The END of the WORLD Ride

Steep and Rocky are back
at least for one day.

I had been working 10 hours a day, and mostly 7 days a week since our outage started in mid April. My last day off was Easter Sunday. Our outage is still going on, but this week we were given the option of taking Saturday and Sunday off if we wanted. I did not hesitate to take the days off. Not sure if I will get any time off next weekend of not, but am hopeful I will at least get Memorial Day off. Hopefully I will be back to my normal 4 days a week work schedule by Hells Canyon. Time will tell. Not going to worry about that now. I am going to enjoy this day off.


According to news reports, the world is suppose to come to an end today. At least one group is claiming it will end today.

Since today was my first day off since Easter Sunday and in case the world did end today, we figured what better way to spend the day than to go riding. We hop on the wees and head out of town.



We head south on highway 395







We turn onto the North Fork of the John Day River road.






Others were out enjoying the river.





The river was very high, but not as high as it must of recently been when it was over the road.







We cross over this bridge to check out a side road.







The road was a little steep and rocky and we were really having fun when we came to this.





Katy took a picture for Ladybug.



We turn around and head back down to the river road.








Take a short break at this intersection





Decide to try what would be a new road for us. Don't get very far before we come to this creek crossing.




Since the water was over 2 feet deep and moving very fast, we turn around and take the main road out.









After reaching pavement again, we turn off on this road.










The road came out back on highway 395. We then decide to try the Western Route to Heppner.





We turn around here since the snow was clear across the road and we were miles from the summit.




Back near Ukiah.




We decide to see how far we can make it up FS 52. We make it to here.



We turn around and head for home.

great pictures, thanks for sharing.. I don't think I could subject such nice bikes to rocky roads like that! :eek1

Looks like fun...

I'm heading that way in about ten days, and the pics are a great help.

If you gotts more, no be shy!.

Awesome, so glad to see you two out. Kinda been missing you guys.

Great photos. Still lots of snow up there I see. Not going to get to Sumpter anytime soon by way of NF52.

We rode to brekkie yesterday at the Rainbow Cafe. Stopped off for a look at an 1150GS a guy has for sale and then home.

Maybe there'll be some time to get together for some riding this summer.

I have been inspired to go and get lost Monday afternoon!

Woke up Sunday morning and find I am still here in Pendleton and everything around here appears normal. Either the End of the World didn't happen as predicted or waking up in Pendleton is the end of the world.

Not totally sure at this point, but am guessing the End of the World was rescheduled for a later date. :eek1

In any event, keep on ridin' and entertaining us with the great trip reports!

Yep, to echo others, another ride for my list.
North Fork John Day.
Never been, gotta go.

Thanks for the continued inspirations.....

I've seen that bike, if so the guy who owns it comes from good people! And the bike is beautiful.

And our entire Idaho ADV Family, hopefully, we'll be riding your way soon.

PM 650X an email addy and he'll give them to you; however if you ride 395 south you turn left at the first stop light after the Ukiah turn off., the light is temporary for bridge construction.

Thanks, but I prefer just a general direction/goal, ad-libbed along the way, with good maps for backup.

GPS is just to trace where I've been, or helping me find my "you are here" spot on the map.

Which sounds like just what you did on this trip

Yeah, a funny thing about that Rapture business, you know, where everybody who is eligible for Heaven gets taken right up, all at once? In looking around today, I notice that no one I know is missing. What does that say about me and the crowd I hang with?



Oh well, thanks for another good RR anyway.

The official Suzuki web site lists the V-Strom as a dual sport bike. I am not sure if I totally agree with that classification myself, but they are reasonably capable off pavement if you keep in mind what you are riding and how heavy it is and how low it sits. When we got the wees, we (check that, I) figured they would be mostly pavement bikes that could go on an occasional gravel or dirt road. I didn't want to be afraid to explore any road I came across during a ride. However, since then, we have found they are reasonably capable and have on occasion pushed that limit more than I figured we would when we bought them. We do have true dual sport bike and true off road bikes, so should not really need to dual sport the wees. However, the wees are just so much fun to ride on the pavement that we find we would rather ride them to where we want to explore off pavement than ride (or truck) our other bikes to where ever to ride.

We bought them to ride, not to look at and ride them we do.

Its nice to see the big bikes being used like that. Thanks for the pictures, very pretty country, probably even better when the sun comes out. My girlfriend and I took a weekend trip to Pendleton last year and I kept looking a those hills wishing I had my bike with me. Might have to bring them next time.