 |
| OGRES Motorcycle Club |
The 2025 OGRES Motorcycle Club "Hagerman" Summer Run began at the appointed place and time. Members present: Duke, G-Man, Bomber, Ace, Smooth, Grim, Gundy and RipCity. Members absent: Slick and Rowdy. Two guests were along for the Run.
Special thanks to VP RipCity for the great photographs taken during this Run. It is not an easy task.
 |
| Star Idaho |
We had a little breakfast in Star, Idaho before we headed out in the cool air towards Emmett. Traffic was light and the ride was a welcome change from the daily grind. We passed through Emmett, over through New Plymouth and skirted the edge of Payette.
 |
| Parma, Idaho |
We made a pit stop in Parma to pick up water, and such, while leaving some things behind. Shortly, we headed out of town and headed south past the beautiful horse ranch just past the overpass. We then rode through RipCity's old stomping grounds in Wilder and then through Homedale. As we approached Marsing, we ran into construction. We had to wait for a bit, where the construction folks had the road narrowed to one lane with a lead car.
After passing through the construction, we rolled through Marsing and turned south to take the south river road past Givens Hot Springs. This stretch of road is swoopy and windy making it much fun on a motorsickle.
We made a quick stop at Walter's Ferry for fuel and such before heading on through Murphy and Grandview.
 |
| Bruneau, Idaho |
 |
| Bruneau, Idaho |
We stopped in Bruneau for lunch as the day was starting to heat up. The trio of ladies, serving and cooking, did a great job and the food was very good given the venue and the clientele. It was a nice respite from the heat.
Shortly, we climbed back aboard our land sharks and continued down the road towards Hagerman. We rolled down to the Snake River and enjoyed a picture postcard view around each bend and over each hill. We rode through Hammett, Glenns Ferry and King Hill. As we passed through King Hill, a United Pacific freight train passed going in the opposite direction. The engineer gave us a toot on the air horn which was great fun. Grim loves trains so this was a real treat for him.
We cruised over the Interstate and into Bliss. We followed a semi truck with a trailer of watermelons down the old grade into the Malad Gorge. Thankfully, the truck soon turned off after slowing our descent. We rode on through the Malad Gorge until we reached the main highway which took us on into Hagerman to our overnight lodging at the Hagerman Valley Inn. We checked in and retreated to our rooms to recover from the high temperature.
We headed over to the Snake River Grill at the planned time and found a nice table ready for us in the big dining room. Cree was our server and he was very good and attended to our orders. Everyone seemed to have a nice meal although the sturgeon was a little overdone, so it was a bit rubbery, but the flavor was still excellent. Joy's trout was really great and several of us helped her finish it up.
Prior to the meal, Ace was officially toasted and welcomed into the OMC. He is a great addition to the usual suspects in the Club.
 |
| Scary |
After dinner, we retired to the lower patio of the Inn for some socializing. Many true stories were shared mixed amongst the "folklore" and jokes being passed around the group. It was a really nice time just hanging out and enjoyed the different personalities and life experiences of the motley crew. We all trundled off to bed, at some point, for a peaceful night of slumber.
Upon awakening, riders met for a safety/logistics briefing on the selfsame patio. It was a lovely morning and quite cool as we prepared for departure.
Presently, we headed off down the road back to Bliss and onward towards Gooding. This piece of road is very fun due the the rolling pitch of the highway.
 |
| Gooding, Idaho |
 |
| Gooding, Idaho |
 |
| Gooding, Idaho |
We stopped at the Western Cafe in Gooding, Idaho to grab some breakfast. The server was slow but meticulous but we were finally served. The breakfast was excellent and tided us over until we could finally pay our checks and vamoosed out of there.
We rode north out of Gooding towards the Fairfield highway. This stretch of road is very fun with very nice curves, climbs and descents. The "cities of rock" along the way are very spectacular and cool in way the rock formations appear in the morning light. Very, very cool.
We eventually turned east on the Fairfield highway and headed towards Timmerman Hill, the site of Grim's first shootout.
 |
| Timmerman Hill |
We stopped at the Timmerman Hill rest area to enjoy any and all varieties of "rest". At the completion of the rest, we headed out on our way headed north into the Bellevue-Ketchum corridor. It was slow going part of the way but pretty clear until we hit the construction just before entering Ketchum. Passage was not too bad but you really had to pay attention due to the congestion.
We made it through Ketchum unscathed and headed north towards Galena Summit.
 |
| Baker Creek |
We made a short stop at the intersection to Baker Creek. We briefly entertained the notion of visiting Grim's cabin that is just up Baker Creek Road about 1/4 of a mile. Unfortunately, Grim had not planned on this adventure and did not have a cabin key on him. Bummer.
We headed on up the road and passed over Galena Summit. We had a couple of slower vehicles in front of us during this leg but both drivers nicely pulled over to let us pass. There really are some nice people still out there.
We cruised on past Smiley Creek, Beaver Creek, Alturas Lake, Petit Lake and Redfish Lake. We presently made it into Stanley where we stopped for gas and lunch.
Sawtooth Luce's had room for us in the dining room and we had a very nice lady serving us. Lunch went fairly well except for one restaurant worker who was unusually loud and a little jolting. It was a good meal and a good time.
We departed and headed towards Banner Summit. It was very congested in Stanley but the traffic thinned quickly and our passage was mostly unhindered. We passed over Banner Summit and had to endure a very rough road from milepost 107 until around milepost 92. We managed to get through without incident.
We traveled down through the extremely fun, winding and picturesque road, except for the large patches of burnt timber from last year's big fire.
Just before arriving in Lowman, G-Man ended up with a bee in his bonnet. He had to pull over and several riders stopped briefly with him. As soon as it was determined it wasn't life threatening, all continued onward except for Smooth. Duke and Ace let Grim know what was happening as Grim had already slowed after making the turn to Garden Valley.
Grim decided to pass by a planned stop at Lowman due to the bridge construction and heat of the day.
Penultimately, the group was back together and we proceeded through the curves and banks along the river. There was not any traffic so the group could really enjoy the curves, swoops and scenery.
 |
| Garden Valley |
We fired up the bikes and continued towards Banks. Unfortunately we ended up behind a slow moving junky camper trailer and it was slow going to Banks. Thankfully, the vehicle turned north as we turned south at the newly installed traffic signal by Banks.
We cruised down the highway south mostly unimpeded as there was little or no traffic southbound. The same could not be said for the northbound bumper-to-bumper traffic.
Soon we passed through Horseshoe Bend and over the grade into the Treasure Valley. As we traveled lower, the temperature was contrarily rising.
 |
| OMC Members |
 |
| Guests |
Goodbyes and best wishes were exchanged at the Chevron station at Highway 55 and Beacon Light Road. It was a smooth, enjoyable trip with only one slight hiccup.
One more OMC Run in the books.
Words by Grim
Photos by RipCity
No comments:
Post a Comment