High Desert Motorcycling

Exploring the junipers, sage brush and rugged canyons of Central Oregon.

I’ve spent a fair amount of time adventure touring on motorcycles. When I was younger I rode cross country on a BMW F650 (first gen). Later on I got a BMW 1100 GS and covered a considerable amount of the West coast. One night I split a deer in two and decided to hang it up. Recently a good friend offered up an extra 1984 Honda XR 200 so I decided to go for it! We set off on a four day trip exploring High Desert areas near Cline Buttes.

Cline Buttes has several motorcycle only trails. The Southern sections are more scenic and less rocky.

Snow capped mountain views abound. Mt. Jefferson, Mt. Hood, Three-finger Jack and more.

Canyon riding deep in the heart of nowhere.

Campsite antics included taping an iPhone to a tripod and filming slow-mo of a pellet gun shooting a “Slow Ride” beer can. (Don’t judge)

Cheap, quite and non-lethal three reasons why a pellet gun is my favorite thing to shoot.

Something about a fire.

Rule #1 Always bring tools so you can fix stuff when it breaks. Rule #2 Stuff breaks.

We ended up taking the trailer a little further off-road than it could handle and bent the axel. This changed the angle of the wheels and ended up wearing out tires in a matter of miles.

Heading home…

Check out my story on Sandy Ridge mountain biking.