Motocaching Northeast Oregon - 1

As Kathy mentioned in the previous blog, Clint and I departed Friday morning on a motocaching trip on the great back roads of northeast Oregon.  I’ve traveled by motorcycle to every county in the west and in my opinion there is no better concentration of fantastic motorcycle roads than those in this region.  We took a 750 mile figure 8 route going as far west as Spray.

We rode Highway 12 to Waitsburg stopping just once west of Dayton to pick up a cache at the house of a geocaching acquaintance of mine.  It was an old computer attached to a telephone pole and when you opened the computer case there was an ammo box inside. We proceeded past Waitsburg a little ways and turned south on the Lower Waitsburg road which took us to Walla Walla.  I had never been on this road.  There were a lot of caches on this road called a “Power Trail” but we only stopped for one and didn’t find it.

Hilgard Junction Park

We continued south into Oregon and turned back east at Weston on Highway 204 picking up a couple of caches before Elgin.  We turned south on Highway 82 at Elgin and stopped for a quick cache just outside of town.  This particular stretch of road to La Grande will be traversed in the opposite direction on the way back.  At La Grande we took a short stretch of Interstate 84 over to the Hilgard Junction State Park.  We got a cache at this beautiful little part and ate our lunch there.

Starkey View Cache on Hwy 244

After lunch we took beautiful Highway 244 southwest to Ukiah picking up three caches along the way.  We stopped in Ukiah to get gas.  At the junction just out of Ukiah we turned north on US 395 picking up one cache (The Whittaker Flats Speedway) before the intersection with Highway 74.  The first half of this stretch was beautiful twisty riding in the forest.  The second part was flat, open and straight, hence the name of the cache we got.

We turned west on Hwy 74 which took us to Hepner.  It was also a fun riding road.  We picked up one cache before turning south on Hwy 207 at Hepner.  This was another really twisty fun road where we just stopped once for a cache.  It was at an Off Highway Vehicle park and required a half mile hike.  It was a good leg stretcher.  Hwy 207 intersects the John Day Highway and we turned west for the short ride to Spray.

River Bend Motel

Spray is a nice little town of 150 population.  We stayed at the River Bend Motel which was old and western style but very nice.  According to internet information there were two places to eat in Spray.  However, one closed at 5:00 and the other was 13 miles farther down the road although its address is Spray.  We made the ride and had delicious mushroom burgers.  After returning we toured the town which has a couple of nice parks if you can believe that.  However, one was owned by the State and was a camping place on the river.  I like staying in these little towns and this one did not disappoint. (to be continued) M/W