Revenge Tour 2011

Revenge Tour 2011

Withdrawl?

Yup.

So here comes some some more photo-spam. It helps....

Alright. So anyway, had a GS for a couple months this summer. Decided to do a bit of a "revenge tour" to make things right from the previous year's "eventful" ride. (And in this corner....the FZ6. - ADVrider) Spent some time learning to be better prepared for the solo-excursions off the beaten path. Got a bike better suited to the task, and bought a whole bunch of adventure kit. Didn't use a lot of it though haha. Still, had it all just in case and the confidence boost it gave made all the difference in the world.

Still a long way from a proper rough and ready sort, I was pretty tame when compared to the legions of proper adventurers out there. But sure as **** didn't feel like it at the time haha. Sure didn't help that I am f00king **** in the rough stuff. Still, pushed on as best I could.

Never really had a route planned except to get to Oregon and explore the roads I was trying to explore when I was victimized by the terrorist bear. Other than that pretty much just dicked around and set up camp most days when I got tired at the end of the day.

So.......the first leg of the journey.

To Oregon!


Kitted up and fully loaded.








Southern Alberta,

Central Alberta may be boring as all hell. Western Alberta may be where everyone flocks to. But Southern Alberta was somewhere I wanted to explore a little bit. It was a good idea. It's quite nice down there. Big skies. Lazy days. Nice place to unwind since it's got stuff to look at and you're pretty much alone the second you turn off the main highways. Plus if you're into the whole history thing it's kinda cool, and really easy, to visualize the place a couple hundred years ago. It's pretty untouched in a lot of ways.

End of day.







"Roughing it"





Montana/Idaho

Honestly every time I pass through Montana it blows me away. I always just plan for it to be some random state to just rip through quickly on the way to more interesting places, but it always surprises me. Guess that's because I take the random roads through it. It's an amazing place. You could spend a month there and still want to explore more.


Initially the plan was to try to find the continental divide trail. That was a bust since I guess it's actually pretty rough and you can't take motorbikes up there. Still, poked around a little bit.

There's worse places you could get caught in traffic...

And on this trip, as with the last, truly spectacular scenic imageso(even the burger and onion rings ha ha )
Goodonyer for getting out again after the ending to the last one, I am envious Lone, and keen to see more
Sent from the phone: sorry 'bout my spileng, fat fingers...you know!

Nice one lone,
I really like your photos. Even the one spoilt by your reflection in the mirror :BLAA:.
Thanks for sharing and taking us with you.

Nelly:thumbup:

Nelly said:

Nice one lone,
I really like your photos. Even the one spoilt by your reflection in the mirror :BLAA:.
Thanks for sharing and taking us with you.

Nelly:thumbup:

Click to expand...

Haha

jerkface

Nice road cutting through scenic woods/lakes.




Explored around and pretty soon I figured out that just dicking around and exploring on my own is not actually getting me anywhere truly epic. So I ask some local guys for some good backroads. Very glad I did...










Climbing is the easy part...









Starting to make use of the tires at least haha. Carried on climbing for a while.






Bout 2 hours or so after turning off the asphalt I get to the top. Probably felt as great as it did because I was 1) ****ing terrified I was going to get chased down and eaten by a bear and 2) pushing my stress level a little bit with the road having gotten rougher and still trying to keep my pace up to make it back down before dark.

The top. So worth it. One of the best feelings ever.

Haha, my big adventure.....just a university field trip for some....







Cool place to live, was like looking at a painting in real life standing at that fence:







Back on the road to somewhere else.




Nearing the end of the day:




It was a good day that day.

thanks for the pictures lone.. once again you inspire me to get out there more!!!

Im in AWE! You take the best trips. Thanks for sharing your adventure:thumbup:

How did the GS feel loaded up on the rough stuff?

Nelly
Ps what camera do you use.
:thumbup:

Great pics Lone :rockon:

Pleased to hear you didn't get chased by bears this time :thumbup:

Nelly said:

How did the GS feel loaded up on the rough stuff?

Nelly
Ps what camera do you use.
:thumbup:

Click to expand...

Had to slow down a bit. It was top heavy but it helped to be such a big guy. At low speeds in the really shift stuff throwing a foot down and kicking it back up was manageable. It was still a very light bike. While I want a bigger adv bike for the comfort, I would hate to have something heavier than that 650 was.

Great. It felt great. Just a bit lacking in grunt. Comfort-wise I was happy on the road. Had a backrest and comfort seat and all so it was pretty sweet. Just a tiny bit cramped when loaded up. Ah well, I never wanted to have kids anyway. And the slight buzz coming off the tank was nice too.

Haha

Woke up next morning. Had set up the tent in the dark. Love this tent. So easy to throw together. You can do it blindfolded with one hand tied behind your back.




Loaded up again....got pretty quick at it. 10 minutes to go time:




Nice place to camp:





The moon. No reason why.




Hmm, couldn't find her.






Now into Idaho.

I spent a LOT more time in Idaho than I was planning on.

Started the day off with a decision. I'm going to do the little house on the prairie thing and ride off into the scenery. It's going to be AWESOME. Haha......yeah. Of course. Retarded I can be at times....

Turn off the main road.




Turn off the side road.




Turn off that road.





Promptly get stuck trying to ride through a ridge that's like a foot or so high.





Managed to get out....

Prepared!! Oh yeah.



Haha



Back on the "road" again....











After like 20-30 more minutes of what can only be described as a terrible idea, decided to get back to a road. Haha. Worst idea ever. Was not the carefree putting through the scenery that I thought it was going to be. Haha. Lesson learned. Find and use trails you retard.





Tried to get up there to have a sandwich:



Failed.


Haha so anyway, I was initially planning on ripping through it in as little time as possible. But the scorching heat in the central desert bit, and a couple EPIC roads, made me decide to enjoy the day and take it easy.

I saw this road on google maps and decided I had to check it out. Looked like a piece of spaghetti. Good call.

On the way to Oregon via spaghetti road.




But still it was time to make some time back and get through it. End of day should be deep into Oregon.








While on the way there though I got distracted.

Cooool. How do I get up there?



Ah, no problem. No problem at all....




Oh ****. Yes problem. Problem indeed.


Haha parked it there and decided maybe it wasn't work almost dropping the bike. Rocks were not helping.




Walked to the top.




Decided, suck it up and stop being lame. Just use the throttle you sissy.




Success! Haha. So lame yet so awesome.










Onwards.

So turns out if I had gone around the corner there was a MUCH easier way to get up there. Haha....idiot.














After poking around up there for like an hour or so I decided I had no idea how to get back to where I came from.

Technology FTW. Waypoints!




On to spaghetti road.

Didn't take a lot of pictures as it was just so much god damned fun. I was amazed at how aggressive you can be on knobby tires even with a fully loaded machine. Adjustable pre-load really helped.

What also helped? Knowing how to dial it in haha.

"Don't dial it to 11 for awesome"
-J. Knapik

OTP suspension class......highly recommended. You learn a lot about a component on your machine you have overlooked tremendously in the past (least I had anyway). There's a reason people in the know spend as much time/money/effort on their suspensions as they do. It's a critical component.

Anyway, I digress. Knobby tires on a scorching hot day on the cleanest bit of twisty tarmac ever. Great riding. Note: ABS brakes....get used to them BEFORE you need them or you will piss yourself the first time you experience it running in a little hot into a corner and being heavy on the rear brake. Haha....was good that it wasn't locking but it's a pretty awkward time to have to figure out what that weird pulsing sensation is.

Still, Idaho was epic. It's tough to explain why but you do feel like you're going to see a dinasaur on that bit of road at some point. They actually call that area something to do with Jurassic something or other. It's a scenic byway and one of the best bits of road I've had the privilege of enjoying. You see nothing and nobody and the road is clean and twisty. The scenery is pretty epic and there's a ton of trails shooting off into the heart of it. Some of them you could ride for a couple days if you felt so inclined.

This looked too good not to check out. To hell with schedules.