My naiveté was on full display again the morning I filed ‘the record of my stay in Cambridge’ into the archives. Yep, I rode off wearing one sweatshirt and no chaps… you’d think I’d know better by now. We rode about ten miles or so, and I was cold. I had foolishly wanted to tough it out, but as soon as the road grade took a decidedly upward tilt, I knew my cause was lost, even though the sun was out in its full glory.

I’ve long suspected the sun may actually be a government employee up here… It shows up on the job most of the time, but it really doesn’t work very hard at all…. I pulled over into a chain-up pull-off, and donned my remaining sweatshirt and my chaps.

I remained cold throughout the morning. This was truly the first day on this trip that I would have been entirely justified wearing my Gerbings… but I didn’t. I’m not on some vain mission to prove I’m tough… or, that I’ve still got it. More like I’m just finding it hard to accept it’s actually this cool this early in the season. Well, I broke through all of that nonsense on that day… If it’s anything like this again, you can bet I’ll be plugging in and turning on!

I suppose some of the blame for my lapse in judgement that morning could be laid on the evening before. The motel-checker-inner in Cambridge, ID, had told me of a nice oasis, The Office Bar, just down the street with a grill right next door. They apparently have some sort of arrangement, and food is served in the bar too. Well, I decided I would put in some overtime down at The Office that night, you know, to catch up on important stuff I was behind on…

I walked in and scoped out the scene… nothing ominous or threatening looking, so I took a seat at the bar. The cute extrovert serving as our nurse brought me my first of several brews, and only then did I spot the sign… Double Bacon Bloody Marys’ – $6.99… DooOoo whaaat…?!

Ordinarily, the very idea of meat in a cocktail would have been downright repulsive, except that the meat happened to be bacon… perhaps my most favorite of the basic food groups… and, as everybody knows, bacon makes everything better. Yep, I know you saw this coming, and you’re absolutely right… that was indeed my second drink.

A disappointment in virtually every way, though, but what the hey… I do now have bragging rights at least. Of course, I lied terribly to my nurse by lavishing unwarranted praise on her skill and the goodness of the beverage itself. Much more of this and I might be eligible to run for office, huh…?

Well, as frequently happens, some of the locals became curious about who this strange geriatric yokel ‘who talks funny’ was, perched upon a stool right in their midst. In no time at all, really, the usual verbal vetting process got started with an innocent question here a ‘feeler statement’ there, probing to see what my game might be.

It’s always entertaining to me to go through this ritual… some folks are actually quite good at sizing up strangers, while others are a bit clumsy. I passed their test, as I usually do, and soon enough my non-threatening manner left the door open for political and sports banter the likes of which are sometimes seen on our message board. No hot babes or even tepid cougars hit on me, though, again as usual, but I still enjoyed the conversations… as I also usually do…

Funny thing about being a pro-solitude trekker… Most folks assume I’m alone all the time. Not so. I am alone quite a bit, for sure, but I too occasionally get lonesome and feel the need for human interaction.

It’s actually rather easy to find that by simply walking into a bar, or showing up at a bike gathering or other function. As long as you behave yourself and don’t try to force your way in, sooner or later people’s curiosity will get the better of them, and you won’t even have to initiate the contact… they’ll come to you.

Once again, the evening slipped away from me, and I stayed far longer than I’d originally thought I would. Anyway, it has occurred to me that the evenings misadventures might have played some role in clouding my judgement the following day… Reckon?

Once I arrived at a level of clothing sufficient to head for Enterprise, things got much better. I should have employed those electric marvels introduced to me by SmokinJoe somewhere back in the mists of time… Thanks Joe!!! You know I didn’t… And, although I didn’t take that ultimate step, things were still greatly improved, so…

Anyway, I found myself focusing on the scenery and amazing terrain of this area, and not having my vision blurred by any shivering or teeth chattering… How could one try to ignore symptoms like that? I may have to ponder that some more…

We crossed the Snake River just below a dam, so the lake we’d been looking at had suddenly become a stream under the bridge we rode across. The gorge was interesting and seeing it was very much worth the ride along this road… By the way, once I’d left Cambridge, the roads took on sparse markings and peculiar designations, then changed to other equally peculiar designations once across the state line, which was that ‘stream’… The Snake River.

One section was designated as a privately maintained road, presumably maintained by the power company that appeared to be the only operation of any size thereabouts. Other sections were designated as state roads, forest roads, and some I figured must have been county roads. Some measure of dead-reckoning was necessary to navigate this route, and I even stopped once to verify directions at a store… but I did manage to find my way through the maze.

On the Oregon side of the canyon, the road took on a very different complexion: Up, up, then up some more… twisty for sure, good surface nearly all the way to Joseph, though, and almost no traffic… well, there were a few critters here and there… even a cow or ten now and then as this was open range country.

A couple of times I had to slow to first gear and weave my way through some cows in and along the road… I probably could have argued a good legal case for me having the right of way, but the ‘jury’ just didn’t look very sympathetic at all… It really pays to NOT ride ‘on the edge’ at the top of one’s ability range sometimes… adrenaline addiction can be a real killer in situations like this.

We didn’t get more than a few glimpses of the canyon itself, once we began the ascent as the view was shrouded by the trees of this rather thick, lush forest. When the canyon could be seen, however, it was remarkable!

Sheer cliffs and drop-offs, rugged craggy vertical surfaces that defied even the most skilled of mountain sheep to take the challenge. More lava flow rock than the layered look of sedimentary rocks, but the effects of faulting and folding were still present and offered interesting features to ponder along with the rest of the geologic record of this area…

A longer ride than I had anticipated, but well within the fuel range of my Interstate tank. The descent down the other side seemed about as long as the ascent had been, but finally the curves began to straighten out, and the grade flatten out… Then Joseph, OR, came into view, and I knew I had indeed been here before. I had not come this way, however, so except for the town itself, this day had been a new experience… and a mighty good one it was!

We stopped in Joseph where I had a late breakfast (that cafe served it all day), then I bought a birthday card for my grandson, and sent it on its way from the local post office… We didn’t see a motel that grabbed us, so we rode on the short distance to Enterprise, and…

The first motel we came to looked just fine… only… No vacancies! We had stumbled into the weekend of Hells Canyon Mule Days… and the next motel was also booked solid too! This was a rather small town, so the supply would run out very soon, unless I got really lucky. Dang! The third motel did have a vacancy, though, and supposedly Wi-Fi, although I was never able to actually log on… at least I did have a room! Who knew they thought so much of their mules out here?

This day had been so grand, that I was sort of toying with the idea of a little more celebration activity… you know, maybe some more overtime if there was an Office close by. I rode down to get something for dinner, and there right across the alley from where I’d parked ALI was a bar. As I was considering options, a middle-aged guy happened to come walking out… all smiles, and a peculiar bounce in his step…

He was wearing shorts and had tattoos on both legs, he had a long grey ponytail dangling halfway down his back and a short beard, both ears were pierced, and he was looking straight at this humble rider…

I don’t know if he was gay or not, but I guarantee he was mighty happy for sure! For a fleeting instant I caught myself wondering just what the relationship with mules around here might actually be too…? I don’t care one way or the other about such things, but I also don’t care to be around it either… Perhaps a party another time in another town… in any event, this bar definitely did not appear to be a suitable venue for this rider…