This is my WIFE, here are my BIKES, and these are my STORIES

Bahnxeo, I have the same bike. I really like the white one.What sort of racks do you have the soft luggage attached to? Are those the origional varios?

I removed the Vario rack as I had purchased the Wolfman dry expedition bags 6 months earlier for my KTM. I wanted to give them some use since they hadn't seen much dirt. This is the rack system I use as of now. I do not have a cross brace for it. They are really sturdy as is. Might be something I pick up at a later date. I see some people sell there Vario rack online to help fund the purchase of a different brand rack system. http://www.wolfmanluggage.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=product.display&product_id=144

I need to read this later, when I have some more time. The picture of the wife should be on the front page.

This week was a little out of the ordinary for me. I had Tuesday and Thursday off from my "day job". I am a butcher for a large supermarket chain and work 40 hours every week for them. I made the switch to a union job about 7 years ago with the health benefits being the carrot on the stick. I have worked in restaurants for 15 years and love it. Love the people, love the food...Restaurant is not for everyone. An old chef buddy posted this on facebook a couple months ago about what you can expect from making a living in the restaurant business, and it is absolutely spot on http://www.scribd.com/doc/112033847/50-things-they-never-told-you-about-being-a-chef

With the health benefits I get paid vacation weeks and 3 "floating" holidays. I opted to use one of those "holidays" Wednesday to help a buddy out so he would get his minimum amount of hours required to qualify for health benefits this week. It also gave me a 3 day weekend from that job. I used Wednesday as my "honey-do" day and since I hadn't ridden since Tuesday, I woke up early suited up and tried to decide where to ride. Couple cups of coffee and an hour or so later I decided I suck at taking time off and called my dad to see what he was doing. He is 1.5 hrs up the hill at Lake Almanor. I told him I had to be at the restaurant at 4pm, want to ride? He picked up a KLR 650 late last year and this has been the median for my dad and I to spend more time together. All my childhood he worked. Morning noon and night. When he got home from work there was always chores to be done. Needless to say that rubbed off on my brothers and I. He was headed out fishing but suggested I ride up Hwy 70 through the Feather River canyon to hwy 89 by the lake then down the hill via hwy 32. We did this road ride a few months ago and it is pretty. I was thinking some dirt but oh well daylight was burning so off I headed on the 99 towards Butte College and the hills beyond.




I should note here that I just RE-purchased the GoPro Hero 3 Black edition. I bought a hero 2 last year right before Vietnam trip and used it everywhere. There are extremely durable and amzingly portable and unhindering. I dropped my Hero 2 into a bucket of water at Calikattom's house a couple months ago during my "Test Ride" of the F800. Try as I did it never came back to life. They have a waterproof housing that works great but mine was not on at the time. So I had been looking into the hero 3 which records at 60 fps in 1080p it also has 2K and 4K cinematic, 12mp stills burst mode supports a 64gb micro sd card. They are amazing. The updates were not up to par until now, so I bought it.

First Bridge on the Feather River Highway. This is one by Lake Oroville, or I should say over it.



Climbing a bit out of the valley. The River is 1000 feet below you for a few miles on this stretch. It is a massive canyon and shaped by geological shifts and water erosion.








I enjoy taking the time to stop and read signboards, plaques, historical points of interest etc. I think that what people have done in different ages with different tools and different goals is absolutely amazing. Bridges are 1 thing that blow my mind on trips. Most of these masterpieces string 2 points in space that normally would never have been able to be accessed in succession . Most are built before we were born. I really love to see the army core of engineers plaque on the old concrete bridges. Most built in our area in 1936. This is right after the depression, and in the middle of high unemployment and low moral our country put people to work. Doing anything. This cause had a huge effect.

This is the bridge at Pulga. Single trackers and Dual sport riders are really familiar with this spot. You can connect over quite a few ridges and miles and miles of dirt from the turnoff...Rethinking this you can go most anywhere from anywhere up here. Its great.





Here's some shots from the point and shoot coming up to this point. You can see the highway cutting through the side of the canyon.





There was a couple of stretches on the ride that were under construction. This is one for a new guard rail. Was a nice break in the pace to stop and take in the scenery.



Western Fence Lizard (aka the Bluebelly lizard)



Self portrait



You are right up on the river for the rest of the highway. The road just follows its line. The whole canyon seems to change depending on the season. Spring is great with all the waterfalls coming down the slopes and glistening exposed rocks.

There are a lot of bridges on Hwy 70. For almost every bridge there is a hydro electric powerplant.





Town of Storrie. There was a massive fire around here aptly named the Storrie Fire. I will elaborate more on it when I do an upcoming ride that will take us through part of the area.



Storrie Bridge: 1924 I believe



Another cool bridge. That's the train rail above.




Was a perfect day











I remember thinking right around here that although I was happy on this road, I could use a little dirt. Now as much as I like getting to where I am going, I enjoy finding a new way there...---Opportunity knocked.

Nice vids man. You guys set a date to go back yet? Does your wife have family over there? I've come across a couple ADV'rs that call Saigon home. Would be nice to meet up with people over there.

She has family both in Saigon and Dalat (her mom is from Dalat and her dad, Saigon) so we were able to visit family in both cities.
We will head back over in a few years when the little one is ready. He/she will need to understand where her/his family came from.
Then we'll have to fly to Germany and Ireland and drink too much

Deb's place in the 'Mystic Shopping Center' in Redway.
Don't miss it.

:huh:huh:huh:huh:huh:huh

Yep, that's the place. Thanks TwilightZone. We were both so hungry I think finding out the name of the joint slipped our minds.

you werent in the mood for this?

Very nice. I was floored by the amount of attention they pay to their family. Especially the young and the elderly. I feel like here in the states we have an out of sight, out of mind attitude for the most part. I don't think old folks homes even exist over there.

Banh Xeo? That is my daily cuisine. I need something "Exotic" when I travel.

I turned off Highway 70 onto Caribou Rd. I have never been down it but I had seen on a map that it connects to Butt Lake and Lake Almanor and I had wanted to ride it some day. There is a campground right off the Highway. Then I saw water being pumped down one side of the hill, across the creek and back up the other. There are some good spots to see this movement of water in our area. Lots of good size rivers and man made reservoirs.



Heading up the road, you follow the creek and you get the sense of the road getting ever so smaller on a slight incline.














The road finally comes to a "Y". To the left, up a gravel road, and to the right to what look like large 2 story cabins built maybe in the 50's. I had to investigate before heading offroad.



There was also a Dam and a stagnant reservoir nearby.



Heading up the gravel road











Looking back at the reservoir and the cabins. I was told these cabins were homes for PG&E workers back in the day because they needed them close to this plant at all times. I also heard back around when I was born one of these pipes ruptured spewing toxins into the creek and eventually into the river.



You can see some back burning has been done all over in that last shot. Last year we dealt with the Chips Fire in this area. It was 40k + acres on this side of the creek to the south west of Butt Lake.







Getting close to Butt Lake. I've seen this bridge before but they have done some concrete work to it in the last year.







I had entirely too much fun on this road



The water was placid except for 1 boat trolling through the middle.



Bout this time I had 1 thing on my mind. Making it to the Beacon Gas station in Chester for some breakfast

absolutely not. The older you get, the more important and more influential. Since my wife is the daughter of the youngest of 9 - she is the babies', baby - wherever we went, we were lavished with attention, food... you name it. All of this by people who had very little to share. Here, take out our only means of transport, our scooter. here share all the food we have, here! My wife's family was probably my favorite part of our trip.
My least favorite? Either riding on a bus or visiting the hospital..... its a toss up

Caribou, one of the roads I've been wanting to ride. Never been to Butt Lake and lived in Quincy for 7 years. I wish our off time jived better.
Ride on, enjoying your travels.

I work at 2pm next Sunday lets hook up early.

Awesome RR!