Hood River to Halfway

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We left Hood River in the rain this morning, great for them; not so much for us.

We turned off the interstate after 15 minutes into the historic and scenic highway 14 which proved to be very windy and windy ?. This route took us through lots of little towns and the rain soon subsided. We stopped at Heppner for a coffee and got talking to a couple of other guys on bikes, one was from Christchurch! We told them of our trip (and our great service at BMW Seattle - they commented Seattke is possibly the best dealer in the U.S.) and they recommended some good routes and detours around wildfires. We saw them once again at a fuel stop but they were travelling a bit hotter than us.

Once we turned off to Ukiah we could see why the people here are so terrified of fire, it's tinder dry and wouldn't take much for one of these small communities to be razed. We passed through areas that had been burnt two years ago and was regenerating with new growth.

Once we got into Prarie City, Granite and Sumpter areas the clouds mingled with smoke and the light took on an amber hue and the sky appeared quite ethereal. We stopped at Sumpter for lunch and a look at the old gold dredge before riding into Baker City to refuel. All these old towns have history in the line of mining and the likes, they're quite unique and you get a feel for how things must have been back in the day. The buildings and old architecture are fascinating.

Our next stretch was into Hells Canyon which was dry and hot and took us to the small village of Halfway. Halfway is so tiny it doesn't even come up in the drop down menu of 'what town are you in' - it's small but had plenty of character and the people are friendly and helpful. We're still in Oregon and headed east again tomorrow.

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Photos

Heppner
Where we ran into two guys; one from Christchurch!

Halfway
Lots of puns and double entendres ensued