My route for the last two days.

Basque is the order of the evening in Winnemucca and the fork-slicing-tender filet mignon has me so spoiled I have trouble ordering steak anywhere else. It was good to connect with old friends and meet new ones after my long solo ride. Normally we would have ridden to Horseshoe Bend, Idaho for the Chiliburger Run in the morning, but a weather check showed that the cold-front would not be moved out of town early enough for us to safely make it by noon. We judiciously voted to wait until the temperatures rose above freezing and got ourselves out of town at 7am sharp. Why the heck they wanted me to lead I’ll never know but my conservative five-over wasn’t going to put us over Hell’s Canyon Park to Enterprise, Oregon by dinner time. When Curve Cutter said go as fast as you feel comfortable, I took that as a permission slip and wicked it up, way up! We made great time to Burns Junction for obscene quantities of breakfast.

Biker gand at Hells Canyon .

By the time we rode into the park I think we were seven bikes strong and we blasting the twisties with abandon. This year we made the overlook stop to get an idea how deep Hell’s Canyon is. The view was nice; snow on the distant mountains, but we couldn’t see the bottom. It was not as spectacular as Black Canyon, but Idaho is certainly more colorful in the fall than Colorado. Had I still be in photo taking mode I’d have stopped many times to capture the greens, yellows, oranges, and reds laid across the landscape. I’ll have to go back solo some fall for that. we had a dinner date in Enterprise. The forest service road through the park is great fun to ride and to look at. We made good time to Enterprise so we could fuel up before arriving at the motel. An early departure meant fuel might not be available in the morning.

We had a nice dinner after unpacking, good camaraderie and a nice rest for the next day’s ride to Naches for the annual Sunday Barbeque at Redeye’s. The steaks were juicy – Curve Cowboy is a great cook – and the bench racing was grand, but I really wanted to start the next workweek at home. Even though the forecast said it was raining on the coast. Hwy 12 is the fast way home for me, so I fueled and got on my way around dusk. The road was clear until I started climbing White Pass. Both the sun and the rain fell, all the way across the Cascades! I had so much trouble seeing I could barely make forty mph. Good thing I was only shooting for safety, not miles, that night. The rain stopped once down out of the mountains and I was able to cruise easily into the garage by 10pm with 5070 GPS miles on the clock. Of course, I could have changed my plans and stayed in Naches for the night to avoid the rain, but I’d had so little adversity on this trip that I needed a little stress. And, I’d just about had enough of that fortune cookie!