Alpha to Indigo

Hey- read this starting at the bottom post first....

Indigo

From Government Camp, we backtracked our very first leg- through Sandy and into SE Portland. Once we made it back into town, we celebrated by having a few beers at some of Portland's finest bars and reflected on our trip. Sunday was a bender- we started in John Day at around 9 am and had our first beer around 8 pm, and logged about 382 miles. We all made it safe, and the bikes, for the most part, performed perfectly.

Of course- I've got a photo of the eerie tripometer...

Hotel

From The Dalles, we headed through some apple orchards and onto another Forest Service road. This particular road had fairly crappy pavement, but was very scenic- as it took us up towards Mt. Hood, onto Hwy 35, and back into Government Camp.

Golf

This leg of the trip was another long one. We left Condon on such a high, and started on a very windy ride to The Dalles. We were riding the bikes through crazy wind farms with hundreds of massive windmills and long straightaways. This is where we all had a little fun pushing our bikes to top speeds. I'm not too sure how fast we all ended up going, but Mike said he was at 95. My speedo showed otherwise, but he also said I blew by him and he was going 85. Again- my speedo didn't show I was going that fast....

Anyhow- not a ton of photos taken on this leg, as it was a haul and we just wanted to get to the next stop. Once we started approaching I-84, we actually headed down an amazing stretch of road cutting through a canyon and towards the Columbia River. As we came down, we saw tons of smoke and were right on the east side of a pretty crazy wildfire.

From here, we jumped on the freeway for a strech and pulled into The Dalles for fuel and rest.

Foxtrot

After leaving Ukiah, we headed west and onto a very remote Forest Service road. This road was amazing, and took us up and over Black Mountain. Wade's bike actually died on him- which I think was a mix of the altitude and the shitty fuel we got in Ukiah... Anyways- it was a twisty ride pu and down the mountain and in to Heppner. As we headed to Condon, we started getting a few glimpses of this amazing stretch of road. Long boring straightaways that lead into switchbacks heading either up or down. There was one portion of the ride where I had to stop and try to snap a photo and document what I was looking at:
Of course this photo does the road no justice. We rode into Condon with the biggest grins ever. This stretch of road can't be explained- it has to be experienced. Truly unreal. Then we fueled up at Hatt's Fuel Stop and reflected on what the hell we just rode through.

Echo

After we got a good night sleep, grabbed some shitty coffee and food, we hit the road again. This time we improvised our route since we didn't get as far as we would've liked on Saturday. We headed East out of John Day, went over another mountain pass, and turned down a Forest Service road that ran along the Middle Fork John Day River. This was by far the most scenic part of our trip, and we got off the bikes a lot to take photos.
We came across a spot with a tiny wooden bridge, with one of the many abandoned barns we encountered along our two day ride.
I'm sure I was annoying Mike and Wade by stopping every five minutes to take a photo, but how often do you come across deer drinking in a river?
Once we connected with the 395, it was on to Ukiah. This little town was crazy. It was one of our scheduled fuel stops, and we drove right past the only gas pump in town without seeing it- maybe we were a little distracted by the crazy old shirtless man who was passing us back and forth going no less than a hundred mph... Thankfully we doubled back and found the gas pump. The owner was totally insane, made fun of Mike's orange frame, and babbled on about trucks with the entire front half dipped in chrome and being spray painted by the RCMP. Random. Anyhow- we grabbed some water and food at the only market in town, appropriately named "Granny's"
We had some more time off the bikes to regroup after a little over 100 miles on the first leg of the day. Once rested, we prepared for what was hyped up as the best part of the entire ride....

Delta

From Spray, we followed the John Day River through more incredible scenery. We rode along red, green and blue cliff faces, and into this beautiful carved out canyon along the river.
I was looking forward to getting some time on the SR, and swapped with wade as we left Spray. We made it about 30 minutes before I had to take a pee break, and Wade wanted the SR back. He said he felt more comfortable on it- and although I wanted to ride it more- who was I to argue. The last thing I would want is for him to f-up the 400. Oh, and I wouldn't want him to get hurt either...

Oh, and somewhere after we left Spray, Mike's headlight went out. We initially thought the bulb burnt out- so we rallied to the next stop and prayed they had an auto parts store.

Once I got back on the 400, we rode into Mount Vernon. We asked some crazy old hillbilly at the gas station if there was an auto parts store nearby. He directed us to the next town over- John Day- which was about 8 miles further East. Here we found a NAPA, but it was closed until 10 am the next morning, so we decided to stay put and find a Motel. We ended up staying at America's Best Value Inn, right next door to the "Hair It Is" salon, and Mike disassembled his head lamp. We settled in and went to some pizza pub for food, beers, and extreme games. Then back to the motel for some much needed rest. Total miles for Day 1: 284

Charlie

This was definitely one of my most memorable legs. Right as we left Maupin, we headed up and out of the canyon on some crazy hairpin switchbacks. I remember going through one of the first ones, looking in my mirror, and seeing Mike blow off the road in a cloud of dust. He managed to pull it off like a pro and get the bike back on the road- no falling or stalling, just some dust and shaky nerves. Anyhow, Mike was quick to shake it off and we made our way to Shanko. From this little ghost town tourist stop we headed towards Antelope (population 37). This was my favorite stretch of road. Not another vehicle anywhere in sight (which became the norm from here on out) we had the road to ourselves.

This stretch had us up on the high desert and dropping down and back up canyons. There was a section of road descending into Antelope that had PERFECT banked hairpin turns- it was unreal. I'm so thankful we all had these little maneuverable bikes that we could take full advantage of.

From Antelope, we hit Fossil and went through the amazing John Day Fossil Beds. From there we arrived at Spray to finally get off the bikes and fuel up.

Bravo

From Government Camp, we headed out on the 26. We hung a left on the 216 to Maupin- which was a very nice ride through the woods that eventually dumped us out onto the high desert (and warmer weather). We rode into Maupin for more fuel, water, Nut Rolls and a little time off the bike. Next up was the longest leg of the day, and we wanted to make sure we were ready for it.

Alpha

This was the first leg of our ride. We all met up at the Tin Shed for breakfast Saturday morning at 8 am. We ate some grub, studied our maps, and hit the road slightly after 9 am. We left Portland by way of Foster Road to Damascus, on to Sandy, and ending up in Government Camp for a fuel break. As we rode up Mt. Hood, it got so cold and we realized we were all a little unprepared. After killing some time at Huckleberry's (until stores opened), Mike and wade bought heavier gloves and Wade bought long underwear. In the restroom at Huck's is where I spotted the graffiti that has become the namesake of our ride. Three dudes, 3 Balls. perfect...Anyhow- we had some more coffee, pooped, layered up, and went on our way to the next leg.

August 2nd and 3rd

With less than a week's notice, Mike, Wade and Myself found ourselves with some time on our hands and the urge to get outta town. I've been reading up on my NW Motorcycle guide book and was pretty excited about doing a two day jaunt through Oregon. I've got my 1976 CB400/4 and my 1980 SR500 that were both itching for some road time. Mike had his CB350 and CB750/4, and Wade had his SL350- they were also itching for an adventure- so we put the word out to solicit other riding pals. With late notice, as expected, no one else could pull it off- so we decided to make the push ourselves.

We had originally planned on doing a 539 mile ride outlined in the book. Seemed like a long distance for three guys who have never done an over-night ride, not to mention all our bikes were multiple decades old...

The day after we talked about doing the ride, Mike actually found a 400/4 on craigslist. He's been looking obsessively for one since he first rode mine, and was constantly asking if I would sell mine to him... Anyhow- we both went to look at the bike and it was in terrific shape. Done deal, and Mike had a new bike for the ride!

Also- it turns out that the fella Mike bought the bike from is part of the Sang-Froid Riding Club
here in town. I was chatting him up while Mike was taking the 400 for a test and he told me they just got back from their annual "Gold Rush" ride out to Eastern Oregon. It was essentially the same ride we were planning, plus a few extra legs. He gave me his map and notes, complete with stopping points and gas stations- and we decided on the spot to try and duplicate their route.

Although we didn't quite make it the full route- we had a super good time. As I sit here and type, I'm so sore my back feels like it's gonna fold in half. But I want to put some photos up along with a description of each leg. I would have taken more pictures, but that would require me to get off the bike constantly. That's a tall order considering the amazing roads we were on...

Anyhow- here you go. Two days, 666.6 miles (no joke- that's what my tripometer reads)- I present to you the First Annual 3 Balls Ride.