7 Ride the OBDR - (Oregon Backcountry Discovery Route)

This thread will catolog our collective experiences of riding the OBDR (it had better be 'collective' because I'm not the greatest writer and if it's left entirely up to me this thread is going to be short!). The ride took place during the last week of July 2011. We're going to try and detail the ride one day at a time (sort of) chipping in with our own personal experiences. First, let me just introduce the cast of Characters;

Wednesday - 20th July 2011

Tomorrow I am supposed to be meeting John, Ernie and Jesse at Johns house in Boring so that we can start making our way down to the start of the OBDR just south of Lakeview Oregon. But, the weekend has been long (rebuilding the top end of my KLR600 I was still 'thinking' about using for the OBDR until it's kickstand snapped in half on Monday morning....guess it will have to be the new Hesky TE630 after all) and to put it bluntly work has just been shit recently. I'm tired, the Husky needed 'another' new tire before the trip (the first new one was faulty) which I only just got fitted (thanks CrazyBrit), so I decide Thursday will be a vacation day too. I book the extra day off work and go home and just kind of chill for the evening, bike packing can wait until tomorrow I'm not meeting the others until 4:00pm and that should be plenty of time to make the campground at Mckenzie Bridge before sundown.

Meanwhile...some of the others had already started to make there way down to Lakeview...(guys this is where you start to chime in with you tale of Wednesday 20th).

Cheers S1

Wednesday, I drove 272 miles from Renton, WA to Pendleton, OR in my truck hauling my gear. Met up with James in Pendleton around 2:30, we loaded up and left around 3:00 or 3:30pm. We made about 164 miles on slab to meet up with Jeff waiting patiently by his 990 with a chair and some tunes cranking on his phone. We found a sweet little camp site and setup for the night. A little talk about politics and religion, and of course a lot of talk about the trip and the perfect weather/riding we were experiencing already.

Actually it was Thursday the 21st when Ryan and I headed down to meet Jeff. I got off work at 2:30 pm went home, put the gear on my bike, kissed the biscuit burner goodbye and hit the slab. There were some fun twistys on the way down. We rode highway 395 to below Seneca, stopping to eat in John Day.

Christ, what a motley crew

I met Jesse in Camas (after riding down from Seattle) and we took a spin out to Multnomah Falls on the way to asrvivors house.
First day out we are ready to rack up miles. No dirt on our bikes!



John, Mark Jesse & I ride 140 miles from 4:00 pm at Boring to McKenzie Bridge to camp.



First night out we fight off pain before there is pain.



We avert pain.

Well let me start by saying it took 4 hours to get that photo of mark looking like n adventure stud. If you only knew what we went thru tom get that pix.. I mean how vane.
So wed night I'm packing. Oh bullshit I didn't pack until Thursday morning. Wed night I was drinking captain and coke pretending I knew what I needed on the trip. Thinking, am I gonna like everyone or not. Well to answer that quickly, I'd say it was a perfect crew. We spent 6 nights together and all day romping thru the desert and wilderness and not a sour note was made by anyone. Thank you guys for being a great group. Liked every one of ya.
So Thursday roles around and I start packing, mark says bring the extra gas cans. Shit that's a lot of weight. So I pawn of the emergency gas to Jeff, he has a liter can in his hiding place. Perfect. Sorry mark, the extra weight would have screwed me I think. Gas cans left behind, I'm packed and ready. Jeff and Jesse show up about 3pm mark roles in around 4, and we are off. It was a perfect crew, we had ernies' plan for riding down and we were off. Ernie can plan a ride in my book any day, it was a great route. First night uneventful, camping is always fun with a group of good people. I'll stop here and let someone else carry on. Get ready the days only get sunnier and brighter.

Thursday 21st July (already)
(great...we already don't know what day it is...off to a great start! )

Thursday I get packed and the bike loaded and I'm looking at the Bike thinking perhaps I shouldv'e got some new bags, my throwover panniers are 25 years old and a little worse for wear having spent 12 years of their sorry lives in cold damp storage. Still, I bleached them a couple of summers ago when I dug them out and they've only got to hold my food and my underwear. Kind of handy throwover panniers have 2 bags to kind of seperate things out a bit.

Come time to leave and ride to John's and I'm starting to panic getting crap together and checking tire pressures, oil levels, gas, bags remembering last minute stuff and realizing I am packed to the hilt even though my plan was to travel as light as possible. I get to John's at 4.00pm and we roll off shortly after. The evening turns cold and I'm sure I have made the right decision to bring my Fieldsheer Adventure jacket rather then my mesh setup. It was pretty well the last time I wore that jacket 'zipped up' all the way for the entire trip but it was a lot easier than having to deal with a body armour, mesh and a waterproof.

John is right by the way. I like that picture, because normally I don't look studly and adventurly in photos. But, in that one I do. Completely studly and adventurely.

We find the camp at Mackenzie bridge and setup quickly in one of the last spaces available. It's late and we forget to pay and fill in the envelope for our camp site. We'll pay for that carelessness in the morning.

I took this picture of John trying to look like an adventure stud, but this is taken at the begining of the trip and he is still a mere boy at this time and his 1930's boy scout hat, 2 sizes too small, doesn't help him none.

Hey that hat has mosquito repellant built in. And it wasn't to small my head was just too big.
Also that shot of mark only took one try, it just happened to be after he spent a week on the obdr. And that makes him a studly adventurer in my book.

I like that better than "Camp Bitch", like I was expecting

Thanks all, for a great adventure!
Jungle man and I are still out doing our thing, finding little used two-track and staying away from people.

Last night we spent above Lake Coeur D'Alene in "Lot #7" of the "Gotham Bay Estates", a big development of 1-3 acre homesites cut out of the Forest above the lake.

Made for a GREAT campspot with a view


Writing this on my 'Droid, and all my good pics are on my camera, and that'll have to wait until our return.

What a ride

So we leave my house ready for adventure. Oh boy are we ready. We drive some hours on pavement and end up at a very nice campground. Ernie did us well on this one. Only thing Ernie didn't tell us about was the hour we would have to deal with the camp host in the morning learning his life story. So over coffee in the morning we listened to a 65 year old man talk about his camp host duties over the past 10 years.

We did enjoy being next to one of the few restrooms we would see on this trip. More about that later. Restroom availability that is. It was a good nights rest and I think we underestimated how nice it really was. It was a good start no issues, no flats, no breakdowns and no reason to worry, YET.

Why Thank You LB. I even had time to get something for you, you are always on our minds ya know. Here ya go....John

And Another out of focus a little. Still thinkin about ya

Let us not forget that AJ always had ice and the makings for coctails, I would add bar tender to hise title. I am still hoping others that read this don't realize my name as "Mr. Lightening" is sarcastic! It was an awesome trip, I will try to get some pics up soon.

The three of us get up in the morning, pack up and head to Burns where we fill up with gas.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" /><o></o>
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We stop to check out some of the Malheur reserve.
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Then on to Frenchglen for more gas and food.

We knew that we could not ride all of the Steens loop, but we were going to ride what we could. This is a ride or trip that if you ever get the chance you must do, it is amazing. On the way up we come upon a chase car, there were about a hundred or more runners. Not sure if it was a training camp or what. Up the road a couple of miles were three busses waiting for all of them.
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Then of course was the famous Kiger gorge.

And shots of other gorges and the views of the Alvord desert .
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My gps showed the elevation at 9693 feet.
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Then on to Hart Mountain,


fast straight gravel with a corner or two just to keep you on your toes.
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And of course a Antelope refuge should have Antelope.
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It was pretty amazing how much water there was in the desert.
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We head in to Lakeview, get some supplies and go to the starting point. Cave lake in California, it was a great camp and meeting point.
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My buddy and I are heading out Saturday for Silver Lake and the Cowboy Dinner Tree before hitting Rte 5 in Lakeview the next morning. Thanks for whetting our appetites!

yeah, so if you could finish the RR by Saturday morning that would be great for us

Glad you all had a great time, we look forward to our adventure and your ride report!

Heading down to lakeview we decide to stop by crater lake and have a look. Jesse hasn't been there before so definitely worth the time. We head up to the gate it says 10 per vehicle. Holly Shit that's expensive I tell Mark. I get up to the gatekeeper and say how much for 4 little motorcycles. 20 big ones is the reply. DONE
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We arrive at the top lookout point and start having a look around. Beautiful truly. Then Ernie says what is that oil on your boot. Fuck it's my fork seal. Blown everywhere. Right side engine covered, boot and pants covered. So begins the phone extravaganza. 3 cell phones calling every shop within a 500 mile radius. Nope no seal. Have to be ordered, couple days they say. Screw that. We'll fix it ourselves.
We arrive at our hotel for the night and Jesse (the mechanic)
goes to work. First a call out to all ADVr's, Ernie posts up a new thread help for asrvivor. And to our happy clapping WIBBY responds with a solution. Not even an hour later and Jesse has the problem solved. Yee Ha