Cascade Cobras Summer Cruise Day 2

[Don C]

First of all all of my disclaimers about video and photos still holds for this entry. IT WASN'T MY FAULT whatever goes wrong.
Day 2 took the Cruise from Pendleton to Elgin to Enterprise to Joseph to the north end of Hell's Canyon south through the canyon and then into Baker City. By freeway about 70 miles, by our routing about 275.
Coming out of Pendleton there was some damp pavement but no rain. We could see clouds off to the east but nothing organized yet so we pushed on.
Once we swung east we started a steady climb into the Wallawa foot hills and up into Elgin. Again we hit some damp pavement but no rain.


Once we got into the tops of the foot hills things flattened out as we passed though Elgin and continued on towards Enterprise.


Between Elgin and Enterprise we dropped into the upper portion of Hell's Canyon and followed it down a couple of thousand feet picking up the (I think) Miami River on the way down.

[Don C]

Once we flattened out coming into Enterprise we got a look at the mountains that would be with us for the rest of run through Hell's Canyon.




The weather at that point was starting to look a little iffy but we continued on through Enterprise and on towards Joseph. Just before we got to Joseph we started picking up a couple of really big drops on the windshield so we pulled a U turn and sprinted the five miles back to Enterprise. We pulled over as we were coming back into Enterprise and discussed what we wanted to do and everyone opted for finding a dry spot in Enterprise and having our lunch. As luck would have it we had pulled over next to a small local baseball field so we just parked, put the covers on the cars and took our lunches into one of the dugouts and picnicked there. Of course through this whole episode Dave is sitting all snug in the GT40 saying "Rain? What rain? I don't care about no steenking rain man."
Our local expetr (Butch) advised us that the rain would travel up the valley and wouldn't last more than about 30 minutes. Sure enough just about the time everyone finished eating the rain had pretty much passed us by and we uncovered the cars and hit the road again.
We passed through Joseph and picked up Forest Service Road #39 which would take us through the lower section of Hell's Canyon and down to Hwy 86 which would take us into Baker City.
We picked up a couple of small showers as we entered into the canyon but nothing serious and we started to see the mountains and their snow caps that would be with us for most of the run down the canyon.

[Don C]

As with most of our cruises about 70% of the scenery is off to the side so the photos don't truly do the scenery justice.
Through the canyon we seldom went in a straight line for more than a few hundred feet and every time we turned a corner there was more to see.

[Don C]

About 2/3 of the way down the canyon we pulled over at the Hell's Canyon Overlook to get a better view of what we were seeing glimpses of as we wound our way through.

[Don C]

After we left the overlook it was more of the same winding roads and scenery as we dropped down the rest of the canyon. As we neared the end of the canyon we started to pick up a more "Alpine" feel to the scenery which is typical of that area.




Once out of the canyon the verticals started to moderate some and we dropped into more agricultural/rural areas although we were still treated to some wiggles and cut-throughs by the highway.






As we were heading west towards Baker City the sky was starting to look pretty bad and I figured we were in for some liquid sunshine. About 28 miles out of Baker City I pulled us over and we had a short discussion on what we wanted to do. Everyone decided to go for it (with Dave still trying to figure out what all the excitement was about). I covered up the cameras as well as I could and off we went again.
The Cobra Gods were smiling on us and cleared the road ahead of any traffic going in our direction and we were able to hold 70+ as we ran into pretty heavy rain. At those speeds everyone stayed pretty well dry. Even in fairly heavy precip just about everything was blowing over the top of us. A couple of damp shoulders from the spray but nothing to write home about.
Once again our luck held and about 3 miles from Baker City the rain quit so when we had to slow down to travel through town it was already dry.
All in all a pretty good day.
DonC

[Don C]

The first video here covers the portion of the run from where we started heading east towards Elgin and Joseph and the upper portion of Hell's Canyon and the first little bit of the lower portion of the canyon. The second covers the remainder of the canyon down to Hwy 86 where we turned back towards Baker City.

[Thomas W]

Awesome pics Don. Some of those winding roads looked like nirvana to me. Cheers.
Thomas

[Butch B]

Don C.
Thanks for the great pics/vids. Sorry there was so much traffic on the roads we drove.(lol) What a enjoyable trip that was!!! Glad some folks got to see/drive in some new country. Wish more people could have gone on this cruise. Many more places/sights to see in Oregon. I also have some pics, if someone would be kind enough to post for me? Thanks again Mr. C. for another great trip from Mel & me.
Butch

PS
Mel & me, Matt & daughter cont'ed. on from Baker for a total of almost 2000miles!( Mel did ALL the driving!) YAHOO!!

[Don C]

Thomas:
If you want nirvana have I got a route for you. Would have to be done during the week to minimize traffic. A little over 300 miles on Class A roads and some scenery that would make post cards.
If you ever want to try it let me know.
Butch:
I'll give you a call tomorrow and we'll see what we can work out for your photos.
DonC

[James460]

Sure missed a good one, beautiful vistas & excellent 2 lane roads. Nice work DonC.

J.