Camping near Fields, OR – Lakeview, OR
via NV & CA
Miles Ridden – 122
Total Miles – 4,219
We woke up to a beautiful view of the dry reservoir complete with a splash of purple flowers and sage. Stefan and I would be crossing a few state lines today, but ultimately ending up back in Oregon – our final state!
Meanwhile my dad was due to land back in Reno, NV after his conference had wrapped up in Seattle. We would all be meeting up tonight at our predetermined camp spot near Lakeview, OR.
The trail today was desolate but beautiful with fairly mellow terrain. It was hot, but not as bad as the past several days.
Before long we began to climb out of the desert plains on a fun, winding road up a mountainside. It was amazing to look down at the view of where we had been.
We dropped down off the other side of the mountain and took off down a long, straight dusty road. Headed towards more mountains in the distance.
At some point we must have passed back into NV, because the next thing you know, the dusty gravel road turned to asphalt and we were crossing the state line into California.
Although we were only in CA for a brief time it was our 11th state so that was pretty exciting!
Shortly after crossing the state line we came to Cedarville, a small but adorable town nestled at the base of the mountains. I’d found a tasty looking cafe we were excited about stopping at for lunch, but sadly we did not make it during their open hours.
Stefan took the opportunity to rest in the shade while I searched for another spot to find something edible. We only got a few odd looks from passersby.
After finding another spot and chowing down, we hit the road again. Our final destination was only about an hour away. We climbed over one last mountain on the way there, and enjoyed the beautiful views and increasing vegetation.
Since we were on the pavement it wasn’t too much longer before we pulled into our designated camp spot for the evening at Goose Lake State Park near Lakeview, OR.
Not only were we reuniting with my dad that night, we were also reunited with trees! Wow it had been a while since we had seen this many trees and they were a sight for sore eyes. Stefan even got to put up his hammock after many nights on the ground.
It was a sweet little campsite and it was pretty populated. It had also been a while since we had seen this many people in one place. We were happy to find that there was a bath house with running water, toilets, and showers! It felt like luxury after the last several nights of primitive camping.
Once I got my tent set up I took a little breather in the dappled shade while we waited for my dad to arrive.
Before long he pulled in, and the two became three once again!
My dad had another conundrum to contend with… remember the burnt out clutch back in Utah/Nevada? Well on the plane he did some research and realized the clutch was actually put together the wrong way, so he went about fixing it at our camp site. The only problem was, when he put it back together the ‘right’ way, it wouldn’t work at all! In my dad’s words…
“Upon returning to Reno three days later, I set off to catch up with Larkin and Stefan, who were now nearing the corner of California after continuing on the TAT through Nevada. After joining them in Lakeview, OR I decided to restack my clutch to have the chatter ring in first position as on the clutch rebuild instructions. After I did this, the clutch wouldn’t work at all. The stack height was not enough to work. I then restacked it again “wrong” so the clutch would work.
The clutch was still very sketchy. Once we determined where we would be in Oregon in the couple of days, I ordered a new clutch and had it shipped to Oregon. I then rebuilt the clutch with new plates and it worked like a charm for the remainder of the trip. A clutch stack is not very big. It might be worth taking an extra clutch with you as you set out on such a long trip. I was surprised at how well the bike did with a bad clutch, but it’s much less stressful with a good clutch.”
Unfortunately it took until almost after dark, but after disassembling and reassembling twice, my dad got the faulty clutch working again.
All of us were pretty tuckered out by that point, and eagerly crawled into our sleeping bags. With the plethora of trees, Stefan was happy to be able to sleep in his hammock 🙂
TAT Rider ~ Adventures of a Motorcycling Yogini 