Day 3 - kind of
My time in Enterprise was fantastic. In three days I went to a Rodeo, and Honkytonk bar, a Parade, Fly fishing a brewery and a Distillery. Combine that with about three cases of IPA and a bottle of Rum and it was good times. I was sad to go but also eager to get back on the bike. I decided on a little different route this time. I wanted to see Hells canyon on the way back, even though it wasn't really on the way and I wanted to travel a little further south this time. Here is my route.
Enterprise to Portland
This was the view from the House I was staying at. Good stuff, Huh ?
Those are the Wallowa mountains in the background. I headed East from here to find the road to Intersect Halfway. This is another Motorcycle Mecca type of experience.
The road was not in that great of shape and I had to be careful, because there were huge patches of loose gravel in the road. From the lookout I did get a couple of nice shots.
I didn't bring my sparkly jumpsuit, otherwise I would've jumped it.
From there, it just got freakin' hot. I made it to halfway to find a smartass gas pump attendant and a shitty club sandwich. I don't know exactly what happened but my mood turned south. It was upwards of 100 degrees now and for the next few hours I had straightaway stretches of desert that felt like I pointed a hair dryer at my face. The plan was to make it to Mitchell that night. It was a town that I remember from my childhood and would be about 250 miles into the trip.
Maybe it was all the beer I had been drinking, but I started to feel pretty dehydrated. Then, like a miracle, I came upon this.
and parked here to give the GL some much needed cool down time.
It's probably hard to tell from the first picture, but it's a natural spring with about forty degree water flowing out of it. It was just what I needed to keep going.
Next stop was this viewpoint of the John Day fossil beds
The pictures don't really do this area any justice. I highly recommend anyone in the area to make time to see this area.
I was grinding it out even though fatigue was strong. I stopped in the town of John Day and looked at calling it a night and decided to keep going. I bought some emergency rations in case I would end up outlaw camping near the river or something on the way back.
I was counting the miles until Mitchell when I saw this herd of Antelope
This surprised me when I was riding down the road and saw these guys just outside the fence. I flipped a U turn and went back but by that time they were a little spooked and went back a ways.
I was really looking forward to Mitchell and a good nights rest. I knew I was close. When I got there, I was disappointed to find nothing....absolutely nothing. There was a market that was closed and an overpriced hotel and no diner for anything. As much as I wanted to stop for the night, it wasn't an option.
60 miles later I was in prineville and didn't argue a bit over the overpriced Motel room the lady was offering up. Total miles for the day 324.
