Trip Report: Portland to Boise
Denis
I have been lucky enough to have been able to bicycle tour every fall for almost 20 years (skipping the covid year). Most of my tours have been in the US West because I really enjoy the scenery and I like that touring is “easy” in the sense that there are generally fewer roads/routes and so routing is usually straight forward and I don’t have to spend much time worrying about where I need to turn and can focus on enjoying the riding and the grand scenery. Unfortunately, I’ve ridden so many routes in the West that it has become increasingly difficult to put together a longer tour on new routes. During this time my bicycle has aged to where it is now 25 years old and getting slower every year. I used to plan 70-80 mile days but now plan more like 50 mile days with more rest days, all to accommodate my aging bicycle. During this tour I turned 77.
My website - http://www.cyclingaway.com/home/CycleTours.htm - documents my tours including this Fall 2024 tour from Portland to Boise. This web page contains a more detailed trip report along with photos and a trip summary that shows each day’s riding stats.
Earlier this year I happened to read Wayne Estes’s bike tour “Exploring Northeast Oregon 2023” - https://www.cycleblaze.com/journals/northeastoregon/. While reading Wayne’s report, I realized that I hadn’t ridden that area of Oregon so my interest was piqued. Furthermore, I have a niece who lives in Boise and a nephew who lives in the McCall/Cascade area, 100 miles north of Boise. Since I hadn’t seen either since my 2016 tour, I realized that touring northeast Oregon would put me conveniently close to the Boise/McCall area and I could also fit visits in as part of my tour.
When I plan my touring route, I try to plan the route around Amtrak train service because it is the easiest way to travel with my bicycle. I live in the far west suburbs of Chicago (Naperville) so I can jump on the commuter train (1.5 miles from my house) to get to Chicago’s Union Station. Then if I can return on Amtrak I can just reverse the process to get back home from Chicago Union Station.
So I planned my tour this fall to ride Amtrak to Portland, OR, and ride to Boise, ID. Since Amtrak does not pass through Boise, I had looked at riding on to Salt Lake City and catching Amtrak there. But I wasn’t too wild about riding the Boise to Salt Lake City section because I had ridden part of this segment and I wasn’t sure that it would be that interesting. Then I learned that Amtrak passed through Salt Lake City sometime around 3 am and that wasn’t attractive. So I ended up deciding I would rent a car in Boise to drive to Grand Junction, CO, where I could catch Amtrak at a reasonable time plus there was a ride I wanted to do in the Grand Junction area.
With all of that, here is the route I came up with Portland to Boise - https://ridewithgps.com/routes/48981510. As I will explain later, I had gotten input from Wayne Estes on the route from Maupin to Antelope to Fossil to Monument to Ukiah but I had to backtrack from Antelope due to a fire that closed the road to Fossil. That’s the strange looking dip in this route.
On Labor Day Sunday, Sept 1, I rode my bike to Chicago Union Station. Normally, I take the commuter train to downtown but Amtrak left in the middle of the afternoon and that gave me enough time to ride to Union Station, or so I thought. With my chosen route, it is about 35 miles to Union Station with half of the route to Union Station on the Illinois Prairie Path (https://www.ipp.org/pdf/IPP-free-map-bw.pdf). However, I managed to get confused where the IPP splits into the Aurora and Elgin branches and I headed west on the Elgin branch instead of east on the main path. Eventually, I discovered and corrected my error by picking up the Great Western Trail until it connected with the IPP, but this misadventure added about 10 miles to my bike commute and added some unnecessary stress although I still arrived comfortably in time.
Usually, I can get a bike slot on the Amtrak baggage car and just hand the unloaded bike to the baggage handler and then retrieve it at the other end. It turns out, however, that this Portland train is also part of the Seattle train. When the train gets to Spokane, WA, it splits with half going to Seattle and half to Portland. However, the Seattle half takes the baggage car so getting a bicycle slot on Amtrak was not possible. Instead, I had to box up my bike, which is pretty easy since you can buy a bicycle box from Amtrak where you just turn the handlebars sideways and remove the pedals and roll the bicycle in the box. If you have to pack up a bicycle, this is as easy as it gets.
I spent 2 nights on the train and then disembarked in the Portland Old Town area on Tuesday morning, just after Labor Day Monday. Then I had a near disaster. Once I reclaimed my bicycle box, I put my pedals back on and attempted to put my handlebars back on. My stem has a 2-bolt clamp for attaching the handlebar and somehow I managed to cross-thread one of the bolts. Fortunately, I was able to tighten the cross threaded bolt enough that I could still ride. After my tour I replaced the stem and practiced attaching the 4 bolts of this new stem without cross threading them. Of course, if I had been able to get a bicycle slot, this misadventure would never happen, but then this would have been a more boring trip…
I stayed overnight in a motel about a mile from the Portland station and spent the afternoon of the first day sight seeing in the Old Town area. A highlight was seeing the Powell’s Books store which is one of the largest book stores around with an incredible number of books on multiple floors in this building.
The next day I did a short ride to Camas, WA, which is just across the Columbia River on the Washington side and 20 miles away. There I visited with my cousin, Rich, and his wife, Lonnie. I had not seen Rich in 60 years or so and had no idea where he lived. However, back in May, I had attended a celebration of life for his sister in St. Louis and learned that he lived in Camas. When I said I was riding east from Portland in the fall, he insisted that I had to stop and visit and I was happy to oblige. It was a really nice visit and a chance to catch up on family news. It was also a fortunate visit. When I plan my tour I print out a copy of the elevation profile from 50-100 mile segments I define in ridewithgps. However, at breakfast that morning I happened to notice that my landscape (wide) printouts, which I made at my local library, were cut off. Rich’s wife came to the rescue and re-printed my elevation profiles correctly.
From Camas I rode to Cascade Locks where I crossed back into Oregon on the Bridge of Gods. I wasn’t sure if I could make it to Hood River in the same day. I thought it was 20 miles to Cascade Locks and 30 miles to Hood River but it was 30 miles to Cascade Locks. Another 30 miles to Hood River was questionable so I asked a food mart attendant in Cascade Locks how far it was to Hood River. He thought for a moment and then said 40 miles, which was too far for me to continue. Fortunately, I cross-checked with Google Maps and found it was only 20 miles and that was reasonable. I know you can’t necessarily rely on non-cyclists for directions but it was hard to fathom that a local could think it was 40 miles rather than 20.
Interestingly, I followed the Columbia River on my Lewis & Clark route in 2003 and started on the Oregon side of the Columbia River. However, I got blocked by a fire near Cascade Locks and ended up crossing over to the Washington side on the Bridge of Gods and rode the rest of the way along the Columbia River on the Washington side until I crossed back over into Oregon at Umatilla. This year I ended up doing the reverse, starting on the Washington side until Cascade Locks and then riding the rest of the way on the Oregon side. So I have now seen both sides of the Columbia River and got to see some great scenery both times.
Now the challenge for riding the Oregon side of the Columbia River is avoiding the Interstate as much as possible. Fortunately, I stumbled across the “Historic Columbia River Highway and State Trail Map” – https://stateparks.oregon.gov/index.cfm?do=main.loadFile&load=_siteFiles%2Fpublications%2F%2FHCRHST-Map-2019-Printable095918.pdf – that was a great guide.
The ride to Maupin from The Dalles was probably the most challenging day with 42 miles and nearly 4,000 feet of climbing. Fortunately, there was some descending that allowed for some recovery and a couple of places where I was able to stop and get food and drink. When I was researching this route I noted there was a motel just outside Maupin that looked like it was probably the cheapest. However, it turned out the motel was now an Airbnb and I wasn’t able to simply call and get a reservation. So I ended up riding all the way through Maupin and across the Deschutes River where there was a resort with cabins – Oasis Cabin Resort. I rented a 1961 Aloha Trailer with a shared bath for my first night (https://www.cyclingaway.com/home/PortlandToBoise/Photos/target22.html). It was fine except I had to use a communal restroom. I stayed over for a rest day and upgraded to a cabin that had its own bathroom for the second night. It turned out this resort was in a much better location than the Airbnb motel would have been so I was fortunate I was unable to get that motel reservation.
When I left Maupin to ride to Shaniko on the Bakeoven Road that Wayne Estes had recommended, I had to climb out of the Deschutes River valley. It was a great view looking back off to my left - https://www.cyclingaway.com/home/PortlandToBoise/Photos/target23.html. However, when I turned left to take in the view I lost control of the bike and the bike fell sideways on me and I felt a pain in my side. My loaded bike weighs about 85 pounds and when it starts leaning towards one side you have to catch it quick or it is going to crash. I think my left side ribs got jammed by my left elbow. This either bruised my ribs or might have cracked one. This pain stayed with me the rest of the trip although it wasn’t a real problem except when turning over while sleeping. I had to be a little careful turning over to minimize the pain.
On the way to Shaniko, a cyclist about my age caught up with me on his out and back ride. We chatted for a few minutes and he told me that he had ridden across the country 7 times, some supported and some unsupported. I asked “why not 8 times?”. Since he wasn’t carrying any load and had a younger bicycle, he was much faster than me so he took off and I saw him later on his return.
Riding south from Shaniko, there was a 900 foot descent to Antelope, pop 47. The only services in Antelope was a campground and an old, empty store. The campground was set up to attract bicyclists - https://www.cyclingaway.com/home/PortlandToBoise/Photos/target29.html – and had an honors refrigerator stocked with cold soda and snacks that generally cost $2 per item. Work was underway to restore the store and about 10 A-frame cabins about 12x10 feet had just been moved on to the property but they were not connected to power or A/C. Nevertheless, I talked to the owner, Brandy, about renting an A-frame. Although she was initially reluctant to rent one of the A-frames to me, I convinced her they were attractive to me since I could just roll my bicycle inside and throw my sleeping bag on one of the 2 beds and that was more convenient than unloading my bicycle and throwing up a tent. Brandy agreed I could stay in an A-frame of my choice and so I became the first A-frame customer. However, Brandy only took Venmo or cash so I arranged to pay cash at 6 pm when Brandy had to be in town to pick up her 2 young daughters from volleyball practice. It turned out to be fortunate that I had to meet Brandy because she told me that a fire had just kicked up that afternoon and the road to Fossil, my next day’s destination, was now closed. It was much better to learn this the night before than to ride on and get turned back the next day.
After mulling this road closure overnight, I realized my only real option was to backtrack and head north back to the Columbia River and skirt around the fire areas. This meant that I had to reclaim the 900 feet elevation loss by climbing back up to Shaniko. Then I rode on to Moro which had a motel. Leaving Moro there was a short climb that revealed hundreds of wind turbines in the distance. From there I descended to the Gorge and rode the Interstate to Arlington. Normally, I hated riding on an Interstate but I had a good tailwind and there were good views of the Gorge even though I had to share the views with the Interstate.
From there I rode to the small town of Heppner, pop 1291, where there was a motel. Along the way there were several hundred more wind turbines (https://www.cyclingaway.com/home/PortlandToBoise/Photos/target40.html). Obviously this area and the area north of Moro is a windy area.
In Heppner, I was fortunate to get a room for the Thursday night, I was told, because someone had just canceled before I called. Then I decided to take a rest day and was lucky to be able to get a room for Friday night although I had to switch to the room next door. Fortunately, I was able to do the switch at 7 am the next morning so I didn’t have to wait and mess up my morning.
Then something happened that I thought was going to end my tour. There was a Laundromat 2 blocks away so I did a load of laundry since it was convenient. Then, out of the blue, I suddenly found I could barely walk. Something went wrong with my left knee and I had no idea what happened since I hadn’t twisted my knee or done anything that I was aware of that would have caused an injury. Now I was in a pickle because my left leg hurt on every pedal upstroke. Moreover, the motel was booked for the next night so I couldn’t stay another night.
So I started icing my knee. The injury actually wasn’t to my knee. It felt like maybe the tendon that fed into the top of the knee was inflamed. Still I didn’t have any confidence I could ride on with my bum leg. The motel attendant had said there might be a possible room opening but when I checked the next morning that wasn’t an option. The attendant did say that if I rode on and just couldn’t make it I could return and he would find some way to accommodate me at the motel, which was nice.
So I rode on. It was 46 miles and 4,200 feet of climbing to Ukiah, the next town, and the first 25 miles was a continuous ascent except for a short descent a couple miles after I left town. It didn’t look like a good day. There was an initial climb out of the valley on Willow Creek Road with a good view looking back at Heppner - https://www.cyclingaway.com/home/PortlandToBoise/Photos/target45.html - and then a short descent. Then it was an uphill grind the rest of the morning on an unrelenting climb. The climb wasn’t that hard, it was just unrelenting.
As the morning wore on, I realized that it would be late in the day before I could get to Ukiah, if my leg held out. Otherwise, I would have to consider hitching a ride. Then a miracle happened. After 20 miles and 2,400 feet of climbing on a bum leg, I discovered the Cutsforth Campground, a Morrow County campground. It didn’t take me long to decide that this was an omen and I was meant to stay at this campground. The campground did have a couple of cabins but they were already booked for the weekend. But at that point, I was happy to have a campsite and the campground host was very nice. To top it off, I discovered that my leg had loosened up during the course of the day and wasn’t the problem I feared. I had some concern that I would do more damage and I would pay for this the next day but my leg was basically okay the rest of the trip.
Leaving Cutsforth Campground, I rode on to Ukiah and then to La Grande. Ukiah is where I rejoined my original planned route until I had to re-route due to the road closure to Fossil. La Grande was the start of the Grande Tour Scenic Bikeway - https://traveloregon.com/things-to-do/outdoor-recreation/bicycling/grande-tour-scenic-bikeway/ - that Wayne’s Northeast Oregon tour had drawn my attention. It was a figure 8 loop where I only did the loop section from La Grande to Baker City via Union and North Powder. It was a scenic route and mostly flat which was attractive after the climbing the previous days.
An interesting side note was my stay at the North Powder Motel which allowed me to break the La Grande to Baker City into two easy days. When I approached the motel office, the door started opening and I thought the manager had seen me coming. Instead, the manager was opening the door to let her cat out. Then I saw the manager was an elderly woman who must have been in her 90s. She was fairly talkative, telling me her customers were hunters, fishers, skiers, and cyclists. She bemoaned that the heat was really hurting her business. She also expressed amazement that some cyclists came over the mountain to get to her place. A little more conversation revealed that she thought the route I took from Union to her motel was over the mountain. While there certainly was some climbing it wasn’t what I considered a mountain since it was only about a 400 foot climb but I guess when you are in your 90s that looks pretty imposing. As I was leaving the office, she pointed to a large pair of black shoes, probably about size 12, outside right by the office door. She said she put the shoes there hoping that anyone who saw them would think there was a large person inside, rather than a frail, diminutive person. I regret that I didn’t get a photo of her and her intimidating shoes.
When I got to Baker City, I had to wait to get checked into my motel so I hung out at a nearby coffee shop. There a guy approached me and asked if I was riding the Transamerica. That’s when I learned Baker City was on the Transamerica route. Interestingly, I had originally planned to ride to McCall, ID, from Baker City. My planned route to McCall was the same as the Transamerica route but that was no surprise since there was really only one route if I stayed on the paved roads. However, this route was a rather challenging route with few services and a fair amount of climbing. Eventually, my body argued that it would be much easier to ride on to Boise instead of McCall. My big reluctance about heading to Boise was the obvious route was taking the Interstate south but Google Maps gave me a bicycle route that avoided the Interstate most of the way by using frontage roads so my body won the argument to ride on to Boise
I rode on to Huntington, Ontario, Caldwell, and then Boise. In Ontario, I stayed at another Super 8 Motel. I’ve been partial to Super 8 because they are generally reasonably priced and they include a breakfast. The breakfast is a big seller for me because it is basically an all-you-can-eat breakfast. There’s not a lot of variety, usually waffles, oatmeal, and cereal, but it is good enough to make a substantial breakfast for the start of a day’s ride. In addition, it saves time, not having to find breakfast at another place. For this Ontario Super 8, the breakfast was rather disappointing. There really wasn’t any room to eat so you had to pick your food and retire to your room. There was also very little selection. Probably the most disappointing breakfast at any Super 8 where I stayed. It also didn’t start until 7:15 am which is really too late for a traveler. Usually they start around 6 or 6:30 am.
But that turned out to be a minor disappointment. The real problem was sleeping. When I went to sleep I woke up after about an hour which is not unusual. However, my back was itching and it kept me awake for the rest of the night. Eventually, I realized something was wrong with the bed so I grabbed the blanket and slept on the carpet and got another hour of sleep. When I checked out in the morning, I complained about what turned out to be bed bugs and said I expected compensation. However, the motel attendant wasn’t part of the management but I did get an email address for contact. I also had taken a selfie of my inflamed back as proof of the problem.
Later, I sent an email complaint with the selfie. I repeated the email complaint when the first one got no response. Then I contacted the Wyndam customer support since Wyndam owns the Super 8 franchise. They claimed they couldn’t do anything since this was a franchisee. They said they would contact the owner and tell them they expected them to resolve the issue. They also gave me the phone contact for the motel owner. When I contacted the owner to air my complaint, he asked for my room # (110) and said someone would get back to me on Monday. Monday came and went with no contact so I called again on Tuesday but the call went to voice mail. In the end, I contacted the motel twice via email and twice via phone. I never did get a response nor did I ever get a denial from the motel that anything was wrong with my room. Wyndam customer support was also useless. It was a most disappointing result.
When I got back home, I filed a credit card dispute with Chase VISA over the charge. Initially, Chase disallowed my dispute, claiming that I should have left the motel and the fact that I didn’t meant that I had gotten the services I paid for. Of course, I pointed out how impractical it would have been to pack up my bicycle in the early morning hours and find another motel. Eventually, I demanded to talk to the credit card supervisor. The supervisor ended up crediting my VISA for the motel charge but I’m pretty sure they never dinged the motel, which was most unsatisfying. I think the supervisor decided not to risk losing a customer since I’ve been a very good customer for Chase.
On my way from Huntington to Caldwell I rode through a lot of flat, agricultural land with huge fields. These huge fields required large tractors for harvesting. Since there was nothing but fields, portable toilets had to be trucked in for the workers. Along the way, I passed a convoy of 3 large tractors and a trailer with a portable restroom on its way to another field. I wasn’t sure what the agriculture products were although it was obvious that onions were part of the deal since they were often scattered along the road. One special field needed a sign to warn passers-by’s - https://www.cyclingaway.com/home/PortlandToBoise/Photos/target86.html.
I didn’t realize until I looked at a map sometime later that after I headed east out of Ontario after my motel debacle I crossed the Snake River and spent the rest of the time in Idaho. From Caldwell it was an easy ride to Boise where I had my only flat of the trip just before Middleton. My route to Boise was aided by my niece’s husband who was cyclist and suggested the roads I used from Middleton to Eagle. Once I reached Eagle I knew the rest of the way on Hill Road to my niece’s home from a previous visit.
On Monday morning, after getting caught up with my niece’s family, I rode the short distance to the Boise airport where I had a rental car waiting. I had rented from National because I had mistakenly thought National let customers choose their car. My primary concern was to get a vehicle that could accommodate my bicycle. However, when I approached the rental car agencies in the airport, National was right next to Enterprise and I realized I had meant to rent from Enterprise which allows customers to select their vehicle. When I told National I needed a vehicle with a hatchback I was told by the agent she didn’t think they had one. She went off to consult and came back and said they would offer me a Chrysler Pacifica minivan which worked fine for me.
From the airport, I drove north to Cascade. The airport is on the south side of the metro area and I needed to get to the north side to head up to Cascade. I didn’t know how to efficiently drive through the metro area but I knew how to bicycle through so I used the bicycle route to the north edge of Boise. Since it was 70 miles to Cascade from there, I stopped at a food mart to get a drink for the drive. In 2016, I rode this route from McCall so I knew what it was like and I knew it was scenic. Still, I enjoyed the fantastic view when I crested the hill with a view of Horsehoe Bend sitting in a bowl - https://www.cyclingaway.com/home/PortlandToBoise/Photos/target101.html.
The route north snaked through a canyon which limited the driving speed and the drive took close to an hour and a half. When I got to Cascade, I decided to use the restroom at a food mart before searching for my nephew’s home. So I figured I should buy something but discovered my wallet was missing. In a panic, I checked the van, hoping my wallet had fallen out but I wasn’t that lucky. I figured I must have left it back at the food mart near Eagle. I looked up the food mart in Google Maps but the listed phone number wasn’t good. I did a little googling and got another phone number but it didn’t work either. To make matters worse, the cell coverage in Cascade was almost non-existent and that made further investigation very difficult. Finally, I enlisted the aid of my niece back in Boise who was able to track down the food mart and confirm that they had my wallet. That was a great relief but it meant I had to drive all the way back to Boise, pick up my wallet, and then drive all the way back to Cascade, a 3 hour round trip. But I was happy to do that compared to the pain it would have been to deal with a lost wallet.
I spent 3 nights at my nephew’s place. My nephew showed me some cycling routes on Warm Lake Road just north of Cascade, one to the summit at Big Creek Summit and another to the Horsethief Reservoir. So I got some riding in during the day while my nephew worked. On the last day, my nephew arranged a 10-mile float down the Payette River with his colleague who had a rubber raft. This was the first float trip I had ever done so it was a unique experience.
The next morning I drove back to Boise and spent another night with my niece’s family. I hadn’t seen either my niece or nephew in 8 years. This meant I got to see their kids 8 years older than the last time which, of course, was very interesting to see how they had grown in the intervening years.
The next morning I left for Grand Junction, CO. It was a 9-10 hour drive that I wasn’t looking forward to. However, it turned out to be surprisingly enjoyable except for the slog through the Salt Lake City metro area. Otherwise, the scenery was very interesting and especially the scenery through the canyon when I left the metro area on US 6 at Spanish Fork. Of course, it would have been preferable to see the scenery on a bicycle.
I arrived in Grand Junction in late afternoon. I had reservations at a Super 8 on the north end of Grand Junction where I have stayed a couple times before. The airport was just a couple of miles away so, after checking in at the motel, it was a simple matter to drive to the airport to return my rental van and ride back to my motel.
The next morning after my all-you-can-eat breakfast at the Super 8, I rode to the Colorado National Monument to start my day’s ride. A few years ago I stumbled across https://sites.google.com/site/grandjunctionroadcyclingmaps/grand-junction-area which identified a number of rides in the Grand Junction area. One of these rides - https://drive.google.com/file/d/1p7iwFZsvtyHj-KJhKYrIVN2Beriqx1Lg/view - started from the East Entrance of the Monument and went to Glade Park and returned via the Little Park Road, making a nice loop. It was also possible to ride further west of Glade Park but that was an out and back section. The East Entrance is a 2,000 foot climb with spectacular scenery looking back to the Grand Valley, a ride I have done multiple times and it is worth repeating. However, I had never ridden to Glade Park and returned via the Little Park Road and I wanted to do that ride. When I got to Glade Park, I road a little further west but decided that didn’t look that interesting so I just rode this loop.
The next day I took it easy and simply rode part of the Colorado River Trail in Grand Junction, riding to the eastern end and returning to downtown Grand Junction where I hung out for a while in the Kiln Coffee Bar which has a window that is great for people watching.
The following morning I checked out of the Super 8 (after breakfast) and rode downtown to Main Street Bagels which was close to the Amtrak station. I also stopped at Main Street Bagels last year when I returned via Amtrak from Grand Junction. Last year I was rewarded with a pumpkin muffin but, disappointingly, there was no pumpkin muffin this year nor pumpkin anything. At least it was an easy ride to the Amtrak station, less than a mile. While I was at Main Street Bagels I saw a guy stop by who was carrying a large backpack. Turns out he was on the same train and we met later when we got assigned to the same table in the dining car. Turns out he had hiked the 567 mile Colorado Trail that starts in Denver and ends in Durango, quite an accomplishment that dwarfed my bicycle ride. Of course, he was some 40 years younger than me…
It was an uneventful train ride back to Chicago where I took the commuter train back to Naperville and rode the 1.5 miles back to my home.
You can see my daily stats on my summary page - http://www.cyclingaway.com/home/PortlandToBoise/TripSummary.htm – 840 miles with 37,000 feet of climbing.
Just another typical fall bicycle tour with smoke, fire, bruised ribs, bum leg, and bed bugs.