This route from Telocaset to Pondosa is a beautiful ride through the sagebrush outside North Powder, Oregon. It starts following the railroad tracks in Telocaset before turning left across the tracks and heading up over the hill through the wind farm. Upon topping out, you get a view of the Thief Valley Reservoir, featured as a side route on this track. The reservoir is part of the Powder River and regularly drains down to nothing in the fall, so it's once vibrant fish population is diminished. Still, it sees some fishermen at times when the water is high enough to use the dock. The campground sees hardly any use probably due to the lack of fishing and other recreation opportunities with the private land surrounding the lake. It does maintain a good population of water fowl, rattle snake, coyotes, and wolves (allegedly). Continue the ride up over another steady climb past some old ghost town structures and drop down to Pondosa for what is a very scenic connection between two paved roads that connection Union to the Baker Valley.
The communities of Telocaset and Pondosa are now only a few residences, although there is a small store that is sometimes open in Pondosa. The Telocaset wind farm has bought up much of the land for turbines, which is a hint that it is a very windy area. The rest of the land is owned by ranchers. An advantage of this ride is that it is a short distance from the I-84 freeway.
