The Summer of Stupid: 7400+ miles of 2up - OBCDR, CDT, TAT West and more...

[Lion BR]

Originally Posted by LittleWan

Matt's going to kill me for telling you this, but we also spent part of our lay day watching Footloose on cable.
Haha - now, if I could only get Matt to do some Angry Jazz Dancing when he's pissed, instead of Angry Riding, we'd be set.

I guess you are in trouble now...

[larryboy]

Originally Posted by LittleWan

In the meantime, here's some busy work ([reading] assigned for the purpose of keeping students busy, so that they do not cause trouble)


Yay, mini moos...

Causing trouble?


Mini moo's.


I love all your little links, I'm actually clicking them and it's pretty fun.

Rtwdoug broke his chopper again, we're counting on you and those new found pictures.

[xymotic]

Originally Posted by larryboy

I love all your little links, I'm actually clicking them and it's pretty fun.

+1 You guys owe me many hours of lost productivity

[LittleWan]

Oops - there was a comment I was going to respond to and now it's gone...
sorry, whoever (whomever?) used to be comment #60. I'm just slow
Thanks for reading anyway!

Originally Posted by Lion BR

I guess you are in trouble now...

Yep.
But, he's okay now.

Originally Posted by larryboy

Causing trouble?
I love all your little links, I'm actually clicking them and it's pretty fun.

haha, larryboy - I purposely refrained from calling you out
Glad you're enjoying the linkies. I put them in there to amuse myself, and I figure they're easy enough to skip over if one has a stick up one's butt regarding non-riding nonsense

(that was not directed at anyone in particular! I'm just sayin'...)

Originally Posted by xymotic

+1 You guys owe me many hours of lost productivity

Hmm. I blame Baldy...

[LittleWan]

Day 5: 7/11/10 Lakeview, OR to Christmas Valley, OR 163 miles


As we were leaving Lakeview, we spied a couple of BMWs. We were excited, thinking that we were seeing some fellow Oregon Disco dancers...
[for our non-riding friends and family: in ADV parlance, the OBCDR is also known as the Oregon Disco. Also, ATGATT means “all the gear, all the time”]
but, no.
They were just going to the BMW Rally in Redmond, OR. Should have known it when we saw those ginormous hard panniers.
Eventually, they sped off on the highway and we turned onto the dirt.




Norman was being pissy this morning, which enraged Matt. Norm wouldn’t track properly and kept giving us bad info.
At one point, the screen showed that we could go to the left for 10 miles...



or go to the right for 6 miles...



Either way, they would meet up and connect. In other words, the track that the GPS was giving us was just a huge circle. WTF?

Norman J. Delorman - what is your major malfunction?! (matt gave Norm a middle initial just for these occasions: "Norman J. Delorman - go to your room!")

That freaking thing simply refused to route.

Normally when we follow a route, the screen shows the tracks and scrolls automatically. It also orients the page so that the road is always coming at us, no matter which way we turn.
Matt can just glance down at the screen, see what’s coming and keep riding.

Today Matt had to take his hands off the bike to scroll manually, and he had to study the the GPS constantly.
He couldn’t enjoy the scenery or the riding and could barely look at the road. Not only was Matt livid, but it was dangerous, too.
We finally stopped and unpacked the computer.

Matt and Slime, having a moment on a stump


Matt re-entered the route he had mapped out last night, but Norm kept up with the same bullshit.

Finally, Matt resigned himself to looking at tracks, rather than routing.
This meant he had to keep scrolling (by hand) to follow the track, which was sometimes upsidedown.
He’s still not sure what was wrong - it seemed like the OBCDR track was broken, and to make it worse, maybe Norm was stuck on "North up"?
Sometimes a right turn would show on the screen as a left turn and vice versa.

Matt had to look at the screen, reverse (invert?) it in his head, and then make the turn. All while riding at a pretty good clip. Offroad.
The roads weren’t great, either. Rocky, thick wiggly gravel, heavy silt...It was some scary Angry riding.


Here are some pretty shots, mostly taken when it was safe and boring.












Nice gravel road in the Fremont National Forest.




You’re probably thinking - if you took 5,500 stinkin’ pictures, how come they aren’t better? What’s with all the mirrors?
Yeah, I know. Sorry about all the mirror and helmet shots. Sometimes I do it on purpose. But, if it’s a road photo, I probably took it while we were moving.

A lot of times I have the perfect shot lined up...and then we’ll lean or hit a rock and it’s ruined - a mirror pops up into the frame or the picture blurs...
Oh well. Deal with it. You have about, oh, 2800 more of those mirror shots coming your way
I kind of like them, actually. That's how you know we didn't take them while we were riding in a minivan or something


We rode through some burned out forest, then stopped for a little break



We had gone through some mud sections that freaked me out. After last year, I’m still pretty tense around certain types of mud, so I was happy to stop and rest.

Summer Lake. Matt said this was the first time he had ever seen water in it.



What’s on the lunch menu? Yucky melted granola bar. Mmmmmm.




Gate. This one was hard to see.




I’m just glad it had a stick. I hate wrestling with barbed wire.
I don’t think I mentioned it in this report yet, but as pillion (passenger) it was my duty to open and close the gates. There were a lot of them in Oregon.




I guess we’re in the Fremont-Winema Forest. The original photo was totally crooked and out of whack - I had to snap it as we whizzed by.
I can’t believe it cleaned up so well. Signs are the hardest - they sneak up on me and Matt won’t go back so I can get a shot.
You snooze, you lose. I snooze a lot.




Ha, got a bunch of photos here - there were so many downed trees, we stopped a lot.
That reminds me: if you have the patience to listen to BBC or NPR, you might like this clip: Pygmies using GPS .





Wow, this is getting old...



"Make going-around-downed-trees your favorite!"







We’re almost at Fremont Point...



see you tomorrow!

[redog1]

[wachs]

The Fremont is cool huh? Summer Lake Hot Springs is one of our favorite destinations!

[Nixels]

Not enough popcorn!!!!



















You do a great job of writing LittleWan.

I like the links too, but Kevin Bacon looks stupid like he's saying "Look at Me!"

But that's not strictly ride content so let me reiterate what everyone else is sayin' - keep it up!

One more

[LittleWan]

Originally Posted by redog1

That melted granola bar looked NASTY!!!

Wait 'til you guys see the food pic for Day 10...

Originally Posted by wachs

The Fremont is cool huh? Summer Lake Hot Springs is one of our favorite destinations!

Yep, the Fremont Forest is really neat. We were grumpy because of the GPS and the Angry riding, but that was a gorgeous day.
Hey, I just read your Nevada for Chinese My god, what an awesome ride report! Just spectacular. (yes, I have been under a rock and have been missing all these ride reports) Matt's totally going to ditch me for his next ride so he can blast around on his XRR.
You made me wish I was a better rider
And, crap, we missed the Summer Lake Hot Springs! We missed all kinds of hot springs on this trip, apparently. Truly was "the summer of stupid"...

Originally Posted by Nixels

Thanks, Nicky - PM sent

[jyellard]

Awesome report. Keep it coming.

[Mud Missile]

Great time reading this report. My eyes are full of tears of so much laughing. Please keep it coming.

[zeroblah]

Love it Love it Love it! Really makes me wish my wife didnt mind 2 wheeled organizisms! (Is there any chance i can have you talk her into it?) BTW did i say i love the thread?

[LittleWan]

Originally Posted by jyellard

Keep it coming.

Originally Posted by Mud Missile

Please keep it coming.

Awww, shucks
You guys are too kind...

And that's even after the Pygmies using GPS link!

Matt saw that and said, "Kel! WTF?!"

me: What? I like pygmies. And I warned those guys. I specifically said "BBC" and "NPR!"
matt: This is ADV. What the hell does that have to do with riding?
me: whatever. ADV just means that these guys have probably read pages and pages and pages about
old
falling down
mine
shit
I think they can handle a video with smart people talking about pygmies.



















(haha, you thought I was going to name names, didn't you? Naughty )

Originally Posted by zeroblah

Really makes me wish my wife didnt mind 2 wheeled organizisms! (Is there any chance i can have you talk her into it?)

Hey zeroblah, I'm flattered that you think I could help. I think one of these would do wonders...

Originally Posted by nomad guy

keep it coming!!!!

You say that now, but in a few weeks you'll be all...

"make ______ your new favorite." Yeah, yeah.
OKAY. WE GET IT.


Some of you are probably doing that right now.

One more note: It has been brought to my attention that the pic heavy pages are killing the folks with slow connections.
I've been asked (very sweetly) to limit the photos in each section.
Okay - I really like having each day somewhat contained in a neat package, but I'm willing to work with you guys.

When we were on the road, going online with that POS Slime, I wanted to shoot myself everytime I tried to look at ADV (the big pics took forever to load).
But, as soon as I got home to our beloved iMac, I forgot all about it.
I'll try and chunk it up and have fewer pics in each section. Just hope it doesn't make this rambling report even more of a mess...

So, all you dial up suckers can thank your buddy Nixels for bringing it up.

Day 5 continued...

Fremont Point
We saw a lot of scenic bathrooms on this trip. I was especially happy to see this one.








Another beautiful view of Summer Lake




We left the Fremont Forest and, after a little while, we realized that we were still on the highway.
Instead of following our OBCDR tracks, that idiot Norm had re-routed us on his own and he put us on the damn pavement. Norm!
Matt was pissed. But, it just so happens that Matt had ridden parts of the OBCDR in 2008 and we had passed a turnoff that looked familiar to him.

We were only about 13 miles from Christmas Valley (on the highway) when we decided to go back to that turnoff.
It was going to be a lot further in the dirt... Eh, what's an extra two hours...We came here to ride the freaking trail, right?
I think I saw a sign that said “Black Hills.”
(but I was snoozing again and missed the shot)






After a couple of minutes, Matt said, “Oh shit, now I remember - this was a horrible road...”
Oh. Good thing we went back for it.

It was rutted double track, along the powerlines. Lots of sagebrush and sharp babyheads.
Yay. Now who’s the idiot? Sorry, Norm. You tried to re-route us and we just called you names...








This is one of my favorite kinds of gates. I’m always happy to see a nice metal leverage stick.




The road was getting pretty bumpy and uncomfortable. My teeth were rattling loose. Ugh.
Matt was still having to scroll and decipher the GPS. He was ranting, pissed, and unwilling to slow down for pictures. Fun, fun, fun.

[xymotic]

Originally Posted by LittleWan

After a couple of minutes, Matt said, “Oh shit, now I remember - this was a horrible road...”

RTFL.

[LittleWan]

Oh, look! a chipmunk!



(I'll be right back...)