Hudson
Well-known member
Other than a few forest road excursions, I hadn't properly broken the KTM in yet, so I called a pal who rides a GS1200, and we made plans to do sections of the WABDR. That is, until mother nature interfered. The forest fires in Central WA gave way to thunderstorms, which brought mudslides. The rangers we called told us not to bother.
So we headed west to the Olympics, using some tracks pulled off the ADVRider forum. That would prove interesting.
Woke up at the crack of dawn, and gassed the beast up after having loaded up the night before.
A guy walked up. "What is that? A dirt bike?" I told him it was a dual sport, a cross between a dirt bike and a sport bike. "Well, it's so clean it looks like you haven't been out in the dirt yet, eh?" That one stung.
Kyle and I high tailed it around Olympia up to Hoodsport, and stopped to grab some snacks.
We took one last look at the Hood Canal before heading into the woods.
We had planned to tail some riders who were doing the AltRider ADV ride, as we only had GPS tracks, not routes, and a scan of the printed maps showed lotsa squigly forest roads, easy to get lost in.
We found one rally straggler, who let us take a photo of his rally map. This was to prove both helpful and very confusing, as it is impossible to read forest road numbers on a tiny phone. Thereafter, we headed up to what we thought was the correct way, passing the end of Lake Cushman. It's one of my favorite camp spots, having been the first place I camped when I arrived in the PNW 20+ years ago.
Ten miles later, we arrived not at the trail head we were expecting, but at a ranger shack. Wrong way. Time to get out the GPS and navigate to the next waypoint. It was ten miles back, plus another five miles.
So we headed west to the Olympics, using some tracks pulled off the ADVRider forum. That would prove interesting.
Woke up at the crack of dawn, and gassed the beast up after having loaded up the night before.
A guy walked up. "What is that? A dirt bike?" I told him it was a dual sport, a cross between a dirt bike and a sport bike. "Well, it's so clean it looks like you haven't been out in the dirt yet, eh?" That one stung.
Kyle and I high tailed it around Olympia up to Hoodsport, and stopped to grab some snacks.
We took one last look at the Hood Canal before heading into the woods.
We had planned to tail some riders who were doing the AltRider ADV ride, as we only had GPS tracks, not routes, and a scan of the printed maps showed lotsa squigly forest roads, easy to get lost in.
We found one rally straggler, who let us take a photo of his rally map. This was to prove both helpful and very confusing, as it is impossible to read forest road numbers on a tiny phone. Thereafter, we headed up to what we thought was the correct way, passing the end of Lake Cushman. It's one of my favorite camp spots, having been the first place I camped when I arrived in the PNW 20+ years ago.
Ten miles later, we arrived not at the trail head we were expecting, but at a ranger shack. Wrong way. Time to get out the GPS and navigate to the next waypoint. It was ten miles back, plus another five miles.
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