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

I'm going to draw the line, though, at making superslab my favorite.

haha, thanks ginrwr!
That's awesome!
I love it when you guys make stuff your favorite.

Hi Twilight Error!
I hear ya on that one.

Although.
You know what can help?

Mud. Lots of it.




Miles and miles of thick, nasty, sticky mud will help make slab your favorite.
At least for a little while.









Day 42: 8/2/12 continued
Clear Creek to Osoyoos, BC 250 miles





We were starting to feel really sad about leaving BC.
It had definitely been a highlight of the trip.
Such great riding, so many beautiful places...








There are a lot of washed out roads, though...






That one wasn’'t so bad...



A little further, and it was worse.







Avalanche (looking to the right).








Looking back after crossing.








Hope that was it...








Uh oh.

Mother brother!







Looking up to the right.







Matt went to go check it out...







There was a way through.








But he still had to make it across all that rocky crap...







No problem. Whew.
I should have taken more pics...





Oh, did I mention that we were following a route from Radek?
He said, "“I’'ve got a great way for you to get from the hot springs to the crossing at Nighthawk...”"
OK, Cool!




Yeah.

So, this is like a miniature extension of the Canadian Lunacy Tour.
a “tour-ette” if you will.
(that was supposed to be a tourette's syndrome joke. did it work?)


Back on the road...







Yep. Really going to miss this area.
Southern British Columbia is definitely our new favorite place.















Hmmm. what'’s that?








Aw, crap.






We actually ran into two of these guys.
The first one just waved us by.
The second one stopped and said he didn'’t know if we'’d be able to get through.
He said he was scheduled to clear the road, but not until later that afternoon.

"Not sure how bad it is, but expect lots of downed trees."


Monkey fighter!




Not wanting to turn around and go back (god knows HOW far we'd have to go)...
We forged on ahead...



Son of a biscuit!






Oh, wait. It looks like we can get around on the right!
Yay!

Matt went to go get the bike...




So, these hadn'’t come down due to a storm.
It looked like they were rotten and had been cut on purpose (from above), as a preemptive measure.


These trees had just happened to fall across the road.



OK.
No problem! We can get around this stuff.






Actually, this one was kind of scary - looking up, you could see the dirt still streaming down...
Watch out!







We rode a little further.
Crap.

A bunch of little trees.







Annoying, mostly.






Whew. Hope that’'s it...































Yep. It was just like that.

It worked, but let's hope it doesn't come to that.

let's hope.





Day 42: 8/2/12 continued
Clear Creek to Osoyoos, BC 250 miles







Where were we?
Oh yeah.
Trees.







Monkey fighting trees.







What would Smimmy Top Jimmy do?




Wooo!



(it was actually kind of scary. There isn'’t much of a shoulder.
And that's a big drop off on the other side)
Not to mention the luggage on the back!


It was a lot more dangerous than jumping a log in an open field...



We walked ahead to see what else was blocking the road...






Looking back at the bike.






First, we had to get around this mess.





Lots of moving logs and crap.
But Matt got the bike through it.




This next bit was the worst.
Two in a row, with messed up spacing.
It’'s hard to tell from this photo, but log#2 (the corksoaker) was tall.
Super tall.





No pics.
I had to put the camera away and do some heavy lifting.


Man.
We really could have used a giant Eastern European dude (or 2).
Where are you Radek/Bartek/Lica? Erik, are you secretly from E. Europe?
I got spoiled at the rally and on the Lunacy tour. I got used to having help with the hard stuff!


Gah.


I guess we could have taken the bags off the bike,
but we’'re still as dumb and lazy as ever.



Instead, we dragged log #1 out of the way.
Then, we stacked smaller logs in front of the corksoaker.
With just the two of us, there’'s no lifting the bike.
Matt was standing next to it and powering the bike over,
while I pulled on the crashbars and tried to guide it from the other side.
The schoolbus is so big and stupid heavy.



It was unwieldy and tippy and wanted to fall over and crush me.
Or maybe smash Matt.
Again, there was a scary drop off on the right - my side (down into the river)
It would really suck if we lost the schoolbus down the cliff...



There was a nervewracking moment when the bash plate got hung up on the log,
but we got it.




Then it was just this:






This:






and this:








Aw, man.
We broke the strap that holds the tent bag.








The water looked refreshing, but we didn'’t want to stop until we knew we had made it through the blocked section of road.





When we hit this campground, we saw a sedan coming from the other direction. OK. we'’re good.
Log Creek.
Of course.







Stopped to rest and cool off.





On second thought, maybe we've had enough of Canada for a while...

Great ride fellows!
Cheers
Dirk

...certianly a lot of work, those logs. calls for a beer.
Ride on,

Not that the schoolbus isn't heavy enough already... but maybe next time you venture north, you guys should rig up something like this:


Make logs your favourite! (note the Canadian spelling, eh?)

Log Creek.


:huh

+5 Mad Max points.



So, LittleWan, how are you able to keep these posting going on the trail so regularly? I mean that as far as connectivity with the web? It seems like you guy are far off the grid more often than on. I go 20 miles off an Interstate here and loose cel service.

Thanks for the time you put in to making your ride reports. I get excited every time I see a new report. Thanks again.

Aw, Kingsized.

I hate to break it to you, but we're home. I do these reports after the ride is over.

at the beginning of every post, I list the date of the ride:


Day 42: 8/2/12 <------------- meaning August 2, 2012
Clear Creek to Osoyoos, BC 250 miles



I don't know anything about connectivity with the web, I don't even have a cellphone!
One of my favorite things about going riding is getting away from that stuff.
Matt brings a cellphone but it just collects dust in the tank bag.
We bring a hackintosh (netbook), but I only go online once a week or so (at motels).



Anyway, sorry to disappoint.
That would be pretty amazing, posting a report like this from the road!
But, it takes hours and hours to work with all the photos and video.
Some folks manage, but I could never do it from the road, on a stupid little telephone...







OK, I'll be back later, with the rest of Day 42.
and more comments about the comments...


- littlewan
(sitting inside a building, not camped in the forest someplace. )

Since you're on the trail all the while and really don't stay connected to the internet, how do you manage all your GoPro footage. Do you just stockpile memory cards? I imagine that would probably be the easiest way. I'd be hard pressed to decide what to and what not to shoot if I had limited card space...

If I had to guess (and I've got to, I'm not Littlewan), she dumps the card into the Hackintosh when it fills up, and sorts through the clips from there.

I'm me and I still had to guess!
haha.
Seriously. It took me a minute to remember...


We started off with some cards - I think the GoPro has a 32gb card. and maybe a 16gb
I think I had two 4gb cards for the point and shoot.

We planned to put stuff on the hackintosh as we went, but that thing has a tiny HD.
It's only a stupid Dell 10v netbook.



After Black Dragon wash/Eagle Canyon/Cat Canyon,
we quickly learned that we were shooting too much video for that to work.


Rode out to Richfield, UT and got a portable HD.
Just a simple one. It was maybe $80, so 500 gig?





It got Klimed, like everything else.
(we have a couple of these at home and I didn't want them getting mixed up).


It worked pretty well - we could only transfer photos and video when we had a motel room.
Needed to have power and lots of time.
But, all our footage (many hours) and pics (over 6000) made it home safely.


While we were riding, we kept the HD wrapped in a sock (classy!) and had it tucked in the hackintosh neoprene case.
Which was kept in our main duffel, amongst our clothes and the sleeping bags.
I was always worried with all the rough roads and water crossings, but they did all right.

Yeah, sometimes we got lucky and captured things we weren't expecting.
Other times...meh.
But it was nice to feel like we could take a chance on something.
We still missed a lot, but at least having lots of storage gave us some freedom.
With 7 weeks + of riding, having just a fixed number of Gigs would have been difficult.


Hope that helps!










haha, more like this:





OK, all this nerd stuff is keeping me from finishing Day 42!

I agree! You guys should have one too!

ROFL I almost fell out of my chair laughing when I saw your post. Of course I'm embarrassed but it's nothing new to me. If you knew me, you'd understand.

I saw the notebook computer in some pictures and jumped to an obviously wrong conclusion. Don't worry, I'm still impressed. Pretty funny how I missed the dates. At least I now know you survived the trip. Ha!

You guys are great!

Aw, it's okay Kingsized!
Sometimes I write in the present tense, trying to keep things interesting.
That could have screwed you up.
I'm still thrilled that you think I'm capable enough to do a polished report on the fly!





I'll bet you thought I was a *little* out of it when I was wishing everyone a "Happy Independence Day!" at the end of August...:

Actually, everything is keeping me from finishing Day 42.
I'm having a hard time leaving BC and getting to the WABDR.
Better just do it. Like ripping off a bandaid...

hey, dirk! Danke schoen!

haha, we don’t usually enjoy learning juice on the trail - maybe, ice cream!

Nice chainsaw!
Oh, I wanted to use some of those, like "manoeuvre," or "cheque."

Good job!

Thank YOU, Syntroxis! I'm glad you're excited!

yeah, all this reading and writing is hard work!









Hi larryboy!
(did those logs bring back more Oregon memories?)




I think all the other comments have been covered, right?




OK.








Day 42: 8/2/12 continued
Clear Creek to Osoyoos, BC 250 miles







It was smooth sailing after we got past our new favourites (logs )...






So, I think the stuff we had just done was part of Radek'’s original plan for the Lunacy Tour part deux...
Remember how we had skipped the 4 hours of dirt in the morning?
yeah.
That part.



Because, here we were - Boston Bar.
We stopped here for gas with Radek, before getting on the ferry.
That time, I didn’'t take photos for some reason.
This time, I did. Here you go...







Nothing like gas station ice cream!
I think Radek got a magnum bar last time.
We had our usual. Cone for matt, sandwich for me.
Monster to share.







I saw this poster and thought the truck names were funny.
How do you think the bike would start acting if we called her, "Old Ugly?"







All righty, time to get back on the road!
Enjoy some photos from our last bits of lovely Canadian dirt...















































































And, ta da!
We'’re back in Princeton.






We grabbed a quick lunch and got gas.
It was perfect - we managed to spend all our Canadian money!
I think we were down to a couple ten cent coins and some pennies.




From Princeton, we were mostly slabbing it to the border.
Getting ready to start the WABDR!!

























We saw several of these giant chairs. I think they were advertising vacation rentals?








Nighthawk, here we come!






















And then we saw the sign.

I didn'’t get a photo of that actual sign,
but here'’s the pertinent information:





And it was about 6:30pm.



Mother brother!!

And we had spent all of our Canadian money.
Brilliant.



Now we were stuck in Canada, completely penniless.
A couple of American hobos.




As far as we could tell, there isn'’t much near the border for camping.
Our map sucked and so does our phone.
Matt checked Norm for the nearest section of forest and off we went.



After riding in the woods, looking for something suitable,
we found a really nice spot.
Our first choice was pretty good, but when we stopped,
a herd of cows came lumbering out of the bushes, pooping everywhere!
Too stinky!


This place was better.






From what Norm was showing, it seemed to be Forest land.
We were hoping it was legal to camp there.
If it's not, they'’ll blame this guy:








Uh oh. Looks like somebody fell off the wagon... (my last chance for a Shatner clip!)
184 miles per hour?
I don't think so, Norm.







OK, so tomorrow - escape from Canada!
and then, Washington - here we come...

I love coming home from work, scrolling down Ride Reports, finding Gettin' Dirty, scanning over to the last post column and seeing "Today.... by LittleWan." Oooooh! So exciting!

The worst part about lugging these bikes around with two people is that it is so hard to tell where the weight is going. I always feel like I am going to drop it, and end up pulling it away from my husband so that he feels like he is going to drop it.

MMMMM!

I love gas station ice cream! I have had meals of only ice cream when stopping at remote gas stations. You should try to work Fields Station into one of your trips for an awesome world famous shake! I had 2 of them on our last trip to NV.

I know what you mean about writing those reports. It does take some time. All that writing and editing and finding the right pictures to put in. Plus video editing. (I don't bother with that ) I wonder how you find the time.

Well keep at it! You are doing a great job!!!



Thank you for opening my eyes to BC. I need to get up there for some fun.

That's the way I was thinking of for my 6000+ mile trip for next year. Actually, I'm hoping to be able to use a tablet as the transferring device to move from the SD card to the HD. Thanks!!!