Riding Around the Hood

Get gas in Madras, bring extra food, and be prepared to spend the night if something happens.
You're not going to see anyone for the next 70 miles of dirt road

Find "B" street at the North end of Madras, head East, and just keep going.
It starts out on this freshly graded (I saw the grader that day) gravel road.
If you look back towards Madras, you see this:


The gravel ends pretty quickly, and the road becomes dirt. Good Dirt. No dust dirt, this time of year.
Keep going past the cattle ponds, and you see just a bit of painted hills



after about 10 miles of decent dirt road, you get to rutville.
You DO NOT want to ride this road in the mud, when it's been wet.

Fortunately, the rancher trucks that drive here in Winter are not shod with aggressive treads, and the ruts they leave are smooth bottomed, and fairly easy to follow when it dries up.
I went pretty slow for a long ways here, this big bike likes to fall over rather than climbing over the ruts


You'll follow this nasty rutted road for 5ish miles or so down the hill into Ashwood.
This sign shows mileage for the shortcuts back to civilization.
I went the long way, and stayed away from it all.
Ashwood today is a small community of 6 or so families, and this old church





Next up is Donnybrook......

you and me both LB... I was thinking this would be a nice little trip...

Duh...OK. I'd do this trek again in a heartbeat.
You're getting it figured out, this is what's really important for me.
This is my new drug, except that I get to remember this stuff for the rest of my life

You had yo chance to go...No Whining !!

That is scary shit, but easier and more predictable to do than greasy mud, actually.
Mud squishes and pushes your front tire around; it's rather unpredictable.
On packed snow, you just go freaky 25-35 mph slow at 2,000rpm, and don't give you bike ANY input. No steering, leaning only, and no gas; just lug that bitch. When the front tire gets a bit of understeer and slips, just let the bike stay upright and lean a bit into the slip.
Try your hardest to keep a loose grip on the bars (that part is hardest), and go slow enough that falling won't hurt as much !!
And then clench up fookin' tight :eek1

That said, mud is not nearly as freaking scary as riding that packed icy crap on top of hard pavement.
I felt like a stoopid dork to be out on that road, but I made it OK.
Fortunately, there was NO traffic on Hwy 35 at 8am, so nobody was on my ass.

The dirt between Ashwood and Donnybrook is an awesome and fast (60-70mph easy), smooth and non dusty sweet dirt road with not a speck of gravel to fuck it up. I expect by Summer, though, that the dust would be thick. But in February, it was packed tight and clean.
I didn't get any pictures until Donnybrook, that road was that good.

Don't expect much from Donnybrook, all that's left is the schoolhouse, with somebody's "this generation" home right next to it.




Into the next gully past here, I started to notice the old dead Junipers were all dead and fallen down, all fallen in the same direction, like they were BLOWN down, all at the same time....



It was kind of bizarre, and this went on for several miles.
Uprooted from shallow roots, and all blown down the same direction.
There's a story there that I'd like to ask some old-timer about someday over a beer

The road is great through this stretch, fun and twisty, as I get to my first of three creek crossings.
This creek was small, and still a little frozen on the edges, but easy




After a few more miles, I stop to look back at the sweet road I just rode....

All the old mining areas up to here were all hidden behind Rancher's gates and clearly posted "No Trespassing".
You can see a few piles of dirt & rock here and there, but no cool mining stuff.

At Horse Heaven, you can see old mine structures for the first time.
Still well posted, but there is plenty to see from the road.





Here, there are huge piles, and plenty of evidence of strip mining up the hill.
It's going to take a long time for the earth to recover from this.
But nobody's lived here for a long ime, so nobody cares .





Next up is Cherry Creek Ranch.
Right after I have some breakfast :dg

Duh...OK. I'd do this trek again in a heartbeat.
You're getting it figured out, this is what's really important for me.
This is my new drug, except that I get to remember this stuff for the rest of my life

Me to my friend I'm 22 years clean, riding motorcycles and adventuring like this is what keeps me wanting to stay that way.

YES! Places I've never been. Places I wanna see!












Backroad junkie here...need more input. Hiya AJ!

Nice ride report and pics! I am in on the next one (work permitting)

As I cruise along these roads, I'm basically in the middle of nowhere.
I come around a corner and see this big, new and colorful, 8x6 foot sign.
I think, WTF? a billboard, really? Out here?

Well, almost:

Cherry Creek Ranch
DO NOT leave the road for the next 6-1/2 miles
this ranch is regularly patrolled
Violators will be Prostituted


or something like that....

It's not like it was ugly up until now, but the scenery started getting nicer and nicer.
Greener, more trees, and more hills, valleys, cliffs, and general ruggedness



In the valley of this ^^^^^ picture, I come to my third creek crossing.
This one's a little bigger, but smooth bottomed, and no problem for KaTy M.
I got my boots wet here, though....



This Ranch is beautiful. Well fenced, well trimmed and irrigated.
If I ever won the lottery, and wanted to leave society and become a Hermit Rancher, this just might be the place



Right out of a episode of "Bonanza".
Without the bad guys .

The cows have it pretty good here:



I still haven't seen any people since I left Madras.......

I could live here .

Enough already Jeff. When is this ride happening again? You know those pictures are the places I love the most. You should have pushed me harder when we were in the shop you know I need motivating

Ideas indeed. Everybody needs THIS ride.
Don't forget, though...ONLY WHEN IT'S DRY !

Oh, I still embibe from time to time, but journeys like this are sweeter than sin

As I've said above, you really DO want to see these back roads.
Best ride in a long time.

HiYa CT
Thanks for watching !

Thanks, for the compliments; this is fun to share.
Where you at bensgone, somewhere close?
The next one is next week sometime, whenever the weather says it's best,

Thursday or Friday, maybe....

Gonna by an airhawk seat pad right now !!

I made a special stop by your house the night before, just to hassle you.
Yes, the pavement run to/from Madras to get there was a bit harsh, but it was soooo worth the rewards.

See post above, Thursday or Friday, maybe?
I've still never been to Bickleton!
I'm just betting you know some back roads to get there.....

Past the Cherry Creek Ranch, I found gravel on the road, as I came to the John Day River



Sweet.
I mean really.
I paused there ^^^^ for a while and ate my sandwich.
And paused some more.

What a DAY !!
Sorry for rubbing it in, TP, but I'm still enjoying the journey.

I saw my first Humans just past here, a Rancher in his pickup with his dog in the back.


Twickenham !!



Not much here but a big bridge across the John Day, but I left the dirt roads behind, for a gravel road so smooth, that I had to brake test it to see that it wasn't pavement.



Frozen waterfalls were everywhere



This road led to Hwy 207 to Mitchell. A big, fast, empty two lane hwy.
MortimerSickle, Squishy, and I rode this Hwy just a week ago.
I like it.

It's about 3:45 now, and I'm ready for a real meal.
What does Mitchell have to offer? We passed right by it last week.

The "Little Pine Cafe" just opened this last weekend, and just got their liquer license last fall.



So a a glass of Cabernet and MONSTER BBQ Pork sandwich, it is, then.
Ahh.

Hwy 26 to home then. Sheeese. Packed snow on Hwy35 at NIGHT is another story.
I'm sure glad there's no traffic, here.
Home by 7:30pm.
32 degrees.
Brrrrrrrrr.

Hot Tub !!


See y'all next week?

.

Yep what a cool area, looks like Trout Cr.Rd cuts down to the Ochoco Area and the road to Twickenham is the same as the one from the Painted Hills. Best get over there soon, when Yahoo finishes it's new facility in Prineville The area well be inundated with people. Prineville is in a water crisis, they can't pull anymore water out of the ground or the Crooked river so all the people comming in to work at Yahoo have to commute from Powell Butte, Alfalfa, Bend, Redmond and Madras. That's whey all the new development is happening out that way.

If you'd have turned north instead of south at Twickenham you'd have seen this sign:

Maybe, but they'll be geeks on scooters, at worst,
not studly adventurers on Dual Sports.
This road will still be empty.

A good excuse for the NEXT TRIP!

I fear worse , they'll be flatlanders in brand new Toyota FJs' fuckin' stuff up for everyone.