An affiliate adventure posse from Oregon, led by Rob McCready, sent in some photos and commentary about a recent outing in Oregon. Rob had looked me up, after hearing about our recent Trans-America Trail ride into Oregon, wondering if we had crossed the Discovery Route and ran into any snow. Turns out, Rob used to work with my friend Gary Huck at Summit, and Gary put us in touch, being familiar with itsallaboutthebike.com. Rob and company were taking the Discovery Route #4, from Prineville to Seneca, Oregon, all on dirt. And mud. And snow, as you can see below. Rob was riding a silver KTM 950 Adventure, his buddies on various BMW GS models: Scott Norton on the red GS, Pete Day on the black Adventure, and Dave Combe on the black GS. Click the photos below and they will link you to these and some more recently uploaded images of this adventure in our Flickr gallery, along with colorful commentary from Rob.
Photo by Rob McCready
Photo by Rob McCready
Photo by Rob McCready
After returning from the Trans-America Trail trip, I had very little desire to touch the KTM let alone ride it. It was a reliable steed that saw me through some good times and some trouble, so it was nothing personal. Part of it was that last day from Burns, Oregon to Park City, Utah all on the pavement. Seemed like my wrists and hands were still buzzing after a week. Also, the bike needed some maintenance. My Dunlop D606 front tire and D908 rear were totally hammered, both from the aggressive and sometimes rocky off-road riding, as well as the road riding. My rear sprocket is worn to the point of replacing, and I decided to have the dealer do the 2nd big service, because it involved a bunch of things over my head, like checking and adjusting the valves. The head KTM mechanic at the Edge Motorsports, Victor, seems like a really good dude, passionate and knowledgeable, and most importantly, certified by KTM. They did forget to rebuild my clutch master cylinder, which is one of the main reasons I brought it in, but that wasn’t Victor’s fault. The service guy who wrote my ticket must have spaced it. That’s about it for the boring maintenance report. While I was picking up my bike, I just had to check out the new KTM 690 Super Enduro and ponder how it would have performed out there on the Trans-America route. No windscreen might have been tough to handle, but with enough room on the tail for some soft bags, this thing looks like it would have devoured the dirt.
3/4 view of the new 2008 KTM 690 Super Enduro. Big, bad, dirtbike. I like.
Keeping the posts updated on the road proved to be a challenge. Until I have a chance to go back and place images in the context of the posts, you can see a sampler of photos I took with an iPhone on Flickr:
Moto’s iPhone Photos
When Darth and Obi-Ben return to civilization, we’ll upload some of their shots and video.
After slabbing it from Adel to Crater Lake to try to make up some time, we decided we should detour and spend a night at Crater Lake National Park. Crater Lake is the deepest lake in the United States at 1,943 feet deep, and the seventh deepest lake in the world. The body of water is a caldera (volcanic basin), has no inlets or outlets, and is filled by 500 plus inches of snow a year. We paid our entrance fees to the National Park Service, then climbed the switchback road to Crater Lake Lodge, which is perched on the rim at about 7800 feet. We parked our bikes in the circle, next to a 10 foot snow bank. Woolfree, the nice bellman from the Dominican Republic (the “DR”) told us this was only the lodge’s second night of the season. We would find they were still working out all the kinks. The front desk could not pull up Darth’s reservation, even though he had a confirmation number from a call earlier in the day. They were able to get us a split level loft room, with plenty of space to stretch out. Then while getting our gear to the room, the power in the whole building went out. Good time to take a nap before our 8:00 PM dinner reservation. The lodge is operated by a company called XanTerra, which has a big fat contract to run this and other grand old national parks lodges. The building itself is grandiose, with a spacious great room with a stone fireplace (with a lame gas burner instead of logs), but comfortable chairs and couches you can just melt into, especially after sitting upright on an enduro bike all day. Due to the power outage, they offered an improvised menu which turned out to be ok, all things considered. The power went back on while we were finishing up coffee and dessert, just in time to turn in for the night. We stayed up for awhile looking at all the photos and video trapped on our respective digital devices, reviewing the good times, small victories, and reminders of the little challenges we have had along the road and trail. Good way to end the night.
Crater Lake, from the deck of the Crater Lake Lodge just before dinner.
After leaving Denio Junction, we hit the dirt in the Sheldon Wildlife Refuge. We passed numerous Opal mines, not many people out on route 8a. We settled in at the Gooch Springs campground and set up our tents in a bit of a squall. By dark, we had a raging sage brush fueled campfire, some beer, and some red beans and rice. We listened to packs of coyotes calling across the valley to each other. When we awoke, there was snow on the ground and ominous dark skies above. We packed up in haste and started a frigid death march across the Nevada/Oregon border. Coming into the town of Adel, the crosswinds blew me from the righthand side of the road all the way to the left. Fortunately, the Adel Country Store was open, with a fire raging in the wood stove, and a friendly sleepy eyed dog named Bush curled up in front of it. My hands were so cold, I couldn’t get my gloves off for a good ten minutes. We just sat there not saying anything for awhile. The proprietor, a woman named Marcie, gave us hot coffee and made us bacon and eggs. I don’t know what we would have done had it been Tuesday. The store is closed on Tuesdays. Sent from my iPhone.
Not sure what we would have done without this place.
Obi-Ben, messing with his phone.
Just threw down lunch at Denio Junction , just a few miles from the Oregon border. Met a rancher in the cafe who gave us some advice on what roads to take. He gave us yet another viewpoint on how the rising fuel costs are killing rural America, particularly tough on the cattlmen. Basically, thanks to GW’s brilliant ethanol subsidy, there’s no freaking corn to feed the cows. He and his wife had their cows at a local pasture and they had come to check in on them. They were from Oregon but had to come over to Nevada to find pasture because it is so hard to find these days. After some massive burgers and shakes, it was time to roll. Darth bought a can of Chunky Stew, allegedly to be his dinner for later that night. After he and Obi-Ben are done hammering out the dents from his aluminum Touratech pannier box after his digger in the mountains, we get on the bikes and go. Sent from my iPhone.
Another bar/gas station/grill/grocery store/post office/motel in Nevada.
In Chicago at a work conference, discussing e-commerce with other travel and tourism marketing professionals. Listening and observing, and wondering if some of these folks feel like they are trying to catch and hold on to a greased pig, that’s the analogy I think of when I hear folks ask questions relating to how they might “monetize social media” and the like. And the greased pig squirts off into the corner, and then someone else tries to catch and hold it. I learned today that in the Social Media Ladder of Technographics, I somehow qualify and fit the profile of Creator (because I started this blog). I learned the online travel industry, generating $112 billion dollars in sales a year is the largest segment of e-commerce, porn notwithstanding. Talk about monetizing something. The truth is, most of the time, I was thinking about the upcoming Moto May-hem trip: Utah to Port Orford on the Oregon Coast, following a mostly off-road route called the Trans-America trail. I had a call with my master Yoda, Bart to discuss new tires for the KTM 640 Adventure. I have been reading reviews online for dualsport Pirelli tires, Metzelers, and Dunlops. My bike is currently equipped with Metzeler Enduro 3 Sahara tires, front and back. The reviews were inconclusive, so it was good to get some direction from Bart. Based on his advice, I am going to give the Dunlop D606 tires a try. Stay tuned for a full report after I get them mounted.