Day 7 - Ontario to Redmond (315 miles)
Made mince meat of I-84 back to Baker City. Situated on a lush plain and surrounded by mountains, Baker City is a nice little town of about 10,000. Lots of nice streets with stone buildings.
Main Street is full of old buildings and fun shops. It was 10 AM on a Monday. Most seemed to be closed.
The Geiser Grand Hotel opened in 1889 and closed in 1968. New investors took on the project to rehab it and it reopened in 1993. We tried to get pics of the inside, but were shooed away since we weren't guests.
Baker City is also the county seat of Baker County
OR 7 peels off to the SW and the road rises up to skirt the Blue Mountains on the south. A short detour to Sumpter brings a small, but quaint mining/cowboy town. Just pulled in on a whim. Nice whim.
One of the attractions is the Sumpter Valley Dredge State Heritage Area. Gold was discovered in 1862. The dredges came along in 1912 and operated until 1954. They were shallow draft, would float upriver and bring their own pond with them. The buckets would dig up the banks and sift out the gold and spew mine tailings out the back. Took a crew of 3 to operate the machinery, 17 more to do various other jobs. Electric motors ran off an extension cord 19 miles long. They said you could hear the racket this thing made from 20 miles away. I don't doubt it. The dredges ultimately cost more than they made, even after extracting 130,000 troy oz. - equivalent to over $200,000,000 at today's prices. This one was $100,000 in debt when they shut down the operation.
Sumpter Train Station
Back on the road, eventually Hwy 7 ties in to US 26 after meandering thru some marvelous hills, meadows and forests.
Bates State Park
Hwy 26 decends from the Umatilla National Forest and opens up to a broad valley looking across to the Strawberry Mountains
Had lunch in Prairie City, population 750.
The land drys out as you pass thru John Day and Dayville. There is another John Day Fossil Beds National Monument just west of Dayville. Not many fossils, but looks like plenty of hiking. Bring water.
A few miles further west will bring you past the Shoe Tree. Go figure.
Just west of Mitchell lie the Painted Hills. Well worth the drive in (about 6 miles). From a 2017 trip:
Pulled in to Redmond for the night and grabbed dinner with a friend in town. He and his wife plus his sister and brother-in-law recently acquired 2nd homes at Eagle Crest nearby. Really putting the screws to us to come join them. Seems like a relaxing location.
Day 8 - Redmond to Portland (190 miles)
Short visit in the morning to my friend's place at Eagle Crest and a quick tour of the development.
Who wouldn't like this out your front door?? Broken Top, South, Middle and North Sisters. Been on top of all, except North.
Back on HWY 22 and over the Santiam Pass again. Before long we enter the burn area where last year several devasting fires tore thru here and wiped out thousands of forest acres and several small towns. The fires raged for weeks and smoke filled the Willamette Valley - all the way to our house. Some of the fires even made it to the doorstep of the Portland Metro area. Couldn't go outside for days.
Timber crews have been hired to take down thousands of trees. Barely recognize the drive now.
One of the towns hardest hit was the small resort town of Detroit at the east end of Detroit Reservoir. They lost nearly 70% of their businesses along with many homes and cabins. Rebuilding has started, but there is not much left.
One of my favorite restaurants, Cedars, was wiped out.
Jeez - this turned into a bummer ending. Sorry about that. Should have done this section on the way to Redmond the first time and then back home along Hwy 20 on the South Santiam. Who knew?
Swing thru Salem to get the dog and then 50 miles back up I-5 and home again. Done - can't believe it was only seven days.
Another great road trip with my best travelling wife at my side as usual. I'm ready to go again, but her? Not so much. Yet. We'll talk.
All in all, we averaged 257 miles/day. Not a lot of things are open yet. Many of the main streets are virtual ghost towns and we heard many restaurant folks tell us they can't find workers. We usually spend money on museums, atractions, gardens, estates, clothes, chochkeys and gifts. This time: zero. Only money spent was for gas, hotels and food. Sightseeing was free. Good thing, because that is virtually all we did.
But, still, awesome trip. It's a great time of year to travel thru those parts because they just get hot, dry and brown in a few more months. And, the roads were empty for the most part. The LCI F90 M5C is pure joy to drive.
I now have over 30,000 miles in two F90's - a Base and a Comp. Have to give the nod to the Comp, but not by much. The suspension upgrades for the LCI did it for me. The harshness is gone and the overall ride now exceeds that of the base, even in Sport and Sport+. Additionally, the Comp looks better (headlights, black bits here and there), sounds better and is way faster. (OK, a tenth to 60 mph) To be able to drive a car that is quicker than most exotics were not too many years ago (along with having a decent suspension, a back seat and room in the trunk for suitcases, too) is awesome. What a great time to be alive if you are a car enthusiast.
Hope you enjoyed the tale. Thanks for following along this far.
Be safe, everyone. Keep yer nose between the ditches and the shiny side up.
Washed and ready to go again. Honey?...........you packed, yet?
