Sunday, October 2, 2016

Ketchup Post

Wow, I have neglected my blog! Allow me to catch up, remind myself why my schedule is so full, whilst referring Trobaritz's blog to jog my memory. I'll post these up as I find time.






Choose KLR

First off, this Spring a couple of guys at work decided to buy motorcycles. Three of them bought Kawasaki KLR650s, and knowing that I rode a Triumph Tiger and a Yamaha XT250, they too wanted to ride gravel roads.








Jeff and his daughter on his new KLR

I try very hard not to mix my work life with my home life, but when it comes to motorcycles what are you gonna do? As my social calendar started to fill, my solitude seemed to slip away. Since we all work in the same department, have the same schedule with Friday mornings off, they suggested we meet for coffee every week. Of course, meeting for coffee leads to discussions about rides, roads, and maps, and we all know what happens next.  Yep, we're shucking our obligations at home to go riding.








They wanted to see covered bridges


So, covered bridges it is!

Then all of this riding has led to trip planning, particularly a 2+ day ride from the Cascades to the Coast, or the Oregon Backcountry Discovery Route (OBDR), so when we're not out riding, we were buying camping gear, fitting kit to our bikes, and doing short shakedown rides to coffee. Still shucking our obligations at home.


Hanging out at  coffee, on their cellphones...



Aren't cellphones great?! *eyeroll


One of my shakedown rides, (the guys at work couldn't make it, but Polar Bear did) was the Black Dog Dualsport Adventure Ride; a two day dust fest near Hood River the first weekend in June.



2012 Black Dog AMA National Dualsport/Adventure Ride Promo Video from openmike on Vimeo.


Andy and I loaded up the bikes onto his trailer that Friday morning and headed off to Hood River. We got barely an hour up the freeway when we received texts and phone calls from Mrs. Polar Bear stating there was a train derailment and oil tankers on fire in the Gorge and that I-84 was closed at Hood River, the very spot we were headed.







http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3624984/Critics-River-route-no-place-oil-trains-crash.html

After a bit of head scratching and consulting our maps, we decided to head East through Molalla and sneak around the backside of Mount Hood. This made for a steep climb and a minor overheating issue, but with Andy's mechanical wizardry and a temporary repair to the radiator with some quick steel, we were able to make it over the mountain and into Odell to the Fairgrounds where we set up our tents for the weekend. Another friend Don, beat us there with his motorhome and was able to claim a spot for us and a couple of other friends who arrived later because of the train. We could see the smoke from the fairgrounds, but not close enough to bother us.


Our camp at the fairgrounds


Up early the next morning, we registered and received our roll charts for the day's route. Having never used a roll chart before we clumsily loaded them into our holders and set off for adventure.

It took a few stops and turns to appreciate a roll chart, but once we got it, we loved it. Coming from a guy reluctant to give up his antiquated flip phone, this sure beat messing with GPS tracks and maps.

The ride was great, however, being on smaller bikes we weren't in nearly as much of a hurry as everyone else. We pulled over a number of times to let a herd of KTMs stampede past us in a cloud of dust, we started referring to KTMs as rhinoceroses.

http://animals.howstuffworks.com/mammals/rhinos-charge.htm

http://mentalfloss.com/article/30705/10-things-you-should-know-about-rhinos

We would putt along and eventually come upon the same herd of rhinoceroses (evidently known as a "crash") that had stopped at a crossroads to refer to their GPS and maps, then tootle past them with a friendly wave. It wasn't five or ten minutes before the "charging crash" would be blindly stampeding past us again in another cloud of dust, where we would again stop to let the dust settle only to come upon them again at the next intersection. Silly rhinoceroses.











The scenery was fantastic and the roads were just challenging enough that we weren't going to hurt or exhaust ourselves to feign a work related limp Monday morning.


Back at camp


We had a great time, the roll charts made for a self guided tour at our own pace.

~

This should catch you up to the end of June. To be continued...





18 comments:

  1. Yep, meeting for coffee is the beginning of the end for free time.

    I had heard about that train derailment. Pretty disastrous. I hadn't seen any pictures, just comments on Twitter. Isn't there a new bike in there somewhere? Or is that later?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You know how slow a ketchup bottle can be? Give it a couple of smacks on the bottom of the bottle and it comes little by little.
      I've written up to the end of June, I have a couple more smacks before I get to the new bike post. (hint: header pic)

      Delete
  2. Heh, herd of rhinoceroses... :D

    Troubadour, your mention of roll charts has convinced me that I must add one to my inventory: I plan my long rides well and print detailed itineraries and routes, but--as I'm sure you know--even just stopping to pull a folded piece of paper from the pocket can be a real pain in the ass. Yep, a roll chart is an easy, low tech solution.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yep, a herd of rhinoceros is called a crash. How apropos.

      We likened the Dual Sport event and roll chart as "a self guided tour". Andy actually planned a route recently using the backside of an old roll chart he had, worked out pretty well.

      Delete
  3. Jeez, that's all that's happened since January? Trobaritz is much more interesting than you? ;)

    Now about that new bike....

    ReplyDelete
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    1. That's about it, and yes, she is much more interesting than I. There were a few more rides, hikes, and a vintage bike show, but she wrote about those.

      What new bike?

      Delete
  4. Oil tankers derailed? Where they filming another finale to Breaking Bad?

    ReplyDelete
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    1. Yep, oil tankers derailed in the gorge, right next to the Columbia river. Had to go to a newspaper in the UK to find photos and story about it. Breaking Bad, ha.

      Delete
  5. Brad, meanwhile it's very fortunate to have Brandy keeping us up to date on your activities. She's a so much more reliable source ;-)

    For a moment I thought you had stumbled over a movie set when I realised that must have been real. Maybe you didn't have a lot of local coverage in order to prevent outcries of all those darn tree huggers. And the oil spill was probably all good for the environment, right?

    ReplyDelete
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    1. But she doesn't post the boy's outings.

      The Censored States of America tries to sweep all this news under the rug.

      Delete
  6. Very cool to see bikes bringing people together.

    I'll bump into people at work that I've seen for years but haven't met. They'll ask, "Hey, you ride, right?" And it's on!

    So many friendships have started over motorcycles. And so many Friday "honey-do's" left undone....

    ReplyDelete
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    1. I'm amazed when someone I don't even know approaches me to ask me about motorcycle training, word gets around pretty quick that I'm an instructor.
      Walking into work wearing a full, hi-vis Aerostich suit doesn't help either.

      You mean riding a motorcycle isn't a prerequisite with all your friends?

      Delete
  7. self paced rides are the best, letting the frantic rhinos speed on their way....

    ReplyDelete
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    1. It is nice not to be in such a hurry and enjoy the views... once the dust settles of course.

      Delete
  8. I wish i'd stayed home more and had a clean house - said no one ever!
    On your death bed you'll be saying i wish i had got out on the bike and explored more of the world or some such thing.

    ReplyDelete
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    1. Sure wish upper management at work had lives, and weren't so concerned about their careers and making money so those of us not chasing the mighty dollar could get out of overtime and enjoy our lives.

      Delete
  9. I too thought the pics of the derail were staged. Very sad situation, but I hope they have it contained and no one was injured. (Was anyone injured?)

    Agreed on separating work and play...except where bikes are concerned. :) Glad you had a good time, and rode your own ride. They are definitely the best and you get to see more. Not rushing. Why is your friend bent over the bike??

    ReplyDelete
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    1. I don't think anyone was hurt in the train wreck, and they managed to keep it contained.

      Andy was riding his Honda Elsinore 125 and was siphoning gas out of my bike.

      Delete

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