Well after decompressing for a week or so, I thought it was time to get this puppy up and running.

First off if you want the whole story you have to re-read last year's report. That will lay the groundwork for this year's trip....just saying

https://www.kawasakiforums.com/forum...sins+epic+ride


Saturday afternoon...May 30 loading up stuff.




I'll be baaaak


Fuel, water and power



Classic picture by the ocean...


Same spot from last July...about 35 minutes south of town.



About half way to my mom's house, in Oakville Wa I spotted this....its my favorite year for the Chevy, we had that same truck when I was growing up. It was for sale too!!




I left Forks at 5:00 am and headed to my mom's house for a hearty breakfast of course.



Arrived at Jim's house around 12:30, we decided to leave that day instead of waiting till Monday morning, which was a good call.




Then it was off to pick up the toy hauler and transfer some stuff. Then we hit the road.



Turning off to head to the campground.


Camp setup. We got there and the campground was pretty full with like 30 trailers. The next day there were 3....I guess the kids had to go back to school. Note to self: hit the riding areas during the week, less kids!







The usual Suspects...




So Monday morning we head out to our first objective which is called "Hole in the Ground" And as you can see the name just fits. LOL





The "Cuz"



More to come, hold comments till I get it all put together.

 

Ok continuing on: After we got to the "Hole in the Ground" Someone....who shall remain nameless, forgot to top off his tank from the last time he rode. I was carrying enough gas in my 2 33 oz and 2 22 oz bottles to get back to camp, which was 50 miles from this spot.

Sorry Cuz, I didn't mean to throw you under the bus.....hahahaha

So on our first day we already ran into an adventure. I could have gone 25 miles in the opposite direction from camp and got more gas at a station, but that would have been another 2 hours on gravel and trails using the GPS, then we spotted some riders down in the bottom of the bowl, and since Jim was heading down the steep trail, I decided to ride over to the easy way down.





Its really hard to get an idea just how big this bowl is. Its about a mile across and something like 400 ft deep.



Here is a picture stitched together. I took them with my camera and Jim put them together.



Here is a picture from the air, its pretty overwhelming in person, But this gives you an idea.



Anyway, when Jim got to the bottom of the bowl, he radioed me to ride down and when I got there he was already getting some gas from a guy on a KTM with a 6.5 gallon tank!

One of the other riders.






So the rest of the report, the pictures are not necessarily in order....I'm still fuzzy on the details. lol

One of our Objectives was to see if we could get to a road that my cousin tried to get to earlier this year. It was what we called our long ride, and we ended up at 130 miles for the day. Earlier we stashed a 1 gallon jug half way there so it would be there on the way back. We marked a way-point on the GPS units.

Stopping to eat lunch at the place we camped at last year.



Jim checking work and home stuff. Our other campground which was like 40 miles South, had almost no cell coverage. So we had to take advantage where we could.



Continuing on toward that goal, we of course stopped off to get a few Geocaches. This one was cool.



It was called "Pot Roach" appropriately named.





When we got close to the road objective, we discovered that the last mile or so was on the county roads, so I told Jim to take my bike and grab a photo. While I was waiting I decided to take a picture at the small cemetery that was at the end of the road.



Jim coming back on my bike......that's weird, he's the first person to ever ride my bike besides me.



Here is a picture of him at "the road"



Now it was time to start heading back. The only problem was, we came down some pretty steep and rocky hills, and I was having my doubts about whether we could get back up all of the hills. So we started looking for an alternate route. zooming out on the GPS units I spotted what looked like a trail that would lead us back to one of the tracks that we left on the way in.

Sure enough it was a trail alright.....A COW TRAIL!!!, but it was to be honest the highlight of the entire trip for me.



I love the single track stuff. It was still a climb, but it took us right up to "Rooster Comb" a geocache that neither of us found last year, but that Jim found earlier this spring.

This wasn't the same day, I don't think, but I just love the big pine trees here. We have huge trees in the northwest where I live, but no pines.





Love the open dirt roads too!


More to come.........

 

Was someone afraid to get a little gas on their hands..... lol.... wtf.....

 

Continuing on....

Some of the scenery in Central Oregon is something right out of an old western movie. Great stuff.





We saw deer every time we went out to ride. All 4 days we saw either deer of some other critter running around.



Speaking of critters, we stopped at a campground on one of the days, and this little guy came right up and made himself at home. He even inspected my bike tire.





Some food pictures from camp....we ended up cooking a pizza and I think 2 or 3 nights also having french fries all on the small portable grill. Jim found the perfect pan that fit inside the grill. The food was awesome!!!



Dude...you gonna eat all of that? Oh yeah... I ate the other half....nevermind.







All the comforts of home.....pretty rough out here. lol

I think this was Austin Powers 2...not sure. hahahaha




DOH!!! I almost forgot to post the chip cupboard. We featured a different chip each night... CHIP CHANGE!!! CHIP CHANGE!!! .LOL


This set of pictures shows another day of riding and collecting Geocaches.

We both thought this one was clever...it said "sign the log".......get it? sign the log? hahahaha



And sooooooo we did!




Another cache probably on another day...




I was fascinated by all of the lava rock, I think at one point Jim says..."Dude...I don't know when the rock was formed...lets just get back to riding! What am I a scientist?".....hahahaha

 

One of the days we made it up to East Butte Fire Look Out, at 6470 ft







More random pictures from somewhere. Too lazy to remember. LOL







I think in this picture I was saying..."You want me to walk over there?" hahaha


Cool tunnel crossing under I think Highway 20...not sure.





Again, fascinated with stuff we don't have up in western Wa, the red cinder dirt road.



Ok so don't try this at home....riding fast on a loose gravel road, using the left hand to try and get the camera out of the left side of the inside of my jacket while trying not to die, just to take a moving picture with speed indicated. YIKES!!! At one point I almost bit it going around a corner....


More randomness...


GPS's are great, but sometimes you want to see the bigger picture. Always carry a paper map for the area you ride, just in case.



Some of the trails were littered with volcanic rock that seemed like it was going to eat you for breakfast, or at least rip your tires apart. This was actually one of the tamer trails.....YIKES!


Ran into this...


And of course I had to get a picture of this...


I talked with the guy for a while, he's retired from the navy (looked the same age as me) and now works for the Forest Service maintaining trails. Cool job.

One more set..I promise hehehehe

 

One of the days we rode up to one of the cinder cones that climbs 1000 ft in just a short burst. We did this last year as well.





A couple of the pictures look like something out of a movie.



Jim on the descent




Then of course he had to out do by riding up a different route....but someone had to stay at the bottom and take a picture...right?


Another Geocache....we didn't find it though.....




Not all of the trails were rough.


We did manage to get one video, lets see if I can figure out how to post it.

http://s27.photobucket.com/albums/c1...t=CIMG1942.mp4



Well that's it....except a couple more random pics. I thought this one was ironic since I snore pretty bad, and the wife and I do have separate rooms LOL



Heading back into Washington from Portland



We ended the off road part right at 350 miles, and my trip from home to the riding area and back was just shy of 900 miles.

 

Nice write-up and great pics! Sounded like a great trip. Some really unique geocaches you guys found.

 

Congratulations, I really like your adventure!

 

Uhhhhh I carry those same gloves with me. The last thing you want is a hand full of gas in your glove or on your sandwich...LOL

 

Cool trip, man, looked like a ton of fun. Thanks for posting up all the pics, that crater was cool. What was that formed by? Meteor impact? I've seen photos of that in other peoples' ride reports over on ADVrider. Looks like a cool place.