Fall Dualsporting

I have a few posts left from this summer's road trip, but I wanted to put up something a bit timely.

Jerry and I've been out riding now that the KLR has been fixed (more on that when I finish the summer road trip story).

There is always something special about being out when the leaves are changing colour, it's cold in the morning and there is no longer any dust to worry about, though there's plenty of moisture.


We've been incredibly lucky and the last two Saturdays have been dry and warm... well, ok, not freezing cold ;)

Last weekend we went exploring in the Mamquam valley around Squamish. Since it was the first off-roading since I've had the KLR apart, I was a bit nervous when we got further in the back. But it was gorgeous.




Jerry's version of this photo ;)


Yup, we both wear dorky hi-viz gear.

We only stopped for photos on the way out. The sun was low even at mid-day and on the way in I was generally way to busy trying to see and wasn't thinking about the scenery.


We didn't go straight out, instead heading up to the "Lava Flow" are to do a bit more technical riding. On the way there we stopped to take a good look into the valley we'd just come out of:


The ride down was different than I remembered it because there are new powerlines and a bunch of single track has been removed. It's been a few years but I came through there with Bill on his 620 KTM years ago. Though the looks we got were the same. Something like "WTF are you doing in here with _that_ bike?"

Jerry and stopped at one point to talk to some guys on full on dirtbikes to make sure I was heading the right way and it's hard to describe how incredulous they looked. ;)


This weekend we headed East instead and rode in on the West side of Stave Lake in Mission.

Michelle and I had done some very minor exploring in there this summer. But again, the conditions were completely different. Gone was the dust and the pebbles, instead all we had was hard packed, moist and grippy dirt.

I told Jerry I'd take it easy and got a "Uh huh..." in response.

Three words: Dirt-Super-Highway. What a blast! We passed trucks, bikes and quads. :D

Eventually it got tighter and towards the end got a bit technical, mostly because of the loose and large rocks. Again, gorgeous spots along the way.






Untouched valley



Fresh snow on the peaks


Low clouds? High fog?



Good times


Stave Lake from the North end


After this we once again set a good solid pace out. Tons of traffic was heading in as we were coming out and Jerry said he'd never seen it this busy. I guess a lot of folks were trying to take advantage of the excellent fall weather, just like us.

We did a bit of exploring on the way out, including in some spots that perhaps we were not intended to go (is that what the gates mean?).

After helping me get past the concrete blocks and gate extension, Jerry's bike got very tired and needed a nap. ;)


My camera decided it had suffered enough in the cool conditions and the battery gave up. Great day of riding. :)

Fall days are some of the most fun on a dual sport. I'm not sure why, perhaps the fact that the season is almost done and you know there are not many days like this left.

2014 Dual sport trip - Day 5

Up the Lolo.

Tony and I had several options mapped out for Idaho. But we also wanted to get into eastern Oregon, so we decided to hit the Lolo Motorway. I'd done it once by myself in 2009 and didn't mind heading back to it.

Of course I completely forgot how to get there, so I just kind of rode by feel. We were on a great road, twisty and fun and eventually, yup, we were in the right spot.

Easy gravel to start


Confirmation


Soon enough we got off the big gravel road onto the small Lolo motorway, the actual path Lewis and Clark took.


Along the way the big story boards told the tale


Just past here was the first rough climb and ... no Tony.


Turns out he got a bit close to one of the trees sticking into the trail and knocked one of his side cases right off the bike. No permanent damage and I didn't have to ride too far back to find him again.




The trail was much rougher than it was 5 years ago when I rode it. At the time I did see a grader working on it, so perhaps I got lucky. Our progress was slow, with both uphill and downhill rock gardens.

But we did reach some gorgeous spots. It was hot, so parking in the shade was the way to go.


Dusty too.


The drops offs were not too bad, but we were up there, over 6000 feet.


Not far to the very top.


Oh yeah, the view :)



After this it was still a ways till we got to the only cut out where we could get back to the highway. It was this or ride the entire motorway.



Even more dusty ;)


Since it was past 2pm we decided to cut out, hit the highway and head towards Lochsa Lodge and get some elk burgers. Well the fact that Tony would have run out of gas may have had something to do with the decision as well.

The ride out was a pain, either sand or rolling marbles. But we got to the highway and I _thought_ I'd picked the right way. Eventually it proved right and we got to the lodge, got gas and had some food. Out of elk but I had a very tasty bison burger. YUM.

I did hit the mother-of-all-bugs on the way to the lodge:


After a good meal, it was back to the hotel, another 2 or 3 hours of riding. It was smoking hot again when we got there, over 100 F. But happy none-the-less.

Back at the hotel before we went back for more mexican food and grade cervesas, this is what a good day looks like:



Tomorrow we'd head into Oregon and leave Idaho behind once again.

2014 Dual sport trip - Day 2

Turns out Tony likes to get up early, and I wasn't that far behind. So we ended up having breakfast quite early for a Sunday morning. It felt like we had the town to ourselves (almost). We did chat with one of the local Nelson cops, who was a nice enough guy (he rode dual sport bikes as well, which I'm going to claim had a lot to do with it ;) )



Local Object-de-Art



We were packed and ready to head out shortly after, though I'd spotted some patterns and colours on the deck that I wanted to get a short of.


Artsy Nelson pic


Ready to ride!


We had a very pleasant experience with a cop on the way out of Nelson (as in, he waved at us to slow down but didn't turn on his lights ... so we did :) ).

The Kaslo to Sandon run was great, pavement was beautiful and I only had one deer encounter, which was easily handled. The ride up Idaho peak was much narrower than I remembered, but after climbing 1000 meters in 10 kilometers, we were here


I did have to squeeze past one truck, and by that I mean I was leaning the bike out at as far as I could while almost clipping the truck with my shoulder, so that my side bags wouldn`t scratch his quarter-panels. Sounds dangerous until you realize he was stopped and I was in first gear. Tony told me that he moved over a lot more for him.

If you have very good eyes you can just make out one of the loops of the road below


It`s a pretty steep drop on both sides of the parking lot


Full sized SUV on the way up, for scale.





A different view of the view


more in day 2 - part 2.

Pemberton to Horsefly

More amazing dualsporting this weekend.

I met Don in Pemberton on Saturday morning and we headed up to Seton Portage, via the Highline Road.

Sure didn't look like much at the beginning, this is literally behind someone's run-down mobile home


But it improved in a hurry. The tiny white line you see in the distance is the 'road' we were following


Here's Don catching up.


Yup, I was really there ;)


A bit better photo of the road.


We took a break here.


To bad no one was having a good time


The small community of Seton Portage at the end of the lake


The trusty bikes, dirty and in their element.


It's like a giant water slide, but without the slide


Then it was up Mission hill. A very fun and fast hill climb. View on the descent, that's the road from Gold Bridge on the other side of Carpenter Lake that Tony and I took last weekend.


The landscape changed quickly


In black & white the KLR doesn't look nearly as dirty


Luckily I slowed down before we pulled over here to take some photos ... or it could have gotten expensive ;)





Don and I split up in Lillooet, he was heading back to Pemberton and I had a lot of riding left to do.

I took the 'shortcut' between Pavilion and Clinton


Steep climb and descent, but the road was in good shape.


In Lac la Hache I turned off to find more gravel. Found it!


Eventually, and hour or so and through twists and turns, this lead me to my dad's place.

We had some brews and I enjoyed a nice sunset. The view from the suite above the barn.



Yup, it's somewhat remote.

Then on Sunday, one long highway haul back to Vancouver. No photos, just a lot of riding.