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

I have to say I'm going through withdrawal already. Can't wait for your next adventure. Anytime you're up towards Seattle area ping me. Love to go slam my pig around with your bus.

KILL the Wans? Why in the world would I want to need a Ouija Board and a psychic to get the next ride report? No, this is much better - I can just click on the links and get the fun, instead of transcribing and entering them manually later.

Good looking bun, BTW. The place I'm in now isn't very Bun compilable, but I'd like another one sometime.

"I am the Lorax, and I'll yell and I'll shout for the fine things on earth that are on their way out!"

Gonna miss this RR. I rarely say anything here but I wanted to tell you that......... I've been down huge portions of the ground you covered on this trip and it seems totally different when seen through your eyes. Thanks for sharing.

A lotta fun!

:ddog except for those disgusting clips!

oser

Great job, Kelly

Yes, it's a Fight Club thing.
It wasn't a two up eat it. I was on my Husky.
This last spring, went down Butcher Ranch Trail at the trailhead. Somewhere along Butcher ranch, I broke my mirror off, leaving the ballmount metal part still on the bar. It was kind of jagged and razor sharp, but really didn't think about it. Until I was going up the waterfall singletrack section of Upper Pauley Creek, and hit a tree root. The mount slammed my chin right under my helmet and punctured a huge 2 in across and 1 inch deep hole. The blood immediately started gushing like a stuck pig. I sat down and waited for Richard to come back down the hill to find me. Duct taped the wound and had to ride out 8+ miles--in a mild shock situation. Dizzy and sick, but I made it back to the truck. Hell yah. Lesson to all...take off the WHOLE damn broken mirror mount.

I think the video is Butcher Ranch to Downieville? We turn up at the junction. It takes you to a green footbridge across the creek, then through a Rubiconish dark rocky uphill. It loops back to Gold Lake with plenty of babyheads across the trail.



Good times though, good times!
You two could probably spend a week riding the Gold Lakes area. Other gnarly trails like the Divides are quite challenging. PM if you head back that way and need some ideas.

After looking at the map, and now the video, I don't think it was Pauley Creek I was riding. I do remember a lot of baby heads and some step downs on a steep downhill. I was coming from Gold Lake, and after looking at this map...
I think I was riding the black lined trail between where it says Butcher Ranch Trail and FS 93-3. I do remember a bridge over a rushing river right before I hit the Butcher Ranch Trail.

I wonder if anyone following this thread can chime in as to where I might have been. Here is a picture of the bike while going back up the Butcher Ranch Trail. I think I was drinking out of the stream at the time, as I was so tired and thirsty...

Not a day I, or maybe even Pink Pillion, wants to repeat anytime soon.

Cheers,

Jeff G.

brilliant and pleasant reading

2up on that places must be very tiring

Kelly and Matt- What a helluva trip and a stomp-down amazing ride report. The good thing is that it's been going on for a long time and you made it so much fun. The bad part is that I've grown accustomed to eye-balling it every day. And now,,,,,,,,,,it's over and I'm going through withdrawal. Maybe I'll go riding.
Seriously, this one is exceptional, even for ya'll.

Landon liked the rabbit! Thanks for the picture! I already miss reading about more of your trip.

Another great report, thank you!!!

Thanks Wans for the amazing RR.
You guys are the best.
Hope to see you on the trail some soon.

Mike Z

Sad that it's over and the 2up was mucking epic now I have to wait for your next report or go on my own:dllama so untill the snow and negative temps clear I'll just be hanging around reading the reports from warmer climates. See Bigwanimal and LittleWanimaniac next time. Thanks for the ADVenture and Oh yaaaa I want to make love to the mountain.

hey guys,

Now that I got a taste of freedom,
it's hard to get me back in front of the evil box.
I really want to reply to each comment...
but, I'm done.



Hope you can understand.
But I'm really happy that people enjoyed the report so much!
We loved the ride and it was a blast to re-live it with you guys.
In vivid technicolor.



Thanks for all the suggestions for our next ride!
Whew. I'm too exhausted to even think about that.
I have no idea what we're doing next year, but you guys had some fun ideas.

Thanks PinkPillion and live2ridetahoe for the Pauley Creek info and those great maps.
(Aimee, you're hardcore! riding out after losing all that blood...:huh)
Matt wants to spend more time up there - we'll be PMing you guys later.
Looking at the rain pouring down right now, I'm pretty sure the season is over.




Since the world isn't coming to an end after all,
I have a lot of stuff I need to get caught up on.
Three and a half months is a long time to have neglected things
(man, that was a long ride report)...




I didn't want to post without some riding content,
so I was waiting for BigWan to give me some pics from his death valley trip.
Yeah. That wasn';t happening.



So, I did it myself.




Eureka Dunes






Apparently BigWan, Bartek990 and Greg (one of cap'n underpants' friends) did a night ride from the dunes to Steele Pass and back.
Matt said it was really cool riding up Dedeckera Canyon in the dark. He had a great time.
The next day, they did it again in daylight on their way out.























Short video. Some sand leaving Eureka Dunes,
then Matt going up the steps at Dedeckera Canyon.
Sorry, it's not real clear. There's some condensation on the lens, and maybe some dust?







Looking back at the steps.








They found the blue marble tub this time! Damn. I'm sad I missed it.
(that's Bartek's sexy leg )








I'm also bummed I missed these adorable burros.
Look! It's that notch-earred guy who hangs out at the Hot Springs.
Yet another one of Hanksmybuddy's other buddies.












Fuzzy baby burro.





This was probably Mom. There were pics of her with eyes open, but I liked this one.







As I mentioned earlier, they swung by Lippincott and checked on the cone.
It wasn't there.







Unfortunately, Matt didn't get to to all the riding he had wanted to do.
He said the bike started giving him trouble going up Lippincott.
It only got worse from there.




But, they made it to Hidden Valley/Hunter Mountain.

Matt thought he would have run into JustPaul and zeegman somewhere in DV... Where were you guys?






They even stopped at the U2 site.
(on the way home)

Cap'n underpants, Bartek990, and Greg

But the bike, she was unhappy. Bad, bad, girl.
She was running like crap. Began stalling and sputtering.
And, eventually, wouldn't start at all.
Matt and the 990 came home in a U-haul.

The shame.



So, after taking the bike apart repeatedly (in DV, and at home),
and checking every single safety...
(something was preventing the bike from starting - clutch switch, neutral switch, kickstand switch, etc...)
it looks like it was just a loose connector after all!


Mother brother!




Matt was pretty pissed at having missed so much good riding in DV,
but, on the upside - at least there's nothing wrong with the bike.


The wire harness to the throttle body assembly was just slightly pulled out.
Probably from lifting the airbox to get to the cylinders (for the valve adjustment Matt did prior to leaving).
Once the connection was slightly loose, it just got worse with all the vibration in the dirt and rocks.
The bike started running rougher and rougher until...
Poof.
Dead.

Miles on the bike - about 30,000 after the Dirty ride. over 32,000 as of today.

Burn any oil? Not much. I think matt said we lose less than 1/3 liter between oil changes.

How long do the wheel bearings last? He changed them before we left, at about 21K.
Matt says if you're the kind of guy who waits until they fall off and you have friends with furry slippers, you can probably get 28K out of them.

Brake pads - he's had stock pads in the rear last 10K. But this last one was a brand new set of pads and they were smoked at 3500 miles.

Clutch - he's super good with the clutch. Matt still has the original clutch in the 990. Still the original clutch in his 2001 XR650R, too!




Regarding tracks (hey, look - I made that map bigger!)...





Matt and Norm had some words before Death Valley and it got pretty ugly.
They're not really on speaking terms right now...
(I'm not asking that stupid box for anything) so no tracks at this point in time.
Sorry guys.

Hey kaia, if you ever come back and see this - can you scan the report now and tell me how many images I ended up posting? Just curious.





T - A - R - A - K - O!
Just because I found it in my bookmarks. Not the same without the theme song, though...








OK, everyone - thanks again for reading!
Have a great holiday season.



Hopefully, we'll all make it to 2013.





thanks again, you guys!




littlewan

Thanks so much to the WANS for the best RR once again. YAY!!! Hi from SD!

Hey Wans,

Like many others here, I was sorta' dreading the end of your ride report ................ and then I got to that bunny picture and that damned thing JUST MAJORLY CREEPED ME OUT (much worse than the Mamesheba stuff) ! WTF?

So yeah, the timing was pretty good I guess.

Maybe see you guys in my back yard next summer for the KTM shindig!
I'm thinking about painting my GSA orange with rattle cans just to show my respect to the KTM crowd. Wanna help?

Seriously, thanks for all the voodoo, that you two, DO!

Rob

thank you kelly for everything and matt for taking us to places i may never see.

kelly, i admire your writing style, informative and entertaining.

hope to see the wans sometime soon.

Holy Shit did you actually just do a day by day mile by mile report of a 53 day ride. Damn. I enjoyed the first and last page I'm sure the middle was great.

GunSmoke, get with the program!!! get your eyes back to page two and read! You've missed the whole trip......

awesome job as always you wans!!!! Trip and memory of a life time

next adventure? school bus rest, back on the water?