OBCDR - The Northern Halves Adventure - 7/16~23/11

[Tawmass]

We did the southern Oregon halves adventure in 2009:
http://www.blackdogdualsport.com/forum/ ... .php?t=595

We (Scott Wilson [chase truck], Joe Fuller, Walt Koch, Mike Moore, Randy Beadle and I. Dan Hatcher and his son, Josh, will have a cameo showing Sunday through Tuesday also.) are now doing the northern pieces and here's where we'll be each day:

Sat: Christmas Valley Desert Inn - Christmas Valley (same as 2009)
Sun: Dreamers Lodge - John Day
Mon: Depot Inn - Sumpter
Tue: Antlers Inn - Ukiah
Wed: River Bend Motel - Spray
Thu: The Oregon Hotel - Mitchell
Fri: Sisters Inn and Suites - Sisters
Sat: Finish back in LaPine

So Josh and I are finishing up the last few things over here in La Grande. We'll haul bikes to John Day and hook up with Chase Truck Driver "Mr. T Bag Scotty", Tour Guide "Smokin' Joe", GPS Whizz "Tommy Gun", Top Shelf "Tequila Magnet Walter", Dust Magnet "Hampster Mikey", and New to the Crew, but "Black Dogger from Way Back Rand-Eye".

After some Thunder and Lightening storms here in La Grande, I'm thinking that the dust shouldn't be the big issue. We better have good rain gear, so that's our focus!

Tom's text at a little after 8pm sez they made it to Christmas Valley so the first day of riding must be a done deal... Sounds good as I don't think the boys made it out of town til late Friday.

Looking forward to seeing you boys tomorrow night!

Danno and Josh-o

I am really "hang Dawgin" this ride from an electronic distance.
Man I really wish I was out there with you guys getting wet and sliding around.
I had farm work (custom field fumigator came) Saturday and a couple of meetings this week, so no ride for this bad boy, maybe next time. Still planning to go back to the Prospect area and down to the "Lost Coast" for a few daze campin/rydin before we start digging bulbs mid August. Hoist a few suddzies for bin, you lucky dawgs...

Already looks fun. Liked Joe's "Dakar kickstand" ....

Have fun, be safe homies! E-Ticket

Looks like they've posted their first video Scott driving the support truck:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wk6KJXeOM0k&feature=youtu.be

Josh and I made it back to his home after 3 fun filled days of riding with the guys. We did a 60 pavement rip with gear bags hanging off the bikes and that was the only hard part of the ride. The boys laid over an extra day at Ukiah to take advantage of some of the best trails in the northwest, one day after rain. Traction was great and very little dust... It really made it hard to leave!

Josh and I made it back to his home after 3 fun filled days of riding with the guys. We did a 60 pavement rip with gear bags hanging off the bikes and that was the only hard part of the ride. The boys laid over an extra day at Ukiah to take advantage of some of the best trails in the northwest, one day after rain. Traction was great and very little dust... It really made it hard to leave!

Glad to hear you had a good time, Danno!

[Tawmass]

We've officially dubbed this trip, "Drinkers With A Dirtbike Problem!"

Our pictures and tracks are here:

http://tawm.smugmug.com/Motorcycles/NW- ... 56_SN473gV

-Tom

We've officially dubbed this trip, "Drinkers With A Dirtbike Problem!)

Well ... color us stunned. NOT. <g>

Although I'm glad to be back in La Grande, I'd rather continue on with the "Drinkers With A Dirtbike Problem!) on the OBCDR!

Josh-O

[Tawmass]

Hey Josh, was a blast having you along! Next time leave your Dad at home!

Now comes the looooong process of going through the pix and videos...
-Tom

Hey Josh, was a blast having you along! Next time leave your Dad at home!

Now comes the looooong process of going through the pix and videos...
-Tom

True. But it's still better than sitting at an ER somewhere waiting for a buddy to get the results from his x-rays .... right? :^)

[Tawmass]

We did it with no mechanicals or issues! 1150 miles! Five bikes for eight days, seven bikes for three of those! Wow do we have stories, tons of pictures and videos! I'll be working on my write up/pix this week, but the video will take a bit longer.
-Tom

Pretty impressive that you guys made the whole loop in that amount of time!
Glad you all made it back just fine. Looking forward to the trip report. - ET

[Tawmass]

Day One 7/16/11
Sheesh, finally getting around to document this hilarious adventure - sorry for the delay!

We all arrived at our most gracious of hosts, Rick & Debi Aldridge's house in LaPine, Oregon on Friday night before we embarked on our trip. As expected we were all wound tight and ready for a week-long vacation of riding! In 2009 we used Rick & Debi's place as a base station too, for our Southern Halves OBCDR Trip. We awoke the next morning and got ourselves prepped along with the chase truck driven by Scott Wilson. We did our obligatory group-grope shots, I drafted up a very rough tracklog of where to go to meet up onto the actual Oregon Back-Country Discovery Route (OBCDR) and we were off!





We only got a few miles south of LaPine in Gilchrist, when we lost Joe already, but he reappeared, we topped off with fuel and were off again. We all were sporting hi-zoot radios (with big antennas) set up so we merely had to push a button on the handlebars to talk to each other. This is truly the ONLY way to do a ride such as this - much safer and faster! We continued southeast and only made one wrong turn going east on a freeway, cinder road, as can be seen on the tracklog. We found some killer canyons and vistas along the way, then we hit the actual OBCDR route and headed east toward Summer Lake. Along the way we headed up to Rodman Peak for a view, but the mosquitos were relentless and we quickly were back on the bikes heading east again.




Eventually we were on an overlook viewing north towards Christmas Valley - BIG country! A few miles later and we were above Summer Lake, which was a deja' vu from our previous OBCDR trip in '09, so we passed around the anti-freeze to celebrate. Notice Mikey's brown nose - he ALWAYS has one when riding! (as you'll see in subsequent photos!) We elected to NOT use the route we took in '09, which was a rocky, rough POS route north. From there it was an easy road ride into Christmas Valley and the hotel where Scott was awaiting us. A quick shower and we were off for an excellent dinner at the bar/restaurant in Fort Rock. Day one's total: 173 miles.
-Tom