Oregon Back Country

[ErichT]

I'm planning a month long motorcycle trip through Oregon's back country. The goal is to avoid Freeways as much as possible and visit some of the best roads in the state. As a long time Oregon resident I've already been to the major tourist places like Multnomah Falls and Crater Lake.

Starting Destination is Portland.
1 - Cross the river and take highway 14 along the Washington side to where it meets I-82 just north of Umatilla.
2 - Cross the river again and take 730 to 37 to 334 and cross north of the Umatilla Reservation along 204 to Elgin.
3 - Go out to Enterprise and Joseph
4 - Head North to Troy Oregon to see the hometown of John Fogerty
5 - Keep heading north along 129 up to Clarkston Washington. That's supposedly a great motorcycle road.
6 - Cross the Snake river and use 95 through Idaho until I can connect with 71 back into Oregon.
7 - From there make my way to Baker and visit the dozen or so ghost towns in the area. Bourne, Sumpter, Granite, Whitney, etc.

And at this point I'm lost. Should I head south down into the Steens Mountains, or keep on until Bend and circle back into South Eastern Oregon? I'm thinking it might make sense to loop back to 95, go down into Nevada and cut across on 49 to California. Either way I want to head back up the Oregon Coast.

[AZBuck]

Welcome aboard the RoadTrip America Forums!

We really can't make such basic decisions about your RoadTrip as where to go and how t spend your time. That is entirely up to you. What we can do is tell you that you have time for either of your options and perhaps, by pointing out some benefits/drawbacks of the possible routes, help you make up your mind.

Personally, I would not opt for continuing down US-95 and then across CA-49 to the coast. First of all, that is a lot of driving/riding, even spread out over a few weeks. Then there is the fact that US-95 is duplexed with I-80 through much of northwestern Nevada, with no real alternatives between Winnemucca and Miriam. That is counter to your expressed purpose for this trip. On the plus side for this route is that it gets you to some historic (Virginia City) and scenic (Lake Tahoe) areas and even puts Yosemite within reach.

The alternative is to head for the coast a bit sooner, spend less time on the road (particularly Interstates) and maybe see a bit more of Oregon. OR-7/US-26/US-395/OR-140 would be a relatively interesting route that would get you to southwest Oregon (and northwest California) with a lot less riding than the US-95/CA-49 option, and leave you a good bit more time to explore the coast than you might otherwise have.

But then again, you might take great joy in the riding. As I say, the above represent my thoughts, and to be honest my experience on bikes was limited and not pleasant. But hopefully just getting a different perspective can help you make the final de3cision that only you can make.

AZBuck

[ErichT]

Thanks for the idea. I didn't think of heading down to Winnemucca. That's a pretty fun drive and could loop me back up into Oregon through Lakeview and Klamath Falls.

I'll probably end up camping for several days at a time. That's only looking to be about 1500 miles total which I can do in a three days easily, or two long days.