*Motorcycle Roads NorthWest

This is another one of those interesting Oregon mountain roads. I thoroughly enjoyed it, not to mention that it beats the living daylights out of taking the interstate and droning through the Blue Mountains. Nobody else seems to be on this road on the weekends, and I’d be willing to bet that it’s busier during the ski season than in the summer since the top was littered with shuttered businesses, closed ski lodges, and rentable cabins when I rolled through in June.

And you might ask, “Why’s it so great if nobody else is up there?” Sweepers. Really hot ones. Plenty of opportunity to take your open-class sport-tourer and see what it will do on a nice quiet mid-day ride.

I found it rather amusing really, since so many of the corners up there were marked with speeds that read 30-35 mph. Not sure why they were marked that way mind you, but I could easily do 50+. And the ones that were marked 45mph? They could be taken at truly righteous velocities that my Wee-Strom with its saddle-bags was just not going to attain that day.

Local Landmark:

One thing that every discussion of this area seems to contain is the weather. Even when the sky is clear blue down in the valleys, it always seems to be cloupy up on 204. The day I was down there had turned into a real barn-burner in the Pendleton and Baker valleys but it was only in the upper 60s atop Route 204 and the sun was peaking through patchy clouds that seemed close enough to touch.

• Counties: Union, Union
• Length: 42 miles
• Towns: Elgin, Tollgate, Weston

Google Map for Oregon State Route 204:

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Note: Google Maps and the other Navitech based online maps show that at least one routing of Willow Creek Road rolls right into downtown Heppner on Hager Street and the routing software really latches onto that direct route. This is not the case. From what I could see, that road has been on the bottom of the Willow Creek Reservoir for quite awhile now and the new route is on the south side of the creek and town.

Flood Control Dam at Heppner:

If you’re coming down out of the forest there’s no real way to get lost. Just roll down the pavement and enjoy the ride.

South of Heppner on Willow Creek Road is the Willow Creek Campground. At least while I was there the RV spots were 1/3 full with rather friendly elderly folks. Where I stayed in the tent section ($6/night), the ground was pretty rocky and unpleasant. But I had the tent area to myself and nobody bothered it through several days of leaving my saddlebags in the tent while I went riding for 8 hours/day.

Willow Creek Reservoir:

Halfway down the road not far into the serious ascent is the Cutsforth County Park. It’s a nice little campground nestled in amongst the trees. It’s a bit high up in the air for this flatlander-Seattleite to sleep in, but it look quite nice from the road.

One interesting thing to watch out for on FS 53 is the occasional cattle drive. Complete with cowboys on horses and herding dogs. It seriously thought I’d somehow dropped about 100 years into the past. The entire landscape up there looks like something out of a Western around Ukiah. Wide open mile-high pastureland with a cluster of buildings that just happen to be grouped togheter there for no apparent reason. Nice folks though, so be sure you wave.

Speaking of waving, it seems everybody waves to everybody there. The old folks in caddies wave. The farmers wave. When they’re not out raising hell it seems even the teenagers driving around wave. And just about anyone under the age of 14 waves to the motorcycles like their arm is gonna fall off. I think I might be making some more frequent vacation plans down that away.

One other thing to worry about is gas down there. While Heppner seems to have the only commercially-franchised gas station in North-Central Oregon, there’s no other fuel on the road and difficult to find in much of the region. Make sure you know when your gas stops are going to be open when you go through, and I recommend calling ahead a couple weeks before you leave to be sure that the place has fuel or is even still in business. I’ve heard that a lot of mom & pop gas stations have folded this summer due to low tourism.

Mural along the grain elevator. Reportedly the biggest mural west of the Mississippi:

View of Heppner from atop the hill by the dam:

Aside from these standard concerns about riding in North-Central Oregon, it’s great down there. There’s very little traffic to worry about the pavement is quite smooth and ridiculously grippy compared to the billiard-ball smooth Seattle freeways.

If you get a chance, Ukiah has one unique characteristic shared by no other town I’ve ever heard of. The school district there is so huge and so sparsely-settled that it’s probably the only public school distract in the US that is actually a boarding school. Boys and Girls dormitories more or less on the opposite ends of town, of course.

GPX file containing track for Willow Creek Road

• Counties: Morrow, Umatilla
• Length: 44 miles
• Towns: Heppner, Ukiah

Google Map for Umatilla FS 53:

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This road starts on the south edge of Ukiah and gently wends it way uphill into the heart of the Blue Mountains. Once you’re about 15 minutes in, you’ll start to see signs for various OHV riding and snowmobile areas, and shortly afterwards the road starts to get interesting with much tighter and more frequent S-curves.

Keep following FS52 up into the mountains past a number of USFS trailheads and you’ll come across and intersection of FS51 near the headwaters of the John Day North Fork. You’ll want this road if you’re heading back up to the north. Otherwise continue on south to FS73 which will take you east into Sumpter and eventually down to Oregon Route 7.

I recommend double-checking road conditions before you head out on this road. It’s very high up with a 5600′ / 1700m crest at FS51 and snow starts early and stays late at those elavations. There’s a Forest Service station right there on the west end of Ukiah and they were right helpful last time I was there.

I don’t have a lot in the way of photos of the area. It was rather pretty there and the horizon views were nice, but not jaw-droppingly gorgeous. If you do get a chance to stop at the bottom end of 52, look out to the West and you can see across the plateaus for at least 50 miles or so.

• Counties: Umatilla, Grant
• Length: 39 miles
• Town: Ukiah

Google Maps for Umatilla FS 52:

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Back in 2007, I wrote the following and I think that it bears some further discussion:

Long known by its name, the newly minted Oregon State Route 402, is considered by some Portland sport-riders to be a destination road in its own right.

It’s a mere 35 miles long and links the towns of Kimberly and Monument and the hamlet of Hamilton with US 395 on the east end and Oregon SR19 (aka John Day Hwy) on the other.

This road is reputed as the sport-bikers dream shortcut due to its low traffic volume and excellent curves. I’m sure it is enjoyable, although I’d hate to have to decide between the southwest route of the wondrous southern leg of SR19 and heavily-patrolled US26 and the northeastern route of SR402/Kimberly-Long Creek and the also-heavily-patrolled US Route 395.

Perhaps I’m a different caliber of rider than I used to be, but Oregon Route 402 isn’t necessarily the walking-talking be-all end-all that I’d been told it was.

A nice twisty bit west of Monument. Lot of this on the west end, but a lot of straight stuff on the east end.

It’s a good road and better by degrees than Route 26, but it’s not an unbroken string of twisties for 40 miles like Route 207 between Service Creek and Mitchell or Route 74 between Vinson and Heppner. There are some very good twisty sections ascending the grade out of Kimberly and again at Schoolhouse Hill, but most of the rest is sweepers.

Irrigated valley just east of Kimberly:

Specifically, my notes for Route 402 illustrate that on the end near Long Creek the road is mostly long straights across the high prairie around 4000′. Most of the sweepers in the middle section were intermediates in the 45mph range for a Wee-Strom and the east end were limited only by ones motorcycle and aversion to being arrested.

There’s a new bridge under contruction that should be complete late summer 2009. That will greatly improve safety crossing the river at Monument.

Interesting geologic formation alonside the road. There’s a small marker near the road explaining that it’s a thousand-plus year old landslide creeping down the hill in chunks.

Please note that there’s not much left in the way of services in Long Creek. The gas station has shut down and there’s a small motel just off US 395 as you roll into ‘town’. The nearest gas is down on US26 or up in Dale. The one in Dale is only open certain days of the week and the weekends.

• County: Grant County, Oregon
• Length: 34.88 miles (per ODOT)
• Towns: Kimberly, Monument, Hamilton, Long Creek

Microsoft S&T file for Oregon State Route 402 ‘Kimberly-Long Creek Highway’

Overview Map:

Google Map:

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This road is somewhat “schizophrenic” in the modern parlance. Every few miles you’ve suddenly got a completely different kind of road in front of you. While I waus staying in Portland with some old and new friends, I decided to take a weekend jaunt out into the Oregon Cascades to see how far I got before I hit snow. Perhaps it’s no surprise to longtime Portland residents, but I didn’t hit any snow on that weekend in May and instead got to ride a nice little highway that takes you well up into the Cascade foothills to Ripplebrook Ranger Station.

Sweeper along the Clackamas River

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