7 Ride the OBDR - (Oregon Backcountry Discovery Route)

The only wet I can remember from the river section was running out to make sure the 900lb gorilla didn't end up wheel side up. Nice crossing Jeff. I have to say the water was daunting, but we rocked it. Disappointed there are no pictures of my "perfect" crossings, but had there been a camera out and ready I'm sure I would've become the spectacle.

Ha! Only half the spectacle of me and my water dance!

Tuesday the 26<SUP>th</SUP><?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" /><o></o>
I don’t have a lot of pictures of the last couple of days. We leave camp and make it to Unity. Get gas and roll on. There was a spot of OHV trail to get to the next section, a lot of fun and up at the top we wait for the last 2 guys. Mark goes back down (just because he was having so much fun on the Husky) he comes back and tells us that Jeff just does not feel good and he is going to rest there for some time. John is going to wait with him. They agree to meet us in Sumpter so we continue on.

These are all fun fast roads. The scenery just gets better the more North you go. In Sumpter we get gas and catch up with Jeff and John. We discuss the situation and Jeff, John and Ryan decide to ride to the next meet up. Jesse, Ernie, Mark and I continue on the route. Jesse is still fighting problems with his bike. Jesse catches me and asks for a bail out, because of his bike. We get him lined out and continue on. Lots of great riding as we are heading out by Granite there is a sign that says road closed 23 or 28 miles ahead. I had already done some recon on this and was not worried. It was a wash out on road 10 and we would not be on 10. We go along the edge of the wilderness and start to drop down to Texas Bar and we get to another road closed ahead sign. At this point I am pissed, there are no reroute options and gas is scarce.

We make the decision to forge ahead. This was about 4:15pm. We get to the spot and they are logging but no one is around and we keep moving. We get to the sign from the other direction and we’re home safe. When I got home I called the forest circus and asked about this spot and complained also. They have nothing posted on the web or anything. But that is a rant for another time. Up the John Day river to Oriental creek,
John Day river

Oriental creek road

up to almost the main road where I missed on my routing and took Ernie and Mark down a OHV trail.

I am sure Ernie will have some choice words for me.:eek1 We keep moving as the sun is setting on us again. Ride up to Tower MT. lookout and have to stop for the photo ops for Mark and Ernie. You also get really good cell phone service up there. Down Tower MT. road to camp rolling in right before dark.
Camp the next morning.
<o></o>

Thanks Mark- Made me laugh

James doesn't have to because he is sitting "fetchingly" upon the river bank (this one is for you Lynette);


[/QUOTE]

Tuesday 26 July 2011

We get up early pack and head off, we are behind schedule and we will need to make better ground today if we are going to make the campsite James mapped out for us near Starky tonight. We ride through a mixture of stuff, some pretty fast gravel;

John


Jeff on some loose shale


Some stuff that looks a bit like sand, but isn't


There are also some whoops that Jesse in particular has a blast with (but no pictures of that). The area is scenic and gets better all day.


As James said, Jeff isn't feeling well; John and he decide to head for Sumpter where we meet them for lunch. Sumpter is a beautiful town, though it has clearly learned how ro make best use of the tourists. For the first time in my life I pay $1.25 for a single, solitary apple. It is a nice apple after 4 days of dried food.

After eating John, Ryan and Jeff decide to head for camp whilst James, Ernie, Jesse and I continue on. Jeff still isn't feeling great and could do without a really long day. After a an hour or so, Jesse decides his bike is running too rough and heads for camp with some carefully delivered instructions from James on how to locate it.

Not 5 minutes after leaving Jesse I have an Epiphany. I am a total idiot!!!!

The only rule I insisted upon at the start of this trip is that we would buddy up so that nobody got stranded and there was always one good running bike and able bodied rider riding together so that we could get out of anything. Here I was having totally ignored my own rule and I let Jesse ride off with no GPS to 'try' and find camp. Jesse has a sound head on his shoulders and despite my nickname for him he's no 'Kid'. I know he'll do OK after all we leave him on pavement, but all the same I feel like an idiot at having let him just ride off like that.

I'm not the only one to feel bad after we leave Jesse, James accidentally diverts himself, Ernie and I down a sandy ORV trail. The trail starts innocently enough, and then suddenly with little option of turning back it drops fast and steep. I catch up with Ernie who has gone pale, he nods ahead at the trail and then waves me forward he's not ready for it yet on his big heavy fully laden bike. I move forward and make a bit of a hash of it on my light Husky, legs paddling everywhere. I keep going, I have to make it up the next hill, almost as steep, whilst I have momentum. I wait for Ernie around the corner, who makes it too!

I move ahead and there is at least one other nasty steep drop off, I keep going and catch up with James.

James is sitting at the bottom of the hill in despair. I can see easily what he is thinking. "Oh No! I think I just killed Ernie!"


But a few minutes later we hear the sound of Ernie's bike and Ernie rounds the corner over the last couple of whoops to meet us. The vultures will go hungry this night.



I&#8217;m too far away to hear what is being said in this later photo, but that is one tired looking Action Man figure.

We trek on past a beautiful river and up into the hills. I have my first moment with God in over 25 years and I say Thank you for me just being here.

James knows of an overlook nearby a fire lookout, the view is amazing and the drop of the cliff we are standing on is substantial. I can't capture it properly with a camera.


We make camp an hour or so later and I am relieved to find that Jesse as well as the other 3 are already there. We have a fairly late night around a well made up fire. In the morning Ryan and Ernie will head back for Seattle, John, Jeff and Jesse will head for the Log House RV and Campground in Enterprise and James and I will ride the final leg of the OBDR.

This photo is taken the next morning and is the last time we are all together.
From Left to Right (Standing); Ernie, John, James, Jeff (Kneeling) Jesse, Ryan, Mark

But the ride report doesn't end today. The ride report for our ODBR adventure doesn't end until the last man arrives home.

No choice words James, other than
Tough OHV trail for sure, straight down and then straight up.
Couldn't screw up on the Beemer, or DOOM! LOL. :eek1
It was a good experience. A pic in a mellow spot of it.


And at the top of Tower.


Satisfied


A couple more...



Since I bypassed a section on an earlier day, I was very happy to do the roughly 200 miles of this day - an incredible ride.
I got to camp and had to have a toast .....or five.
I was stoked and the runt beemer never skipped a beat.
I did re-contour the skidplate and headers though.:huh
Down pipes... Argh

That was the last day for me on the OBDR.
I skipped out early...

I am now working to achieve my new & improved 'long travel' 658...

Oh, I was glad to have Jesse ride along with us.
A young guy with a great attitude.
My own kids could learn something from him.
Right on Jesse!

Cheers y'all.

Looks like way too much fun was had!!!

First a few words about mad max 'ernie'. If there were another thunder dome movie made Ernie would be the star. Not only did he destroy the obdr like he owned the land, but he looked like a space cowboy doing it. I did see a few of the facial expressions from Ernie indicating serious worry. Did not stop him at all though. He just turned the spooked look into a smile and twisted the throttle. Bravo mr. Gibson. Jeff did have a day of not feeling well and we had to divert just a little to get some real food "turkey chili' and all was well after that. Think we all were feeling a bit weak after this day. I admit playing buddy to Jeff to make it to camp early did not discourage me at all. I was beat. Weight for the big bikes was as follows, Jeff 900lbs, Ernie I think was about 800lbs, and my dr rang in at 750lbs. While this doesn't seem overly heavy, try the obdr carrying some dumb bells and you'll understand.

A few words about Jesse. The earliest man up each day was in charge of waking Jesse up "usually 5:30am". At this time Jesse would get busy removing gas tank, seat and carburetor for rebuild. 3 times this happened. Jesse did not complain about getting up early to get this done ever. And he never held us up when we were ready to leave in the morning, having the bike put back together every morning just in time. Never a sour note from him just a smile as he worked. Jesse is a trooper and I would prefer to have him with me on any ride. For you with daughters around the 21 year age this is the young man you want them to find. Truly a young man that is headed for a bright future. You rock jesse!

Mark, there was no way anyone was taking you away from the route to head to camp early. Of all of us mark smiled the most. Every time the helmet came off marks head there was a huge smile underneath. I mean I haven't seen someone more happy in a long time. You took that husky to the edge and jumped off. Really showing the rest of us what a fine piece of machinery can do. Kudos. I think if we had let him mark would have lapped us headed back to the start and lapped us again. It helped me keep going knowing someone was happy thru every section of this trip. I admit there were some parts I was cussing inside my helmet.

James, what can I say but " perfect navigation". A leader for sure. Had we done this without James' prior planning we would still be out there. I think I remember only 2 times we missed the trail by maybe 100 feet. James noticed it immediately and within 5 minutes we were back on the right track. Thank you James!

Jeff, I haven't seen someone do so much damage to a bike and have it still power on thru. That 990 is built like a tank. I can't wait to have you post some of the pix of that beast. Just wait everyone, damage is not the proper word for what happened to that bike. Jeff bent this or broke that and just smiled on. Never worrying, like he meant to do it. Then with a smile he would get busy cooking dinner for everyone. He always had something in has bag of tricks to make you feel better. Jeff is also on my list of any time anywhere bring Jeff along, it will only make the trip better.

Ryan or "Brian" great to have you along as well. First big trip for ya, I think you took a huge bite off the adventure cookie and powered thru it. Only a few issues with that drz slowed you down, nice job. I hope you enjoyed it as much as we did. The lightning comment is just a dig ya know, and IMHO you did great. Hope to ride with you again soon.

Well enough from me. My biggest concern for this trip was wether we would all get along. And we did with flying colors. A great bunch of guys and now a bunch of adv gurus.

Thanks for the kind words. I learned a lot from each member and enjoyed almost all of it. That next morning Ernie and Ryan head home, John, Jeff and I decide to slab it to enterprise, and Mark and James finish the last section of the obdr. John and Jeff get to take their sweet time because my bike is inconsistantly sputtering and only runs smoothly at idle. They ride past me and plan to wait at the only intersection about 50 miles away. I put along at a good 25 mph. I knew as long as I made it to enterprise my problems could be fixed because there is a Honda shop and the owner is a motorsports whizzard who happens to own the same bike I do. I fudge the gas more and more and the bike begins to run surprisingly well. I hold it open and soon catch up to John and Jeff who are still riding patiently. I give them a thumbs up and shrug my shoulders. John punishes his knobbies. When we hit the nearest town we stop to have a nice real breakfast at a restaurant. The waitress comments on our appearance and John replies "We've been in the woods for a week." It was a fine meal. At enterprise I talk to the shop owner who immediately gives me some options. Turns out it was most likely bad gas. I drained the tank and she runs like she used to.

Uh oh. Where are the pics? Is the 990 back at KTM Northwest being "freshened up" again

Leaving for the TAT (CO-OR) next week. Pondering doing OBDR from Lakeview if we have extra time at the end, so it's fun to read this.

Yep knobbies were on there way to be changed, once we hit Enterprise. Motorcycle superstore comes thru again with a drop ship perfect timing. It's funny about the breakfast because the waitress would not come back to the table after she gave us our food. :eek1 I remember saying to Jesse "it's 75 miles to Enterprise we can make it in 45 minutes". He looks dismayed at me and chuckles. We made it in 52 minutes. Pissed off a bunch of ranchers on the road and felt refreshed after some super high speed pavement and twisties. I think we slowed down for 2 cars because of corners, other than that we used the whole highway as our personal passing zone. Followed the corner rule of double the posted speed +5 . Keep in mind at the end of this pavement trip was a hot shower, a moderately clean bathroom and the possibility of jesse getting to meet Brians daughter.

Wednesday the 27<SUP>th</SUP><?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" /><o></o>
<o></o>
The last day of the ride. Ryan has to be in Pendleton by 10 am. Ernie has to go home also. They get together for the ride in to town. I send them down the old Emigrant hiway. With Ryan getting to Pendleton with Ernie that freed me up to finish the route. Jesse is going to Lagande to have his bike worked on. John needs some work on his bike and Jeff went with them. That left Mark and I.

We rode to McIntyre road and then headed to Starkey for gas. I went around a log truck that was stopped closing the gate and I hear a thump look back and see my tub laying on the ground. I know the truck driver but he does not recognize me. I am sure he had a good chuckle. We get it put back on and get gas and return to the route. This was some fast moving as the roads were nice and I did not have to watch my GPS. Went to the overlook ate a little something and moved on.

Got to where we would need to go off route for gas at Tollgate so I asked Mark how he was doing and he said he could make it to Walla Walla. We continued on. Again great roads to ride, some of the roads were wet and muddy as there was still snow in the trees there. We wind down Mill creek road


and find the Washington county sign take pictures and keep going.

Mark

James


We get to town and gas up and then head for food. Mark needs a new tire so we work out a way to get him one of mine that I have at home. We will both be in Enterprise on the weekend, so I take one up to him. Mark I have already got the replacement thanks for being so prompt. Mark will have to tell you what he did after our Walmart stop. I headed home getting there about 4:30.

I still need to pick up one small section to have ridden all of the OBCDR route 5 including the options and all of the legal original route. This was a great trip with a great bunch of guys. It was a return to tent camping for me. I would like to ride this route again with my wife, but I would add a couple more days to do it in. Thanks guys for a great trip and keep the rubber side down until we meet again.

Jesse, glad to hear it was only bad gas. (you should have drained your tank when I did in Seneca) John, thanks for the kind words, this was the best riding trip of my life and I can't wait to do more like it with any of the crew. Here are some pics I wanted to post that are in no specific order but I thought everyone would like.

Your signature, Max, refers to usable torque.
well, lemme tell ya. It's not always a good thing.
This was my first BIG river crossing.
I've done creeks & stuff,
and that little gem of a cool down deep creek in the desert was an easy breeze.

But when this water started pushing back at me and those monster tanks,
I began to quickly fear bogging down and falling into that big drink.
So,.... I gassed it, and I immedeatly squirted sideways bigtime on those slick rocks,
and headed very quickly DOWNRIVER :huh

How I kept it upright in that river, I still don't know.
Thanks for being there in the river for me, Asrvivor
The rest of you felines with the "camera" excuse.....
well you know what I'm thinking


Shoot. I've got some posting up to do here.
I took over 500 pictures in about 3300 miles.
I've loaded them on the 'puter, but tonight I gotta load 'em onto SmugMug.
My photographic evidence of these true good times shall cometh........

Wednesday 27 July 2011

James and I are the first to leave camp and we say our goodbyes and see you soon respectivly. It's slightly cool this morning and we ride some good stuff all the way to Starky to Gas up. Although they are not open yet, they see us outside and open up the pumps and store for us to fill up with both Gas and Water. There is something fantastic about the people of Eastern Oregon small towns and rural areas, they are helpful, pleasant, hard-working and generally happy. I want to be Eatern Oregon, it's the right way to be.

I don't take many pictures today, we are making great time with just the 2 of us because directions are so easy, just me following the ever constant, perfectly accurate compass that is James. We ride up over an overlook and look down upon some of the small towns that surround La Grande.



I remember my duty to Ladybug and snap these for her. Up on this ridge the flowers in some places look like they are tended by a gardener. It's a little odd, way up in the middle of nowhere, these are the wild ones though;





I also take a self-portrait, this is what I looked like up on that ridge, this is 5 days of riding the OBDR not punctuated by not an awfull lot of washing;



When we get to Walla Walla we eat at a Mcdonalds and I get to wash my hands and face. When you have been riding the OBDR for 5 days people treat you like you have the plague. After I wash I pick up a seat pad from Wal-Mart (I need this by now - a new Husky TE630 seat is hard and narrow). The manager is very helpful in directing me to what I'm looking for quickly. I figure the only time a Manager in Wal-Mart is that helpful is if you look like you have an awfull lot of money or if he doesn't want you in his store any longer than is humanly possible. I know I an not looking rich this day.

Outside Wal-Mart I part company with James who heads home to Pendleton. I thank him for all his help on this trip, this would be a tale of one broken leg, vultures, starvation, snakebite, breakdowns because of lack of gas and 2 lost souls still in the desert without his help.

I make my way to Enterprise to rejoin Jesse, John and Jeff at the LOG HOUSE RV & CAMPGROUND IN ENTERPRISE. Run by BRIAN and MARGARET WALKER (Tel: 541 426 4027). loghouservpark@yahoo.com (if you are an inmate needing a place to camp in the area)

I feel good to have finished the OBDR and be heading for Enterprise, I love that area.

And now I'm an adventure stud.

This is front page material. What a stud. If only the accent could come thru also.

Wow Mark you clean up pretty good. We did not take many pictures on the last day did we.

... all caught up.

And after my Dr. visit this morning I get a few bonus weeks of catching up... argh!

Great report and I am looking forward to more.

Please go ride and post more as it is all I am going to get for a while...

I am really bummed out not to be in any of those pictures...