Third Day – Oxbow to Owyhee and Silver Lake Ontario Or
What a beautiful Sunday! I’m at Oxbow Campground, right at the entrance to Hells Canyoun and it’s gorgeous. There’s a river running not 50’ from the tent, and the day holds much promise for some outstanding sights. First off is a 30 mile trip down the Snake River to the Hells Canyon Dam and the ride is just wonderful. I went early (before eight am is early for me) and didn’t break camp first, that way I could ride a little bit ‘sportier’. I must be hauling well over 100 pounds of equipment and the bike is not as nimble or fun with that junk on it. Besides, checkout time wasn’t until 11, so I had plenty of time. This is a road that you want to pay full attention while riding, there a3e some serious drop-offs, lack of guardrails, and the occasional rock on the road. Well worth the ride. And I can’t believe how small some of those boats/rafts were that they were launching almost right into the rapids.
Back to Oxbow to break camp, and then I headed into Idaho and another tine zone – Mountain Time. The first fifty miles were pretty good, and then I heard what sounded like I had loose cables of something – going ‘click, click, click’ so I pulled over to check it out, found nothing amiss and started up again. Five minutes later, same thing, only a little bit more dramatic. Pulled over again, and again aI found nothing amiss. Started up again and after five minutes it sounded like there was a loose marlble flying around in the crankcase. So what do you do? You’re out in the middle of nothing, the last town you passed has a population of 37. You know something has to be ahead, cause there is surely nothing behind me. So I played the which speed seems safest game. I believe that the rule if you are going slow you need to pull over and let people that want to go faster than you pass. When was the last time you saw that on a motorcycle? And I found that if I went about 35mph the marble bouncing around sounded close enough to someone playing the xylophone that I was unseemingly soothed…….
I nursed the bike to a Napa store (the first sign of anything remotely to do with transportation) and they laughed at me when I asked about a bike shop being nearby. But once they recovered, they directed me to a dealer 20 miles away – that also happened to have a Motel two blocks away.
So here I sit in the Budget Inn of Ontario Oregon. Certainly not as nice as the campground I stayed at last night, and four times as expensive. But I do have my own mini frig, soilded carpet, mismatched furniture, and it is convenient to Love’s Truck Stop and Edge Suzuki of Ontario. I’ve torn the bike apart to the section where the factory manual states “special tool required” – and I know what the problem is – the oil pump chain has way, way too much play. I’ll be first in line at the dealers tomorrow at 9am and can start working on Plan B then!
Best part of today – I made it to civilization. The little lady that runs the Inn didn’t scold me too much when she caught me mechanic-ing in her parking lot. I thought that I may possibly have been good advertising for the type of clientele that this dump probably attracts!
Challenge for the day - *&^%$&^ Suzuki!
Mileage 149, over 70 under duress, total mileage 1,036
Oh the What’s wrong Mister, is it to hot to ride today comment? That's what the desk clerk asked me when I checked in!
What a beautiful Sunday! I’m at Oxbow Campground, right at the entrance to Hells Canyoun and it’s gorgeous. There’s a river running not 50’ from the tent, and the day holds much promise for some outstanding sights. First off is a 30 mile trip down the Snake River to the Hells Canyon Dam and the ride is just wonderful. I went early (before eight am is early for me) and didn’t break camp first, that way I could ride a little bit ‘sportier’. I must be hauling well over 100 pounds of equipment and the bike is not as nimble or fun with that junk on it. Besides, checkout time wasn’t until 11, so I had plenty of time. This is a road that you want to pay full attention while riding, there a3e some serious drop-offs, lack of guardrails, and the occasional rock on the road. Well worth the ride. And I can’t believe how small some of those boats/rafts were that they were launching almost right into the rapids.
Back to Oxbow to break camp, and then I headed into Idaho and another tine zone – Mountain Time. The first fifty miles were pretty good, and then I heard what sounded like I had loose cables of something – going ‘click, click, click’ so I pulled over to check it out, found nothing amiss and started up again. Five minutes later, same thing, only a little bit more dramatic. Pulled over again, and again aI found nothing amiss. Started up again and after five minutes it sounded like there was a loose marlble flying around in the crankcase. So what do you do? You’re out in the middle of nothing, the last town you passed has a population of 37. You know something has to be ahead, cause there is surely nothing behind me. So I played the which speed seems safest game. I believe that the rule if you are going slow you need to pull over and let people that want to go faster than you pass. When was the last time you saw that on a motorcycle? And I found that if I went about 35mph the marble bouncing around sounded close enough to someone playing the xylophone that I was unseemingly soothed…….
I nursed the bike to a Napa store (the first sign of anything remotely to do with transportation) and they laughed at me when I asked about a bike shop being nearby. But once they recovered, they directed me to a dealer 20 miles away – that also happened to have a Motel two blocks away.
So here I sit in the Budget Inn of Ontario Oregon. Certainly not as nice as the campground I stayed at last night, and four times as expensive. But I do have my own mini frig, soilded carpet, mismatched furniture, and it is convenient to Love’s Truck Stop and Edge Suzuki of Ontario. I’ve torn the bike apart to the section where the factory manual states “special tool required” – and I know what the problem is – the oil pump chain has way, way too much play. I’ll be first in line at the dealers tomorrow at 9am and can start working on Plan B then!
Best part of today – I made it to civilization. The little lady that runs the Inn didn’t scold me too much when she caught me mechanic-ing in her parking lot. I thought that I may possibly have been good advertising for the type of clientele that this dump probably attracts!
Challenge for the day - *&^%$&^ Suzuki!
Mileage 149, over 70 under duress, total mileage 1,036
Oh the What’s wrong Mister, is it to hot to ride today comment? That's what the desk clerk asked me when I checked in!
1 comment:
"The Buddha, the Godhead, resides quite as comfortably in the circuits of a digital computer or the gears of a cycle transmission (or, I might add, in the oil pump chain) as he does at the top of the mountain, or in the petals of a flower."
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