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I travel this route often, they Oregon State Troopers patrol 97 like CRAZY! Unlike California where you can go with the flow of traffic even if that means 20+ over, they will cite you if you are 10 or more over. A good section of the road is legitimately signed for 55 mph, so it can be painfully slow. The OSP units from K-Falls to Bend actually run some equipment in their cars that emit old school X-band so you will get some warning and then they will instant on you with KA. So if you get a slow, moderately increasing X-signal, don't ignore it as you will soon get a blast of KA and then its over...
Heads-up re the x-band tease is priceless! Thanks so much for the enlightenment...we'll try to anticipate their evil presence
Originally Posted by nathan1
If you can find the time carve off 97 at HWY 293 to Antelope. At Antelope head north on 218 to the ghost town of Shaniko. HWY 293 is amazing, Hwy 218 leaving Antelope is so beyond EPIC coming up the grade that you will want to pull a u-turn and run it again. TRUST me, its worth the ~ 1 hour in total detour on drive to Mt Hood.
I see where you exit 97 N on 293 > Antelope > N on 218 to Shaniko > do it again (!) and then where?! Find our way to 26 and up to Hood or?
You have this route all wrong! HWY 26 is flat, boring, not worth the drive. If you have the time, I personally would head down to Hood River. Then over to The Dalles via 7 mile hill (a very nice 2,000 foot climb and hairpin descent), 197 toward Bend. Catch one of the county roads east to Condon/Fossil. Then the Fossil highway (great collection of geologic history along the way) to Madras, through the famous town of Antelope (Rajneeshpuram in the mid 80's if you remember that saga), into Madras. The other option is to head south from Fossil to Mitchell, then over to Prineville, south past Prineville Reservoir, through Alfalfa, into Bend.
If you don't have "that" much time, I still recommend taking the highway to Hood River, over 7 mile hill, south on 197 to Madras. Along the way, you can take several county road detours: there is a great short loop just SW of The Dalles on 8 mile road I believe. Another road is the only highway just past Dufur, it adds only 3-4 miles to the standard 197 route but features a lot of fun curves and no traffic. Once you get out into wheat country, and then desert, you won't see anyone, but HWY 197 is patrolled by bored cops, so do be careful on the main road. The last time I was pulled over in my Audi S5, the officer told me how I could check out "American Muscle" and get a Charger instead of the wimpy German car I was driving. No ticket of course, just bored, doing 67 in a 65....
These are some of the best driving roads you will ever encounter. 15-25mph hairpins above a mountainside on either route through Fossil, and a nice 4,000 foot climb headed over the John Day past Clarno if you head to Madras. No traffic either: maybe a car every 4-5 minutes.
I ride my road bike out there; it is simply some of the best riding in the entire US. The only issue is stopping for water out in the desert; each 90+ mile ride has one water stop if I am lucky, none if the store is closed.
PM me if you want to grab a beer while in town (Bend).
If you are short on time, this is your best bet for great back roads. Lower Bridge outside of Terrebone is great, you just have to find it. Basically head West at the Smith Rock turn.
Thanks so much for the routes...very unsure what is in store for today and tomorrow (except some car detailing) but we gotta drink so more shall be revealed...still catching up from yesterday...see next post...
PS I'll PM you one way or the other...
Originally Posted by raidersfan
If you are short on time, this is your best bet for great back roads. Lower Bridge outside of Terrebone is great, you just have to find it. Basically head West at the Smith Rock turn.
Yesterday's blur is coming into focus...wow...what a rush the whole day was!
As raidersfan and others have suggested, some of the best roads are in the US are up in eastern OR and the high desert and croplands of the east side of the Sierra (in CA) & Cascades.
Yesterday was absolutely perfect (even with a 4am start)! We averaged 65 mph over the 600 miles of the trip seeing many of those miles in speeds a tad more than the posted.
The MPS4S shoes are as perfect as can be (in the dry) and everything mechanical for the two 997s is nominal.
Many layers of bugs were impacted and I think that I squashed a small squirrel that Wayne hid from me, but most of the roads were clear sailing with a few road construction delays...which wasn't bothersome cause it is good to see the CA roads repaired!
Kind of smokey up here so hoping to take advantage of what it may do with the light later in the day and get a late start into the Cascades...more shall be revealed...what is better than blowing off work for some practice time?!
We gave the '12 MCS some loving yesterday AM and then planned to head to Mt Hood but the route out of Sisters yielded a no go to lack of pavement.
So we headed west on US 20 for a roll over the pass between Mt. Jefferson and Mt. Washington. The road was enjoyable and before we knew it we would've been in Salem, but since we didn't want to go to Salem, we just turned around and headed back to Bend.
Really felt like ditching the cars and heading out on the Pacific Coast trail or one of the trails to Mt. Jefferson but that adventure will have to wait.
Day 3 was much cooler and we got a late start after finishing the Mini detailing.
Our destination was a short road that connected the small towns of Antelope and Shaniko, OR. While that road was anti-climatic, the route (see below...although I'll have to re-do the map because it is blurred) that we took to get to that road was as special as it gets!
The route was ~245 miles of rolling hills, winding canyons and high speed straightaways which was mostly vehicle free except for the 997s. We took this route counter-clockwise which afforded up with many uphill sections and the views of the John Day was very special and will require more exploration outside of the 997.
Heading back to NorCal today so saying farewell to my youngest daughter will be difficult...
Last edited by david; 05-25-2017 at 01:58 PM.
Reason: moar
PS We met Scott (raidersfan) and his 6 year old son for dinner at Kebaba which was a treat as Scott's son was the person that introduced him to Porsches! So I guess that he will inherit the C4, right Scott?!
I expect that our paths will cross again...great time with wonderful people = the power of RL & Porsche ownership!
05-21-2017, 10:40 PM
I'm in Portland but it would be great to join in on the drive somewhere.
