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10-18-2012, 06:25 PM
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#586 | ||||
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You can do it!
Joined: Aug 2009
Location: SF bay area
Oddometer: 1,128
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Quote:
Glad you're enjoying the report. Oh, there's plenty of time if you ignore every other aspect of your life, including sleeping and working... Yes, go enjoy BC - it's awesome! Quote:
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 But, the pee was actually the worst. Cows have HUGE bladders!!!  Quote:
Matt was explaining that to me - he had to drop a ball in that pipe and then catch it at the other end... He caught it! Wooo!  Those gorilla arms really pay off sometimes...  Thanks, hobbes - glad you're still enjoying the report! Speaking of which.... Day 43: 8/3/12 Osoyoos, BC to Lake Chelan, WA 254 miles This ended up being a great camping spot. It was so quiet and peaceful. We woke up pretty early and started getting ready to go. Then, we remembered that the stupid customs building doesn’t open until 9am.  Yeah, crappy photo, but I just wanted you guys to remember where we were... Matt noticed that his cheap sunglasses were in pieces. Not broken, but the crappy hardware had come undone. See the tiny little nut and screw?  They had rattled out and were floating around in the tank bag. He took everything out and found the screw and the 2 tiny spacers, but no nut. Everything from the tank bag was scattered on the bike - piled up on the seat and resting on the sidebags. I picked up a bunch of stuff and started looking at it. Matt said, “forget it, this is hopeless...” But I found it! The nut was stuck to the underside of a plastic wrapper. Woo hoo! Matt superglued his glasses back together. And, since mine were of the same lousy construction, he superglued my glasses as well. And that’s how you kill time, waiting for the customs office to open.  While we were hunched over the bike, this cow wandered up and startled us. She was so quiet! Stealth cow. (if you want a link, I think it’s been long enough to re-watch this one.  No? ) OK. Let’s try this again...   I don't know where they draw the line for "no photos." let's say it's after this point...  The bike had been making a funny noise (kind of a “whomp whomp”) and when we pulled up, the customs guy said, “ooooh.”  Then he proceeded to give us all kinds of grief about being on a KTM. Just going on and on about it.  Then he said, “If you want to see a REAL bike, you should see my bike...” Oh. You’re a mucking Harley guy, aren’t you?  Of course we didn’t say that. He’s a customs agent. So, we just smiled and nodded. Whatever you say, sir. He asked us take off our helmets and he checked our passports. There was another agent, circling around behind us. It must be hard to be on guard all the time. The Real Biker guy gave Matt a pop quiz - “When is Kelly’s birthday?” Which I thought was interesting. Guess he was trying to see if Matt was trafficking an illegal or something... But, matt passed the test. Good thing!  We asked where we could find a hardware store (“oh, need some replacement parts for your KTM, huh?”) Haha, good one Officer... and he gave us directions. After we passed the tests and he found out we were going to do the WABDR, Mr. Real Bike warmed up a little bit. He said he rides around that area a lot. And told us about a campground that had a cool old water pump. As we left, he said - “If you want to see a REAL bike, take a look outside...” OK. One Real bike, coming up...  Aha. I thought I caught a whiff of Adventure in there...   And we’re moving...  We went to the Ace Hardware in Oroville to look for some stuff. The tent bag strap and our bungee cord had gotten trashed during the last bit of log fun.  We parked next to these guys. There were about 5 more huge dogs in the back!  All better.  Next, we went to the grocery store and got some more food.  I guess a lot of Canadians cross the border for cheaper goods in Washington. Especially booze. After seeing the BC prices, I don’t blame them! All right, you guys - I guess this is as good a starting point as any... here we go... We’re starting the Washington Backcountry Discovery Route!  I know some of you have been waiting a long time for this! Forever, really. Just don't be disappointed! I mean, don’t forget - Radek’s not following us with his helmet cam... There aren’t going to be giants carrying the bike across mountaintops... I couldn’t even find a place to leave my stupid safety cone! OK. I feel better now. You’ve been warned. If it makes you feel any better, I’ll go back to giving you some blurry maps. Courtesy of the BDR guys and Butler maps. Today, we’ll be doing sections 6 and 5 (we’re doing the route backwards, from North to South).  WABDR Section 6 smartphone code-thingy video, here. and general WABDR dvd trailer, here. If there’s an official start/finish sign, we didn’t see one. I’ll just use this one, it’s been in some ride reports already.  According to the time stamp, I took that photo at 12:06pm. We got a nice late start. This one is blurry, so it’s small.  Another WABDR landmark... I’m so glad this turned out (we didn’t stop)!  I think that’s a diver? He reminds me of Bender... Bite my shiny metal ass!  We were cruising. On autopilot. These roads were so easy and fast - no frickin’ logs! I reminded Matt that I wanted to leave a safety cone at the geocache. (you know, the one I’m always yammering on about) We had watched the WABDR dvd back at Questor's house, but all they said was to look online for the waypoint. Since I hadn’t been able to find any waypoint info *cough* all I knew was that we were trying to find the viewpoint above Cold Springs Campground. So, keep your eyes peeled for Cold Springs Campground... Next thing we know, we’re passing a sign. Wait! What did that say?  Mother brother! Matt really hates to backtrack, but I was hellbent on leaving a cone on the WABDR. We turned around and went back. For a while. The sign didn’t have any mileages on it, so we had no idea how far it was. We passed some college students with a giant radio antenna. They knew where the campground was and told us how to get there. Whatcha guys looking for? "Bunnies with tracking collars." Okay. Off to the campground.  Here’s the Cold Spring campground.  You would think it would have a nice cold spring.  It didn’t. Well, there was a trickle out of the ground, but nothing we could drink from. Lots of tall trees, though.  We went up to the viewpoint and tried to check any obvious spots for this stupid geocache.  No luck. Well, that was a huge waste of time. Last night, looking at the WABDR website map for the first time, I saw this:   Of course, we didn’t have that map. We didn’t have any Washington map, actually. Not even a AAA one. So anyway. WABDR... No cone for you!  At least there wasn't much traffic on the roads. We had some angry riding (on the parts that we were doing for the 3rd time)... Another sign. (that’s our dust...)  Oh, I’ll bet this is the campground the customs guy was talking about.  Yep! Neat old pump. Great water, too.  This might be S. Fork Toats Coulee Road (I’m guessing, after watching the video)   Pretty 2 track.  Maybe Skull and Crossbones road? I guess we blew past the cabin.   Some rocks.  I guess somewhere around here we hit the highest elevation of the WABDR. (6700 ft)   Cow butts.  Thank goodness for signs, huh?  Down at the bottom there was some kind of “Caution” sign. After those crazy avalanche roads and washed out bridges in BC, this warning was cute!  OK. That's good enough. I'll deal with the rest later. Next stop - Conconully. I think. 
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The Baja Wan-Thousand:A Quick Trip to the Tip New-V2R mini report!Gettin' Dirty with the Wans: 8400+ miles Make Booty Your Favorite!, The Summer of Stupid, TAT the Hard Way LittleWan screwed with this post 10-18-2012 at 07:08 PM Reason: forgot the WABDR trailer link, cleaned up some of the language |
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10-18-2012, 08:04 PM
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#587 | |
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sigh-own
Joined: Jul 2010
Location: Hocking Hills
Oddometer: 2,840
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Quote:
hence the expression for heavy rain: "like a cow pissing on a flat rock"
__________________
I say, there's no such thing as a bad day's riding. -metaljockey whats the value of good gear?: http://www.advrider.com/forums/showp...ostcount=49301 |
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10-19-2012, 02:12 AM
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#588 |
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Mike
Joined: Jun 2009
Location: Just South of Phoenix, Arizona
Oddometer: 466
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I'm all caught up now.
I got a late start but I managed to catch up on your report before you finished it. Great report as always. You guys keep outdoing yourselves.
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10-19-2012, 09:35 AM
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#589 |
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Paint it black.
Joined: Jan 2005
Location: Über Alles,Ca
Oddometer: 13,036
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Customs guy had a Goldwing?
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10-19-2012, 10:13 AM
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#590 |
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KLR650-2009
Joined: Sep 2009
Location: Magalia, CA.
Oddometer: 1,090
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What a cool video....
"Jimmy Lewis shared this link on facebook today. Matt made the highlight reel."
If that video doesn't make you want to ride, your heart isn't beating. Also makes me want to drink the kool-aid
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No, I don't know where that road goes, let's find out!  redog1 |
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10-19-2012, 06:39 PM
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#591 | ||
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You can do it!
Joined: Aug 2009
Location: SF bay area
Oddometer: 1,128
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Hey sion! nice word picture.
Hi Bronco, glad you're caught up!  Quote:
Heh. That wasn't a very good pic. I can't quite make it out...You tell me.  Quote:
Day 43: 8/3/12 Osoyoos, BC to Lake Chelan, WA 254 miles As I mentioned, we didn’t have any paper maps of Washington. Just the WABDR tracks we got here. Matt plugged those into Norm and we just did whatever that plastic box told us to do. So, most of the time I had no idea where we were. If you see any glaring mistakes, feel free to correct me...  Oh, I think I linked to the wrong page of the website in the last post. There’s a little more info if you start on the home page. WABDR.com Watching the Section 5 video, I see that we did Ruby Grade this day...  I took a photo of these guys in their Klim gear - I'm pretty sure this was Conconully, but only thru the process of elimination. We didn't stop. The gas truck was filling the tanks when we got there, so we just kept riding.   This must be on Ruby Grade. Sorry, guys - that’s it. Didn’t take a photo of the sign or anything. Just another road.   Maybe these rocks are part of it?  These ruts, too?   Mud.  I do remember this silt. The dust is from making matt stop so I could take a picture. I didn’t wait for it to settle.   The bike was still making an awful “whomp whomp whomp” noise. Matt stopped to oil the chain (he was always trying to keep that sucker oiled) It didn't really help.  The MT21 isn’t great. After looking at the photos of our D908 at Radeks, Matt and I agreed we should have kept that 908. It probably would have held up better than this thing did.  Rally front looks ok.  It was a warm day. I think it was 99° or 100° at Lake Chelan. This is at Carlton, around 5:30pm.  Oh, good - a sign. Now you can see where we were.   While we were riding along, some crazy bird went running across the road. WTH? Was that a chicken? Matt stopped so I could look. It was this guy. “I’m sorry, I thought you was corn!”  Another sign.    Is this Gold Creek Road? Maybe.  Pretty views.  So, this must be Copper Ridge Rd.  Look at this little guy! We’ve been seeing lots of cute rock sculptures lately.  Matt has such good eyes - he noticed a chipmunk on top...  See him eating up there? Nom nom nom.  This photo was a little blurry, but it reminded me of a painting. so I made it worse and bumped the saturation.   Nah, it's still just blurry.  There are lots of fancy homes as you approach Lake Chelan.  It was freaking HOT in town. I tried to get a shot of that bear sculpture...  It was a friday evening and it seemed like everyone was drunk and sunburned. We stopped at a gas station and got some grape powerade. (the cashier is the one who told me it was 99° or 100°) Matt wanted to look into that “whomp whomp” noise...  He noticed the counter sprocket was a little loose. Plus, it was missing a tooth! Matt tightened the counter sprocket and oiled the chain again. Need to keep an eye on that...  Every campground around was stuffed full and crazy loud.  We didn’t even bother stopping. When we went past this place, Matt said, “nice resort...”  haha, thanks. Our plan was to get up in elevation and find a spot to free camp. Some place cooler and less...festive. Pretty view of the lake.  We ended up finding a great spot! There was a campground nearby, but it was full. Just outside of the CG, we found a barely traveled road. This spot seemed to be an old turnout or something. There was a fire ring, but no number, so I don’t think it was an official spot.  I took these pics the next morning - there’s our tent, and to the left, the unused road...  Standing on the main road, looking at the unused road. I think the marker says “211” Our camp is just out of sight down there...  It was perfect. (pic of Norm shows the GPS waypoint) There was even a vault toilet within walking distance (in the campground parking lot) Dinner was a real hodgepodge. Kidney bean curry, a can of chicken, a thing of stuffing...  Mixed with sauteed bell pepper and onion.  It was delicious.   I forgot I wanted to use this Mameshiba for the cows last night. Dang it! But, chili beans are just like kidney beans, right? Close enough. It’s friday! You have to have some Mameshiba.  I need to have some Mameshiba... And look - Norm has been hitting the pipe extra hard...  550 miles per hour??? Oh, Norm.  I think you need to get back to the ship! You guys really need to watch that one. It’s my new favorite. (if you click on the link you only have to watch half. If I embed, I'm afraid I'll lose you before the best parts ) |
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10-19-2012, 08:11 PM
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#592 | |
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sigh-own
Joined: Jul 2010
Location: Hocking Hills
Oddometer: 2,840
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Quote:
oh man, the synchronicity of this one is just amazing...you see, I just started reading Ghost Rider by Neal Peart...and I just today read the part where he mentions seeing these Inuksuk : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inuksuk sculptures as he rode across Canada and into Alaska...I'm pretty sure thats what you saw. oh, and holy shit that Shatner clip is hysterical
__________________
I say, there's no such thing as a bad day's riding. -metaljockey whats the value of good gear?: http://www.advrider.com/forums/showp...ostcount=49301 |
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10-20-2012, 09:57 AM
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#593 | |
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Paint it black.
Joined: Jan 2005
Location: Über Alles,Ca
Oddometer: 13,036
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Quote:
Yup, Goldwing. I just ordered one of those Rally fronts to try on the BMW.  Nice resort.
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10-21-2012, 09:01 AM
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#594 | ||
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You can do it!
Joined: Aug 2009
Location: SF bay area
Oddometer: 1,128
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Quote:
Thanks for the info, sion! That’s really cool. It makes sense we saw those in BC. I really like those, will have to do more research on inuksuk... Quote:
matt sometimes uses the rally PRO front on his XRR... (the PRO knobs melt away with a big bike) Had to work late yesterday, sorry to make you guys wait... ADV is dead, though! Not much activity at all, huh? Day 44: 8/4/12 Lake Chelan to Wenatchee Forest (wilson creek) 134 miles. For some reason, we got a really late start today. I have no idea why. Neither does Matt. Unmotivated, maybe? Anyway, looks like we didn’t get rolling until 10:30.  Today we covered Section 4 and most of Section 3. Blurry map for day 44 (I was too lazy to break out the photoshop, but we started around the top of the map, near lake chelan, and ended near the bottom of the map. at the edge of the forest)  Phone code thingy Section 4 video. Leaving the campsite around 10:30...  When we watched the WABDR dvd at Questor’s, the only thing I remembered was “The Jungle” That poor FJ! Scratched to hell... Didn’t take many photos, but... I have a short (2 minute) video of the Jungle for you: How’d you like that near miss at the end? Good thing we were both on the wrong side of the road in that one. Every time someone tries to kill us, they’re on a KTM. (whether it’s on the trail or with some GPS tracks )  Nice roads, nice riding.  Another blurry photo, hit with the painting stick.   Pretty view of Lake Chelan.   There were lots of scenic views today.      While we were on these switchbacks, we stopped to have a waterbreak. It was another hot day and there aren’t many trees or shady spots. We hadn’t seen any traffic, so we stopped in some shade, even though we blocked the road slightly. So, of course right after we got comfy, we could hear a car coming. We weren’t the only ones who were surprised - all of a sudden we heard something crashing through the brush. It looked like a polar bear or a white gorilla was running down the mountain! Unfortunately, we had to move the bike for the oncoming pickup, so I didn’t get to take any photos til it was really far away... We're looking at the pink circle...  Bigfoot type photo... <---(you don't have to watch the whole thing, it gets pretty out there...) but, here it is zoomed in. Mountain goat, I assume. Huge one.    The turnoff for Ardenvoir must have been around here somewhere. We totally missed it.   We saw this stream and decided to pump some water.   Tire pics, just because. MT21  rally front - almost 3000 miles on it.  I'll leave you here while I make breakfast... |
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10-21-2012, 11:11 AM
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#595 |
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You can do it!
Joined: Aug 2009
Location: SF bay area
Oddometer: 1,128
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Day 44: 8/4/12 continued
Lake Chelan to Wenatchee Forest (wilson creek) 134 miles.   Here’s where we figured out we missed Ardenvoir...    Reminiscent of BC, only not steep or rocky...  Just pretty.   We went up to a lookout and followed the path instead of the main road. These roads were a little too wide and easy. Where are the avalanches?  Oh, was this Chumstick Mountain? It’s somewhere around here (in the next pics...?)  I had some video, but it was pretty boring. Just took a few screen shots.         That’s Cashmere, across the highway.  Welcome to Cashmere!  Bank.  A bike/tire shop would have been great. No luck.  Home of the Bulldogs.  We must have gotten fuel, though I don’t have any recollection. Or pics. Have a photo of this cute house, though...  This road had some sand with hard ruts underneath.  Radek had said we would like Devil’s Gulch. But, then he remembered we’d be fully loaded with all our gear. Forget it then. He said it’s great with no luggage, though. We rode past the Devil's Gulch parking lot... Ah, too many bicycles. We didn't have a discovery pass, either. Kept forgetting to look for one, but we figured we'd get one in Wenatchee. Here’s the washed out road. Our WABDR GPS tracks sent us right in. Okey dokey.  We didn’t know what to expect, so Matt didn’t have the GoPro on.  This section was pretty narrow.  Our side bags got caught up on one part, so I had to help ease them through...   It was a super short section, though.  Muddy  Lots of bicycle tracks...  It’s nice knowing there’s no cars coming (we hoped). At least they'll be going slow. But, watch your head!   Oh, more washout!  I could have sworn we had video from part of this washout road... Not the narrow first part, but later... I'd better go look before I pass this section. I’ve got some other stuff to do today, but I’ll be back later. here, you can watch the Section 3 video while you wait... Have some Mameshiba, too... Hey, I looked that one up - it's true! I was starting to think those Mameshibas were full of crap... Sorry, Mameshibas!
__________________
The Baja Wan-Thousand:A Quick Trip to the Tip New-V2R mini report!Gettin' Dirty with the Wans: 8400+ miles Make Booty Your Favorite!, The Summer of Stupid, TAT the Hard Way LittleWan screwed with this post 10-21-2012 at 08:37 PM Reason: that thing is a stream, not a puddle. Guess I should correct myself, although no one else probably cares. |
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10-21-2012, 11:15 AM
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#596 |
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Studly Adventurer
Joined: Jun 2007
Location: Steamboat Springs, COLORADO
Oddometer: 650
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Stealth Cow
Hey Wans,
You guys please be a little more vigilant out there on the trail. That "stealth cow" picture sent shivers down my spine! Supposedly, the "stealth cattle" up that way have almost completely decimated the local Bigfoot population .................. so sad really. (Read it in the Weekly World News.) Good thing you saw that nefarious bovine ....... before it had a chance to sneak within striking distance. They look innocent enough, but don't be fooled. (Everytime I eat a cheeseburger, I consider it a little personal victory for the "good guys".) Little known fact for you two: The beef cow was first domesticated by the Chinese. They were then used as guard animals at the Royal Palaces for several dynasties. Brings up the oft forgotten China-India Beef Wars chapter of their history ............ from under appreciated guard animals on one side, to being worshipped and adored by millions on the other side ............. the 25 year skirmish was inevitable really, now wasn't it? Thanks for posting! Enjoying it! Oh yeah, I've watched miles and miles of wildlife film over the years ........................... and that was NO white gorilla. I would go along with the Polar Bear theory though. (I don't think they have mountain goats up there do they?) Climate change and global weirding, huh? Rob
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Formerly known as: Routt County Rob |
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10-21-2012, 06:39 PM
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#597 |
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Beastly Adventurer
Joined: Dec 2008
Location: Behind the Redwood Curtain
Oddometer: 1,985
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Looks to me like a spruce grouse. They are notoriously dumb. Usually they will stand there... and let you hit them with a rock.
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Whales were everywhere. On the beach, on the hillsides. One crossed the road in front of us… it was a big beluga! |
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10-21-2012, 09:48 PM
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#598 |
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You can do it!
Joined: Aug 2009
Location: SF bay area
Oddometer: 1,128
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haha, Hi ROAD DAMAGE...
You had fun with that... Glad you're still reading... Thanks, TwilightZone! I knew one of you guys would identify that bird  Day 44: 8/4/12 continued Lake Chelan to Wenatchee Forest (wilson creek) 134 miles. OK. I found some video, but it was super short and hideously boring.  You get screen shots instead...       Woo! A log in the road. Aww, this reminded us of BC...       Gate on the other end...  Well, that was fun.    This lookout was really nice. We even stopped to admire the view a bit.   Baby ruts.  The light was crap when we rode through here. It was too bad, because it was pretty.  Lion Rock was to the right. ---------->  We could easily have kept going (it was only 6:15), but it was still warm and we wanted to camp at elevation. We always tried to camp in the forest if we could. Nicer, quieter, and cooler... We hadn’t seen any signs for campgrounds, so Matt had Norm look for water... That little plastic box kicked butt! Tweaker or not, he found us a great spot.  Wilson Creek. There were some horse people (and horses) in a campsite over on this side...  Luckily, there was clean access on the other side of the road. At first we were just going to pump water (upstream) and keep looking for a site...  But the river was so inviting. A bath started to sound good...  Then Matt found a great spot up in the trees. It was nice and private. I guess we can just make camp anywhere, right?  Oh hai, we’re in our bathing suits!  Holy crap, that water was cold!  Still felt good to be clean. Flowers for Ladybug...  Thai sweet chili noodles and a can of chicken for dinner...  Tasty.  Over dinner, we talked about how we thought we were supposed to have gone to Wenatchee today. Didn't people on the WABDR go to Wenatchee? Yeah. So, now that we're home and I'm looking around online... I guess they only do that when they detour around the washout. Or, if they have a map. Because, look - That red thing is Lion Rock. We were camping Southeast of Lion Rock...  We weren't even close to Wenatchee today. No Discovery Pass for us... I have tire pics again...   Tall trees.  Looks like we had a clean and sober Norm today!  He must be bucking for a promotion... |
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10-22-2012, 08:49 AM
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#599 | |
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Northwest Silverback
Joined: Jun 2010
Location: Seattle
Oddometer: 13
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Quote:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grizzly...ar_bear_hybrid
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10-22-2012, 09:15 AM
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#600 | |
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Paint it black.
Joined: Jan 2005
Location: Über Alles,Ca
Oddometer: 13,036
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Quote:
Whoah...I think you're right!!
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