1047 mi of Oregon Desert, hot springs, sand, gravel and rocks

I'll add a few more pics to fill in.

Starting out north- a couple miles of the freshly graded road- its already building ruts overnite.


We're back to the proper desert track.

After we turn off the gravel the road turns into some awesome hardpack as we get closer to the playa. I get out ahead to get a couple of shots.
The Husky 610


The 640

This section was great fun it went on for a couple of miles until we reached the playa, Wachs & TG blew by me at about 50mph it was sweet.


Entering the playa-Steens mtns. in the background.


This is what the playa looks like up close. It is pretty hard, the 950 only sinks in 1/4in. or so.


You can just see my track.

950 tracks


This is actually one of the smaller playa sections to the east of the main Alvord desert. cruising at about 70mph.


As Wachs said we play around for a little bit and can't seem to find the track that exits the playa so our fearless leader does a little scouting from the top of a little dune.


And then we resort to just riding around looking for it. The track is out there in front of the Husky somewhere.


Sweet, we find the track and it looks like this. Facing the way we came from.

Those are my 950 tracks in the middle. The silt is not as deep out of the ruts. This is right after I almost go down.
I came into this stuff at about 50mph leaning back as far as I could. I made it about 3/4 of a mile thru the silt then almost lost it.

I had to throw my weight around a little and I lost my footing so, here i am at 50mph sideways. I'm sure that I am about to biff it hard. Somehow the bike stays upright as I give it some go juice in 3rd gear. Wachs got that last shot and the following one with my feet off the pegs at the perfect time. If I had spilled he would have got me flying thru the air as I did when we came back this way the next day. Sorry no pics of that one.

Here's a closeup of the Husky tracks in the rut right where the spill happened.


This shot is facing the way we need to go


We make it thru the rest of the silt and end up at the line cabin.


From here on it is easy dirt road 70mph stuff to the pavement where Wachs scares the crap out of the Harley guys. I pull in just as he is running into the road to take a pic. The Harley guys are standing around all stunned to see this wildman running around drooling on himself trying to take a photo. I was drooling to as the last 15-20 mi. were some highspeed open twisties. Power drifting all the way.
I think they were genuinely suprised to have 3 dirtbikers come out of the desert and start shootin the shit with them.

We get to the next fuel stop and the 640 seems to be leaking oil pretty heavily.


There's the culprit.

1/8th turn and it's all better.

Some beautiful country cruising into Rome for lunch and to top off the fuel tanks.



More in a little bit.

Now that's some great riding! I really love the pix.


If I did this, I would have wet myself:



Great shot.



Nate

Believe me It was Hairy, but If you tried to go slow the silt would suck you in. I Tried takeing it easy thru the first couple of silt pits but it was to much work to keep the bike going forward. I found that on the 950 you just point and shoot then hang on. You just have to bully the bike thru.
Stay tuned it only gets harder on this trip.

I love these pics. I have been trying to explain to some friends what I rode every day growing up in the SE WA desert (south of Kennewick ~20 miles). These pics are just like I remember. No one around for miles, blitzing the 2 track, trying to coax the last possible MPH out of your bike. Oh and the silt pits- It was like riding through a pit of flour a foot deep. Great report.

So we fill our packs with beer(?) like true . . . what, campers? I don't know, it was so dry and made us so thirsty and it was only 60 miles of high-speed dirt to the river.







Propane Steve’s map worked!



‘nother sensitive moment



this was an awesome track down into the canyon. Found some guy down there who directed us to a crossing - we would’ve never found it or the hot springs without asking as there are tracks all over this area. Lots of dead-ends and just crazy roads. Our goal was to see the springs and head down to McDermitt the next day. Sounds simple enough.



cool, a bridge. wondered how we were going to get across the river.



Righteous! that must be the hot spring Joe told us about. Except, it’s on the other side of the river - oh yeah, he said you’d have to wade the river to get to it. It’s all coming back to me now.



The wind is ripping through the canyon which is a beautiful place.



Here comes the 950. We had been waiting for him down at the water and couldn’t resist having one beer ‘cause I figured the riding was over and we’d just camp on a nice gravel bar near the water.



UH, looks like we should ride across the river and camp over there, then ride up the other side of the canyon tomorrow. I haven’t ridden through much deep water but I’ve seen those reports with the bikes upside down and really don’t want to go through that. TG says - and this was the quote of the day for sure -”I’ll go first”. WHEW! OK, this is actually a little .avi file but I can’t figure out how to post video.



TG took this shot of the 640 almost going down on something weird in the river bottom.



Can you imagine having to hoist this monster out of the river, pull the tanks to get to the plugs and turn the whole thing upside down?



He bounced off the same thing I hit - whatever it was.





Check out the mini-wave the 950 made!



He did it! Amazingly, I think the Hepco Becker boxes made the thing kinda float and maybe the rear tire wasn’t hooking up? Whatever, all the bikes are across the river and the bar is open!



The short hike up the hill to visit the springs, and scout the step-up section we'll have to do in the morning, first thing, like, to warm up, pretty much right out of the box, total go for it section.



A look back at our camp on the gravel bar.



crappy photo ‘cause we’re laughing so hard I’m jiggling the camera.



real nice spot though

After looking at these pics and remembering that we couldn't see anything that could have caused us to go down, I think it was the current at the deepest part that washed the wheel out. Maybe we should have been pointing upstream a bit more when we did the crossing. i think all of us just pointed it straight across. TG on the Husky just made it look easy.

I'll post some more pics and stuff in a little bit. I just wanted to say hi.

I just had to show this pic one more time. Wachs rides that 640 full of fuel(7.5gal) like it is a little 450!


He's totally pitchin it!
Talk about how to pick a line thru the corners.

Great

Big

Wide

Open

Your trip is incredible!

Nate,

You look like that all the time

Pretty awsome ride report, somehow we need to hook up with Wachs and ride some of the areas around the Steens and Denio. Great looking country.

Jim in Sacramento

This is a great ride report.

Another of our classic ‘alpine starts’, I think this one was 11:am. We figured this would be no big deal, just hit it fast and we’d all scope a line. TG went first, the crux is past the tree on the left. There were 2 actual vertical step-ups with some rocks after that but an easy place to stop, park the bike and come back to get in position to shoot the 950.



I know, too far away. And it’s much steeper than . . . blah blah blah



I gotta learn how to shoot multiple frames. I keep missing the shot of the 950. If there was another frame, it’d be this monster, both wheels about 6 inches off the rock. He hit this in first but at about 4500 rpm, dual Qs booming off the canyon walls, way faster than you’d think to get this up the hill. Shoulda shot video - it was quite impressive.





Up out of the canyon we rode. Very rocky, in fact, no dirt rocky.



610 rolling up through the stones - he’s so happy he’s not on the Funduro.



This was towards the rim of the canyon. Of course it looks easy but this was all cobblestones and pretty rugged.



Big bike



We make the rim and start heading for McDermitt. Hit about a hundred of these features during the trip.



Can you see the bash in his skid pan yet?



Funny sign - couldn’t find any of this stuff on my map.



Cool sky looking back towards Idaho.



We are on track, I guess. TG decides to take over map interpretation and this becomes TODD COUNTRY!



Has anyone mentioned the rocks? It gets worse but everytime we do some dental work loosening section of stones, it seems like we’re rewarded with an equal segment of perfect desert gravel and high speed carving.



Covered some decent miles and we figure McDermitt should be popping out soon.



Right on que there’s the town and disaster peak in the backgound. Perfect, I’m hungry.



There’s a range fire just started way out there in Nevada. This thing blew up really fast as we rode down off the hill.



The 950 rolls on over all obstacles so far. Amazing machine.



This is another little video but you get the idea - about the rocks.



Crazy track. TG found us this truly amazing route off the mountain. The line goes almost directly into town and the bottom is outrageous gravel twisties. Stihlrigg has a ‘bull’ story about a gate back up in there.



I hang back to take this shot of one of the bikes way down there. You could see the track for miles up on the hill.



I didn’t shoot much of the town, in fact, this is it. I figured guys have seen this place before and well, this was the best scene I saw.



Had a decent indian taco, stocked up on fluids again and punched it for the hot springs back in Oregon.



Over the hill and back into familiar country - hauling ass down to camp.



The 950 ground pounding it to happy hour!



I love this section - have ridden it many times and hit 90 mph back there. 610 comin’ atcha.



The thing is, there’s a 90 degree corner and you can’t see it. 610 headed off the track into the sage.



So we get to camp - corner pocket again! and these drinkers, er cowboys pull up and say -’What are you hippies doing?” I’m the first guy in line and - ‘what fukin hippies you talkin’ ‘bout Willis?’ Big laughs all ‘round, one guy has an old GS back home and we bullshit for an hour or more and drink tons of their beer. Hey, they insisted!

I love Oregon.





too bad we don’t have a month out here. I know those mountains real well and they’re spectacular.



Randy and his M-1 Grand - the reason we won WWII!





No wind tonight. Easy day 117 mi. maybe 3 pavement

We meet Steve the propane guy while we are having lunch. He gives us the hand drawn map the Wachs mentioned and a warning directed at me, since I am on the biggest bike. He says; " you know that road out of the canyon is a jeep road, It is going to be really hard gettin out of that canyon, then its another 60-70 miles of very tough riding to get back to the main roads down by Mcdermot". My reply is "that sounds like just the kind of riding we're looking for". Little did I know exactly how rough it would be.


Steve headed up the road to his right and we followed him. A few miles later he signaled that that was the turn we wanted. We headed east and onto some obscure double track thru some big open high prairie. It hasn't rained out here in so long all the grasses were golden brown and very dried out. It was quite a site as far as the eye could see it look like big fields of wheat or oats ready for harvest. The track cut off about 20 miles of boring straight gravel roads. We made a wromg turn on the way thru and followed this road that progressively got worse. It turned in to what can only be described as a dried up mud bogging road. Totally crazy dried up deep ruts crisscrossing each other. I didn't take any pics because we didn't know how long it would take us to get to the hotsprings and we were already racing the sun. We turned around and retraced our path and got on the road we needed and it took us to another big open road.
We stopped for some pics


This is the high speed stuff.


We came to this crossroads. Only 6miles to go.


went this way


and we made it, almost.
Here is TG dropping in.


We ride down not yet knowing that we need to get on the other side of that canyon in the foreground.


Took this by accident putting the camera away. I just thought it was cool.


This is what the road looks like. It drops 3000ft in 1.5 miles.


We get to the bottom and we find of all things more silt. Imagine that.


We ride around some crazy jeep road that is all rocky and washed out over a ridge and as we are going down the other side the road turns into a single track with a huge washout on the left. There is a cutbank on the right that is about 3 ft tall.
I'm following the trail seeing this washout and cutbank thinking that one or two things are about to happen. Both things happened. I smacked my Gobi box on the cutbank and it fell off forcing me into the wash on the left as I rebounded. I barely rode out of it. I get to a flat spot and stop to retrieve my box and Wachs says "we're going to check this road out". I Hike up the hill and the box is sitting there upright in the wash just like someone set it down and forgot it. Since this is the 4th time I've knocked this box off, the lock has finally broken off. After I get the box strapped back on the rack I pull in to this turnaround to wait for Wachs and TG.
This is my attempt at a self portrait, The tri-hull hair style compliments of the Arai XD helmet.


So I sit around here for awhile taking pics and doing a bike inspection and I evn lay down for awhile. The guys have'nt shown up yet and I figure they either found a campsite or were on their way back to camp where I'm at. So I bust out a cold guy and figure if they haven't shown up by the time I'm done then they made camp and I should follow them. Turns out they were doing the same thing down at the river.

I cruise on in and the road is great, rocky and sandy. This track is hard enough that any one who wants to visit better be well prepared. I come to a point wher I can see the guys down below and then I see what has to be the hotsprings.
Thats it above my mirror.


I pull up to the guys and we scout the river crossing.


TG ready to Back up his words.

going for it

Making it look easy

Wachs

Roosting it after the front tire gets yanked by the current


That whole creek is warm water


Hotsprings and beer first then dinner.

TG washing his jersey

Warm shower

Look at the pretty sunflowers and poison oak!

there was poison oak everywhere near the hotsprings-must be careful-

Here is the hill we get to start the day with-loose rock and ft. tall stair steps- the photo doesn't do it justice.


We get back to camp and we find dave bike taking a nap with his helmet for a pillow. The rocks under the center stand had sank in the sand.

Lots of these burrs around. Don't put your shorts on w/out checking first. Ouch!


More to follow shortly.

What day is it? No problem dis-engaging with working life. We’d all be really good at this full-time. Well, it was chilly when I got out of the spring last night.



Who snores? I’m over here - can’t hear it. The last of summer’s heat. No hurry to leave as we are headed west and knowingly trying to soak up as much of every place we visit. I think.



Even though this is my 4th digi cam and I shoot a ton of skiing I can’t seem to grab exactly the frame I want. The TE front tire was 18” off the ground at 65mph or somethin’ and charging.



Same thing here dang it. Visualize the 950 front wheel 18” off the ground between those 2 bushes there . . .



OK so we re-track some stuff we’d ridden a couple days prior. Big deal, it takes us to the big playa and we roll that thing like a Hollywood Movie.



Yup, the 610 on a different day, in a different gear, and lots more throttle - through the same fluff garden. Who's the boss now?



Yeah jump around and waste more sunshine ya weirdo - big playa and heading south to Fields for fuel(s).

First class report guys. keep it up.

Day 4
We get geared up and head out for the big climb out of the canyon. Wachs' pics show that first hill pretty good. My heart was beating real hard before I even got on the bike. Having walked the hill acouple of time on the way to the hotsprings I had a pretty good line picked out. After the guys make it look easy I line it up and give it the go juice. I pointed it for the first ledge and let er rip. I launched off the first step and landed right before the second one, dtayed on the throttle and hit the second step fast. By the time the third step came up I new I would make it. When I went off the 3rd one The front end came up as I grabbed traction on the rock. I was staring at the sky and just hoping I could keep it together. I came to a stop and I felt like I just had 20 espressos'. I was feelin pretty good cbecuase the rest of the road I could see didn't look to bad. So, we continue on and the road gets harder, Though I'm not really suprised. I new it was just wishful thinking.

This is what I just came up

Steeper than it looks- blah-blah-

I watched TG ride up this hill and new that I had better scope a line.

steep-blah-blah

This section out of the canyon is the hardest stuff we have done on this trip. For me it was the toughest I have ever done on the 950. The bike is amazing.

On the way to Mcdermitt


So TG tkes on the map reading and we go over this mtn. on a track that was a road once, now it is just a washed out rock track. But, After the morning I am feeling pretty good. We get to the top and Wachs takes the pic of us that he posted earlier.
That one is right before I meet Angus the big bull. I head on down the track so I can get some pics of the guys.

The trail is steep and rocky I get through a particularly tough section and come face to face with Angus McBeef. I have to pull off to the side because he is standing in front of the gate we need to go thru. Roundup had already happened and all his girlfriends were gone.
He was hanging out at the gate looking towards town and where the girls had disapeared.


I tried to herd him on up the hill as that was the only place he could go. I got him about halfway up this hill thinking that one of the guys would get a big suprise as they came over the top.


That bull knew he was bigger than me so he turned on me and started to push his way back to the gate. I just had to get out of the way. TG comes down the hill and is heading for the gate when he sees the bull-head down ready to show TG who the boss was. Needless to say TG had do give him space.
OH Crap


Wachs' turn-I took the same line-


With three of us there Angus McBeef decides that he can move on after all. We go thru the gate and down this.



The trail follows this gully all the way to the valley floor.


That's the track to the left, but the cow trail is better.


When we hit the valley floor the track turns into this awesome banked twisty, hardpacked doubletrack.

You can see the road at the top of the mtn. in the background.


We fuel up,eat and grab another case of beer for the night back at willow hotsprings and head out. on some sweet roads.


More awesome country


We make it to the hotsprings and these two guys pull up and want to talk bikes. They are all stoked to see the bikes all knobbied up and loaded with camping gear. They fill up our cooler with ice and then start offering us the "nectar of the gods", Mirror Pond Pale Ale on ice. We take full advantage and we each swill as manyas we can before they leave. Great guys it was fun to talk with them. The seemed to be enjoying the desert as much as we were, just in a different way.

Another nice sunset at Willow hotsprings.


No moon on this trip and no fires allowed so far so this is camp at night.


more still to come. 2 more days.

Who snores? I’m over here - can’t hear it. The last of summer’s heat. No hurry to leave as we are headed west and knowingly trying to soak up as much of every place we visit. I think.


I think it is the whiskey and beers that keeps us from the early starts. It doesn't even start warming up until the sun hits at 8:30-9:00. Then Hotsprings and breakfast. Still we are out here to relax and we take full advantage.

I just wanted to say thanks for all the great comments and support from the folks here at the asylum. I have read many of the ride reports here and was inspired by them to share our trip. When taking pics I thought of them as a storyboard for the report.
I to all you folks out there who have the guts to get out and see the world. I am glad there is still some land that is open to exploration like we have here in the west. Even if it is on the personal level. Since most of this trip was new to me. If it were easy everyone would do it. That attitude is what brought me into the asylum. No one here seems to be afraid to expend the effort it takes to see what's left of the wilderness. Or to explore in general. Not to many canned vacations in this bunch.
RIDE WHILE YOU CAN
Thanks

Any problems with the comfort,visor rattling,letting air in or steaming up???.....I take it you can remove visor if need be and use goggles and finally,replacement visors expensive???

By the way great write up.....at the end of the day the big Katoom is able to deal with exactly the same stuff as the lighter bikes....

Thanks...

I find the XD to be very comfy all day. The visor/shield does'nt rattle at all, it can be left barely open for increased ventilation. You can see that in this photo.

The same goes for steaming up. It does do that but it can be offset by cracking open the shield and if it's really bad I have to force my exhale down towards my chin.
Goggles are fine with the helmet. The shield actually fits over the straps no problem. I don't usually do that because I like that I can wear the sunglasses. If I need goggles I wear my mx helmet.
The sun visor doesn't fit without the face shield so if it breaks you can't just remove it. As far as replacement goes I haven't checked in to that since I have only had the helmet since June. It does have about 9,000 miles on it both on and offroad. The shield is getting a bit scratched so I will be checking on that in the next month or so.

Hey Clinger, I would like to think the 950 is as capable as the smaller bikes; in the right hands maybe, but, If it had been raining with wet rocks and mud I don't think I could have pulled off this ride. The bike was alot of work to ride in these conditions which around here is pretty common in the summer. In the mud I think the weight would be a major problem since the silt turns to that stuff that sticks to everything. If I had a lighter bike that had the fuel capacity I would have rode it. Still, I wouldn't change a thing. There is nothing quite like riding these huge dirtbikes. They are definately more capable than I am.