Oregon BDR

[glockman]

Through a chain of strange, the world is a small place events, I was invited to join a group for the Oregon backcountry discovery route. How could I say no.

We left my house with 4 bikes, a 1290, my 1090, a 790 and a BMW 800gsa. Trailered them up to Tony Ellsworth house of Ellsworth bikes in Brookings Oregon.


Woke up to a pretty sweet view from Tony's house.



We headed out of Brookings on the pch and dropped down into the redwoods. I'd never been to the redwoods and it was amazing, especially on a bike.


From there we took the 197 up to a dirt turn off that got pretty tight and really rocky. It was supposed to be a simple dirt route to avoid pavement but ended up being a real challenge in parts. This spot was awesome. On top of the mountain with the ocean in the background.



From there we rode up past Medford through Ashlund and camped at Hyatt lake. Cool campground with flushing toilets and showers.
We also had a gladiator with us on trail as a support vehicle.

 

[glockman]

Day 2 we left Hyatt lake and headed for cresent lake. Lots of very smooth gravel in Oregon. The roads were almost like pavement.




In Prospect we picked up 4 more riders from San Diego. One more 800 gsa, an 890, a 701 husky and a 690 ktm. The 890 was piloted by Victor Herrera who has won the baja 1k in a utv. He was fast on a bike too. We grabbed lunch in Prospect and some $7 a gallon gas. Then headed out.
We stopped at a natural bridge. The river dropped into the mountain completely underground, then came out about 50 yards down the river. Pretty cool.



From there we headed to Crater lake which lives up to the pictures.




Left the lake and headed to camp about 25 miles north. We passed a huge fire fighter camp. Probably 300 people and tents. Luckily the fire (rum bride fire) only caused us a few small detours but got huge the day we were headed back to Utah.
Not a bad spot for the night.

 

[glockman]

Day 3. We left cresent lake junction and headed for wickiup reservoir.

We passed this massive lava flow overlook.




The reservoir was really low so we had to play in the sand a bit. Only had 3 bikes get stuck.



From there it was up through the Deschutes national forest.

The contrast of the green undergrowth and the bark on the pines was awesome.



We started out of the mountain into Bend and Victor had a flat front tire.



While we were fixing the tire someone noticed a car in the weeds about 100 yards off the highway.



Looked fishy so we called it in. It was reported stolen in Bend 4 days prior.

Once the tire was fixed we headed to a dude named Adam's house in Terrebonne. He agreed to let us crash at his rad barndominium that overlooks Smith Rock state park.
Not a bad view for the evening.

 

[glockman]

Day 4. We left Smith Rock and headed towards the Ochoco national forest. This was some of the best riding of the trip. Awesome dirt roads through beautiful forests. I think we ended up at 225 miles of dirt for the day and hit some 2 lane into Seneca.


Cool watch tower. We found the 2019 failed inspection once half of us were 60 feet up.





Seneca had one fuel source. Been a while since I've seen one of these.



We stayed at some cool cabins in Seneca ran by a funny old pothead lady and her grumpy husband. Nice place to stay if you're ever there. Seneca timbers in and rv Park.

 

[jeeper]

How did that Jeep do keeping up with all these bikes?

 

[glockman]

How did that Jeep do keeping up with all these bikes?

Funny story. All these ADV guys were telling me the dude had $100k into his jeep, it had amazing suspension and it could go anywhere and fast. He has a Clayton lift with Falcon shocks .
Most of the roads we were on were amazingly well maintained, I mean really nice gravel roads. On those, he obviously had no issues. Some of the tight rocky stuff, he fell back a long ways and took some bypasses on a couple routes that were too tight for him to get through. To his credit, that Gladiator had 30K miles on it and I'd guess 25K of those are off road. He gets after it and I'd say he did 95% of the BDR.

 

[glockman]

Day 5
We headed over to the gas station/grocery store/restaurant and grabbed some home made biscuits and gravy. Then we headed south. The riding was more very well groomed dirt and gravel through the forest, then the forest started to dissipate.




We slabbed a few miles over to Riley for fuel, again at a mechanical pump, then headed through my native sage brush scenery towards Christmas Valley Sand dunes.


Once we hit this desert riding, I lost track of what I was doing and my brain went into desert race mode. I forgot to wait at road crossings and I was just railing smooth desert dirt at 60mph following the red line on my GPS. Once I realized I couldn't even see dust behind me, I was about 45 minutes ahead of the group. Oops.


Sand is interesting on a 500lb bike with 50 lbs of gear. Pine trees in sand are also new to this Utah kid.






Camp for the night was again pretty sweet.

 

[Greg]

Soooooooooo jealous, miss these kinds of rides.

 

[rholbrook]

I'm ready to go back with you. I say we start planning an Alaskan trip. Trailer them to just this side of the US border and head out from there. You were really roughing it. My idea of roughing it is a Super 8 but I can adapt.

 

[Tonkaman]

You guys have me re-thinking my life choices

 

[ChestonScout]

And now I have a new dream

 

[J-mobzz]

I'm ready to go back with you. I say we start planning an Alaskan trip. Trailer them to just this side of the US border and head out from there. You were really roughing it. My idea of roughing it is a Super 8 but I can adapt.

🙋🏻‍♂️ Me please. I want to come.

 

[TRD270]

Who has room on the back of their bike? 😘

 

[glockman]

Soooooooooo jealous, miss these kinds of rides.

Well I may have a bike for sale in the spring. I happened to ride the 890 on this trip and now the 1090 seems like a tanker truck. 🙂

I'm ready to go back with you. I say we start planning an Alaskan trip. Trailer them to just this side of the US border and head out from there. You were really roughing it. My idea of roughing it is a Super 8 but I can adapt.

We did have showers every other night. I even brought an extra pair of underwear. Alaska would be cool. This group is planning on doing the Wyoming bdr next year. That one looks cool too.