Day 64: Riding to (just about) Redmond
Pendleton, OR to Prineville, OR
226.15 Miles | 4:13 Riding Time
It’s Thursday, June 13, 2024, and it’s Day 64 of my cross country motorcycle trip.
Riding to Redmond is the tagline for this year’s BMW Rally. Today, I’ll get really, really close to Redmond, and I’ll plan to get to the rally early tomorrow morning. The ride today was beautiful, with a great mix of long, sweeping turns and tight twisties, and it went through some of the most interesting landscape in the high desert region of Oregon.
I was only on two roads today: RT-395S to RT-26W. South out of Pendleton, I ran into a little construction. About 30 miles of gravel road that they were getting ready to pave (so not bad at all). Then, I got to the actual construction site, where I had to wait about 10 minutes for the pilot car that would take us through. While waiting, the flagperson came over and we chatted about bikes, the Oregon coast and my trip.
After the construction, the road opened up into some amazing riding. The road is described as Oregon’s lonliest road, and it makes sense. I didn’t see another vehicle for well over an hour. It was quiet and the sweeping turns required very little “technical” riding. I basically set the cruise control and barely touched the breaks for what seemed like forever. Then, two other BMW bikes came up behind me, and we rode with each other for the next hour or so, until I had to stop for gas at the intersection of 395 and 26.
My route went through the Umatilla National Forest, along the John Day River, through the Strawberry Mountain Wilderness, Ochoco National Forest. John Day Fossil Beds National Monument and the Painted Hills. The ride through the Fossil Beds was particularly stunning, as it wound along the river in a narrow canyon.
Dinner at Crossroads BBQ Pit & Pub was good, with lots of conversation. There were locals as well as a bunch of other bikers heading to the rally. I thoroughly enjoyed the ride today—what construction?
