*Motorcycle Roads NorthWest

As just about any decent map can tell you, 74 runs from a lonely little interchange on I-84 up by the Columbia down through small farm towns and back up to another lonely little interchange just east of Vinson on US Route 395. None of it surprising and none of it very interesting on the surface. And while you can see the big sweeping curves around the bluffs on 74 to the northwest of Heppner and the sharper squiggles to the northeast, the map doesn’t really tell you what you need to know about the highway.

Namely that this road should really be broken down into two parts because they’re quite different roadways.

The northwest leg of Route 74 is best described with: sweeper. Long ones and short ones, all running around 50mph or more. Now don’t get me wrong about them. They’re not bad, but they’re not exhilarating either, since Central Oregon can easily spoil you for fantastic roads. The valley this road runs down is mostly wheat fields and every single square foot of tillable land is planted, which means the road is shoved up against the side of the valley. There’s a few spots with a handful of really nice corners, but they’re not enough to keep a sport rider happy.

And the towns do slow you down, and then back up to speed once you’re though. But unlike your typical wetside drivers that seem to endlessly potter along at 7-under, you won’t see much of that here. There’s so little around that people are obviously going somewhere if you see them out on the road. And they’re usually hauling ass.

I was always flying through the sweepers on this road the couple times I’ve ridden it. The local were moving and obviously far more willing to flirt with the risk of getting a ticket than I.

Concerning that northeast leg of Route 74, well now. It’s a little more interesting. The road is just about completely empty on the Sunday afternoon that I rolled through. I think a saw 3 cars between Vinson and Heppner and was a little wierded by the sudden appearance of dozens of cars once I get into town.

Not to mention that when I got into town, I was suddenly assaulted by a need to instantaneously pull out my dirt riding skills. Inexplicably, the government of city, county, or state, or whatever had decided to rip the entire road out. I rode through a full quarter-mile of deep gravel that far exceeded what any rational road engineer could possibly decide is needed for chip-sealing.

And much like Route 206 out the southwest end of town, 74 has no services between US 395 and Heppner. There’s the usual services in Heppner, but nothing in Vinson except for an old service station that hasn’t sold gas since about World War II.

City of Heppner

One inescapable facet of Route 74 is the wind. I simply could not believe how hard the wind was blowing that Sunday afternoon. It wasn’t like it was all that hot as some rain showers had blown through a few hours previously. It was a consistent 30mph wind with gusts above 45. If it wasn’t for the insane amount of traction on that sharp-edged chip-seal, I probably would have gotten blown off the road and into the weeds.

And regarding getting blown off the road on 74? Well, don’t. This road has much more in the way of twisties than the NW section since it seems to frequently ascend and descend the sides of the ridge that rises to the southeast of Heppner. Serious pucker moments were had when I came around hairpin turns from the lee side of the hill into the teeth of a 45mph gust while trying to power the bike through a 25mph hairpin.

Yes, I still highly recommend this section of the road, but I also highly recommend scheduling it for the morning when it won’t kick your keister quite so hard.

Willow Reservoir Dam

• Counties: Umatilla, Morrow, Gilliam
• Length: 83 miles
• Towns: Heppner, Lexington, Heppner Junction, Cecil, Ione, Vinson

Google Map for Oregon State Route 74:

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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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Way over in the eastern end of Oregon, is one of the most challenging sections of rural highway Oregon has to offer. Called Dooley Mountain Highway, it’s an amazing piece of road that leaves almost no time at all to enjoy, let alone ponder, the fantastic scenery from 4000′ or so feet up.

Abandoned Barn along Route 245

It’s a very technical bit of twisties going up the west flank of Dooley Mountain, and there’s not much in the way of straights between those curves either. And you can’t really call them linked in the sense that you might expect from California’s most excellently engineered roads. It’s just that there no room to put straight stretches in without running right off the edge of the mountain.

It’s really hard to emphasize how good this road is. But like everything else, there’s a few warts on a road that’s otherwise all “cake and win”. Just about every single curve on this road had gravel somewhere in the corner. Sometimes they were in the entrance and others in the exit. And not a few of them had gravel not just outside the tire lines but all the way across.

And as is typical of Oregon, the locals know these roads extremely well and generally assume that there’s not going to be anyone in the opposing lane when they come around the corner. It certainly behooves us to maintain a reasonable cornering speed and conservative line, keeping one’s vehicle and body parts well away from the center line in blind corner.

In the same vein, don’t take the speed recommendations lightly. While the signs are definitely “Oregon Corner Signs” with the speed posted as the lowest for the next half-dozen curves. If you get over-confident about those cornering speeds, that one corner out of the dozen or so will bite you hard.

Just east of Unity Reservoir

But when you get to the south end of Dooley Mountain, you need to be prepared for a little letdown. The road suddenly drops out only a flat plain that’s about as interesting as droning across Nebraska compared to what you spent the last half-hour carving. The sweepers are a little tighter around the Unity Reservoir and a welcome respite, but their not mountain curves for sure. Even US26 from Unity to “Austin Junction” is more interesting than the west leg of Route 245.

And like every other part of Eastern Oregon when I visited in June 2009, please keep an eye out for deer and elk. Everybody in the area was talking about the rider the week before that hit an elk and shattered his hip. I saw well over 20 deer “up close and personal” in just 7 days. Yeah, well and truly infested.

But if you’re looking for a rest, that little reservoir has a nice parking lot right by the lake with a driveway paved all the way in.

There’s also reportedly gas at the Unity Country Store. Verify their hours (and days) of operation first though.

Please Note: Page 55 of the Benchmark Map incorrectly reads as 204, which is the Oregon “Highway number” and note the appropriate Oregon Route number. Maybe somebody can post an explanation of why Oregon uses such a strange mix of designation systems.

• County: Baker
• Length: 38 miles
• Town: Unity

Google Maps for Oregon State Route 245:

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Wikipedia has an excellent description of Oregon Route 218.

OR 218 is a fairly short rural highway. Its western terminus is in Wasco County, in the ghost town of Shaniko at U.S. Route 97. The road is very windy and hilly over its entire 43-mile (69 km) length and is a popular destination for motorcyclists. It runs through the small town of Antelope (population 50) and has a junction with OR 293 on the south end of town.

More mountainous terrain follows, and the highway crosses the John Day River into Wheeler County at Clarno. Just east of Clarno is the Clarno Unit of the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument. Between Clarno and Fossil (the largest town on the route, with a population of about 475), the road has several sharp curves, with a posted speed limit of 15 miles per hour (24 km/h) in several places. The eastern terminus is in Fossil at the junction of Washington Street and Seventh Street (OR 19).

This indeed does cover the bases. The raw facts if you will. It doesn’t even begin to cover the sheer exhilaration of roaring out of the tight corners with your knees skimming the pavement after having endured what’s most likely 50+ miles of WIDE US 97 sweepers with that obnoxious 50mph speed limit.

The views are simply astounding and the highway is just completely freaking empty.

View from the edge of the plateau looking down past the hairpins.

Now, I’ll freely admit that the road lulls you into a brief sense of complacency with a ho-hum straight SE out of Shaniko to the edge of the Cascade Highlands. It doesn’t last long though before it pretty much chucks you off the side of the ridge right down into a pair of 15mph hairpins and through a slot canyon into Antelope.

Running off the east side of that plateau takes you down into Antelope. If you’ve hit the day-of-the-week lottery (Wednesday through Sunday), you’ll be able to get regular fuel in Antelope. If not, you can even get a bottle of Gatorade in that town.

Clarno Palisades

View of the Valley from the Clarno Palisades

Route 218 was also the first place where I encountered the Central Oregon habit of marking and entire set of as many as 8 curves with 1 single sign marked with the speed of the slowest and tightest of the bunch. More than a little harrows when the first five corners are 45 right angles and for #6 you are confronted with a super tight hairpin with gravel in the apex. Might need an clothes iron at the end of the day to get those puckers out of the seat fabric.

And while for the most part the corners do open up into regular mid-speed sweepers East of Antelope (just 1 more hairpin set East of Clarno), it’s not like it’s the end of the fun. Those curves stay entertaining all the way until you’re a just a few tenths of a mile outside of Fossil. It beats the everliving daylights out of droning down US97 after all.

One interesting oddity about this part of Oregon is the number of old stagecoach stops and farming hamlets that used to have a few homes or houses and have all been abandoned. Some of these have reported as ‘ghost towns’ by various websites, but it seems rather amusing to me to roll by old farmhouses that are specifically listed as part of a ‘ghost town’ and see satellite mini-dishes bolt onto the side of a 100-year-old supposedly abandoned hamlet.

A few other pointers:

• I haven’t been there, but I’ve heard good reviews of Big Timber Restaurant in Fossil
• Shaniko and Antelope have lots of abandoned commercial buildings to wander around and look at if you need to stretch your legs or are waiting for someone to come bring you premium fuel.
• There’s tons of deer in Antelope and around Fossil.
• Slow down when crossing the John Day River. There’s a nice old girder bridge spanning the river there by Clarno.

Barn near Fossil off Route 218

Slot Canyon and Corners

• Counties: Wheeler, Wasco
• Length: 42 miles
• Towns: Shaniko, Antelope, Clarno, Fossil

Google Map for Oregon State Route 218:

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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)

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