Travels with jdrocks-the Blue Ridge

You have a way with words my friend. Thanks for showing me around this past summer. Lots of gravel and some great camping.

1272 miles on the GPS, nice ride for staying in the neighborhood, so to speak.

if you promise to quit doing those crazy stoppies, they might let you back into West Virginia.

:eek1 JD, my virgin minds eye has been totally violated, I'm going to church right now to see if I can find those anti-sorcery Mennonite prayers. One good thing about my Mennonite church is lack of black clothes, lack of group field trips, and some experience with salacious trip reports on Advrider. Really enjoyed the trip report, thanks for writting it up.

- David

see if you can find a prayer for this while you're at it...the waste band of her jeans was way down south and her black thong was showing. i sure hope she hiked those jeans back up some, or a few of those Mennonite boys were headed to the hospital.

amazing what you can see in the midst of a close call, time stops, you go HiDef.

glad you enjoyed the read.

last 3 days ive lusted over your build reports and finished with your RR..thanks mate rnjoyed every minute .

that's a LOT of reading, hope you had a bottle of whiskey at hand. glad you enjoyed it all.

No kidding.... Just the 649HP build is over 1700 posts!!! Entertaining as hell though, like all JDR joints.

Looking FWD to the next one, Sir!!

See you at Laurel Fork?


After several months in the basement my 649 will need some tender loving ass whompin!!!

might get another ride report up this season...if i get the bike back together, it's in pieces for maintenance and an upgrade.

i just have the little motor, yours is a 652.

LF, seems like my home neighborhood, i think i've cruised through there eight times this season for one reason or another.

Im a Alaskan stuck in Colorado for a couple years and enjoyed your point of view of my home .. but i am truly enjoying the long riding season here ..Everyday i fire my Klr up and smile even to just get milk and cookies ..
Now you have me looking at my KLR wondering what if ...lol

And i truly feel your pain on long winters and little light .. so we break out the snow machines and hit same trails again lol ..

one of my favorite local roads is Denali highway from cantwell to delta .. great views 75% dirt .. My buddy was riding a 650 vstrom .







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ya got that Alaskan look. you must have read that 2009 report, some pretty weird happenings on that trip.

here's your Denali road from earlier in the season...quite a ride, 100 miles of gravel.



i followed graders on that road for what seemed like 50 miles, the road surface all chewed up with loose gravel.

i see that the Maclaren River Lodge on the Denali closed for the winter, not enough customers to pay for keeping the generator running 24/7, that's where i met this girl...and if you remember that Segar song, she was all of that.

We take a break at the McClaren River Lodge. They were in the process of opening for the season and unstocked merchandize was scattered around. The pretty young girl working the register was just learning her summer job and made a big mistake in my favor when she rang up my ice cream bar and other junk. When I pointed this out, she said “"Gee thanks, they want me to pay if I goof up like that".” The second time around she made an even bigger mistake in her favor…by gosh, that girl is a quick study. I gave up and told her to keep the change.

I step back and take another quick look at her. I hear a little clink as a quarter rolls down the coin slot on my mental juke box and a Bob Segar cut starts playing..."She was a black haired beauty with big dark eyes…".” Standing there with a quizzical look on her face, she gives me a tiny wink with her left eye and says “"Bye"”. With a big whoosh I was out the door and headed for the bike on the run. I needed some fresh air before I had a heart attack. I had the bike running before I jumped in the saddle and in a cloud of dust we were gone to Paxson. Mind readers must scare the heck out of me.

when snow is deep enough in summit and summit lake its a very popular snowmachine area .. we used to ride to the lodge for a hot drink ..oppisite the lodge on the lake is a great area to camp and some great trout !! huge trout !!

i like to set my tent right on the tundra with a tarp under it. its like sleeping on clouds !! no kidding its the best .

once you hit tarmac the views just keep coming and once along the rivier to the left is some great gravel roads up the valleys to the phone towers get uptop and look down at the glaciers and delta to the right ..

I fall in love all over again ..

we had followed a grader as well almost soon as it hit gravel once leaving cantwell and then it was 4 inches of super soft sand followed by lots of red mud later on .. i had hit a rock only few miles in and bottomed out pinching off my kickstand safety switch killing motor right away .. mind you that bike then was 3 days old lol .. quick splice and duct tape we trucked on and found some super slick clay in the heavy rain that almost took us out .. we were going pretty good and up pretty high in a bend and out off nowhere it went from good gravel to 8 inches of clay for 40 feet ..it just became a point and shoot .. and my buddys v strom had have used street tire up front .. he did great though never dropped it once ..



we had real heavy rain all the way in till we hit the camp ground at tangle lakes ..we were wanting to relaxe and have a cold brew right then lol ..



we knew we were in for a licking in cantwell



this picture is from a cell tower looking over the delta river and and just past summit lake on the right side of freeway



I really miss home now lol ..

Oh and im partial to Virginia too its where i married my wife 17 yrs ago while we were both stationed there ..

forget those northern winters, been there. my new tradition is to mow the grass on New Years day, work on my suntan a little, go for a ride.

to fight off winter light deprivation, i have 9000 watts of lighting in the shop...no shadows in there.

speaking of shop work, i need to get the bike back together.

Nicely done JD. Looking forward to soaking up some campfire with you someday.

thanks. in your travels, if ya see a big smokey campfire, stop, it's probably me.

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thanks, anything to entertain the campaigner. might be in your neighborhood in december, maybe you'll have time for lunch.

monsieur photomoto graham has a photo credit in the V649HP thread, just put it up today.

I had to laugh when you went to Paris you where about 6 miles from my door. Yes to December and lunch give me a buzz when your going to be close.

if Monsieur Nix had known you were so close, he would have gypsy camped in your front yard. as i said, that Paris thing was all his fault, lucky we found that guy who did the Yankee speak English. i don't think he's going to be in charge of planning any more of these trips.

i'll contact you, we'll meet up, anywhere but Paris.