Day One:Monday— Our rendezvous point was Clyde Holiday SP, a favorite campground just east of Mt. Vernon, OR. An interesting note, though we left our homes at different times on Monday, we both arrived at Clyde Holiday within five minutes of each other. Is that timing or what? Clyde Holiday is a favorite of mine because 1) you pitch your tent on grass, 2) you have some distance from your neighbor as well as separation via flora and 3) the restrooms are clean and the showers are hot. Half of our camp sites this trip were on dirt or gravel; guess I'm getting soft in my old age.
Our nightly routine goes something like this: find a camping spot, fill out the paperwork and pay the fee ($14 - $26.50 on this trip), unpack our bikes and set up camp, take photo of camp, make dinner, check in with the wives, wait for the stars to appear for satellite and meteorite watching and then it's off to bed. If there's time, we'll sometimes take a short exploratory walk.
Day Two:Tuesday— This morning, after a hot shower, French-pressed coffee and a Mountain House scrambled eggs and bacon breakfast soup, we gassed up in Mt. Vernon and headed north on Highway 395, a superb motorcycling road. We rode through country I'd never seen before and would like to drive again in mid-late spring when everything is fresh and green. The road meanders through river canyons and quaint little towns like Fox, Long Creek, Dale, Ukiah, Nye and Pilot Rock and past rolling hills now golden tan from a long summer's heat. Though we tried to avoid freeways as much as possible, at Pendleton we took I-84 west to I-82 and crossed the Columbia River into Washington at Umatilla. We wanted to stop at a tourist information center to inquire about camping but could find no signs nor could anyone tell us where a center was. It was only at the tail end of our trip, stopping at Umatilla's tourist information center on our way back into Oregon, that we discovered that all of Washington's information centers had been closed this year due to the bad economy.
During WWII, Farragut SP was the world's second largest Naval Training Station. In operation only four years, 1942-46, the 4,000-acre base abuts Lake Pend Oreille, Idaho's largest lake. Eleanor Roosevelt allegedly noticed the lake on a flight to Seattle. Knowing that President Roosevelt was seeking a location for a secure inland naval training center, she mentioned it to him and he made a secret tour of the area. Ground was broken in March 1942, and by September the base had a population of 55,000, making it the largest city in Idaho. Over 293,000 sailors received basic training at Farragut during its 30 months of existence. The last recruit graduated in March 1945 and the facility was decommissioned in June 1946. It was also used as a POW camp; nearly 900 Germans worked as gardeners and maintenance men.
It must have been a long day for the gal checking us in. First she put us in a different spot than she originally told us and then she had trouble adding up the site cost ($21.20) + extra vehicle ($5) for a grand total of $26.50. Oh well. Again we had to pitch our tents on gravel but the site was pretty private on three sides due to the grove of lodge pole pines in which the campground resides. Tonight we had time to take a walk to check out the lake. On the way back Bil picked small apples from an old tree—pretty tasty. Also saw a doe and her two fawns close to the trail.
Day Four:Thursday— This morning we continued north on hwy 95 until we hit hwy 2. We followed it all the way to Glacier NP. Stopped in Columbia Falls at the suggestion of the nice Idaho info lady but the information center was closed. There's a nice park next door so we stopped and had a snack before continuing on. In Columbia Falls we learned that the Going To the Sun Road, the main road through Glacier, was closed at Logan Pass for repairs. Major bummer for us but we decided to go as far as we could (16 miles) and then find a camp site. All the campsites in Glacier were closed so we wound up at a KOA Kampground we passed just outside West Glacier. What little we did see of Glacier was impressively gorgeous and only whet our appetite to return when the park is open. Perhaps next year? We lobbied the gal at KOA to let us have one space for our two tents—like we always do at camp sites. She reluctantly said she had one she thought would work and was close to the rest rooms and showers as we requested. It's usually not a problem getting our two tents in one camping space or on one pad, but the raised gravel pad at KOA was pretty small and Bil had to move his tent over and off the pad about a foot to accommodate my tent. What a nice guy! We walked through the extensive campground counting the cabins and ogling the large motor homes before making our dinner and later counting satellites.
Day Five:Friday— The day broke sunny, crisp and cool as we attended to our morning ritual. Today we will backtrack through Idaho and into Washington; again taking I-90 at Spokane to hwy 395 just south of Ritzville. On the way, a moose crossed the road in front of us. Luckily for us the couple cars in front of us had slowed down or stopped to avoid hitting it. Hitting a moose on a motorcycle would not be fun! Not sure where we'll camp tonight but we're hoping something will show up before sundown. As luck would have it, there was a private RV park, Coyote Run, at Connell, WA.
The park, built in 2008, is relatively small but the restroom and laundry building have eight individual restroom/shower rooms that are quite spacious and feature on-demand water heaters. Very nice indeed. There is also a tiny convenience store on site and a 24-hr on-site manager. Did I mention that you can pitch your tent on grass? And the price was right too, $14, the least expensive of our whole trip. Pleasantly surprising for a private RV park. About the only drawbacks are that there is no privacy between camp sites—very close together—and the park sits adjacent the highway interchange. Though tent campers have a three-day limit, motor homes and campers can stay from days to months.
Day Six:Saturday— This morning I was not feeling all that well—a little lethargic—perhaps from my lack of sleep was starting to catch up with me. I decided I needed a jolt of a caffeine/sugar concoction so I bought a Pepsi out of the machine. That seemed to help. Broke camp and headed down hwy 395 to Umatilla.
Truth be told, I was getting excited to be back in Oregon again—on home turf so-to-speak. After stopping at the Umatilla visitor information center, we decided we would head for Clarno and its John Day Fossil Beds NM (JDFBNM) center. We took hwy 730 out of Umatilla to I-84 to Heppner Junction and took hwy 74 south. Had a snack and fed the bikes in Heppner and took hwy 206 to Condon. Bil showed me the city park and some huge silos in town. Told me he met the little ole lady who takes care of the park and talked to a guy who was testing wheat at the silos on one of his visits. (Bil sure gets around!) Took a few pictures and headed down the road again on hwy 19. Since it was getting to be late afternoon, we decided to stop in Fossil to ask about closing time for the JDFBNM center; it was a good thing we did because we discovered that there is no center—only hiking trails. On hearing this we continued south on hwy 19 to hwy 26 and then east to Mt. Vernon and Clyde Holiday SP, our last camp of the trip.
Day Seven:Sunday— This morning I'm ready to be home and sleeping in my own bed. After morning coffee and breaking camp we again treated ourselves to eating out, this time breakfast at the Silver Spur. Somewhere between Mt. Vernon and Dayville, we saw a bull elk hopping a fence and running through a pasture beside the road. What majestic animals they are! At Redmond we fed the iron horses again, hugged and bid farewell to each other and rode our separate ways.
So that's it, another adventure for the log books. Called Bil to verify his to and from routes and he said he was ready to go again. Bil is just one motorcycling monomaniac.
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