When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
This trip has been on my radar for years. Like 30 years.
Over time, I've pieced together various strings of dirt roads, 2-tracks, and ATV trails that I've either ridden myself personally, or thru hearing of others' direct experiences. And when I purchased my '06 KLX a few years ago, I knew it was only a matter of time until I could finally attempt this trip and scratch it off my bucket list.
Ideally, I would like to spend a couple of weeks (or months) on this adventure. But work and family obligations simply won't allow for that in my current season of life. This would be more of a sprint thru the rugged backcountry rather than a leisurely stroll. Hopefully, I can repeat this trip at a much slower pace in future years, preferrably with my now young sons with me. My brother-in-law (my riding buddy for this journey) wisely dubbed this trip a recon for future rides.
I trucked my bike about 150 miles to the launch point on a Friday afternoon. I briefly contemplated just riding the bike from home to the launch point. But that would've required another day or two of previous vacation hours. More concerning was how that extra 300 mile round-trip asphalt mileage would affect my tires. So trucking the bike seemed most logical.
We set out on a Saturday morning around 6am, and proceeded to ride the next 4 days from 6am to 8pm. We covered about 200 miles on days 1, 2, and 3. And about 250 miles on day 4. Between my stock main tank, 2 Primus fuel bottles, and the RotoPax -- fully loaded I was carrying 4.3gal of fuel and my range was around 300 miles at 75mpg average. This was more than really needed between fuel stop but provided some buffer.
Fire in the west this year are bad already, and the smoke definitely obscured the views. But the route we had planned months earlier wasn't impacted by closures so we counted ourselves blessed in that regard.
We tent camped the 1st and 3rd nights. The 2nd night we stayed at a very modest cabin at a hot springs tucked way back in the forest. Meals were eaten at restaurants/cafes in small towns along the way.
My backpack weighed around 25lbs with snacks, water, spare tubes, electric pump, tools, first aid, and a few other items. The dry bag weighed about 15lbs with sleeping bag, sleeping pad, tent. The RotoPax was another 15lbs. Most definitely, I could feel the weight back there -- especially during some of the more technical sections. But the bike handled the weight just fine. And, believe me, we rode some very VERY rough and rocky terrain.
Maybe a bit of bragging here: my bike is 15 years old, but just getting broken in -- less than 3000mi on the odometer total when we set out. I was stopped by 4 guys along the journey who commented on my old-ish bikie. One guy said: Dude, that is one bad-*** bike. Who am I to argue? We passed a crew of ~40 firefighters who were brushing out a road. And 4 or 5 of them gave me a thumbs up and nods as we passed them, and we thanked them for their work.
In the end, the odometer had racked up 848.7 miles when we returned to the trucks. As beief as it was, this was truly one of the best adventures on which I've ever embarked in my adult life. The shear quantity and magnitude of country I was able to ride thru and immerse myself in in those 4 days was really beyond what I had imagined. Just an amazing amazing journey.
What an awesome adventure y'all tackled. Great narration and pictures too. Lifetime memories for sure and just think, you get to do it again with your boys.
I’m running the Tusk DSport on the rear. And I’d have to go back to give a firm number but I think it had 800-1000mi on it already when we started this trip. I had installed a brand new Pirelli Scorpion on the front a week before we left.
The rear now is about half worn. The front also is about half gone. I’m not one to let tires get down to next to nothing before doing a swap so I’m looking at a set of new tires probably this winter.
I was quite pleased with both tires on this trip. They each felt planted the entire time. More importantly, I was very happy neither of us had to deal with flats - though we were carrying tubes and supplies to address if needed.
07-22-2021, 11:28 PM
Trip report: 850 miles of (mostly) dirt in 4 days
We passed a crew of ~40 firefighters who were brushing out a road. And 4 or 5 of them gave me a thumbs up and nods as we passed them, and we thanked them for their work.
