Thursday, July 26, 2012

Hell and back.... Day Two of the iMBC2012

Saturday we all planned to meet for breakfast before riding over to the dam. But the bakery we wanted to visit was blocked by barricades and a parade so we decided on Sumpter Junction Restaurant just down the street from our hotel and just off the freeway where we were planning to make our escape to Hells Canyon.

Gary France center line challenge?


This is what constitutes a vegan breakfast in cowboy country.


I suppose we could've asked to have onions, mushrooms, celery and peppers added to it but vegans know this is much more trouble than it is worth. Plain hash browns never tasted so good.

After breakfast we rode up I-84 two miles to the next exit 302 to highway 86 as our planned route was also blocked by the town's festivities.


We made it to Halfway through some minor road construction and chip seal. This was the only time I could shake Erik and his ZX-14 from my tail as my Tiger was right at home on the loose gravel. I pulled over and watched the group assemble behind me.



Evidently my camera stayed in my pocket all weekend, I was having too much fun riding. I didn't get any photos of Hells Canyon other than a short GoPro video which will take me months to edit. I stole these from Trobairitz...

Looking North to the dam from the interpretive  center

Oh Richard? Where are you? He was with us at the last tight corner.

Is my bike running a little rich?

We rode back to Oregon from Idaho side of the river and met everyone back at Scotty's service station before riding home to Joseph.


Here is the group gathered on NF39 from Hells Canyon to Joseph and where Karen proclaimed that she truly is a flat-lander.



Although she tackled the Devil's Tail just fine, she mentioned being able to see the tops of trees from above is a bit disconcerting.




You did great Karen, despite teasing you we are all very proud and glad to see you conquer the mountain.

Way to go!!!


Bobskoot explaining the definition of pasture land.


From here we headed into Joseph for dinner at La Bajio, reviewing the days sights and ride then to our hotel for a well deserved night's rest.


In the words of AC/DC...



15 comments:

  1. A comment for Karen, its better when you see the trees far far far below from the top of Pikes Peak...the top of which you can ride your bike up to.

    Nice set of pics, Trobairitz! Good ride report Mr Troubadour.

    dom


    Redleg's Rides

    Colorado Motorcycle Travel Examiner

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  2. nice to see some pics with corners, didnt know you had corners in USA!

    Scenery don't look bad either.

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    Replies
    1. We have plenty of corners on the West Coast, it's the corners back east that have stop signs on them.

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  3. Chip seal kind of spooks me. Once it's been broomed and the center line has been painted, then I'm OK with it. The set of twisties before the chip seal was a lot of fun!! Great riding with you.

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    1. Erik, don't go to Alaska then, too much of the loose stuff ;-)

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    2. I thought your bike might be getting a little squirrely back there. Once I got my brain into dirt bike mode I was able to corner much better.

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  4. Love the shot from the interpretive center. Now I know what I missed out on... But it was more important to return Roland and Karen back safe to Scotty's. We all made it!

    The most notable breakfast... not! I guess if we would have asked they would have whipped up something for us, we certainly wouldn't have been the only ones asking for meat/egg/dairy free food, or would we?

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    Replies
    1. We waited at the interpretive center for everyone to show up, bu no one did.

      Brandy came up with a clever way to order breakfast next time, ask her, I think you'll like it.

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  5. Great pictures and glad to see everybody, I know that green machine very well :-)

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    1. We didn't get to ride together very much, Erik kept sneaking to the front of the group with Richard to tear up the twisties.

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  6. Great to see so many happy folks going to Hell and back!

    N from rainy England

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    Replies
    1. We had a wonderful time and it was great to get together, hope you can join us sometime or we can make it over the pond.

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  7. Gorgeous pics of the Hells Canyon area. Ron wouldn't care for 'tree top view' either.

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  8. Ah, tree tops. Have our share of those out here due to extreme slopes. It isn't the tree tips that bother me. It's when u see sky and no land through the trees on a curve. :)

    Great post of the day!

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