Gregor Halenda had been running scouting rides through Eastern Oregon and was teasing us with the imagery from each one. Roads that tripped over themselves with switchbacks, forest trails littered with downed trees, a river crossing and mountain passes still capped with snow — truly the perfect mix of tame and wild. It was his final shot, though, that had me — a close-up of a once-knobby rear tire, worn to borderline slick-like conditions. This trip, which Halenda was guiding Bryan Campbell and myself on, wasn’t going to be a leisurely two-wheeled cruise between points of interest. This would be a week of hard riding.
Rolling out of our hotel early on Memorial Day Monday, it took less than 30 miles for my mild hangover to fade and the fun to begin. The four-lane blacktop of Portlandia’s urban sprawl quickly morphed into empty stretches of winding, tree-lined B-roads. As we breached the city limits, the front tire of Gregor’s custom-built all-wheel-drive KTM went skyward before dropping like a green flag. With over 250 miles on today’s docket, we lit the wicks and woke the woods, burning off the slipperiest layers of fresh, dual-sport rubber, sussing out eachother’s riding style and getting to know our bikes for the week.
Gregor’s AWD machine dug in and devoured the dirt, roosting the rest of us right off the hop.
Our first foray into dirt would take place after lunch, just outside of Sisters, OR. Route 4 of the Oregon Backcountry Discovery Route (ORBDR) links the quaint tourist destination of Sisters to the eastern town of Seneca. We wouldn’t be tackling its entirety, but a solid 70 miles lie ahead and we were all itching for a chance get slideways. The ORBDR is the longest trail system winding through Oregon. With some 1,500 miles connecting Washington to California and the Pacific coast to Idaho, there is limitless potential for off-piste adventure throughout its five interconnected routes. Our itinerary only took us through portions of Routes 4 and 5 in Oregon’s Northeast quadrant, but their scenic backdrops and challenging terrain provided more than enough reason to start planning a trip back to the Pacific Northwest. Gregor’s AWD machine dug in and devoured the dirt, roosting the rest of us right off the hop. We each followed suit, spooling up a less impressive one-wheeled rock-slinger of our own, and quickly shot through the Willamette National Forest towards Mitchell and the Painted Hills.
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I was the first rider to go down. Water hazards seem to be my Achilles’ heel (on bikes and golf courses alike). Despite crossing dozens without incident, they toy with my psyche every single time. I tense up when I should be riding loose. I know it stems from my first off-road ride. Hammering through a trials-like course in Northern Ontario, on a Yamaha WR250 dirt bike, I was launched and somersaulted over the bars and onto my ass when my front wheel slipped mid-puddle. The bike careened into a tree. I rode away from the incident mud caked and grinning, but I’m old enough now to know it scarred me nonetheless. The dirt lining the bottom of Route 4’s pools was as fine as chocolate icing when dry, and oil slick when wet. I came into the water a touch too hot, and inches from Bryan. When I attempted to scrub speed and got off the throttle, it convulsed the bike forward, pitching it into a slide that was just beyond my abilities to retrieve. My white V-Strom and I, clad in an equally bright Rev’It suit, were both baptized in the bog and I had some more real-world crash testing under my belt. At least I’d gotten it out the way early.
The riding and camaraderie only got better from there. After camping for the night outside of the Painted Hills, our group made tracks for John Day and Prairie City. Most of this day would be on road and less grueling, but that didn’t make it a sacrifice. The winding tarmac with quick dips in and out of dirt proved the perfect pathway to explore the green tapestry woven between the Ochoco Forest, John Day Fossil Beds and Mount Vernon. This was unreal, unbounded exploration — and the best was yet to come.
