NO Angst

OK - we're still working on gathering all the images. Will have it together soon but in the meantime . . . 7 days, 1311.6 mi total, 1 flat, several get offs, lots of bikes missing corners and plowing off route into sage, no injuries, many hilarious jokes, great people, one of every kind of DS bike (several KTMs though), a ton of new tracks discovered, lots of gates to open and close, 4 different hot springs, wild horses, burros, a badger, antelope, a weasel, many birds, snakes and a blue-billed duck. up to 10 bikes at one time but in the end, only 2 of us back to my place. we did 350 mi. the first day with no camping gear, about 12 hours and we figured the bikes were actually running over 9 hours.

Wish I could figure out the apple/smugmug/advrider connection but until then . . .

Now we play the waiting game....

tease

Bring it on already :eek1

ohhh, the waiting game sucks, let's play hungry hungry hippos.

Dawwww... come on man! I showed you my Alvord, the least you could do is reciprocate

this is the best I can do right now - putting out fires from being gone, you know?

Woohoo! PICS!

Man. A lot of that stuff looks familiar . I really wish I could have made it over there... maybe next year if you do it.
*cough*hint*cough*

Can't wait to read your writeup!

Nice Pics!

Dave,
Neat neat stuff. Wish I coulda been there. 421 pics on your Smugmug! Hope you figure out the Mac interface stuff. I’ll post a few of yours here. If you want me to delete them, let me know.
Here’s a link to the work-up thread... around where they started filtering back.
http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=109404&page=17

This one’s a keeper.













Quite a gather.





Oh, was that Daisy (not the snake)? Woot!

wonderful pics......but WHERE ?

Some of those photos look like the Pueblo Mountains in SE Oregon, NW Nevada.

Yep. not to answer questions for wachs or anything, but hopefully if I do he'll have more time to work on his report

It's south central Oregon around Fields and the Alvord Desert/Steens Mountain, then apparently down into northwest Nevada.

I put this on my desktop!


But it was a toss up between that and the IdahoJoe & Daisy pic

Your pic


My pic of the same dog on an improvised chew toy 3 weeks earlier...

I’m posting this for wachs (Dave). He’s got a Mac and there seems to be some interface issues with certain programs I think. Actually a cut and past job on my part; he wrote the text, took the photo’s and chose their arrangement etc. Giddyap.
__________

OK - Knary started the thread back in December I think. We have been riding out in the south east Oregon desert for maybe 12 years and now instead of trucking our old crappy dirtbikes out there, we have put together several off-road (gravel roads, logging roads, 2-tracks, game trails and old mining ruts) routes from Bend to the Steens Mt, Alvord desert and Northern Nevada area. Knary couldn't go, GSGuy had a conflict, Motoplaner is recovering from an early spring incident and a bunch of my guys couldn't get off to make the ride. We had a great crew regardless and the weather was absolutely perfect. Been out there several times when the conditions were so horrible we started to question our sanity but not this time. We sat under high desert mahogany trees in fresh, green grass enjoying the day where I've had to ride through 5" of blowing snow in the past. So, LionBR from Eugene (via Brazil) lost his riding partner Fireground and through this site, we invited him to join our group. Never met the fella before this but he is such a great guy, you could just tell. He rode over to my place on thursday the 15th and spent the night.



We were supposed to pull out at 7am but I think it was 8 by the time all the bikes were rolling.



We have DRTed a veteran of a fall monsoon trip on a well-used DR650, LionBR who has limited dirt experience on a brand new 650 Dakar, Professor Dempsey, an experienced road rider and bicycle race official (think Atlanta Summer Olympics) on his trusty GS, T oh double D (Todd) on his familiar F650, my old friend the 'T' on a new-to-him XR650L that he's liberated from a boring life in the valley and modified to . . . well, everything you're supposed to take off or replace to make it truly worthy for this trip and myself on '02 640 adventure with 10K of hard dirt riding on it. I had spent the winter with my bike hanging like a gutted elk from the trusses of my shop, going through everything so we were all on different, but hopefully reliable machines. Our good friend the W'er volunteered to haul his new KTM 450 out there, carry all our crap on his trailer and set up camp. He would also meet JMoe, also trucking his righteous XR650R.



It's 22 miles of pave to get across town and the end of the asphalt. we could do less pave to get there but we are goiong to ride at least 300 mi today, and even though we aren't carrying anything but tools, I don't have a sense for the groups' abilities and want to get out there as fast as possible.





The T looks comfortable, is going fairly fast (70mph) a little stiff be he'll loosen up soon.



The DRTed





LionBR dumped the Dakar on a hill test section but Dempsey was riding sweep and they continued on to Green Mt lookout just north of Christmas Valley. This is a cool place to show everyone where we are and to point where we are going - which is basically the horizon south and east.

wachs’ work:

From there we ride down to Christmas Valley for fuel and food. That's about 100 mi so far, the weather is perfect, everyone's riding well despite several blown corners, tracks off the road into the sage and hilarious powersliding cinder roads. we'll be heading SE on more dirt to hit HWY 395 across this barren, rocky, sandy, rutted desert section and I like to just get that over with as I've gotten turned around out there and maps are of very little help. Same with the GPS unless you've got it in the machine which we don't. The weather is magically perfect, the bikes are drinking the desert air through fresh filters and running excellent.





the T - learning every mile how to go faster!



LionBR desert cruising America for the first time?



Todd riding, DRTed shooting. There's one turn on our route and even though we've done it 3 times now, it's still hard to remember. This place looks very different according to the conditions. there are very few distinct landmarks and at high-noon, it's easy to screw up.



Todd had a little rut/rock/sidehill misshap - no injuries, bike's fine




I'm apparently going bald though - weird.



Dempsey is kinda far behind and we use walkie talkies for the 1st time on the trip. He's got a front flat about 3 mi back and is rolling slowly to our connection with HWY 395.





he plugs that tubeless unit and we head up Hart Mt. out of the now hot desert and into the cool air over the pass.



Twice last year I got on this grassy playa hoping to roll it across and hook up with a really bitchin' line across the Catlow Valley to the south end of Funnel Canyon. It was so wet the first time, I had to turn around and the second time, I hit this 100 yard long patch of goo that I barely made it across. Today was an entirely different set of images!!!!





if I'd just waited another half-second, you would've seen his front tire drop into that deep hole, his feet come off the pegs and ALMOST go over the bars. His first dirt ride and he's laughing, ready for the next section!



the Catlow Valley is immense and not easy to figure out unless you take that Hart Mt/French Glen scenic byway line. This is not that road.



Funnel Canyon is beautiful this day - it's knowing that the end of day one is within reach and I think we'll all get to the coolers intact that makes this seem so tranquil to me.



the lupine is blooming and in certain areas it's like riding through a perfume factory.



and then there's our first little playa - that's 90 mph and my bike is only hitting 7000 rpm. LionBR is blown away and just keeps taking pictures and asking if it's OK to ride on that surface? We think it's a great idea! Yes, try it!





so we all make it to camp - there's the W'er with all our crap and frosty cold ones! 347 mi, about 12 hours total, maybe 45 miles of pave, bikes were running for 9 hours. Hot Springs - sorry no photos but I know there are some out there.



day one over.

Fantastic! I just gotta go Dual Sport.

Great photo's... looks like you rode the same areas as our group... it's amazing we didn't run into each other out there more than we did.