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| The Beginning of the Exodus |
The OGRES Motorcycle Club 2024 Fall "Orofino" Run began at the appointed place and time. Members present: Slick, Bomber, Rowdy, Gundy, Grim, and Smooth. Guests: Joy and Lee. Members absent: G-Man and Duke.Due to Highway 21 being closed by wild/forest fires, a different route was adopted to make our way to Salmon. The plan was to go:
Boise-Mountain Home- Fairfield-Carey-Arco-Howe-Leadore-Tendoy-Salmon.
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| The Start |
So we left our rendezvous spot and headed towards Mountain Home completely unaware of the "adventure" that awaited us. The freeway ride to Mountain Home was fairly uneventful as soon as we cleared the post Boise chaos.
We made a quick stop in Mountain Home and then continued towards Fairfield. The traffic was light and the ride was smooth and peaceful. We rolled through Fairfield and traveled onward until we stopped at Timmerman Hill for a break. It is always a nice stop at the Hill.
Soon, we climbed back aboard and headed on through Picabo, Carey and the Craters of the Moon. The ride was mostly traffic free and very nice even though we had some cross winds that surprised us from time to time.
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| Pickles Fine Dining |
We were able to stop in Arco for fuel and then to Pickles for lunch. It had been a long time since we sojourned at this fun cafe.
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| OGRES crew |
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| No butts about it |
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| Pickles |
We were lucky to have a great, fun guy as our server and we enjoyed a very nice meal. After the obligatory rocking chair pictures, we climbed back on our bikes and headed down the road towards Howe.
Having never gone this way, Grim followed the map he had printed. We turned left on Highway 33 and rode into Howe. Grim took a right but was unsure if it was the correct turn. A short reconnoiter was held and we u-turned and went down "Highway" 22 instead. The roadway first was paved but then turned to chip and seal and then to gravel. We continued down the gravel for a couple of miles until Grim became alarmed and stopped.
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| Middle of No Where Just Clear of the Gravel |
We were discussing our options, when a pickup rolled up pulling a trailer. We stopped the vehicle with our waves and inquired about the route. The guys in the truck were very nice and friendly and seemed familiar with the area. The choices were to turned around and go the way we first turned or keep going as the gravel would eventually turn back into pavement and take us to the Challis-Salmon highway.
We decided to keep on going in the same direction. As we traveled down the gravel road, and we moved forward around 25-45 miles per hour, the gravel seemed to stretch onward forever. At one point, four elk ran across the road right in front of us, while two antelope were running parallel to us on the right, held to their course by a barb wire fence.
Grim could see the fence would shortly intersect with the road so the echelon slowed down even more to allow the antelope to cross pell mell in front of us.
We continued on until eventually our tires found pavement again. The road did in fact T into the main highway and we turned north.
We made a short stop at the Dusty Mule as we had not had a bio break for a long time. Grim has wanted to stop there in the past but had not due to its close proximity to Salmon. We met some real characters there but pushed on in a timely manner.
We arrived in Salmon, gassed up, and headed for the hotel. We were glad to have reservations as the hotel was completely full due to the Wapiti fire.
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| Shady Nook |
After cleaning up, we headed to the Shady Nook for dinner. After a nice meal and great company, we retired to our rooms for a restful nights sleep (for some).
The next morning, after a logistics/safety briefing, we headed up the road towards Darby. It is hard to beat this stretch of road, between Salmon and Darby, due to the great curves, vistas and general fantastic riding conditions.
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| Darby, Montana |
We rolled up to our usually parking area and enjoyed the shops and the break. Gundy and Grim checked out the local restaurants and motels to investigate whether to move our overnight stay from Salmon to Darby. The jury is still out.
Next we headed up the Hamilton-Lolo corridor. The temperature was cool and the traffic was light. It was a pleasant leg of the ride.
Emergency personnel came by and headed up the road while we were getting gas at the Lolo junction. It was noted that is was deja vu from an earlier trip. But as we headed up toward Lolo pass, we passed the scene and couldn't tell what the deal was. It was a great ride up the mountains towards Lolo pass although we crossed up with another group of riders just as we crossed the apex. We were able to avoid a gang wreck and headed on down to Lochsa Lodge for our usual lunch break.
The server was a little miffed, at first, by our group but warmed up as our visit transpired. Everyone seemed to have a nice lunch and we soon pressed on.
The ride down the Idaho side was as nice as the ride up the Montana side. We did encounter a very light shower of rain but it was short lived. The roadway was wet and it appeared we had just missed a downpour. This condition did not hamper our travel and we had a great time on the twisty roads.
Our next stop was in at the Three Rivers motel and cafe. Ice cream, water and other treats were enjoyed along with a bio break.
We rode on down the highway until we passed by Kooskia and found our way into Kamiah. 22 miles to Orofino was shown on the highway sign. About ten miles in, we encountered some kind of lumber on the road. Grim came upon it so fast he was lucky to just nudge the log/branch but Rowdy and Bomber had more direct hits. No one went down, however, and another gang wreck was avoided.
We narrowly missed the storm as the wind was rising and the rain was falling as we approached Orofino and rolled in to park at the hotel.
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| Orofino, Idaho |
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| Aerial View |
Shortly, we rolled into Orofino to find shelter for the night. The rain really started to come down after we had unloaded our bikes and had gotten indoors. We checked into the hotel and the adventurous hit the pool and the hot tub. Adventurous because we had avoided the competing motorcycle clubs and car shows but it appeared we had invaded a family reunion. There were about 25 kids in the pool and they all had a clear family resemblance. Luckily, one mother was high in emotional intelligence and shooed the kids out of the hot tub so we could have access to it. Very nice of her.
Finally, we were summoned from the pool, by our guests, and we went to change for dinner.
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| Dining at the Edge |
We actually ended up with a much nicer seating area than usual and our server was awesome. Everyone ordered and a nice meal was had after a comparatively short wait. Angel food cake topped off the meal in a fine way. Rowdy almost ordered a shrimp melt, in memory of G-Man, but decided on getting some real food.
We trundled off to bed after dinner as the hotel lobby had been overrun by the family reunion. Grim was disappointed some socializing was not enjoyed post meal.
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| Motley Crew |
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| Bottles Galore |
Morning found us down in the lobby for breakfast and other preparations for departure. The staff had left us bottles of water by our bikes as is their custom. What a great hotel. We had our customary balcony photograph taken and we climbed aboard our bikes and headed back to Kamiah to get on Route 162.
After fueling, we headed out on 162, up the grades, and out onto the rolling plains. This is a great ride and it did not disappoint.
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| Grangeville, Idaho |
We stopped in Grangeville for a short break before heading down to Whitebird Hill. It was a nice ride and we braced for a temperature increase at the bottom of the Hill that we had experienced on past trips. To our delight, the temperature barely changed and we continued to enjoy cool weather.
Near Riggins we came upon G-Man who had ridden north from Boise to meet up with him. He was appearing to film us as we crossed a bridge but he was probably using his fake action camera. The myth is that the camera is fake because no one has seen any film footage from it.
We went through a little rain but it was mostly smooth sailing down to New Meadows where we stopped for lunch.
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| New Meadows, Idaho |
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| Interesting Graffitti |
The barbecue place was pretty busy but we found a large square table that fit everyone in. It's a great place to eat and some of us ran into old friends and family.
We ran into a little construction delay just north of McCall but were sent on our way in a timely manner. Grim had thought about taking a route around McCall but decided we had tried enough routes that were unfamiliar and he hadn't been through McCall for a few years.
We cruised on south through Donnelly and stopped at the Chevron in Cascade for one last potty break and also to give anyone opportunity to put on rain gear as the sky had been threatening for a bit.
As we proceeded the clouds did unleash some drops upon us. It continued to rain as we proceeded down the road, unabated, until we reached Horseshoe Bend where it stopped. It did not quite reach the threshold of forcing us to stop for more rain gear. Unfortunately, the temperature increased as the rain decreased.
Ultimately, we arrived in Eagle at the Chevron Station where we had one final photo opp and we said our goodbyes.
'Nuff said.
Words by Grim
Photos by RipCity
