Man, what a summer! I realize that I have not posted much lately on NWOS....there is a reason. I have just wrapped up one of the most amazing summers of my life. I wanted to take just a few minutes and highlight some of my families activities and share a bit about some of the equipment that made our adventures this summer so amazing and by far much more comfortable. While I am a tad bummed that it has come to a close, I am just as anxious to dive back into project work, including items right here at NWOS, and spool up another set of plans for next season.
Trips
It all started in early June when we swung into downtown Portland to say hello and rub elbows at the Columbia Rovers 10 year anniversary party. Garrett, my middle son, and I checked out all the rigs, cruised through Larry and Todd's rooftop tent setups and checked out all the options that we could install on our new Baja Rack. We of course took advantage of the great food that Brent and crew offered up and filled out $20.00 worth of raffle tickets. To my surprise, we won several items that came in handy throughout the summer.
June 28th, 2010 ODNRA Bull Run
Headed down to our favorite spot at the Oregon Dunes National Recreational Area. The weather was amazing, conversations with friends were rich and the riding and exploring was simply fantastic. I used this trip to scout several areas that we could potentially ditch the trailer and simply camp, ride and enjoy right out of the D2. I grabbed a bunch of tracks and waypoints to further investigate over the winter. Laurie, in her typical fashion, showed everybody how to handle the monster dunes in her beloved red RZR.
July 8th, 2010 Blue Lake
Headed out to Blue Lake with a group from right here at NWOS. With the exception of the bugs, the trip was amazing. Some great people in Andy, Garrett and Jay. Andy teaches a killer NWOS First Aid class and I was glad to be part of it. After the class we headed out the last day by way of some great trails. This was really the first "test" for the new D2 and it did great. I have found that it is a little top heavy with the rack, 4 jerry cans and all the gear that goes along with a family of five for a week. Overall though, I cannot complain one bit about the performance. Andy got us to the top of someplace and the sweeping views of the mountains were simply breathtaking. I loved this trip and it no doubt will become a regular venue for us into the future.
July 18th, 2010 Goose Lake
This was a combined trip to grab a little fishing an scout the best way into Cultus Creek, a trip we were taking later in the summer. If you have never been up into this area of the GP National Forest, it is absolutely awesome. For those of you that are in the Portland/Vancouver area, this is a great location for a long day or two day trip and offers everything under the sun including some great technical trails if wanted. When we showed up at Goose Lake, there were a few too many people for us so we opted to find a spot along one of the streams and let the boys fish. While they did not catch anything, they had a blast and Laurie and I got to relax and simply enjoy spending time as a family.
July 23rd, 2010 Alvord Desert
Rocked out 1100 miles in a long weekend. The Alvord is very interesting and while amazing in its own way, it was not the place for us to be in late July and with young kids. It was extremely hot, very difficult to find any relief from the sun and crazy dusty. If you go here like we did, make sure you take extra water, extra fuel, spare air filters and stay with a group of people that know the area well. In the end, we ended up splitting off from the group a day early as the three boys had simply had enough. I totally appreciated JD and Brent's understanding of my situation, but still felt bad. I know it is a place I want to go back to, just this time I most likely will do it during a different time of year and likely will not drag along the boys or Laurie. I would also really like to spend the next trip taking more time to explore the Steens Mountains and how they interface with the Alvord Desert. I can say this though, the scenery is simply amazing and the wild horses that run out there are really cool.
August 6th, 2010 Cultus Creek & Indian Heaven Wilderness Area
This was my second favorite trip of the summer. I absolutely love this area. For this trip, I did none of the driving. Laurie had the wheel the entire time and I simply navigated and made various notes and observations along the way. We went up through Panther Creek and to the very top of the Indian Heaven Wilderness Area right at the base of Mt. Adams. At this point we anchored up at a little USFS campground known as Cultus Creek. There was just the three of us in the campground and it was the perfect base camp for the hikes and trail runs we did from it. One day we actually hiked up to the top of the IHWA and took the boys fishing. It is a serious hike, but being in that environment...the views, the vegetation, the overall feel up there was just amazing. When we left camp to head home, we explored all along the way and actually bumped into a full on indian tribe that was having a ceremony of some type....drums, head dresses and one amazing smokey fire. It was pretty cool, but you could tell that it was best for us to leave them to their own business. There is so much to explore up in this area and it will for sure be one of our regular trips each year.
August 16th, 2010 ODNRA Horsfall
Had just a few spare days, a week actually, so we rolled back down to ride the dunes. This time we stayed on the opposite side of Bull Run. This set us up for many 30 to 40 mile rides as we made our way back and forth to various locations across the dunes. It also made for a very expensive trip with regards to fuel. In a week we ran through about 70 gallons of fuel in the machines. This does not include the fuel in the truck to get there and back. Oh well....gotta pay to play, right?
September 8th, 2010 Deer Creek
This was my favorite location of the summer. For those of you that have never been over here, you must go! This area, just south and west of John Day is simply awesome. The terrain is so diverse and it has every type of overland adventure that you desire from easy FS roads to crazy technical. The thing I loved about this area though is that it is situated up in the mountains with huge ponderosa pines and groves of aspen trees, but the forest floor is covered in large part by meadow grass. This made the camping just fantastic. The weather was great, warm during the day but very crisp at night. In fact one night it dipped to 29 degrees. A tad cold, but I managed just fine. I spent hours exploring this area in the D2 and tracking everything and grabbing waypoints here and there. During this trip I was also introduced to Dual Sport bikes. Several of the people in the group had Dual Sport bikes and one of them encouraged me all weekend to take it and ride. Finally, I broke down and did it. What a kick....the freedom, the fun and the overall adventure is something that was really cool to experience. I can see why there is such huge following in the Dual Sport community. Might have to figure out how to roll one of those machines into the equation one day. Lastly, I am going to put together another trip, late spring or early summer next year into this area and I will post it up on NWOS as I really think many of you would enjoy it.
Equipment
Just a couple comments on equipment.......
First, while I love our 88 Classic and the LR3, I am so thankful that we took the plunge and purchased another D2. It made the adventures of this summer very comfortable, very relaxing and very safe. Scott set me up from the beginning with a great platform (2004 LR DII) that had been well maintained. Columbia Rovers Portland took me another step in the right direction with a 2' OME Heavy Duty Lift, a set of five Toyo Mud Terrains mounted on 16" factory Discovery wheels, a Baja Rack, an ARB Fridge, a sweet, but expensive as heck Odyssey battery and of course I cannot forget my SPOT. I rounded out the Baja Rack with two jerry can mounts, one for water and one for fuel, and mounts for the Hi-Lift jack and shovel/axe combo all from Columbia Overland. All of our camping gear for the most part was new this year as well and I cannot say enough about what a difference having the right stuff makes....especially for the wife and kids. I am thankful Joe sold me his hot water shower set up at the NWOS swap meet, we love it. Lastly, I love my navigation set up and I leaned on it all summer to get me in and out of all the trips listed above. It really does make a difference to have the right in cab resources when out and about.
Well, thanks for taking a read now its time to get back to the project list:
Finish out the NWOS clothing order...Get Todd and his boy into one of our fire stations.....help plan the rally.......on and on.....exciting times!
Have fun.
Dustin