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

[Bob]

Originally Posted by PinkPillion

Motivational drawing for you.

(skewed version of the original)

Nice!

[LittleWan]

Originally Posted by PinkPillion

Motivational drawing for you.

(skewed version of the original)

Wow! Thank you, Aimee!

That's so awesome - we LOVE it.

especially the part about "dirty, dirty, dirty Wans"

heh.
you spent so much time on that, I'm touched.
And, perfect timing.
i need the motivation.


thanks again!

[LittleWan]

Originally Posted by wachs

Well done vid - man you guys get around great!

Thanks, wachs!
we need to get up there and jam around Bend sometime.

Originally Posted by larryboy

I think this was as close as I got to video of Cat Canyon, I got all of Black Dragon, but I didn't know I was supposed to dread the Cat.

Thanks, rob - I knew you had something.
Fun to watch your video!

p.s. I love my little pegs now that they have those grub screws.
My feet stay on even when they're wet, muddy, and when we're bouncing around on rocks. Mostly.

Originally Posted by NSFW

another epic RR.....

H8chains, is that you?

Hi Joel, when did you change your name??
glad you found us!



Hey Bob
Yes, didn't Aimee do an amazing job with that drawing?

Thanks again, Aimee!


it helped.
only day 6 and I'm tired of this report.
I'm almost done here, and then we'll move along pretty quickly to the UTBDR...





Day 6: 6/27/12 continued
Salina, UT to Green River, UT to Salina 249 miles




I’m always surprised to see so much sand, 700+ miles from the beach.
(yes, I understand that sand is from erosion of rock, but, still. It's weird).





As a californian, I just associate sand with beaches. Especially sand this deep.
Soft, fine, sugary sand.





After hitting Cat Canyon, we stopped to let the bike cool down.
Might as well take some photos...










The bike, standing up on its own without the kickstand





We were able to ride 2up for a while.
A surprisingly long time, actually.
But, it wasn’t pretty.
The poor bike.

And that’s why we use only use the really expensive, recommended synthetic oil.




It finally got to be too much.
We were moving, but I just felt bad for killing the bike.
I walked the last 1/8th mile or so.


Matt thought it might be easier to walk through the scrub, than the sand.
He was right.





I shot a little handheld video of him...





And then walked to meet him at the end of the deep stuff.


Waiting for the bike to cool down...





Here’s the video.
Don’t worry, this will be the last video for a while.
They’re such a huge pain in the ass.

No HD on this one.
We put in some of the handheld stuff I shot and it’s not HD, so nothing is.
crap.
Sorry. but you know what the sand looks like by now.






All three of us were hot and tired by now.
It was afternoon and we were baking down in that canyon.
The high temp for Salina was 95° that day.
It was at least that in the canyons. Probably hotter.



The next section went on forever...
Just turn after turn of thick, sandy gravel. Super loose and soft.





Between the depth of the soft gravel and the endless turns,
It was impossible to keep our speeds up.
Ugh.
You know how we feel about slow.
No more get offs, but lots of near crashes.





When we found a shady overhang, we relished the chance for a break.





Sweaty, but happy.




The bike got a well deserved rest, too.




Eventually, we got out of the canyon and things started to open up.







Weird black rocks. what's that thing that goes down the back of a dragon? Like that.
I’m surprised we didn’t see these in Black Dragon Wash.





Hey, the bunny poop rocks!





It’s always fun to see these guys in ride reports.





Wow, that’s a big ol’ shadow...





When we got to this bridge, the first thing matt did was check out the water...





Hmm. Now how to get to it?
We need to cool off!









It was muddy, murky and we had just seen a cow lurking in the bushes...
But the water felt great anyway!
(our dip was very similar to that video above. )





Back into the silt.





Fast gravel.








Oooh. That looks familiar...





Remember this?





Ugh.





It was right here.






BigWan did a jumping photo for you guys.
It didn’t turn out very well, but it hurt his knees and ankles so much he didn’t want to do another one.




Enough screwing around, back on the road..





It may have been mucking hot today, but at least it wasn’t raining...
We almost got taken out last time we were on this road,
by a pickup sliding out of control.





And these tunnels had been full of mud and standing water...








About 15 miles out of Salina, we realized it was 3pm.
We wanted to get to the post office to pick up the new intercoms,
so we took the slab back.

We knew we were only missing some gravel.
And these train tunnels...





The Salina Post Office.





So it turned out that even though we paid for overnight shipping,
the intercoms had only gone out priority.


Motherbrother!


To make a long story short,
we got to enjoy another night in the Salina Super 8.
Our current room was reserved, so we had to load up all our crap
and drag it across the building to a different room.


It was a nicer room at least.

[LittleWan]

Woo!

Just got a PM from an inmate who is doing the TAT...


The I-70 bridges/Eagle Canyon cone is off the market!






Here's a teaser pic of its new home...








So, as far as I know there's still a cone on the Utah Backcountry Discovery Route,
one on the Oregon Backcountry Discovery Route, and possibly one still up on Lippincott (Death Valley)....

[PinkPillion]

Glad you guys liked it. These reports take so much time and energy.
Just a thank you for sharing your awesome adventures with us.
To the newest member of the cone club.

[jmcg]

Always enjoy your reports.

So much fun to read!

Cheers,

JM.

[DingWeed]

My hat is off to you guys 2up!!!!..........Great riding!!!

Scott

[CB160]

Yep, Y'all are crazy! But soooooo much fun to watch !! Thanks for sharing again :)

[vicster]

Originally Posted by LittleWan

t,
we got to enjoy another night in the Salina Super 8.
Our current room was reserved, so we had to load up all our crap
and drag it across the building to a different room.


It was a nicer room at least.

Thank you for all the work you put into these reports. Very much appreciated.

How exactly does one reserve a specific room in a Super8 anyway?? I've never had a chain motel allow me to reserve a specific room, even with a credit card. Hell, I've never been allowed to request a specific FLOOR, let alone room. Glad it was an upgrade for you anyway.

[Ladybug0048]

You're reports are always so much fun. If you are tired of doing it already take a few day break then return to. I'll still be here waiting and I'll bet everyone else will be too. I know it's a lot of work and I sure appreciate the effort you put into the reports.

Nice to see one of your cones has already found a new home.

[LittleWan]

Originally Posted by Ladybug0048

You're reports are always so much fun. If you are tired of doing it already take a few day break then return to. I'll still be here waiting and I'll bet everyone else will be too. I know it's a lot of work and I sure appreciate the effort you put into the reports.

Nice to see one of your cones has already found a new home.

Thanks, Ladybug
Autumn is my most stressful season and this feels like it might be a rough one,
so I was trying to hammer out as much report as I could.
I just get caught up in stupid minutiae and it drives me crazy...

How many miles did we go, exactly?
What was the name of that balloon?
What do they call the balloon queen, what's her title?


I need to stop doing that.
anyway, it's great to see you!
i took a bunch of flower pics for you this summer,
just need to get to the foresty parts.

Originally Posted by jmcg

Always enjoy your reports.

So much fun to read!

Cheers,

JM.

hi jmcg
thanks for checking in! welcome.
I think you’re our first visitor from the Dandenong Ranges!

Originally Posted by DingWeed

My hat is off to you guys 2up!!!!..........Great riding!!!

Scott

Thanks, DingWeed!
You’re not bad yourself - Schofield pass is no joke!
wow!

Originally Posted by CB160

Yep, Y'all are crazy! But soooooo much fun to watch !! Thanks for sharing again :)

Hi CB160!
thanks, you found us - yay!

Originally Posted by vicster

Thank you for all the work you put into these reports. Very much appreciated.

How exactly does one reserve a specific room in a Super8 anyway?? I've never had a chain motel allow me to reserve a specific room, even with a credit card. Hell, I've never been allowed to request a specific FLOOR, let alone room. Glad it was an upgrade for you anyway.

hey vicster,
I’m not sure about the reservation policy - maybe it was just a 2 queen bed vs 1 king bed request?
Or someone wanting a room with a big tub?
All I know is we had 4 different rooms during our stay.
Every day we’d go check the post office and then every day
we’d go tell the front desk that we had to stay another night.
And then we’d drag all our crap to a different room.





Days 7-10: 6/28 -7/1 2012
Salina, UT
something like 150 miles



Ugh.

The intercom fiasco was one giant FAIL.
Not only was the package sent priority mail (not next day air, as paid for),
but it didn’t even go out on the day we were assured it had been sent.
The information trickled out slowly,
so each day we went to the post office, with renewed hope.
Only to be disappointed again and again.


Monkey fighter!!






We could have had the package forwarded to another town, in hopes of catching it there.
But, with the bad luck we had been having, we didn’t want to risk getting stuck somewhere else.
Had this been a short trip, we would have just kept going.
But, we were going to be on the road for 6 more weeks.

Grrr.



We tried to make the best of it.
The first day, I washed all our clothes and gear.
Everything was nasty and it had only been a week...


The Eyes on the Sky Ballon Festival was happening,
so we got up early on the second day and checked it out.











There’s Smokey!

























I know I promised no video for a while, but I forgot about this one:






The Balloon Queens or whatever they were,
came out wearing their crowns...






and posed for photos next to the balloons.


















It was so windy, I was a little worried about the balloons...





Look where Smokey went down!
There were fences and power lines everywhere in this neighborhood.
It was kind of scary.





Got our new room






Some dirt bikers in the motel lobby told us they had just been up on Skyline Drive.
They said it was the most famous dirt road in Utah.



We had never heard of it, so we checked out a map,
hopped on the bike and headed out.





From Ephraim, we got into the Manti - La Sal forest.





it was nice to be at elevation.





We even saw a little snow! It was easy to get around.





The clouds were really stripey and interesting...





And it sort of felt like Colorado.





Probably due to the elevation.





Unfortunately, there were a number of fires in the area.





I can’t remember which ones these were -
possibly the Fairview and the Clay Springs fires?


















So, it was really pretty up there (and pleasantly cool), but as we got into the Fish Lake Forest,
the roads weren’t as fun as we had hoped they would be.
Lots of hard packed gravel with a layer of silt on top.
Sketchy.


I don’t know. It could have been the tires.



OK. The tires.
(I already PM’d acesandeights, so don’t think I’ve been ignoring him)



Before we left, Matt decided it was a good time to replace our back rim.
It was the stock rim (4.25 inches wide) and we had beat it to hell.
We even blew out 2 spokes (broke the heads off them).
So, now we have an Excel 2.5” superlaced rim from Woody's.





Last time we did a long ride, we went through three D908 Rally Raids (at about 2500 miles each).
Now that they’re $200 (online), Matt was trying to find something that would last longer.
The Scorpion Rally rear is really nice (and cheaper than a 908), but it doesn’t last.
We usually get 1500-2000 miles out of one.


So, in an attempt to balance longevity with value (even if it meant sacrificing performance),
he went with a Heidenau K60. About $150.





One reads about people getting 4000-7000 miles (or more) out of Heidenau K60.
It sounded too good to be true, but Matt would have been happy with 3000.
We got 2000 miles.



Maybe it’s the 140. He got a 140 and it has a totally different tread pattern than the 150.
I don’t know, maybe the 150 would have been better.
Neither one of us wants to try it.




So for us,
the K60 was unpredictable on the pavement,
terrible in the sand and gravel...
And then it didn’t even last!



Here’s how it looked after 1385 miles
(after Black Dragon Wash/Cat Canyon, but before the ride up on Skyline Drive)





Closer





We would have done more day rides while we were stuck in Salina,
but we still had to get all the way to Mexican Hat for the UTBDR,
and then to Moab.



Front tire was great, as always.
Scorpion Rally. I need to shut up about it, though.
They’re out of stock everywhere (me and my big mouth).


Start






after 1385 miles







So, the nice lady at the post office was starting to feel bad for us.
Every day we’d come by and ask about our package.
and every day we were denied.





When the package showed up on Sunday, she called us and said we could pick it up.
Huzzah!

First, we moved to our new room (looks identical to the one before it, but was down the hall)




And then matt started working on the installation.




a nice photo of our fancy cellphone. hey, it was $10.





But, after the new units were installed and we were testing them out,
the one on Matt’s helmet stopped working.
The volume turned down and wouldn’t come back up.
He still couldn’t hear me.
That’s right. After all that, after 6 mucking days in the Super 8,
the monkeyfighting brand new unit didn’t work.
Right out of the box.





I can’t really find an appropriate clip, but this one is close.


He did work out a compromise.
Matt put the functional new unit on his helmet,
I kept my functional old unit and, thankfully, they synched up.


Anyway.
At least we’d be able to communicate for the UTBDR.


Here’s our collection of room keys from the Super 8:






Whew.
Glad that little recap is over.


Next up - the start of the UTBDR!

[dave6253]

Hi Wans, You 2 should be very happy with the Heidenau K60s. You might have only traveled 2000 miles, but by the look of that video, the rear tire did about 10,000 miles. I think you should try a paddle tire next. I wouldn't have made it 50 feet in that stuff.

Awesome videos!

[jmcg]

Originally Posted by LittleWan

[/COLOR]

hi jmcg
thanks for checking in! welcome.
I think you’re our first visitor from the Dandenong Ranges!

[bc_seattle]

Awesome! Awesome! Awesome!

Little Wan -- great photography, video editing (love the vid's please keep them coming), great commentary!
Big Wan -- sick, sick, sick motorcycle skills.

Great RR thanks for sharing your adventure! I N S P I R A T I O N A L ! !

You have me completely stoked for the WA BDR which I'm going to try to sneak away and do in early Sept.

bc_seattle

[ROAD DAMAGE]

Hey Wans,

Wow!
That Cat Canyon looked like a real wrestling match for Matt.
Must be called Cat Canyon because it's just one big damn sandbox!
Meeeooowwww!

Sorry you guys got stuck in the vortex that is Salina.

As always, thanks for the voodoo that you do!

Hope to see you guys "out there" sometime. I actually saw you two in PS in DV this spring ..... but didn't realize it was you ....... or I wouldn't have been so socially inept. ( I still am laughing about the description of the "bathers" up north at the hot springs. Classic Little Wan.)

Ride safe and have tons of fun!

Rob