Whoooooeeeyy! Here we go again...we all's be stoked to get the show on the road. We're all backed, strapped, booted and suited and ready to boogey!
This year's gang is short the Fud, so it's just the three of us...Mike, Scott and I (left to right). Mike again is trail boss, professional wood-splitter, and master combiner riding the KTM 950 Adventure 'Enterprise'. Scott is playing his typical trail blazer (and I do mean 'blazer') riding his Husky 610 'Blazer' (previously 'Bumble-bee). And I am...well...just along for the ride! I'm on the KLR 'Killer' 650 and I guess you could call me the company scribe and documenter-dude. I'll try my best to give the story of the voyage the pep and excitement it deserves along with a little addition I like to call 'the critter-count'.
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| My Killer packed, gassed, and strapped |
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| Mike's 'Enterprise' ready to boldly go... |
So the first day the plan was to make it from CDA to Avery and make our way up trail 320 to camp out at the Cedars or Fish Lake...whichever we decided to do at the time. We made our way to Rose Lake to fill up Scotty's chop and continued on to St. Maries. Along the way we saw a few Blue Herons and Osprey. Once in St. Maries Mike found the local hooch-dispenser while Scott and I filled up on petro. I finished filling and paying and realized a dude in a little pickumup was jonesing to use the pump I was parked at. He didn't want to use the other two pumps that were open...seemed he was partial to the exact one I used. So in my typical 'nice-guy' attitude I hurried to get out of his way and mouthed a 'sorry' in his direction. All it took was tipping the bike off the kickstand to know I made a grave error...
...me skid-lid was perched on the top of me bags and rolled off! So's you know, those little white marks aren't bug guts - they're scratches. Bigguns and deepuns! Not only was the viser scratched to s&#% but my super-visor busted clean off and the fastening parts on one side of the shield sheared off. Swell....real swell. I'm only 1-1/2 hours into the ride....awesome. No more mister nice guy I tell you. It just gets me in trouble.
We continued on to Avery, where we filled up AGAIN. Be advised, when you ride with someone on a KTM 950 or 990 you rarely pass a gas station. Where the bikes Scott and I ride get 45 mpg and have 5 gallon tanks the KTM's get like 30 MPG and have 5.8 gallon tanks. Of course you're talking about and additional 300 cc's and 60 hp over our 610cc and 650cc bikes. Sorry for geekin' out...I'll get back to the story.
We were all getting a little hungry and parched so we decided to stop at Big Dick's for a burger and a beer (I'm pretty sure that's the name...I'm positive 'dick' was in the name). The beer was good and the burger was a burger. Something about that first beer stated '...NOW the ride has started...'.
The further we went down the road it got narrower and we saw a little more wildlife. Mike chased a deer for a bit down the road and we saw
a few more Osprey. As we came up to trail 320 we decided to stop at the Red Ives Ranger Station to check it out. My buddy Kymn really wanted pictures of the place as it stands now since he hadn't been back since...oh...'84 I think? He used to work there when it was a major station. Here ya go Kymn!
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| Mike takin' a load off on the cool benches... |
This nice little gal was nice enough to give us the history. She's a Good Sam's member and volunteered to stay at the ranger station and maintain it over the summer...that's a pretty good gig if you ask me. Once we got onto trail 320 it finally turned to dirt and the dual sport part of the trip had begun! The mountains were awesome and the road was great...
...poor Mike got nailed by some sorta stingy thingy...I don't know what it was but I haven't seen anything swell up like this did.
Little did we know these flying bastards were going to be so bad this year...but we all got ass-slapped by these things sometime during the trip. I really hate the fact that the stingers are on the butts...I mean who's to say they don't just want to take a load off and sit down? I guess we'll never know.
We were toolin' along this nice purdy trail that was partially covered in places by brush and stuff so I totally thought we had the trail to ourselves until 'holy crap!'...we all almost ended up as hood ornaments on a small Toyota Tacoma. I seriously ended up IN the bushes on the side of the trail (the right side thank god). And it was just enough room for this guy to get by...he didn't even touch the brakes! Wow...geesh...maybe he was high or somefin'. My bad, I didn't get any pics or videos seein's I was too busy NOT getting run over. Anyway, we didn't see anybody else on the trail and the scenery was amazing!
Once we dropped into the canyon where the road splits into five paths we decided to ride into Fish Lake. Our buddy Jeff told us about the lake and the name just says 'please come and visit...catch your dinner!'. So why wouldn't we? I took a GoPro video of the ride in:
Trail Into Fish Lake Video.
Well, we came to a creek crossing and decided to turn back. We didn't really feel like taking a chance on getting wet the first day of the ride. For some reason, I thought the forest service (FS) expected us to ride on the planks. What can I say, I was tired and I kinda had fishing on my mind and wasn't really thinking straight.
After turning around and gettin' back to the trail head a shimmering homeless lonely traveler waved me down. I stopped and said...well, looky here...what are you doin' in this nice little stream?! He introduced himself as Rainy...
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| Blogsters, meet Rainy. Rainy, meet Blogsters |
Anyway he looked really cold and it appeared that someone just plain forgot him in the creek. He really wanted to ride on my front bag, but I told him that I hand't installed any restraining devices up there. So I put him in my nice warm tank bag and set off to catch up with the gang. We started looking for a place to camp for the night and Deception Creek looked like a good place. And check it out! We found the sweetest spot...
#1 priority on Mike's list was wood and fire (after drink, of course) so I gave the man the hatchet and awl. The 'awl' was actually what's left of the axe I brought on the last trip, which Mike made short work of. I got smart though, this time I bought a hatchet with a graphite handle! And for some reason, he really like splittin' those big-ass logs. This one was for sure a 'chopper' for whoever put this hunting camp together...
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| Scott's practicing to be his old man some day...flexem' dude! |
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| Log's split, fire's goin', time to rest. |
...and yes, the site came fully equipped with these awesome camp chairs! Totally great find
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| Mike's restin' up before tacklin' his prophylactic tent |
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| Grasshopper teaches master...'nuf said |
The tent isn't nearly as small as the last one, but it's still a bit too small for me. I'm a restless dude at night. We had a great day of riding and found this totally rockin' spot which was a great end to the first day.
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| Day 1: 208 Miles |
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