*Motorcycle Roads NorthWest

Road Report provided by Joe Trombetta

If you’re up in the Northwestern Oregon’s Tillamook and Yamhill Counties, you’ll find some excellent riding up there. Twisty gnarly little roads that benefit greatly from some off-road and marginal-road experience, for certain, but very rewarding when the other roads are full of cars and RVs.

Up in the Coastal Range, 17 miles East of Carlton and off NW Nestucca Rd is Bald Mountain Rd.

Traveling North to South there is a climb followed by a long, slow descent of about 2000ft from beginning to end. The road is about 25 miles one-way and takes about an hour travel time at average speeds.

The road is a mixture of sweepers and twisties, and like Nestucca Rd, this is probably “NOT a road for beginners or recently-returning riders”. The pavement quality is excellent with little or no gravel as of May’10.

A few things to consider for canyon-carvers and speedier folk… The road starts and ends at average width but becomes one-car wide (or thinner) for most of the road. This is probably never travelled and there is 2 feet of moss lining both sides of the road. I saw no cars from either direction during my 2+ hour ride, so risking a crash while riding solo would not be a good time. This might be in some kind of state park and there are ATV trails that cross over the road all throughout the area, but I didn’t see any of those either.

There are no amenities or cell signal anywhere. There is an outhouse about halfway through but no running water. I do not remember any speed limit (or any other signs) but the scenery is where my eyes strayed when not on the road. Mostly forest with some great spots overlooking Yamhill County, bring a camera. There are lots of side-roads that either end up reconnecting to larger roads or dead-ending; well worth exploring if you have the time and gas.

Google Map:

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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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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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