Many of you are very aware of the DamTour website which this year lists eight "regular" dams in Washington State, eight "regular" dams in Oregon, plus there is a bonus dam in Montana, a "bonus lake" in Idaho with five "dams" on it, one dam way the heck down in Nevada, and one dam in California this year.
I am #1071 and got a late start this year. Many of the more accomplished riders in this forum are done/almost done. In May I photographed North dam (at the top of Banks Lake), O'Sullivan, and Roza. Two weeks ago I went to Western Washington and photographed Swift dam just upstream of Cougar, Wynoochee north of Montesano way the heck up into the Olympic National Park, Dugualla which is near Whidbey Naval Air Station, and then Upper Baker dam just north of Concrete.
So I wanted to get the eight Oregon dams done before the real hot weather and family commitments, and so hence the ride report + random thoughts. As a note, just as true with kids it will be true with motorcycle rides, I NEVER take enough pictures.
So I took off on Friday, June 24th from West Richland at 5:00am. You will see that I rode slow by the times I have posted.
1) Willow Creek Dam in Heppner Oregon at 7:00am
Heppner is interesting to me in that the large sawmill(?) just south of town all shuttered up is very sad. I took this picture from a different angle than the other's riders. I went up the hill to Masonic cemetery and took a landscape photo of the dam. This dam is interesting in that there is mossy "stuff" on the face of the dam (take a look at Matt Watkins photos and that shows up very good). I always worried about Heppner if this dam ever broke through!
2) Ochoco Dam just east of Prineville Oregon at about 10:00am
I have never been on 207 south of Heppner. Wow what a lot of turns! On the real tight right hand turns going south towards Spray there was lots of gravel in the turns from trailers (assuming horse trailers or travel trailers). Kind of slowed my fun a bit, but then again I ride slow. If you go south of Heppner be careful going south and downhill!!
3) North Diversion Unit in the center of Bend Oregon at about 12:30pm
What can you say. Right in the center of town.
4) Gerber Dam near Bonanza Oregon at about 5:00pm
Highway 97 south of Bend has to be one of my least favorite roads. Crowded, the sides of the road get churned up the trucks "wash" so it is dusty and there are lots of these darned dust devil phenomena. Plus the road is 55mph, just sucks. And past LaPine I was following at times a 90 mph Toyota 4-runner. Shame on me because near Chemult going down a hill with some other cars at about 70 mph we passed a Klamath County sheriff car. He followed us for awhile and then passed a bunch of us with his lower lights on!!! Learned my lesson and for the rest of the trip, the speed limit was it. From Chemult to north of Upper Klamath Lake I saw 13 enforcement cars. At one point there was one officer with a radar gun and four cars lined behind him ready to pull in the speeders.
So on the positive from Klamath Falls I took Oregon 140, then North Poe Valley Road, then Harpold Road, Oregon 70E, then East Langell Valley Road. Beautiful drive with lost of working family small farms. Kind of like the area I spent my summers as a child east of Billings. Absolutely want to go back and take some pictures!!!!
Saturday June 25th
5) Selmac Dam at approximately 9:00am
This was a great ride going from Klamath Falls to Medford starting at 6:00am. Klamath Falls was having a car show on the 24th and 25th like Cool Desert Nights here in Tri-Cities. So the motel was packed with beautiful cars (yeah I didn't take pictures!!!!!) and the motel lobby breakfast room was packed at 6:00am with folks relaxing but it seemed they were all moving very slow. Didn't they know I needed to get going and take pictures of dams!
Selmac dam is south of Grant's Pass on 199 near Selma. Just before Selma I passed this guy on something like an old Yamaha 350 waving like someone I have never see wave on a motorcycle before. So what to think? Was there a deer on the road? Law enforcement ahead (yes I was strictly following the speed limit the rest of the ride)? Some kind of road blockage? I guess he was just being really friendly, was something I have never encountered a motorcycle riding waving like their life depended on it.
From Selma Oregon you turn on Lakeshore Drive and a couple miles up the road there is the little dam. I took a picture of the diversion coming out of the dam since there were lots of anglers up on the top of the dam that day. I unfortunately stopped in what I thought was a little used 20 mph road. The only car to come by was a red Taurus with a young lady and her two kids. She then used every expletive and hand gesture to let me know what she thought of taking a picture in the road. I made a mistake doing this picture in the road even though I made no impact on a little used piece of asphalt, but I really felt bad for her kids in the car. I feel bad for her kids being exposed to that kind of anger expression!
6) Whistlers Bend around 11:00am
Kudos to the dam tour organizers who came up with this one. It is off of Oregon 138 near Whistlers Park. I think this "dam" must be a privately owned dam. The surrounding area though looks like Central California rolling hills in the Salinas Valley region.
7) Fall Creek dam around 3:00pm
This one is near Lowell and was kind of hard to find when my GPS went kaput! Google maps was spot on the rest of the trip but failed me here. There are two dams right next to Oregon 138, and one called Lookout Point reservoir is a large dam. Little did I know there would be two covered bridges that I would see on the look to Fall Creek dam.
But I went into Lowell and got directions by a second covered bridge (yes not picture of the 2nd)! And got the picture of the Fall Creek dam from the downstream side.
8) And last, but not least! Silverton dam around 4:30pm
Silverton dam is owned by the city of Silverton which appears to be a bedroom community to Salem. But riding Oregon 213 and 214 was beautiful with small family farms and easy relaxed riding. Also at the Silverton dam there was a little lake with a nice city park and lots of kids having fun and laughing and having a ball.
Summary
Sorry for the long winded message here and hopefully I have the pictures posted correctly. It was a real confidence builder for me to do this ride and know I can easily go about 500 miles each for two days (I spent the night in Portland after Silverton dam and returned on June 26th). The ride from Klamath Falls to Gerber dam was just outstanding!
The only bummer is that four of the dams require you almost to slab it up I-5 (which was still better than highway 97 south of Bend) it was that at every rest stop there were people begging for money. You run in and have to go the bathroom and here are people begging for money to get to Washington State, Mom is permanently disabled, etc. I have my doubts that their needs are real, but who am I to judge. What stinks though are that they have their kids there with them (I don't know if that is to present a more compelling need) but what a bummer for kid to be stuck next to a bathroom sitting in the sun. Kids should be out playing and making forts, and doing stuff in the their summer vacations. Please pray for the well being of those kids as they grow up.
15 dams done one "regular" dam (Sullivan by Metaline Falls) left to ride to and potentially four "bonus" dams.
Thanks for reading my "ride" story!
WRichStrom
I am #1071 and got a late start this year. Many of the more accomplished riders in this forum are done/almost done. In May I photographed North dam (at the top of Banks Lake), O'Sullivan, and Roza. Two weeks ago I went to Western Washington and photographed Swift dam just upstream of Cougar, Wynoochee north of Montesano way the heck up into the Olympic National Park, Dugualla which is near Whidbey Naval Air Station, and then Upper Baker dam just north of Concrete.
So I wanted to get the eight Oregon dams done before the real hot weather and family commitments, and so hence the ride report + random thoughts. As a note, just as true with kids it will be true with motorcycle rides, I NEVER take enough pictures.
So I took off on Friday, June 24th from West Richland at 5:00am. You will see that I rode slow by the times I have posted.
1) Willow Creek Dam in Heppner Oregon at 7:00am
Heppner is interesting to me in that the large sawmill(?) just south of town all shuttered up is very sad. I took this picture from a different angle than the other's riders. I went up the hill to Masonic cemetery and took a landscape photo of the dam. This dam is interesting in that there is mossy "stuff" on the face of the dam (take a look at Matt Watkins photos and that shows up very good). I always worried about Heppner if this dam ever broke through!
2) Ochoco Dam just east of Prineville Oregon at about 10:00am
I have never been on 207 south of Heppner. Wow what a lot of turns! On the real tight right hand turns going south towards Spray there was lots of gravel in the turns from trailers (assuming horse trailers or travel trailers). Kind of slowed my fun a bit, but then again I ride slow. If you go south of Heppner be careful going south and downhill!!
3) North Diversion Unit in the center of Bend Oregon at about 12:30pm
What can you say. Right in the center of town.
4) Gerber Dam near Bonanza Oregon at about 5:00pm
Highway 97 south of Bend has to be one of my least favorite roads. Crowded, the sides of the road get churned up the trucks "wash" so it is dusty and there are lots of these darned dust devil phenomena. Plus the road is 55mph, just sucks. And past LaPine I was following at times a 90 mph Toyota 4-runner. Shame on me because near Chemult going down a hill with some other cars at about 70 mph we passed a Klamath County sheriff car. He followed us for awhile and then passed a bunch of us with his lower lights on!!! Learned my lesson and for the rest of the trip, the speed limit was it. From Chemult to north of Upper Klamath Lake I saw 13 enforcement cars. At one point there was one officer with a radar gun and four cars lined behind him ready to pull in the speeders.
So on the positive from Klamath Falls I took Oregon 140, then North Poe Valley Road, then Harpold Road, Oregon 70E, then East Langell Valley Road. Beautiful drive with lost of working family small farms. Kind of like the area I spent my summers as a child east of Billings. Absolutely want to go back and take some pictures!!!!
Saturday June 25th
5) Selmac Dam at approximately 9:00am
This was a great ride going from Klamath Falls to Medford starting at 6:00am. Klamath Falls was having a car show on the 24th and 25th like Cool Desert Nights here in Tri-Cities. So the motel was packed with beautiful cars (yeah I didn't take pictures!!!!!) and the motel lobby breakfast room was packed at 6:00am with folks relaxing but it seemed they were all moving very slow. Didn't they know I needed to get going and take pictures of dams!
Selmac dam is south of Grant's Pass on 199 near Selma. Just before Selma I passed this guy on something like an old Yamaha 350 waving like someone I have never see wave on a motorcycle before. So what to think? Was there a deer on the road? Law enforcement ahead (yes I was strictly following the speed limit the rest of the ride)? Some kind of road blockage? I guess he was just being really friendly, was something I have never encountered a motorcycle riding waving like their life depended on it.
From Selma Oregon you turn on Lakeshore Drive and a couple miles up the road there is the little dam. I took a picture of the diversion coming out of the dam since there were lots of anglers up on the top of the dam that day. I unfortunately stopped in what I thought was a little used 20 mph road. The only car to come by was a red Taurus with a young lady and her two kids. She then used every expletive and hand gesture to let me know what she thought of taking a picture in the road. I made a mistake doing this picture in the road even though I made no impact on a little used piece of asphalt, but I really felt bad for her kids in the car. I feel bad for her kids being exposed to that kind of anger expression!
6) Whistlers Bend around 11:00am
Kudos to the dam tour organizers who came up with this one. It is off of Oregon 138 near Whistlers Park. I think this "dam" must be a privately owned dam. The surrounding area though looks like Central California rolling hills in the Salinas Valley region.
7) Fall Creek dam around 3:00pm
This one is near Lowell and was kind of hard to find when my GPS went kaput! Google maps was spot on the rest of the trip but failed me here. There are two dams right next to Oregon 138, and one called Lookout Point reservoir is a large dam. Little did I know there would be two covered bridges that I would see on the look to Fall Creek dam.
But I went into Lowell and got directions by a second covered bridge (yes not picture of the 2nd)! And got the picture of the Fall Creek dam from the downstream side.
8) And last, but not least! Silverton dam around 4:30pm
Silverton dam is owned by the city of Silverton which appears to be a bedroom community to Salem. But riding Oregon 213 and 214 was beautiful with small family farms and easy relaxed riding. Also at the Silverton dam there was a little lake with a nice city park and lots of kids having fun and laughing and having a ball.
Summary
Sorry for the long winded message here and hopefully I have the pictures posted correctly. It was a real confidence builder for me to do this ride and know I can easily go about 500 miles each for two days (I spent the night in Portland after Silverton dam and returned on June 26th). The ride from Klamath Falls to Gerber dam was just outstanding!
The only bummer is that four of the dams require you almost to slab it up I-5 (which was still better than highway 97 south of Bend) it was that at every rest stop there were people begging for money. You run in and have to go the bathroom and here are people begging for money to get to Washington State, Mom is permanently disabled, etc. I have my doubts that their needs are real, but who am I to judge. What stinks though are that they have their kids there with them (I don't know if that is to present a more compelling need) but what a bummer for kid to be stuck next to a bathroom sitting in the sun. Kids should be out playing and making forts, and doing stuff in the their summer vacations. Please pray for the well being of those kids as they grow up.
15 dams done one "regular" dam (Sullivan by Metaline Falls) left to ride to and potentially four "bonus" dams.
Thanks for reading my "ride" story!
WRichStrom
