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hardy souls, October 22nd, 2011...

B

Bruce_H

Guest

Based on the weather the past couple of weekends this will be the last ride into "cowboyland" for 2011.
I am always sorry when it happens but fall is here and winter not far off.
What a nice ride year it was and now my attention will be turned to the beach.
We will have rain, I don't melt and it will be warmer. Spring will come and I will again ride where the sun shines.

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hardy souls, October 22nd, 2011...


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This past weekend was the Ed Barton Memorial Hardy Souls campout in Seneca. Trouble is my bike has been in the shop since last week having some issues fixed. The bike was to be ready on Wednesday, didn't make it. Thursday it was mid morning before the shop called to say I could pick it up and it was early afternoon by the time I got there. My thought was to head east and leave from Bend, didn't make that until after five in the evening. Not a lot of time before dark.

I telephoned ahead to get a room but was told they were full, guess an alternate plan was in order. I decided to head east anyway arriving in Silver Lake along with the darkness. The motel was empty! Not a light or a car in the drive, guess she didn't want to be bothered to rent a room? I pulled around the block and pitched my tent in the city park, very nice! Lush green grass and a table, the bathroom was behind the fire station. What more could I want?

Waking about five in the morning that cloud cover I thought might hold in some of the earths heat had dissipated. The sky was filled with stars, it was going to be a nice day. I packed my gear and rode into the inky blackness, daylight was but a premonition on the horizon. The temperature gauge read a scant twenty five degrees, nippy it was, in any case I was dressed for it. In the hustle of yesterday I didn't have lunch and then getting over the mountains and on the road there hadn't been time for dinner, this morning breakfast was in order but would be some hundred miles in the distance.

By the time I arrived in Lakeview the heat situation had barely made the mid thirty's. After breakfast I decided to look for a hot spring that I had not been able to find on other rides, today I was a bit more motivated. This time I had a GPS, the coordinates and an eye witness description of how to find it. The GPS wanted to lead me in a different direction, wasn't doing that. I have seen most of the landmarks on other rides so knew about where I should be. EUREKA! I found it. Just hadn't gone far enough before.

Eureka, found it!...

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This is an eclectic collection of bathing containers. There is no cold water so hope the previous bather left the tub with some water that has cooled off. YES! they did. In no time I have filled a tub with hot water and was soaking. How nice is this? The air temperature was picking up, mid fifty's by now, soon I was pink again. There wasn't any one else around so spent all the time I wanted before riding off. On the way out I decided to follow the GPS which lead me on a different road. Most likely the one it had tried to bring me in on. This was a two track lane barely suitable for cows, in places paved with thousands of football sized rocks, rough it was. I had gone about ten miles before coming to the "cliff". Wasn't going drown there! Steep, rocky and very rough. At the top of the hill was a large hole in the middle of the road with a half buried water pipe. Pipe from where? Turned around I did! So much for the GPS... How does it know this road is even here? Something tells me there is way too much information available.

warm and pink in no time...

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stopped by this farm on the way out...

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Bubba has been here, shot up his car...

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an acquired taste, Daugherty Slide, hard to believe this is in Oregon...

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I meandered around the rest of the day, seventy degrees for a high, then stopped for gas and dinner. There are several springs around and I picked this one to camp at, no one here but me, I soaked until after dark. In the morning I waited until seeing the faint light of the new day before going for a soak. The hot water created rising steam in the crisp morning air, had to break the ice in my water bottle to brush my teeth. Once the sun came up it was going to be another nice day.


steam rises from the water in the crisp morning air...

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a favorite place in the desert...

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Breakfast was the first order, mid twenties as I rode out. The sky was blue and there was only light wispy clouds, it would warm up soon. After something to eat I decided to head south, once you get past the idea that this road is straight it is an interesting ride. The mountains are rugged, there are no trees and no traffic and by now it is fifty six degrees on it's way again to seventy and there is time to look around. WAY nice! Today I would ride across the Santa Rosa Range, a place I had not been before so don't know what to expect. There was other places I had planned to go but the missing day precluded those. My thought was to ride across, out the other side and have time to make the campout in Seneca.

Pleasant Valley, Nevada...

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Santa Rosa Range, absolutely stunning!...

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These photos do not do the scene justice, it was WAY more fabulous than what they depict. The rocks, trees and turning leaves were just stunning. This road climbs over the mountains reaching about eight thousand feet in elevation, I had always thought all of Nevada was flat, so much for what I know.

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Reaching the other side I realized it had taken more time than I thought. Making the Hardy Souls campout in the light wasn't going to be possible. Stopping for gas I also bought a couple of apples and a sandwich, I am a long way from nowhere and this is all there will be to eat. I pick a hot spring for the evenings camp. When I arrive there is a lone cowboy sitting in the spring and a couple in a camp trailer. I set up my tent and then soak in the water. Later I eat what there is for dinner and as darkness falls soak in the spring, the cowboy is gone and the other couple retired to their trailer house. I have it to myself.

I barely get to sleep when a motor home drives up with what turns out to be the definition of American white trash, two families. The parents get out and build a Hugh fire, it's fire season dumb ass. There are about six kids who have been fed sugar the whole ride here. They get out of the vehicle and proceed to wine, snivel, fight, bicker and tear up whatever they can find. What they can't tear up or eat they crap on... The parents do nothing to stem the noise, rude they are. At some point the guy in the trailer house comes over and has a talk with them, the noise slows down but doesn't stop for at least another hour. They eventually go to bead leaving the fire burning. I don't get the best nights sleep.

There is not yet signs of a new day and I am up packing my camp. I have this figured out, pack my bike then go for a soak in the spring. This is an easy camp to ride out of in the dark. I am near the Nevada, Idaho border and need to cross all of Oregon to get home, an early start is necessary. It is thirty five degrees as I ride the dirt road out of camp, left turn and twenty five miles of rock before pavement. Once on the rock it plummets to twenty six degrees and then hovers in the mid twenty's all the way to breakfast some eighty miles away. After breakfast it has warmed to a respectable mid fifty's. I am not fond of the Burns to Bend run but in this part of the state it is the fastest way to get home.

sunset at the spring...

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a stop from times past...

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The day's start was cold but warmed up to seventy degrees by mid afternoon, how nice is that? I came prepared for the temperatures and was not cold either riding or over night. Next fall I will have to explorer more of Nevada, it does have something to offer. Wasn't all that impressed with the GPS, it steered me in directions I knew weren't right. I ride these areas often and may not know the exact location but am good at finding it, electronics or not.


While I didn't make it to the campout the turning Aspens made me think of Ed. He would have enjoyed
the mountains, the ride and the many photography situations.

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thanks for riding along, I'd like to think I am a hardy soul...

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Great story. I enjoyed coming along with you on your ride. Beautiful country! I ride in central and eastern Oregon just about every year and find it beautiful and full of new surpises each time. Do you have a map of your route?

Thanks for sharing.
 
Bruce, your rr's are always well done. Great stuff.
Now about those pigs . . . . . :stick
 
DickNCa, the best I have for a map is my spot tracker. It is a way for my wife to know where to look for the body. You can follow by clicking here
 
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