Hells Canyon

Oh snap I look bad ass...

Stacey

Andrea

Mary

We saw cows

They saw us too...

Mary, Andrea, Stacey & Heather

Hells Canyon

Stacey

Heather & Andrea's shadows

My reflection in Andrea's helmet

Stacey, Mary, Heather & Andrea

Us at the Hells Canyon lookout.

Heather

Despite what it looks like in this picture I actually like my boss!

Hells Canyon

Heather

Stacey

Stacey & Mary

Me with my cop helmet on!

Heather & Andrea

Brown Mountains

Andrea and Stacey looking for the closest town with food.

Andrea found a ginormous flask

Sweet sky.

We were really excited about this truck. I don't know why it's not

like we got stop and have some...

Stacey

On the road still....lalalala

This was the port O' potty at a coffee shop

we stopped at.

Andrea, Stacey & Mary

At the other end of this rope is a large bell....

Those stinkers tricked us, it doesn't flush the toilet at all!

This sign was hanging just out side of the bathroom door.

Mary checking out the flushing mechanism.

Mary

Heather & Andrea

They call this God's country.

Andrea pulled up to my house at about 6am after a busy night at the Oxford. I was tired but I was to excited to care. I was about to hop on the back of Andrea's bike and take a four day trip to hells Canyon. I kissed my husband good bye, threw my few belongings in one of the saddle bags, zipped up my coat, hopped on and we were off. It was freezing for the first few hours. We met up with Stacy in North Bend before we made our way over the mountains to Moses lake. Stacey didn't look to impressed with Andrea's choice in passenger. She is very much a no nonsense, what you see is what you get and if you don't like it I don't have time to care, kinda woman. You don't just get her trust and acceptance. You have to earn it. I found her to be very tender and kind hearted the more I got to know her. Mary on the other hand was the complete opposite. The second I stepped off the bike at the Moses lake McDonalds Mary welcomed me with a hug and was so excited to meet me. We grabbed breakfast and hot coffee and warmed up in the morning sunshine, as we chatted about our plans for the next few days. You would never think Mary would be the type to ride a big ol Harley but she does just fine. I really began to admire all of them. Stacey told me that her bike saved her life. She took off for several months by her self and road across the country. She said it was better than therapy. True Freedom. I love how you experience everything when your traveling on a bike. The temperature changes, the smells, the wind in your hair and the view you just can not compare to driving in a car.

So Mary told us that we would be staying in a cabin on a lake with a fire pit.... In our little dream world Andrea and I had pictured well a cabin in the woods maybe with the lake walking distance from the cabin and a fire pit close to the cabin. We pulled into a trailer park with fake logs on the out side of single wide mobile homes, no lake in sight and a fire pit on wheels. We unpacked our few belongings washed up a bit and headed into the town of Joseph for some dinner and a beer. By 8:30 Mary and Stacey were ready for bed. Andrea and I the night owls that we are sat by our fire on wheels and drank hot chocolate and rumplemintz till about mid night. The next morning, and when I say morning I mean early am, Mary and Stacey were up making coffee and ready to hop on the bikes and go for a ride. Andrea and I drug our tired butts out of bed and chugged some coffee before we would let them ride all over kingdom come, or Hells Canyon to be procise. We never did see the lake but we did put on our swim suits and wear them all day long. We road and road and road. Finally we stopped at a look out for about a half hour and then jumped on the bikes again till we found food. we road the rest of the day. Didn't see a whole lot but man did we ride. Now a seasoned rider could handle this no problem and I had quite the princess set up on Andreas bike, but my butt hurt so bad. I could not wait to get off and stretch. We pulled into the town just before our "campground" and were instantly drunk off the smell of cinnamon rolls or something. The whole town smelled heavenly. Finally we found the source. A Little coffee shop roasting nuts. They were closed but we got off the bikes any ways and stretched a little. The place was run by a sweet family with a wicked sense of humor. There were plenty of little quirks about the place but their port o'potty was the best. Affectionately called the coffee pot it has a cute little sign that says please seat your self hanging by the door, and when your done your supposed to pull the rope to flush three time but you quickly realize that the rope has a very loud bell attached to the other end letting everyone know you just pottied! Andrea and I found our selves alone by the camp fire again that night. We talked late into the night this time. And sure as the sun rises Mary and Stacey were up at the butt crack of dawn the next morning. We made it back to Andreas house by about 10pm that evening and decided we were going to sleep as late as we could and then sit out on her fantastic deck and drink coffee in the sunshine. There we took our vacation from our vacation.