The Mobius Trip

[BigDogAdventures.com]

Today we would ride some pretty technical stuff----maybe not for an all out unladed dirt bike----but for us campers.



It was sometime before now that Dr. Rock let me out front for pretty much the rest of the ride.
I was dunbfounded at first---as since he laid this all out I just assumed he and Francine would lead.
He loved draggin up the rear and taking pictures and soaking it all in. I think he quickly learned he could trust me out there with the navigation
and I would stop and gather everybody up once in awhile---and if there was a question with routing---- I would stop to work a
re-route out----which was always figured out very quickly between me and him.
And sometimes while I was out front----------if I wanted too--------I could run as fast as I wanted.

[DR. Rock]

our next section took a bit of Hwy 12 (where Tony split off), and then turned onto dirt, and promptly hit a locked gate on Little Deep Creek road.

We backtracked and found some other dirt that headed us in the direction of White Sulphur Springs. I think Mark and Scott-NT took pavement at some point, and me, LDF and Scott-DW had to open and close some gates on these farm roads,



No matter; we ro into White Sulf Spr.



and easily found the gas / convenience store where Mark & Scott were... it's not that big of a town.



Probably more dangerous than NYC, though with all the Meth...



Puts bear-scare into perspective, don't it? There were motorcyclists too:



Scarey!



Danger everywhere.

[DR. Rock]

fed and hydrated, we hopped onto Birch Creek road,



and headed back into the Helena NF.



Climbing up to Duck Creek Pass at 7600+ ft.



(two riders in this one if you can find 'em)

[DR. Rock]

we were treated to high winds,



and hazy views...







Direction we're headed:

[BigDogAdventures.com]

Yeh--- I think Francine was about to get blown away in this picture---super windy up there.

[malibu_dan]

Your color correction was a little off on the guy wearing the a$$73$$ chaps...

[DR. Rock]

from the road,



Looking off to the right, I spied this trench dug across the face of the next rise over -- It wasn't a road, not sure what it was... fire cut? water runoff protection? mining or logging?



in the valley, we picked up Duck Creek,



before heading back into the hills and some old mining country.

[DR. Rock]

and Confederate Gulch,





I also spied some recent signs posted giving regulations on prospecting and panning in the area. Probably a lot more interest given the current gold prices.

We stopped for a break where we had a choice between two different routes I'd scoped out. There was the longer northern route, and the shorter vague track that cut through the NF.



We chose the shorter way...

[DR. Rock]

so we'd checked the maps and scouted out a potential destination for the night. We were headed for the Smith River area which is big among paddlers.



Unbeknownst to us, we were entering a maze of private ranch land in a national forest. I had laid down a waypoint that said "Vague for 4 miles": this is what it looked like on the ground:



regarding the air quality: "if you were sitting around a campfire and the air was this smokey, you'd get up and move to the other side"

and regarding the route: "this is a PERFECTLY good road"



We'd opened and closed a couple of gates with no signs on them by this point, and clearly someone was ranching here:



sure enough, the road got really vague,



and then it would become more visible,

[DR. Rock]

the first gate that was posted, and there was a nice road sign beyond...



but wasn't locked...



we debated what to do, and decided to backtrack and try a go-around that Scott-NT identified on his 42" big-screen GPS.

Another perfectly good road:

[BigDogAdventures.com]

More pictures me and Dingweeds took of the same area Dr. Rock is talking about.
I'm having trouble looking at my pictures and remembering where we were at.
But Dr. Rock has a much better memory than me.










Lots of gate opening and closing.




Our tassels got us through.






I wanna go back !!!!!!



BigDog

[DR. Rock]

probably shouldn't be repeated.



What I mean is... if anyone downloads our tracks for this day... the next section was in retrospect probably on private land.



Or at least public land appropriated by private individuals for their own use and at the exclusion of the public. Who knows... we just wanted to get to the next main road.



That said, at no point did we go through a gate that was posted "No Trespassing"...



and we were always on a trail that was marked on both out paper maps and the GPS's.

[DR. Rock]

"This is bordering on bushwhacking"



we just kept looking down at our GPS's and following the line.





sometimes it even looked like something more than a cow had once passed there.

[DR. Rock]

down off of the ridge,



we found ourselves in huge fenced-in fields, with the trail fading fast.



and finally, crossed a real honest to goodness two-track. It wasn't the one we wanted, but the maps showed a short jog south, and then it would meet up with our original route.



Hot diggity!

[DR. Rock]

after a mile, that ran into a LOCKED gated, so we headed back, and tried to follow the line on the GPS across the flats.



Totally bushwhacking again...





about a mile and a half later, we ran into another two-track, followed that north, where we quietly passed some ranch buildings and a residence, through an open gate and onto the Smith River - Camp Baker access road.

Glancing back on the open gate, I saw a sign that said "Private Property"



I just want to be clear -- at no time was our intention to trespass, and at no time did we cross anything posted, and according to our maps and GPS, we were always on public roads on public land.

I understand that in this part of the country it is incumbent on us to know the status of the land we're on -- private or public, but realistically, that's tough to do prior to departing, and even harder from the field.