suggested by a forum member the night before… as he had said something about really good milkshakes in Fields, Oregon and nice views on the Steens Mountain Loop. I’ll go for the shake and not follow the easy fast route up 395 to 20 and over to Boise. With that decision I turned off 395 onto 140 into the unknown. The unknown was pleasant hills with cattle scattered in narrow valleys and very smooth pavement. That went on for a while and then the road twisted up a bit and I was on a wide open plain with mountains scattered in the distance and sagebrush started getting thick. I could see a definite increase in the smoke and haze. I haven’t been paying attention to news on this trip and my friends informed me about Hillary and the rain about to hit California and come up where I was at the moment… I had been trying to make a decision about my route and if I was going to meet up with some blokes and ride the Idaho BDR on the 26th of August. Seeing that smoke and knowing this area was going to get hit with possibly heavy rain made the decision for me. I was going to try and find my way to Boise via this back road route and then get to Rexburg, Idaho and see my son and DIL. His instructions were not clear to me but he said just get to Plush and ask anybody. So far, so good. Nice road and Plush was coming up. I pull into Plush and see a small store with 1 gas pump and maybe 4 houses and 4 teenage girls at a table in front of the store all looking at their phones and not talking to each other. I didn’t want to bother them so I pulled up in the shade and searched on my Zumo GPS for the next stop. French Glen. Found it… or I thought I did… I head out of town and turn off on another side road and head for a big ridge and along the way I am going by this big wetlands (Warner Wetlands) with all sorts of wading birds, smaller water birds and seagulls. All around is dry but right here it was a huge body of shallow water with grasses and other water plants. Further up the road there was another huge body of water on the GPS  but when I got there the thing was dry. About that time the smooth pavement ended and it was gravel and a few miles later that gravel road started going up that big ridge/cliff I had been riding parallel to. I slowed to around 25 to 30 mph as I climbed and tried to look out over the endless plain I was leaving behind. That didn’t work so I just stopped and stared out over it for a bit. I got going again and soon I was nearing the top and I fully expected to start going down just as steeply as I had been going up but when I did pop over the top I found myself on yet another vast plain! All I could do was follow the gravel road hoping it would lead somewhere. I finally see some buildings ahead and it turned out to be the Hart Refuge Visitor Center and it was closed. The GPS route ended there. Great, nobody around and I am in the middle of nowhere. Well, I know there are milkshakes in Fields so I punch Fields in and it pops up with a route. 41 miles of gravel later I come to a paved road… 205. Bob said to go down south on 205 towards Fields. French Glen is 10 miles to the North. Hmmmm, which way to go??? I head south and I never did see anything about a Steens Mountain Loop. It’s 95°F and hazy but I am following another volcanic ridge and it’s interesting to look at. 40 miles down the road and it curves through a gap in the ridge and I start to descend towards a Playa filled with smoke. Luckily the road curved to the south and I stayed in the hazy part and not the thick stuff. Around a mile later I was at Field’s Station. I pulled in and there were around 8 or 9 bikes and a couple of 4×4 trucks. Busy place for being in the middle of nowhere. I talk to some bikers and they showed me that if I had gone to French Glen the Steens Mountain Loop started there. Oh well, I’m not back tracking 50 miles in 95° heat to see a hazy big gulch or canyon. I decided I would go up the Playa and it would be around 75 miles of gravel… ok, no big deal (anymore). What’s the Playa like? Oh, just like a mini salt flat and hot. I look a mile or so down the road where it starts and there is a wall of thick smoke. Oh, well… I think I will find a way through to Boise from the south as hot Temps and heavy smoke while riding gravel… that didn’t sound enticing at all!! Gas at Field’s is $7.25 a gallon. I paid for just over three gallons and hardly flinched. The pump was of an older vintage and not electronic (60’s or 70’s) so I went in and asked if I had to prepay or leave my credit card with them. No, just take a picture of the amount after you’re done pumping and bring it in and show us. Ok, sounds good to me. I had two extra gallons but kept it in reserve just in case… as I didn’t yet know where I was headed to.
I get done filling up and I pull over to some parking that was shaded by big trees and there were some strategically placed picnic tables there with around 8 other motorcycles and riders and most had a milkshake and burger. I always get questions about my bike and myself as I am loaded heavy and the bike is somewhat dirty. I am more than happy to answer questions and ask them too. These riders were in two groups and the first group helped me out and told me where I missed the mountain loop. They were going back up there and going to do it tomorrow. They had a motel in Steens and invited me to ride with them. I said I think I’ll go up this road on the Playa. They left and the other group and I talked a bit. Then I went to order my food. I was wondering if I should order a single burger or a double along with the milkshake. I went for the double bacon cheeseburger… big, BIG mistake. Delicious burger but with fries and shake there was no way that I could eat it all. They put the remainder in a to go box and I strapped it to the bike. Now Field’s Station is in the middle of nowhere but I talked a bit then ordered food and it took a while as they were very busy. People were coming and going the whole 2 hrs that I was there… 90° out with a breeze. It was very comfortable and pleasant sitting at a table eating or chatting with people as we waited for our food. When your food was ready a woman with a loud voice would yell your name out a window and you went and got it. I asked her… wouldn’t it be easier on you if you had a Mic and speaker? Why, You could hear me couldn’t you? Oh, yes quite well. No reason to get one then. Ok! I paid $25 for a burger, fries and a shake but where else were you going to get something and they were exceptional. People were constantly coming and going. I talked to about 5 groups and one lady saw my burger and commented… how are you even going to eat that? I don’t know but I will do my best! About 500 miles later at midnight I finished it before I went to bed in Rexburg, Idaho. I left Fields just as a storm was whipping dust everywhere and a threat of rain… meanwhile I heard a plane buzz over and I looked up as it circled away. Hmmm wonder why he did that? About 30 seconds later he landed on the road and taxied in! Maybe he needed to get down due to smoke or storm. As I left I saw him looking at a map. I headed south away from the smoke filled Playa and storm. This may be silly of me but I went an extra 13 miles so I could go into Nevada then turned around and went back to White Horse Ranch rd. This turned into another 60 miles of gravel. I came to a part that had a lot of gravel, rocks and mud washed onto the road. Good thing I’m on an adventure bike! It looked like other parts of the road may have been repaired in the past. I twisted through a place where two large hills or ridges came together. Saw an old abandoned stone ranch house there. Nice location as it was near a small river and flat pastures. I wound my way out of there and popped out on the other side onto another vaaast plain that stretched as far as the eye could see. I kept motoring along at 45 to 60 mph because after doing over 1000 miles of gravel I am pretty comfortable compared to before. The temperature had been fluctuating between 77 and 84° and I wasn’t sure if there was a storm nearby causing the fluctuations as that’s the only thing besides bodies of water that will do that. It was so hazy to the north I couldn’t tell if it was rain or smoke. Then the dust I had been kicking up went away. Sure sign that it had rained before. Then I wound up and over another big ridge and a huge plain was below me! I geared down to first gear and idled down over some rough rock then got up to speed when it flattened out. There was now water on the side of the road and parts of the road were eroded and had puddles across the road. Must have been rain and not smoke! I’m just glad I could enjoy the cooler temperatures and not have to ride through it. I finally saw a ranch house and shortly before it in the middle of the road I see a sign facing the other way. I get around it and turn to see what it says… ROAD CLOSED AHEAD… Oh, good thing they didn’t have a sign on the other end of it as I had no problems with it. It must have been that section where flash floods had washed all that gravel, bigger rocks and mud into the road. I got to 95 and decided to skip going north on the BDR or up along Hell’s Canyon. It was around 5 pm and I decided to just head to Rexburg about 460 miles away. So I went. Pulled in at midnight and then ate the rest of that delicious burger. It was cold and a bit dried out from the dry air it had been in for the last 8 hrs but it was still quite tasty… I unloaded the bike and went to bed. Long day on the bike.