Winnemucca to La Pine
Miles: 350
Song of the Day: Slaves & Bulldozers – Soundgarden
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AEM-1kKcg7g
Hard riding. Headed north from Winnemucca on 97 and the temperature kept dropping. As I neared Denio Junction I could see the weather system socked into the mountains to the west, the direction I would be heading after Denio. I put my rain liner in. At Denio the temperature was at about 43 but it was still rain and not too bad. I stopped there briefly and some other riders who had gotten held up there due to a storm the previous night asked me about the route back south. I told them it should be fine as long as that system stays up in the higher elevations.
Left Denio and headed west. As I crossed the border into Oregon the temp dropped to about 38 and it started snowing. Love you too, Oregon. Anyone who has been on that road knows that about 15 or so miles in from the border you drop down the side of this cliff or shelf or whatever they call it and drop about a thousand feet in a few miles; then across another little plateau and then you drop down again. I was hoping that the snow would let up once I got down there. It snowed pretty much the whole way and down the side of the shelf/cliff as well. It was kinda neat because there was blue sky to my left as I was going down but the snow was coming from clouds sitting up against the cliff face right above me. I turned on my four-ways and idled down without any issue. At least the snow wasn’t accumulating, it hadn’t dropped below 35 degrees yet.
After that the precipitation let up but the temperature stayed in the high thirties and low forties all the way to Lakeview. As I approached Lakeview it started to rain really good and I stopped to have breakfast. After that I headed NW to La Pine. Once I turned off on 31 it warmed up into the upper 40s and the skies cleared. Other than some strong winds north of Summer Lake, it was smooth sailing to La Pine.
