Gettin' Dirty with the Wans: 8400 miles - UTBDR, KLIM rally, Canada, WABDR, OBDR +

Day 52: 8/12/12 continued
Christmas Valley, OR to Ram Horn Campground, CA 306 miles







Got back to Xmas Valley just in time.







It was checkout time at the Desert Inn.
Luckily, they weren'’t sticklers.







Bye, room 11.







Tires - about 650-700 miles.













There were some firefighters at the Feed Barn this morning.
They had mentioned that there was a big fire near Lakeview.
Shoot.
We were worried that it was going to close part of the trail.



Instead of doing the rocky powerline road out of Christmas Valley
(it would have been Matt'’s 3rd or 4th time and it'’s a huge time suck),
we decided to take some slab and then pick up the OBDR further down.



Aside from getting a haircut at the Barber Ship (fail ),
one of the things I really wanted to do on this ride was get up on Crane Mountain again.
If we missed it this time, I was gonna be sad.




Someone’'s shed of treasures.







Smoky.












Oh. Summer Lake.
I’'ve never been on this road, only seen it from up on the ridge.






Up there somewhere.







This looked like a pretty old church.






We had talked about getting back on the trail around Summer Lake,
but with the fires nearby, we weren'’t sure it was a great idea.
Even if we didn’'t hit closed roads, it was so smoky we’'d be missing out on the beautiful scenery.




Here’'s the view of Summer Lake. Taken from Fremont Point (2010).
I made this fake panorama by taking a screen grab of 2 pics side by side on the desktop...
not too shabby, eh?







We were trying to guess where Fremont Point was.
Is this it? Around here, at least.






Across the road.
So, that must be Summer Lake...







Onward.







Can you read that? It says “Paisley Mosquito Festival”
Glad we missed that...







I’'ve always seen Paisley on the map, but this was my first time through.







As we got closer to Lakeview, it got a lot smokier.
Hard to breathe sometimes.














Stopped at Safeway to pick up some food for tonight.






Hey, there we are.







Aw, man.
The "Bud Get Inn" is now an Executive Inn & Suites.
That sucks.







It just doesn'’t have the same je ne sais quoi...







Good thing we weren'’t staying.














Ahh. Nice to be back in the dirt.
















haha, this gate almost gets us every time.







I love gate duty. It'’s fun.







Wow. Last time we were here they were just starting the Ruby Pipeline project.
Guess they'’re done.














Nice job with the rehabilitation.






You can hardly even tell they were there.









At least this meadow still looks good...








Woo hoo!
Crane Mountain!










Hump day Mameshiba!






son of a biscuit! are there ads on the mameshiba videos now?
I try so hard to find links without ads. Mucking youtube.
good thing we're almost done with them.

Ads? No ads for me, although I thought the whole mameshiba thing was an advertisement, just can't figure out what for.

(Do you understand Japanese? Sure wish I knew what they were saying...)

Matt didn't have the ad, either.

But I did, last night. I think you get them when you watch from the youtube page.
Well, I'm glad they aren't showing up for the embedded video.


OK, aren't you getting the grey annotations? With the english translation?
It tells you what they are saying!










Mameshiba is a Japanese pun - mame is bean, shiba is puppy or toy dog.
The word sounds similar to mamechishiki, the Japanese word for trivia - which translates to "bean of knowledge"



In 2008, after the Japanese recession, there weren't enough advertisers to fill empty slots on television shows.
Instead of having 30 seconds of dead air, an ad agency hired a Korean/Japanese copywriter named Sukwon Kim to make 30 second cartoons.
Mameshiba trivia bits were just supposed to be filler, until tv stations had more advertisers buying ad spots.









You don't understand what they are selling because they aren't selling anything.
They are just something to watch for 30 seconds.



The mameshiba spots were weird and funny (I think we miss a lot of puns and other inside jokes by not speaking Japanese)
and they caught on in a big way.
The Japanese public loved the mameshiba characters and wanted more.
So, Mameshiba products (toys, keychains, books, feature-length cartoons, etc)
didn't come out until after the original 30-second spots (the ones I post for you guys) were popular.


Now, there's mameshiba everything.






Mameshiba books...






slippers.






I'm not sure what this is about, but the mameshiba have legs so they can roller skate...






So, all of that info was from one of the many links I gave you earlier.
I know, I know - tl;dr.




You'll notice I added lots of pics and stuff to this post.




I already mentioned that I found mameshiba because they are popular with the crafty peeps.
See what I mean? This one is super cute!
(in the bottom right, it's saying "hey, did you know?)
I don't understand japanese, I just read the note.





I hope you guys are watching that roller skating mameshiba video at work!



Well, everyone thank hardworkingdog for this mameshiba-fest...
I'm still not ready with Crane Mountain.
This didn't help!
Now I just want to make mameshibas...

WHAT!!??? You guys get subtitles with mameshiba videos?



No wonder I'm so confused It's cute, but not understanding a bit of what they're saying is kinda underwhelming...I've got to figure out the subtitle thing, pronto.

Thanks for that explanation! I now know something that I didn't before, and without having to reach for the learning juice. . ..

Poor HWD!



Aww, so you aren't as slow as I thought you were....



No wonder those didn't make any sense to you.


Oh, you guys (I'm sure you aren't the only one, HWD)!
I'm so sorry. I just assumed you could see the annotations.
You must have something turned off in your youtube settings?



Guess all those jokes about hippo sweat being pink were just crazy talk!!!





OK - here are all the Mameshiba videos (even ones I haven't used yet), with english subtitles.
Not the best quality, but at least you'll understand what they are saying.






Sorry to be laughing at you ( I mean, with you) , but holy crap. I can't even imagine how confusing that would be - no annotations.


Hopefully, those subtitles will clear things up. A little.
(next time, ask! Send me a PM or something. I had no idea you could watch those and NOT get the english translations)



Hi NoVa Rider! glad you enjoyed the mameshiba fest

I get the ads with the embedded video. I tried 3 different browsers. No big deal though. The videos are kinda like potato chips, hard to stop at 1.

I just tried to find some of those slippers, I love slippers.

I've started the OBDR in Paisley before when I came from the east, righteous switchback road up the hill from town.

Hurry!

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Mameshiba-x...948?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item416de1449c







it's that roller skating mameshiba...





Not as cute as the edemame slippers, unfortunately.

Aww.
poor bigdon.


someone needs a beer...






I'm working on the report, I swear!
I'm not shopping for slippers...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Gray-Totoro...?pt=US_Unisex_Accessories&hash=item53eff766de

Hey Rockcat - sorry about the ads.
At least if you watched the English subtitled ones, you got to see all 20 mameshiba videos, ad-free!









Day 52: 8/12/12 continued
Christmas Valley, OR to Ram Horn Campground, CA 306 miles








If you don'’t remember Crane Mountain, it was here,
page 3 of The Summer of Stupid.



Here's a quick re-cap from 2010 - we were just following our OBDR tracks, when the trail got really faint.
We weren't sure if it was the right way, but Matt saw some quad tracks, so we kept going.
And going.
It got rocky.






And then we hit snow.
Lots of it.





Enough so we didn'’t want to turn around and go back.
Norm kept telling us the trail continued, just a mile or so ahead.
So we kept on going, even though it meant wrestling the bike through snow.
And lots of ATGATT hiking for me.





So, Crane Mountain had showed up on our OBDR route and we figured it was part of the trail...
However, no one else really mentions it when they talk about the OBDR.
I'’m thinking it might have been more creative Delorme/Norm/Matt routing (and not the GPS tracks)...
Who knows?


But, we'’re glad to have found Crane Mountain.
I mean, it was tough in the snow. Brutal, really.
But, satisfying.
And we enjoyed it.



Matt and I were both looking forward to seeing Crane Mountain, without snow.








So, back to Day 52...
We were going North to South this time, so everything looked a little different...












































Things started to look familiar, right about here.
Norm said the trail was to the left...







There it is!








Last time, this road had some snow

2010






Not the exact spot, but close.

2012







Here we go!























I was able to match up one of the snow pics...

With snow, 2010






Without snow, 2012








And another - this one is a little harder.
Here’'s the snow version. See that big rock?







There it is, on the left. We were approaching from the other direction this time.








Snow







Same section of road, sans snow (from the opposite direction).







Last time, to get around the giant snow drifts,
we had to go behind those trees and through those rocks...






Snow blocking the road.

2010







Nice and clear in 2012! (Looking from the opposite direction)
I tried to include that stubby tree for reference (on the right, below)








2010







Woo hoo!!







So that was the easy stuff.
The only thing that made that section hard last time was the snow.



The rocky, more challenging parts of the trail were still up ahead...

So, next time you're out on the road you'll be leaving hybrid safety-cone-mameshibas near the trailside, now?

I'm not crafty at all, so I have no idea what such an offspring might look like. :huh

Say W H A T GISdood?
Like my little guy. (Captured at Tea Kettle Junction DV 2012) Sorta mameshibish.





Enjoying every post Littlewan. You are almost to our neck of the woods.
-and who knew hippos had pink sweat.
Awesome.

Wednesday I went out for asian food for lunch. Crispy vegetable spring rolls, Edamame, and Sesame chicken. YUM!
I was so tempted to keep a pod and pull out a bean and draw a face on it and bring it home for Landon
We love Memeshiba!!

Little Bean Dogs! one a day trivia lalala

Hai. I gets it now!

Thank you, that was awesome. Unlike your riding video's I never felt like I was going to crash...

Reflections of a trail, well done.

from the Oddballs and Other Roadside Attractions with Your Bike thread



details here: http://www.advrider.com/forums/showpost.php?p=20059219&postcount=829

Hi guys,
I hadn't thought about a cone/bean hybrid, but PinkPillion is right - it would probably be similar to her little guy!



Still so glad you got him before they threw out all the tea kettles!
(Yep, we're slowly making our way towards Cali. We thought of you...)




Oh, here's an orange mameshiba -




This one's wearing a swimming pool floaty ring - it gives him that cone look...







Hmmm. I'll have to work on that. Coneyshiba! (Mameconey?)


Anyway, great idea GISdood! Thanks!
Heh, that reminds me -
I saw this the other day...




It was something about Shatner being the Mooseking of Canada...

Aw, you and Landon are so cute! I still crack up over that story - "dad, I have a secret... OH HAI!"
I haven't made any mameshiba yet (too busy), but I think I'll have to put that on my list.
Landon needs an edamame friend...

You m-m-m-m-make me happy, Mameshiba!

I'm so glad you can fully appreciate them now!

Thanks, Rob! I hope you don't get sick of it, I did a bunch more.
I really like that trail.
Hey, have you ever been on crane mtn? I know you've been all over that part of oregon...

Wann, Oklahoma!

Haha, we've never seen that before.
Matt and I have gone through OK on I-40 a bunch of times, but never been up to Wann.
Next time, we might have to take a detour for the photo op.

Thanks, sion!









Day 52: 8/12/12 continued
Christmas Valley, OR to Ram Horn Campground, CA 306 miles






This is one of those endless days...
I can sum up hundreds of miles of slab with a few pics and a couple sentences,
but when the trail is good...
You get a blow by blow account of every rock.























I recognized this spot...
See that rock with the pink dot? It has a little split... I also marked it in the next photo.






In 2010, Matt was so exhausted after wrestling the bike through the trees, over the snow...
(there was no obvious trail at the time, it was covered in snow and logs)
He had a little crash here. Right onto those big rocks in middle.
The arrow shows the path he was riding...




It was so scary.
Good thing neither he nor the bike got hurt!
We would have been seriously screwed.




The trail had a surprising number of landmarks.
Y'know, considering it's all trees and rocks. Nothing man made.
We remembered this big tree...







Last time, it was sort of hanging there...







I was scared it was going to fall and crush us.







It was really neat to ride this trail again.
And so much easier without the snow!







This is another spot where I have a snow pic...








Looking back the other way, 2010






I wasn't quite sure this was the right spot, until I checked the rock with the pink dot.
Yep, same rock, opposite direction.








This part - Gah!
It's steep. I think you can kind of see it in the photo from 2010...
I took this as I was walking up the hill.






But it just doesn't look that bad, going the other direction.
The GoPro doesn't capture it very well, but it was no joke.
You can hear us break out the nervous laughter in the video (coming up)







I really had fun finding the same rocks and trees.
With snow...






Without (looking the opposite direction)






With snow...note the fallen tree.






Without (opposite direction).







The schoolbus felt extra wide on this trail.
I don't know if you've noticed, but a lot of the trees closest to the road are missing big chunks of bark!







These rocks looked familiar...






Yep, here they are in 2010!
we had stopped to check out some snow...







Okay. I think that's enough for today. I'm so tired.
Gotta figure out what to do about video, too.




I really enjoy the video we shot, but it might be boring for you guys.
This next one is short, but it's a nice representation of the trail.


Matt was trying to challenge himself by riding this stuff without putting his foot down at all.
Remember, we're on the schoolbus with full bags!







OK - no dabsies!
Hey look, right there in the thumbnail, you can see that tree is missing a bunch of bark!
HD for the rocks!








Well, it's friday night - normally you'd get some Mameshiba.
But now that I posted that last batch of sub-titled ones, you guys have seen all the Mameshiba videos.


Except one.