Preface and spoiler alert: Due to the great, cool weather and the daily mileages, this was one of the best OMC Runs ever. The riding was great and the participants had plenty of energy for fun stops, exploring on foot and general companionship.
The rendezvous to begin the 2025 OMC Spring Run soon became populated as OMC members and guests arrived. Members present: Gundy, Grim, Rowdy, G-Man, RipCity and Smooth. OMC members absent: Duke, Bomber and Slick. Two guests were also present.
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| Middleton, Idaho |
(Note for next year: Meetup will be at Garage Cafe at 8 a.m. with safety meeting at 8:45 and departure at 9 p.m.)
The weather was cool and pleasant. Participants were excited to ride in such temperate weather. We had a short but sweet logistics and safety briefing.
Shortly, we were off and down the road. We cruised through Notus, Parma and Nyssa.
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| Reconnoitering |
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| Vale, Oregon |
We stopped in Vale for a quick bio and snack break, but soon we were on our way toward Burns, Oregon. The road terrain was swoopy and undulating as we road through the desert and trees. We made one quick stop to stretch our legs in a chain-up area...only to find a rest stop and a cafe a short distance sooner. (Note for next year: Stop at one of those in the future.)
We rolled into Burns and searched around for a place to eat. Grim was still getting used to having GPS on his bike but we eventually found a little spot to eat.
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| Gundy and Joy |
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| "Fresh Start" in Burns, Oregon |
We started to head out of town but Grim was reminded that fuel was needed and we turned around to fill up.
We headed north and rode up through the winding forested hills and mountains until we passed through Canyon City and ended the day of riding in John Day. We checked into the hotel and took a short break.
We had time to check out Main Street and ended up in the same Dairy Queen we had frequented on a previous visit to John Day. We ate our ice cream and chatted about the faults and ancestry of the OMC
members who were not present.
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| The Outpost - John Day |
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| Historical Site |
At the appointed hour, we headed over to The Outpost for dinner. We were fortunate to get a fun server although she was pretty green. The meal seemed to be pretty good, for most, although Grim's steak was well done instead of rare. (His fault for ordering steak in such a large group.) There was a little of a brouhaha at the end of the meal when the girl confused all the checks and the change but it came out all right in the end.
The Dairy Queen was still open so we headed over for another round of ice cream. Too much is never enough. We then retired for the night as the pool was still out of order, just like last time we stayed.
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| John Day Best Western |
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| Grim's Logistics Briefing |
We woke up to a rainstorm but we had decided on a nine o'clock start. Thus the rain had subsided and the roadway was mostly dry. Our departure was delayed while a guest's rear tire inflation issue was somewhat resolved. Everyone gassed in the interim.
We headed out and passed through the forested landscape rolling through Prairie City. (Chevron station here.) It was cool and aromatic and very enjoyable on the motorcycles.
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| Austin House |
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| Four Berry Cobbler |
After some really nice riding, we came upon the intersection of the highway with the road to Sumpter. We stopped at the Austin House for four berry cobbler and ice cream. This is a lovely, tasty place that is run by third generation owners. (Note for next year: we will leave John Day by 7:15 a.m. and stop here for breakfast.)
We eschewed the road to Sumpter and headed down the same highway towards Unity. We stayed in the mountains for a while in the cool mountain air and no traffic at all. A few miles short of Unity, we turned left to allow us to go through Hereford and continue on the Dooley Mountain Highway. We had a Ford truck slowing us down for a while but it finally pulled off to allow us to pass. The twisties on the Dooley Mountain Highway were fun as ever taking us to the other side of the mountains and into Baker City.
We happened across G-Man at the Sinclair station in town. (Note for next year: Gas up here to make it less sketchy for making it to Joseph.)
After picking up the OMC stray, we continued down through Haines, North Powder, Union and Cove. We stopped for a quick, light lunch in Elgin. The food is always good at this cafe although we ended up with a new server (since May she exclaimed) and had to order twice so it took a while.
It must have been our turn to get all new servers thus far.
We managed to get on down the road and the temperature was a little warmer but still very doable. We went through Imbler and stopped for fuel in Enterprise.
Two pumps were broken and a caged idiot blocked the third of four pumps forever. What a jerk. He was having a dispute with the owner. (Note for next year: It is always a cluster in Enterprise getting fuel. In the future, we will gas in Joseph incrementally.) We finally got out of there with some waiting to get fuel later.
The group blew apart, at this point, but we all made our way successfully to Joseph, Oregon and the Indian Lodge Motel.
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| Joseph, Oregon |
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| Joseph Oregon |
We had made a previous reservation at the Stubborn Mule so we could get seating on the patio. Hence we were not able to go to the lake or shop around town. (Next year will put us into Joseph earlier to enable options.)
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| Stubborn Mule in Joseph, Oregon |
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| Gratuitous Photo of Ila, Our Server |
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| Campfire Meeting |
We were able to get a very nice patio table as the rain had abided. Ila was our server and she was a real riot with great rhymes and comebacks. We ordered and it turned out to be a great meal and good time.
Adjacent to our table was a fire pit and we took advantage of it for quite a while. It was a nice, cool evening. We finally reluctantly left the restaurant and headed to our rooms.
Gundy, Grim and the two guests stormed RipCity's room and managed to start up his fire pit. We hung out for a while longer talking traditional trash and saying mean things about the non-present OMC members who were not present.
RipCity finally said. "Goodbye, please" and we headed off to our beds.
The next morning we enjoyed a nice shady logistics and safety briefing after having breakfast at the Cheyenne Cafe. It was very cool and we looked forward to the fun roads over Hells Canyon. We fired up our bikes and headed out taking the twisties at a fun speed while watching out for potholes and four legged creatures. So nicely cool and greatly fun.
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| Hells Canyon Overlook |
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| Walking Stick Tryouts |
We stopped for our traditional sojourn at the Hells Canyon Overlook. It was very nice to be there when there was no fire smoke present and the weather was so temperate.
We headed on down the mountain and the road was a little more swoopy than twisty but very fun at higher speeds. We eventually ended up on the intersecting highway and soon were buzzing along the reservoir, crossing the dam and stopping for a quick break at the Gateway Cafe/Service stop. Some rascal wrote a mean thing about G-Man on the concrete. It would have been nice to catch the miscreant in the act. The flip side was that someone also wrote: "Grim is a Stud" on the concrete also. So it was a push, one guesses.
We travelled up through some fun and windy roads until we eventually ended up in Cambridge for a very quick gas stop for the 5 gallon tank folks.
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| MidVale, Oregon |
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| Goodbye Please Alternative |
We stopped in MidVale for a last meal together. We had a nice meal. Lucky it is hard to screw up a BLT, salad bar and soup. A perfect sign was also procured for RipCity to use in the future.
We were soon back on our bikes and headed towards
Weiser and Payette. We were very lucky to overtake a great railroad train and engine. The engineer gave us a great toot on the engine horn and it made our day. There was no traffic to hamper our passage and we quickly made the left turn in Payette to take the back road to Sand Hollow and Middleton. We had a couple of slow rolling cages in front of us until the Emmett intersection and then it was smooth sailing into Middleton to end where we started.
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| Gundy, Smooth, Grim, RipCity, Rowdy and G-Man |
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| Joy and LeAnnimal |
Overall, the 3 days were the greatest. The shorter distances allowed for more socializing and less of members dragging off to their rooms at the end of the day. The weather was also cool and added to the comfort and enjoyment. Most of all, there was very little drama and almost no traffic.
Next year this OMC Run will be even better as much was learned from this first try.
Words by Grim
Photos by RipCity and Smooth
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