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

[Nixels]

A lotta fun!

except for those disgusting clips!



Great job, Kelly

[PinkPillion]

Originally Posted by LittleWan

[COLOR=DarkOrange]
Good god, Aimee!
What happened? It looks like you probably can’t talk about it.
You make it sound so good, I'm intrigued...
I googled around - is this the Pauley Creek Trail you and PinkPillion are talking about?

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.

[live2ridetahoe]

Originally Posted by live2ridetahoe

I came down Pauly Creek on my 950 Adventure and had to go up Butcher Ranch... Not fun... but I'll never forget it. When I got up to the "ravine" on Butcher Ranch, there were two guys from Santa Cruz bikes doing trail maintenance. They remarked that my 950 was the biggest thing they have ever seen on the trail...

I could not imagine going up Pauly Creek on the 950/990.

JG

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.

[ata]

brilliant and pleasant reading

2up on that places must be very tiring

[dickosaurus]

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.

[Rwelch360]

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

[BigDave75]

Another great report, thank you!!!

[zeegman]

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

Mike Z

[sibyib]

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 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.

[LittleWan]

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.

Originally Posted by sibyib

Oh yaaaa I want to make love to the mountain.

Thanks PinkPillion and live2ridetahoe for the Pauley Creek info and those great maps.
(Aimee, you're hardcore! riding out after losing all that blood...)
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! I’m sad I missed it.
(that's Bartek's sexy leg )

Originally Posted by zeegman

Hope to see you on the trail some soon.

Mike Z

Originally Posted by larryboy

Originally Posted by kaia

i'm prepping for f5-dakar madness, working on thread "scanning" tools... did you know that so far for this report, you've posted 3000+ images, not counting videos! (for reference, you posted ~2880 photos in your Summer of Stupid report)


that's madness! what an amazing story. i can't wait for the finish!

[pyrate]

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

[ROAD DAMAGE]

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

[NSFW]

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.

[muskeg]

[Gun Smoke]

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.