Gettin' Dirty with the Wans: 8400 miles - UTBDR, KLIM rally, Canada, WABDR, OBDR +

It was great meeting you guys at the KLIM rally, I can't wait for the rest of the story

I hate the Wans.

All they ever do is ride.

Do they ever work?

Have they no responsibilities?

I imagine they'll stop for ice cream along the way too.

And to rub it in my face this way........shameful.

OK, that's out of my system, lets see it

I'm in, hope this bike gets home in one piece..poor thing.

Holy crap! 2 pages already?


wow, thanks for the warm reception you guys!
I'm excited that YOU'RE so excited.
You know I usually like to say hi to each one of you individually, but if I do that we'll never get started on day 1.
But, "Hi!"



It's great to see so many familiar faces out there.
(sorry about the broken leg, have fun on the ride, keep working on that report, and yes - there may be ice cream involved!)
8400 miles - I'm gonna need your enthusiasm later down the line, so don't burn yourselves out...



In a total n00b move, I was fiddling with our photobucket yesterday and broke a bunch of photo links.
Motherbrother!

Also, photobucket is having some kind of issues and I'm getting a lot of "image is down" messages, so who knows what that's about.
Bear with me, okay?
sigh.


Okay, so without further ado...




Who's going on this ride?


BigWan (matt)



LittleWan (kelly)



You all already know how dumb we are, so no need to get into that again...

our trusty steed, the overloaded schoolbus
with gas and luggage - 600 pounds of awesome

2007 KTM 990S


We love that thing.

Loved it EXTRA good on this trip. Loved the hell out of it.



Coney the safety cone.


He's looking a little squid-y in this pic, but cut him a break.
The poor guy works hard. So, so hard.


Here's a stock photo of Norman the Delorman.


We spend a lot of time listening to that little plastic box,
even though he's always trying to kill us.





OK, ready for the map?



Note: this map is not intended for navigation





Matt said he's going to make a real map for me, but for now this will have to do.
We actually did a little more in BC but we can't find the map/tracks right now.



OK, I need to finish uploading pics and then I'll be back with day 1!

Ugh. That took longer than I expected.
Let me just say that Bill Gates is an A-hole.
Mucking Windows.



The map was trapped in the computer. In PC mode. Stupid Delorme.
Man, I’'m PC illiterate. But, I'm learnding.
OK - here’'s your “real” map.
No, I can’'t make it bigger
I’'m lucky we got this one without crashing the computer (and by “crashing,” I mean flinging it against the wall).






Hey, we were pretty close with the crayon map! Not bad.




We didn'’t have much of a plan for this ride. All we knew was that we wanted good dirt.
And not the same stuff we covered in 2010 (well, not all of it).
Idaho was starting to sound good.
Questor and Idahosam were doing some nice rides, enticing us to come visit.
Hey, there’s a KLIM rally in Rigby. That sounds fun!

(it was! it’s going to take me a while to get to that part, but you can watch the official video here.


OK.
The signup deadline for a free tee shirt was June 1. That forced us to get our butts in gear.
Can'’t pass up a free shirt!




Once we committed to the rally (july 12-15), we started to think about the route.

We saw the teaser for the Utah Backcountry Discovery Route - hmm. that also had potential.

Ever since he saw it (back in 2007), Matt had this ride report bookmarked - CA to UT. Dirt, desert, and dead cows.
Boney and Luke’'s route was going to be the perfect way to get us out to Utah!
Matt was happy to finally do the ride and make use of the tracks.
Thanks Boney and Luke!


So, that was the plan.
Leave from the bay area, take the Boney way to Torrey, do the UTBDR and get to the KLIM rally by July 12th.
There was some extra time in there, but we'’d figure out how to fill it, and then we’d wing it after the rally and take the long way home.

I whipped up some cones for the ride...



And we were ready to go.
We left with the Butler map for the UTBDR and a AAA map of Nevada.
That ought to be good enough, right?



We had some company for the first part of the ride - our friend Aaron (a.k.a. cap'’n underpants)!




Aaron had gone with us to the Mendo rally and had had a great time.
He was stoked to do more big bike touring and this seemed like the perfect opportunity.



We actually left the bay area on June 21 and went to visit Matt'’s brother and family in Sacramento.
But, we’ll just start from Sac and call that Day 1.




Day 1: 6/22/12
Sacramento, CA to Mina, NV 277 miles


Here'’s how you know Matt and I were traveling with someone else -
day 1 started off with a sit-down breakfast at a nice cafe.


Cafe de Coco in Jackson.




I had potatoes and scrambled eggs




Cap'’n underpants had a veggie omelet





Breakfast at the cafe was a good call. They had wifi.
Our helmet intercoms were mucking up (already!) and we needed to order some replacement parts and have them sent ahead.
Matt was really happy about it (I don't remember what he had for breakfast and I wasn't about to ask).




It was not an auspicious start, but we finally got on the road around 1pm





There was a little gap in Luke'’s tracks, so Matt and Norm connected the dots.
You know how well that usually works out for us...
(“Hmm. I think that’'s a road...”)


It turned out to be a little sandy.
Hello! Welcome to Nevada.









maybe a little rocky.





Aaron and his hard bags were not loving it...




The sand got deeper. We were in a mucked up wash with rocks and off camber uphills.
There was much swearing. And sweating.
Did I mention this was Nevada? In June?

Glad to be out of the wash...









It was kind of pretty, though









Cool old farmhouse




a little water crossing




More sand




And rocks




Go, Cap'’n underpants!




We were going up to Corey Peak.
It was quite a climb.








Stopped to take a break and check out the view.













In hindsight, we probably should have kept going.
The schoolbus was a huge, heavy beast and now we had no momentum.

Had a nice get-off in that loose stuff.




Mucking schoolbus. This view better be worth it!




The road went on for a while...




What’'s that?




Ah. A shack for the ride report.





Here we are!





Hard to tell from these pics, but it was crazy windy up there - absolutely honking...









No wonder - it was over 10,000 feet!









And, now, back down...





We had another get-off here.




That one was mostly my fault.
I was messing with the camera instead of paying attention to the trail.
We hit some loose, sandy stuff and I threw us off balance.
The camera got a face full of sand, but was fine.


Still going down the mountain...





OK, time for gas.
Hawthorne, NV





And then back on the trail.
At least now we had some fast roads...




And could make up some miles.




We stopped in Mina, NV (pronounced “"mine-ah"”) to top off our gas.




hey - does this look familiar, rider914?




Now, to find a camping spot...




hee, baby cow butt!




Found a great spot on the side of the road.
And not just any road, "“Dump Road.”"
Doesn’'t that sound inviting?




Matt and I set up our tent.
Cap’'n underpants went hardcore and just put his sleeping bag on a tarp next to his bike.





It was almost 8pm and we were all pretty beat.
The day had been a long, hot one.
Matt and I had had our 2 get-offs and cap’'n underpants had had some hard lessons in riding a loaded 990 in the sand.

At dinner, I apologized to Aaron.
Um. Yeah. Sorry about that.
I think we forgot to tell you that the first day always sucks.
At least no one got lost and there wasn'’t any snow (see post #6, summer of stupid)!

Yee Hah! You maniacs!

Love it! Make sand and loose rock your favorite!! I watched the Klim video. The appear to be quite taken with Matt. I thought I saw him in there 4 or 5 times! I see you guys are rocking the Klim gear also. I sure love mine.

Also enjoying some two up " pleasure and pain" adv riding on a 950. You guys are intense, and this report is fueling the fire...

Keep it coming I'm taking notes...

Is that a new design for the cones? Easier to make? Cheater cones.


That's an awfully big bike for Cap'n Backflip. :eek1

Just checking from the road (gotta love McDonald's....... free WiFi and decent coffee.

So as to be expected from a standard Wan odyssey. day one, standard sadistic/masochistic warm-up Check!

Sorry to hear about your leg! what a waste of a summer vacation heal up soon!

Hmm. Well, he is kinda big and hard to miss...
Yeah, our old gear was literally coming apart at the seams so it was time for some new stuff.
So far so good - we've been testing the hell out of it, too.

Yay, 2up! Stick around - it would be nice if someone learned from our mistakes

Hell yeah it's cheating! Those crocheted ones take like 5 hrs, maybe more - the new ones are much faster.
Pretty soon the cone fairy will have to start looking for a chinese sweatshop...
(humph. matt just said, "you ARE a chinese sweatshop" )



Cap'n Backflip?
I'm not touching that with a 10 ft pole...





Hi Sam! hi wachs!
hi everyone!




OK, just a quick breakfast and I'll be back with Day 2...

Hey guys it was great meeting you two on the wabdr. You two inspired me to ride some 2up dirt with my kids and wife in the future. Look forward to the rest of your RR.

SWEET!!! Bring it on, I can't wait for this report.

Thanks Matt, just choked on my coffee. :ddog

Day 2: 6/23/12
Mina, NV to Cherry Creek Campground, NV 233 miles



I think we were all tired enough to sleep well.
also, Dump Road was surprisingly quiet!
Got a decent start in the morning. Maybe not early (9-ish), but better than yesterday.










Pretty much the same kind of roads as the previous day.
















Had sandwiches for lunch at the Landing Spot (Hadley, NV).
Nice, friendly folks there. FYI there’s a bathroom in the attached laundromat.




We were a little concerned about our fuel mileage/range on this trip.
Prior to this ride, the 990 was getting horrible mileage. Really bad - like 23-25 mpg.
So, 2 days before we left Matt used TuneECU to re-map the bike.
He changed the fuel injection map from the Akra map to the 07/08 stock Euro map.


It seemed to have worked - we were getting 36-38 mpg so far - but we didn'’t trust it.

Matt knew that the next section was going to be pretty long without another gas stop
(can'’t remember the exact number - 230?)


Just to be safe we filled our tanks, the aux. tank, both MSR bottles,
a 60 oz orange juice bottle (one from home that we had been saving for such an occasion),
and a 1.5 liter Aquafina bottle.





Gate.





Oh goody. A powerline road. Those are always fun.
This one was no exception.
(note the Molotov cocktail strapped to the duffle)





We drove through Manhattan before getting back on the trail.














Back into the sand





Deep sand





Cap’'n underpants was making sand his favorite!
(you got it, Tn Walrus )





BigWan and I had just done a bunch of 2up sand in Death Valley,
but it was nice to get more practice before we got to Utah.





Next, it was back on the slab for the ghost town of Belmont.














Fire truck for Bob!





Back in the dirt











Stopped to explore this old homestead...














Okay, we have miles to cover...

















After so much monotonous desert and the same boring landscape, it was nice to see some greenery.





And pretty horses.




There were lots of gates, but I didn'’t mind. It was such a beautiful valley.











This furry guy was so cute...





Run Forest, run!
we were going slow, waiting for him to turn off the road. I didn'’t want the chunky little fella to have a heart attack.
after looking at this close up, maybe SHE was preggers?





This really was an oasis in the desert





More gates surrounded this house. Cute dog in the back of the truck!










As we were leaving the valley, we saw this huge herd...




Matt said, “those are bighorn sheep!”
What? really?
Yep, he was right!





More bighorn were up on the side of the hill.





A little blurry, but I like this one.




We were really close to the Lunar Crater, but with the gas situation we couldn’'t afford to get off the trail and go fool around.


Oh well. We had plenty of other cool natural features to gawk at.
Like this.




We stopped for a water break in the crotch.
(Hmm. that sounds wrong )


Here comes Aaron...




Spacemen (take us to your leader!)




This next part reminded us of a mini Mengel pass...

















Looking back at Aaron...










Down into the valley...





Aw. Poor cow. It looks like the desert is still taking lives.
This is the same place that Boney and Luke saw dead cows on their ride.




Ticking off some miles.




We had been hoping to camp at elevation, but weren'’t sure if it was going to work out...
Yay! It was.
We saw the signs for Cherry Creek Campground and headed up.





It was kind of pretty as we went up the mountain, but it was getting dark and the pictures aren'’t great.
Here'’s the campsite we chose.





We thought it was Cherry Creek CG, but the waypoints I found online don'’t match up with what Norm shows:





Never found the pit toilet, either.
Oh well, it had a table, it was free and there was no one around.




So, you may have noticed that Cap'’n underpants was sporting quite the '‘stache...
Apparently he lost a bet and was forced to grow a handlebar mustache.


He was trying to go as long as he could, but the last couple of days were tough.
The heat, the sweat, the hours in the helmet...it was making him nuts.

He broke out a bottle of tequila (I totally forgot to take a pic, dang it!)
and we had a tequila mustache cutting party!


Before:



During:




Hmm.
Was it a bad idea for Aaron to cut his mustache by the light of a headlamp,
using a tiny pocket mirror and some folding scissors from a leatherman knockoff?

Nah.



After:



All better.
Now that’'s a happy FF!

That sounds crowded!


Thanks, Erik - it was great meeting you and Blane, too!

Hot dang! Another Wans report. Bring it on.

Woot Woot!

Another Wan adventure!

Ready for MOAR!


Q~

WOOOOOHOOOOOO in again, wish I were there to show you some favorite dirt in BC, next time

I sent Matt's Résumés to Denver Broncos as an offensive lineman , Peyton is gonna need lots of protection GO MATT GO

Loveing this RR,gale