*Motorcycle Roads NorthWest

Another fantastic Central Oregon route, here we have over 80 miles of nearly unbroken sweepers and hairpins in the Ruggs – Mitchell segment of Oregon Route 207. As this route does one of those strange Oregon multi-plexing things where it forms an ‘X’ across North Central oregon with Route 19, I’ll deal with this in parts.

Landscape north of Mitchell. The road is tucked in amongst the sagebrush here and there’s some hairpins hidden like a Where’s Waldo puzzle.

The northern end of 207 between Spray is an outstanding sport-tourer twisty road. It goes way up into the hills just a half-dozen miles north of the eastern OR19-OR207 split and it’s non-stop twisty bits until you’re almost into Ruggs. When I was up there last, they were doing some roadwork on the choicer twisties, but the road was so quiet that there I waited no more than a minute or two for a pickup-truck “pilot car” to lead me though.

This ‘pilot car’ driver knew how to hussle a truck around a road. We were tearing through the hairpins up around 4000′ at the crest and powering out of the wider sweepers. Even with the “reduced speed” due to construction zone, it was a hoot.

The middle part is the section that multi-plexes with Route 19 and consists more of intermediate sweepers. While many may poo-poo the high speed sweepers, it does give one a bit of a rest and something more important as well.

Sightlines. I know you’re thinking I’m daft now, but it’s quite important because Spray is the home of the stupidest mule deer in the Northwest. I had 4 deer encounters in 2 days in Spray. One riding into town. Twice on the way out of town. And I had one while I was merely standing next to the bike at the gas station! One of the ‘out of town’ ones even had the deer run at me after I’d come to a complete halt. Stupid things would have run right into me if I hadn’t dropped the clutch and scooted out of its way.

Yeah. That stupid.

Strom on the Side of the Road on the Southern Section of 207:

The one reason Spray’s rather important is that it’s the only gas station on this route that is open Monday through Friday during business hours. I don’t think they have Premium fuel though, but it’s called the Lazy Wolf Resort. Nice folks.

The third section is the desolate twisty bits between Service Creek and Mitchell.

There’s no civilization here and it goes right up a steep grade shortly after you make the turn onto 207. It’s all up & down and side to side on this road. My ‘Come Ride with Us’ maps (courtesy of Bill Hutchinson and the advertisers) said this road had 122 curves in that short 22 miles. I don’t doubt it for a moment though as you’re way too busy watching the road, the awesome scenery, and still keeping an eye out for the stupid deer (since you’re only a few miles away from Spray still).

There’s gas in Mitchell on some days of the week, but not on Mondays. Don’t be confused by the gas pump you see across the street from the post office. That’s supposedly been shut down for years. There’s another guy further up the main street from the highway. And there’s no Premium gas at all last I checked.

If you’ve got to have Premium or it’s a Monday, I recommend Dayville even that it’s a fair hike.

One final note after reviewing my last trip diary: The roads within the National Forest are generally not paved as well, but are more technical in nature and more challenging. I’d use these section of road to hone your cornering and curve-reading abilities and use the wider but smoother corners at lower elevations for the high-speed stuff.

• Road Name: Oregon Route 207 (Heppner-Mitchell)
• Counties: Morrow, Wheeler
• Length: 80 miles
• Towns: Hardman, Mitchell, Ruggs, Service Creek, Spray, Spring Valley

Google Map for Oregon Route 207:

View Larger Map

I must say that I’ve kind of fallen in love with the sweeper roads of North Central Idaho. The roads gently weave in between the rolling hills of trees and fields, with an occasional village with a gas station and market, with hardly any other vehicular traffic out on the road.

This particular road is perfect for a relaxing 50-60mph cruise back to your hotel in the afternoon. You just need to watch out for the extremely high concentrations of elk and whitetail deer in this area though.

One good friend got hit by a guided missile of the hooved rat variety. Bambi got her check paid in full, and said friend ended up with a seriously smashed up tourer and some well-used riding gear.

Route 8, West of Elk River

Read more

Pioneer Highway. A nice curvy specimen of roadcraft and an apt name as well, since the road curves here and there all over the Stillaguamish River valley.

The pavement is a little rough and appears to be surprisingly light-duty for what is a state highway, after all. There’s significant bumps along the road and small narrow bridges traverse the many creeks and sloughs that criss-cross these lowlands.

Read more

Now, don’t act all surprised that I’ve posted yet another old highway alignment. This one however is rather nice and much twistier than the parallel Interstate 90 a few miles to the south.

This one is quite a bit of fun, actually. It winds along the valleys that lead down to the Columbia River and passes some rock quarries and a large windmill installation on the north side of the road.

There’s lot of fun to be had on this expanse of lightly-traveled chipseal, but apparently there’s been a number of accidents as well. Some WSDOT pages I’ve seen indicate that this road has been designated a “Safety Corridor” so it would be wise to keep your speed down to a reasonable level and keep an eye out for other traffic in additional to one’s usual vigilance for law enforcement.

Columbia River Photos, near Vantage:

Photo by Jami Dwyer (CC: AT)

Read more

Following the Yachats River back up into the Oregon Coastal hills is this eponymous little road. It starts out inside the also eponymous little town of Yachats right off US 101 with a funky uphill and acute-angled intersection that goes right up the side of the hill.

Once you’re a few blocks in and getting outside of the vacation cottages, you notice that this is definitely an adventure road. The elevation changes are as abrupt as the curves and the pavement is patchy in spots where the river has damaged the roadbed. Truly, this road isn’t exactly an engineering marvel like nearby Oregon 34, but it’s a rather enjoyable little road that has a solid 8+ miles of pavement before it goes to gravel.

While the Alsea Highway and Yachats River Road ought to have a lot in common, the nature of state highway vs. county farm road is very apparent. If you ride this road with any aggression, be prepared to bottom out the suspension on the dips and maybe catch a little air coming off the tops.
Read more