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

[brad21]

Originally Posted by Bafazane

Would you consider doing an annual ride/get-together out there at some point? That riding looks ideal and I like that you guys don't use GPS, just maps, compasses and hope. I bet there would be plenty of interest from guys in the Northwest, let alone the rest of the country.
Great report!

Ha! Wachs' only reason for not owning a GPS is due to the fact that his Commodore 64 doesn't have a USB port!


And Dave, I'm going with you next time. Just try to stop me.

[Henry James]

I love this country, sounds like you are having a great time. If you can post some type of map it would be great.
HJ

[wachs]

Originally Posted by Bafazane

Would you consider doing an annual ride/get-together out there at some point? That riding looks ideal and I like that you guys don't use GPS, just maps, compasses and hope. I bet there would be plenty of interest from guys in the Northwest, let alone the rest of the country.
Great report!

Knary tried to put something together back in June and not even he showed up! We had 9 bikes at one point. Kinda tough to get anywhere far with that many machines. I'm lucky to get my own butt out there and back. Maybe next spring, I'm done with the multi-day rides for this year unfortunately.

[wachs]

Originally Posted by brad21

Ha! Wachs' only reason for not owning a GPS is due to the fact that his Commodore 64 doesn't have a USB port!


And Dave, I'm going with you next time. Just try to stop me.

Hey - it's Mac II SE dang it!

If you can do 200 mi without fueling you're in!

[StihlRigg]

Day 1
I put some new skins on before we left as I knew the terrain would be very sandy on this trip. I installed a Michellin Enduro Comp on the front and a Michellin Baja rear.
Her is a shot of the rear


We met up at the fuel stop and headed out

Pine Mtn.

The road gets better


As Wachs said, "some great stuff to X-mas Valley".

Here is the sign we came upon

The sand was wet and made for some great riding, I always enjoy coming here.


Heading towards the Lost Forest.--640KTM


Husky


We did have a little fun here.


The 610 and 640


Our fearless leader--heading for the Lost Forest.


So where is this Lost Forest? I think we already rode thru it!


These tires I put on the 950 are eating this stuff up. I don't think the TKC's I took off would be up to the challenge
Lots of this mixed with soft sand for the entire trip



More to come soon.

[scottr]

Just WOW!

[RECON]

Hey Wachs! Great photos and ride report as always, looking forward to more!

Thanks for the trip this spring, had a blast and looking forward to the next one!

[StihlRigg]

Still day 1 on the way to Wagontire.
We farm sagebrush out here.


So we raced this storm all the way to Wagontire. The weather was really awesome, with hail, rain and as you can see lots of dust. I ate a lot of dust daily as the 950 is a little big for the tighter doubletracks.--more on this later.


So when the roads look like this I am in ectasy! Great traction and open enough to let the v-twin sing. The Husky with a bigger fuel tank would be ideal for this trip, or any other big single thumper. Luckily for me I am a glutton for punishment. Most of the tracks we ride today are loose lava rock. So I look at these tracks as rest breaks between the hard stuff.


Lunch time--notice how dark the clouds are-


Who would think you could use the hwy. as an airstrip but, it is fairly common in the rural west.


Ouch, those Lava rocks are sharp. The rock went thru the kevlar/carbon gaurds and about 1/2 way thru the Fuel tank plastic. With out the gaurds my trip would have been over. I noticed this when we were fueling up.


Fuel up the trusty steeds and off we go towards the Catlow valley




Off those pesky gravel roads and back to the goods.


Catlow valley in the distance. At this point we have been riding for about 7 hrs and we know that we have about 2 more to go before we get to our camp.


Okay, so we get to this place thinking that we might camp here but the creek is dry and we need water. The place smells of Hantavirus so we elect to try and find a better place. Well Dave says lets ride up that butte over there and see if we can find where this creek starts. We still have about an hour of light so we move on after a nice break.


We got lucky and found this place about a 1/4 of the way up the butte
These pics are the next morning as we barely had time to set up the tents before it got dark when we arrived.



So that night Wachs pulls out off his bags a bottle of Sauza and we proceed to finish about half of it as we boil water for dinner and relax at this amazing campsite. What a treat Wachs has his priorities straight.

This is where we filled up the camelbacks. The water comes right out of the rocks clean and pure.


Watered and ready to go Day 2


More fun tomorrow
Maybe TG will join in with his pics.

[Hayduke]

Friggin' awesome report!

[duckrider]

Nice ride, guys. That's some of my favorite country. Keep those pics coming and thanks for posting.

[wachs]

Day 2 - Good Tequila - bad dinner. I like Mountain House freeze dried food - really, I actually like it. But the Mexican ‘Style’ flavors are to be avoided. It rained pretty good this night but was real nice in the morning. We camp near this spring that is so cold and clean, you don’t even need to pump the water. It comes out of the rocks up above the pond year ‘round. We were packed up and ready to start the bikes when we realized the TE is missing 2 important bolts on the sub-frame. Not a problem, I have a bunch of 8 and 10mm stuff, lock-tite and we’re good to go. Our departure schedule would become slack each day as we enjoyed the morning sun, our coffee and the places we spent the night until 9:30 or 10am. Sleeping like a mummy didn’t hurt that routine either. My wife just bought me this huge, Big Agnes insulated, inflatable sleeping pad that is the most comfortable thing I’ve ever had.





Before we left the area, we rode up on the butte for a view of the valley. This place is big. about 3 years ago, it burned and so all the sage is gone - only grass and small rabbit brush now, Lupine in the spring. Fire is a really good thing out here.



I like my kit. Got it down to the bare essentials and all the heavy stuff low on the machine. The TE will be great with a big tank - he won’t have to carry fuel cans in the saddlebags and can get the bags off his seat. It’s not slowing him down any, that’s for sure. In the spring, he rode a BMW Funduro out here and beat the living crap out of that gay-assed paper route bike. Loving the TE - everytime we stop he tells us so.



We had intended to spend one night as high as we could on Steens Mt but it’s all socked in and maybe even snowing up there so we head over to Fields for lunch and fuel. A steady 75 - 85 mph gets this done but uses up a lot of gas.

[posole vato]

Awesome report and pics!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i wanna do the oregon dessert!

[Bonnie Abbzug]

That looks like soooo much fun!!! Keep the pics and report coming!

[StihlRigg]

Wachs is right about the food. That first night I followed the directions and ended up with Lasagna soup. It wasn't very good, but it did make a poo.
After that night I cut the water by 1/2 a cup and ended up with some decent food. I was afraid of the mexican stuff so I stuck with lasagna and beef w/potatoes. The Mountain House freeze dried food is better than I expected as my previous experiences with freeze dried food were the old school standard mre's. Believe me the Mtn. House stuff is awesome. I think I ate better on this trip than I do at home. At least I ate 3 meals a day instead of one with a bunch of snacks. I never went to bed hungry.

[StihlRigg]

That last pic was great I think I got the 950 going a steady 95mph for a couple of miles on that road.