Couple of Dual Sport Videos

A couple of days ago while on the KLX I came upon a road that looked like just the sort of road I like to ride......more like a jeep trail.  Unfortunately, after a mile or so I came upon this:

Someone was nice enough to explain why the barrier was there:

I turned around and headed back out to where I had come upon a logging operation and took this video of part of the road:

Here is a video of a more typical forest road.  Speed is much higher and I have to keep to the right in case of oncoming traffic, but I didn't encounter anyone in the whole time I was off pavement.  The higher speed causes a lot of wind noise in the microphone built into the camera and I can't figure a way to prevent it.

The lighting contrast between the bright sunlight and the deep shade is just about as bad in real life as it is in these videos, and can make it difficult to spot rocks, sticks, dips, potholes, washouts and water bars.  But, that's all part of the fun.

Too Busy Riding to Blog About It

I seem to have lost my inspiration for blogging lately, but I have been riding.  Last week I took a 217 mile dual sport ride over the mountains to Trout Lake.  The route was basically the first part of the WBDR with some modifications I have invented.  The only picture I took was this panorama with Mt. Rainier barely visible in the background, and Mt Adams in the near distance.  As usual, I started from my house.  There is a whole lot of forest in my "backyard".

I have made several other day rides on my street bike, but nothing that hasn't been seen or written about on this blog.  Today, Orv, Ross, and I finally got together for a first ride up to Windy Ridge on Mt St. Helens.  This is an epic ride and I often read about it on other people's blogs from all over the country.  The only problem is the roads are falling apart in spots and with the Forest Service apparently having no money for maintenance, they will just get worse and worse.  There are parts already that used to be great, but now you have to go slow or you might get kicked in the ass and bucked over the handlebars.  I did manage to get a few pictures at Windy Ridge viewpoint.

The Loyal Ninja; approaching 95,000 miles

Mt. St. Helens Crater

Telephoto

Spirit Lake. Still full of logs from 33 years ago.  

Ross arriving on his modern Triumph Bonneville

We went on to Randle for lunch and then rather than go back the way we came over the busted up pavement, we headed west and then paralleled Hwy 5 on back roads towards home.  I took my Ipod and helmet intercom along to listen to music and a cool thing was I figured out how to make and receive  phone calls from my new smart phone while riding along.  The intercom has a phone button that interrupts the music and makes a bluetooth connection to the phone.  Then you voice dial the contact you want.  When receiving a call, the music is interrupted and a series of beeps lets you know to press the phone button.   I practiced with a call to and from Carolyn.  All in all, a fun day and 240 miles.

Edit:  I forgot to add this picture I took at a gas station in Castle Rock.  There is a gunsmith in the same building and he had this display of machine guns.....two .30 cal and one .50 cal M2 ("Ma Duce").  I assume they were for sale, but I didn't check.  Just a little touch of Americana......gotta love it!

More Bling

Brian and the boys were down for the weekend and Brian brought a few parts he had bought from his local Mustang shop in Auburn.  Then we took the car off the jack stands and rolled it over to the equipment shed for summer storage.

Brian was goosey about installing the rocker panel molding as he was afraid it would be too much bling, but we all decided it looked good.

The final little touch was a new gas cap.

Now she's covered up in the shed for the summer.  It's nice to have my shop empty and I have several jobs lined up on motorcycles and my pickup truck where the shop space will be handy.