*Motorcycle Roads NorthWest

Please note: I did this road in June of 2009. Much has changed in Central Oregon since then and some services are no longer available.

During my week in Central Oregon last summer, I’d met and spoken with many riders who’d ridden up US 395 and come up through John Day. They were looking for many of the things that I was. Quiet roads with smooth pavement and light traffic being one of the most frequently expressed desire. A most common and fervent wish that I have to agree with.

Central Oregon provides hundreds of miles of some of the best pavement on earth. Not a lot of people on the roads if you stay off the US highways, and those people that you do encounter generally seem to be very good folks. Perhaps it’s my Midwestern childhood coming to the fore, but I felt a real kinship with these people. Scratching out a living, and a rather hard life at that, in the wide open high country.

And as far as scratching? Well, those Oregon roads sure have the traction to spare. They’re mostly jagged chipseal that hasn’t had enough traffic to wear the surface down. They may chew your tires up faster than expected, but even hard-compound touring tires have above-normal grip when these roads are dry. I’d worn quite a flat spot in the 6 weeks of commuting leading up to my trip to Oregon and 4 days of serious riding through the Oregon countryside has rounding the profile right back to normal.

As far as the Route 410 “Bull Run to Baker Road”? First off, it’s not actually marked as such on the highway. If anything, it’s more likely to be marked as “This way to Forest Service 73″ which lean up into the hills to the ski resorts around the Anthony Lakes Highways.

And while I was there in June 2009, there was even high-octane fuel in Sumpter. I’ve since received reports that the ‘Stage Stop’ gas station and supply store was closed after a very poor tourist turnout in 2009. I’m not sure if it’s being reopened for 2010 though since it’s still listed on Sumpter’s website. I’m hoping it’s still there, the proprietress is good people.

Most of the road has the trees just about this close. Watch out for deer. Photo by Cecil Reniche-Smith (Creative Commons: AT, NC, NoDerivs)

Once you’ve (hopefully) gassed up at Sumpter, you’re heading west up into the mountains. The roads get progressively tighter as you go higher, and the turns get better. The scenic views are decent, but nothing that’s really photogenic. It IS very impressive just how far you can see through the clear air though.

Just watch out for the deer and the elk! I had 24 close encounters with deer and elk in my 7 days down there, including several that nearly intercepted me from the off corner and one that nearly walked right into me while I was standing NEXT to my bike at the gas pump. No joke. Just like any cager with his cell phone, the deer was looking over his shoulder behind him and nearly walked into me.

Routing Note: This route is sometimes listed of Route 220. This is incorrect since Oregon Route Numbers and Oregon Highway Numbers are not necessarily the same thing. The Oregon Route 410 is how maps will show it, but the “internal accounting designation” for this road is “Highway 220″ and may include more of less of this route than the Route 410 designation. If you’re confused, go look Oregon Highways up in Wikipedia. It makes my head hurt just keeping this stuff straight.

I also recall that up at the county line is a Ski Resort. There’s probably more of those around that I didn’t see, and there are definitely some campgrounds, so you do have to keep an eye out for the occasional cagers. It’s really for the best anyway. If you’re not watching out enough to see the cagers, you’re not going to see the deer until too late anyway.

• Counties: Grant, Baker
• Length: 19 miles
• Towns: Granite, Sumpter

The map below gives the impression that this is an “out and back” road. It is not. I simply chose the arbitrary end point at Granite from which this road continues on up to either Ukiah, Route 244 into LaGrande, or off to the Northeast via Anthony Lakes depending on which or whether you turn off at the top of the plateau.

Google Maps for State Route 410 ‘Bull Run to Baker Road’:

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Leading out of the Baker City, Oregon Route 86 is the most direct route out to the Hell’s Canyon area. And as one might surmise from the maps of the roadway, it might seem a bit too straight and a bit too flat if one’s gotten spoiled by the Central Oregon roads in the previous day’s riding.

Never fear, however. Route 86 really is the gateway to some awesome riding. It’s gots lots of curves in its own right over on the eastern end as you approach the river, and depending on your nights destination you can take FS 39 up to Joseph or Route 71 past Oxbow and into Central Idaho through Hell’s Canyon.

Either way, it’s really tough to go badly wrong on route selection through here. There’s lot of good riding, quite literally, every way you turn.

Once thing to be mindful of, like much of Eastern Oregon, is the fuel situation for both bikes and riders. There’s precious little civilization in the middle of the road, and services only on each of the ends. The services on the east side are highly dependent on the tourism trade and you should research you “east end” fuel and comestible stops accordingly.

View across the Baker Valley to Oregon’s Elkhorn Range. Taken by Pam Falcioni (Creative Commons)

As the picture above indicates, most of this country is what I generally call “scrub prairie”. Lots of open vistas and short trees.

A couple seasons back, I was given to preferably gas up at the village of Halfway. The gas station operator in Oxbow was reportedly “paranoid” about bikers. Most the ones I know tend to ride around in brightly-colored Goretex with flip-up helmets or whatnot, so it might just be an over-reaction to the nasty press that the cruiser folks sometimes receive.

Also, I’ve heard that there’s a nice little 12-mile route up into the hills northwest of Halfway called the Corcucopia Highway.

If any gets an update to services in Oxbow or that short spur north of Halfway, please do pop in a comment.

View out across the valley. Taken by Marius Strom (Creative Commons)

When you ride through this area, you can almost see the wagon trains coming up the trail. It’s not really changed much since then.

And be sure to watch out for deer. There’s very common along this highway.

• Counties: Baker County, Oregon
• Length: 67 miles
• Towns: Baker City, Richland, Halfway, Oxbow

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Up in the far reaches of Northern Washington, nearly bumping into Canada even, is a wonderful little backroad perfect for sport-touring.

Why, you might ask would you go all the way up there to ride good roads? One fine reason is there’s hardly any other traffic on them. 37 miles of rural 2-lane with only the occasional farm truck and a couple dozen deer to dodge.

Most of the time at least, that is the case.

Unfortunately, when I went through they’d torn out the middle 10 miles of the road down to the bedrock. I was rather glad that I had opted to keep the quasi-dual-sport tires on the strom as the clay-ey soil would not have been fun on sportbike tires like the previous summer’s Conti Road Attacks.

And it is a good road, don’t get me wrong. I had a lot of fun on it, but the locals don’t look too fondly upon riders going much over the 40-ish mph speed limit. And the deer really are plentiful and fearless.

And even better, contrary to some reports from various mapping solutions, this road is (or will be) completely paved from end to end once construction on that center section is done.

Fuel is a bit spotty on the north end of the highway, but there’s food, lodgings, and fuel in Colville.

And this ride is quite fantastic when paired with its natural counterpart of riding Route 25 up into Northport. In fact, it’s quite the hillclimb getting out of Northport on Aladdin Road. Very steep incline that will have smaller motors working overtime, but very cool tight corners in that stretch too.

County: Stevens County, Washington
Length: 37 miles
Towns: Spirit, Northport, Colville, Aladdin

Google Map:

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I know a bunch of folks say these roads are boring. And I can’t argue that if you don’t enjoy open countrysides, the scenery isn’t much to write home about.

One thing this stretch of 206 offers is fast and lonely sweepers. Well, lonely if you don’t count the occasional deer in the fields and the numerable ground squirrels living along the verge of the road. At one point along the plateau a dozen miles SW of Heppner, I was seeing a squirrel scurry in front of me every easily hundred yards.

It’s fast and lonely though. Not hardly another soul on the road to hold things up. And when you do see a car coming the other way, they’re usually waving to you.

Canyon corners between Condon and Heppner:

Most notably, it also offers several sets of fantastic twisties with a canyon-edge hairpins every 10 minutes or so between Heppner and Condon. The curves really are great and there’s so little traffic that the chip-seal doesn’t get polished. The traction was simply amazing on the rural Oregon roads. It has really spoiled me for riding in Washington.

Wind farm just west of Condon:

Yeah, I was too busy strafing the curves to stop for photos in the middle.

Regarding services, it’s better than most roads in Central Oregon. There’s fuel in Heppner, Condon, and all along the I-84 freeway. There’s a little biker-friendly hotel in both Condon and in Heppner, and camping outside of Heppner on Willow Creek Road.

In between? Well, there’s not much but a couple semi-abandoned hamlets, much twisty road, and many deer.

• Counties: Gilliam and Morrow
• Length: 43 miles
• Towns: Heppner, Condon

Google Map for Oregon State Route 206 from Heppner to Condon:

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Sunrise Park Road
Road to Sunrise Ampitheater

The Road to Sunrise Ampitheatre is extremely twisty and challenging. The paving also leaves a lot of be desired with large frost heaves and sunken sections of pavement. Be quite careful when riding this road due to these concerns and the astonishingly heavy tourist traffic in the afternoons.

However, where the paving is smooth, you’ll find a technically-challenging road with several sharp switchbacks and lovely tight curves. The curves are fairly well-planned, but the road has been sorrowfully neglected recently, and doesn’t appear to get much in the way of preventive maintenance.

The Road up to Sunrise Ampitheater

Do be careful of the turns, as there are rather large drop-offs and no shoulder or guide rails in much of the area.

Above: A Map of Sunrise Park Road

Below: A General Map of Mount Rainier National Park

Additional Photos from my August 2008 trip up to the Sunrise Visitor Center:

Google Map:

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