5/8/18 Riding Visit With Scott & Kerry

[Tawmass]

Day One

They (Scott and Kerry) arrived on Monday afternoon, brought both their dirt bikes and dualsport bikes and wanted to get five days in of riding, and I'm just the guy to do that. After imbibing for the evening we awoke on Tuesday morn bright eyed and bushy tailed. We loaded up and headed towards Ruch as I had a good loop in mind. Scott was on my old '09 KTM 300 and Kerry was on a new '18 KTM 300 and was anxious to ride something much lighter than his KTM 500 on a previous visit.

We unloaded and headed west. MikeM joined us for part of the day on his new '18 KTM 300. KTMs were everywhere! We stopped for an initial photo opp on a cool overlook, then headed north, when we came upon a massive littered area. People suck!





We continued our big circle and dropped onto some very old trail that had numerous face slappers, then made our way to Deer Trail and over the mountain, descending back down to the staging area. No broken bodies or bikes - it was a good day to be alive!
-Tom


https://vimeo.com/271478517 <---- Click here if you are having streaming issues or want better viewing

[Tawmass]

Day Two

I figured I could kill two birds with one stone on this day: pull the A-course markers for the recent May-Day Poker Run. That way Da Boys would get a killer ride in, and accomplish something (for a change). We pulled ribbon most all day and even tried to hook up with my riding bud, Neal, but it didn't happen. Was still a great ride and something new!
-Tom




https://vimeo.com/271568466 <----Click here if you are having streaming issues or want better viewing

[Tawmass]

Day Three

Since Kerry does not own a trials bike, I told Scott to bring his down. My bud, Dave, lives in Jacksonville and has his own trials sections on his property. He was gracious enough to let Kerry use one of his [a new TRS] trials bikes. An old friend, Neal, even showed up on an old Honda. Of course I brought Scout, the trials dog and we all had a really good time. It's hard to believe how tiring and strenuous trials riding is, I mean they're only little motorbikes, right?

By the end of the day, we were blowing bubbles and spent. Hey, there were still two more days of riding!
-Tom

[Tawmass]

Day Four

My old racing bud, JoeM, came out of the blue and was able to go dualsporting with us to Crescent City, CA and back, so we agreed to meet up at ForestB's house in Ruch for staging out of. So now there was four of us. Forest would show us the way for a couple miles, then would come back home to drool over his new BMW. I had inadvertently forgot my RAM Mount for my GPS, so had to attach it with zip ties - oof.


We took off with Forest's direction, then he turned back home. Holy cow, it was cold out! We worked our way to Williams via a new dirt road I had never ridden before - it was nice! Then we pointed our steeds towards Cave Junction, however we hit snow at the pass!


Once through there, we gassed up in Cave Junction, made our way to O'brien, then took the high dirt roads all the way to Gasquet. Then it was time for a cooling refreshment, since it was now way too hot!




From there we did a short pavement stint to the Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park - home to the world's tallest and biggest trees! I had never been on this back road through the park, so was stoked. Those trees are massive!

We eventually found our way to the hotel and it was time to cut loose.





The highlight of the evening's debauchery was Kerry winning the coloring contest in the bar!


-Tom

https://vimeo.com/271671193 <---- Click here if you are having streaming issues or want better viewing

[Tawmass]

Day Five

We awoke to a beautiful day in Crescent City! I had a separate route planned for our return trip that would knock the socks off the guys. And who knew we would be sharing our hotel with Elwood Blues?



We went down to the Lighthouse for obligatory photos and took off after topping off our tanks (and me getting duct tape to hold down my GPS).


We headed up the Low-Divide Road and were surprised how many people live out in the sticks! It's also rather surprising how arid the climate is above Brookings!


Scott Wilson photo

Scott Wilson photo

We made our way back near the McGrew Trail and found some crazy backroads that were top shelf! We eventually came over Deer Creek Road, then came out at Ferris Gulch back to Forest's place. What a fun ride with a great group of guys!
-Tom


(video forthcoming)

https://vimeo.com/271887330 <---- Click here if you are having streaming issues or want better viewing

[bin rydin]

And a good time was had by all ! I was looking forward to some video of your trials day 3. Days 4 & 5 were real familiar to me from and to O'Brian, Three ponds on Patrick creek, the Gasket Patricks Creek toll road high above the Smith River, The French smelling tower at Gasket, cross the two bridges off of 199 into Stout Grove, past the casino to the beach in
Cresent City, Up 199 to 197 up Low divide to the Wimer road,That Kool Lookout to the east you stopped at is called "Hole in the Ground" and down at the bottom is Still Creek where there still are parts of a Liquor Still and a mine. I fell in Still Creek Jan 1st one year and man is that creek cold. Continuing on down the twisties down to the bridge and up the other side, at the top saddle is where the Mc Grew takes off on the west side, but you continued the Wimer to the south and way below the McGrew. Man does it seem like endless rocks after that. Right after that saddle I came across a Mexican sleeper cab highway tractor without its trailer, shredded tires & high centered on a waterbar (before the bridge) about ten miles toward O'Brian was the almost new flatbed trailer that it had been pulling, that you probably saw near Diamond Creek. Something about a flatbed load of cartel pot that was too late to get there before CAMP came in with choppers & nets, crazy road for a highway semitruck, I don't know if you noticed all the scarred trees that truck hit? Long story tell you at the BD campfire. Then you took the powerline road down to O;Brian. About three miles west of O'Brian on the flat part of the gravel is the other end of the McGrew with a little FS corral gate thing. Once you left O'Brian i don't know that dirt road you found into Applegate but that sure was a Kool one.