“The biggest adventure you can take is to live the life of your dreams.”
“Adventure is worthwhile in itself”
This picture has been and hopefully will be the theme for this 9 month leg with thousands of miles of dirt road riding and dream come true days of challenging adventure! The only thing I’ve noticed is the GPS doesn’t’ say south as often as one might hope. Believe you me, it has said north, east and west all to often! Especially when we decided to ride almost to Canada before turning south to aim for the tip of South America. This way really is the Long way down!
Well the completion of the first leg of the mostly dirt road trip to the tip of South America has been a Joyous success! 4,800 miles total with approximately 3,900 miles of that being dirt roads. This by the way calls for a hooray! The way this works out is that 90% plus of the actual riding time is in the dirt because whenever one hits the pavement we just blast that section out. I am going to insert a side note here;
I will be using to term WE from now on! This trip is not about "I"! I can’t do this without the bike which is my friend and teammate in the journey. And, I certainly believe in the power of honest prayer and there are many wonderful people who are following, praying and thinking about the Inspired Journey, myself and the bike. Thank you! It is really happening, WE really are doing this big epic adventure!
Ok, back on track. To be honest, I am riding pretty hard with a bike that is so loaded and even if the section is slow because of tight turns, rocks, etc. I am trying to keep up the pace because this really is the long way down. Many of you know the way I approach sports and that is to go big and ride hard with as much grace as possible. This is a gift to be able to dance this way with the various instruments(toys) I love to play with and this ride is no exception. I specifically bought and accessorized this adventure bike because it is the baddest, lightest and powerful off road adventure motorcycle in its class on the planet(in my humble opinion). And guess what? We have been a moving! This is not to brag, I promise! The reason I know the pace is grooving is that I have not been passed on the dirt by a single vehicle of any kind for these thousands of miles. However, we have passed many including other folks riding the discovery routes. Yeah, cool!
So, I rode 33 out of 36 days averaging 6-11 hours a day of on the throttle riding! Does that sound like a lot? Well, I can report that it is! This is as much time in a row in the saddle as I’ve ever logged! I got some calluses in weird places! HeHe! I am oh so grateful that the body is holding up pretty darn well. This whole Journey is pretty intense physically and of course the mental focus required is tremendous. There are many, I guess most places where we are talking about no mistakes or the bike and or I are not going to be okay. But hey, this is the nature of life in general and certainly the way most extreme sports are so this is the just the way it is! Good stuff! Helps focus and makes one feel alive and connected to the moment because it requires all of us and then some.
This particular climb was the real deal! Just wide enough for a four wheeler, super rocky and yes, no mistakes getting bucked off! By the way this is the highest drivable point in Idaho. Trinity lookout, 9,500 feet and stunning! Put it on your adventure list! You can camp at the nearby camp ground and hike up here too!
See the bike left side of pic. So, the other reason for no mistake mentality is I have been in the middle of nowhere a lot! In fact mostly! That view there was mountains in all directions as far as the eye could see. We are looking north here and we have been riding through those mountains for hundreds and hundreds of miles for days and days. The Idaho route was a tremendous amount of super focused 1st, 2nd and once in awhile 3rd gear riding on single lane narrow twisty roads for you guessed it! Days and days!
“Adventure is innate, it is within all of us. The spirit of the universe is a marvelous expanding adventure of whirling energies that dance our lives into existence. Our lives are a gift of our adventurous universe! ”
“Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.”
Just like on the first five week leg there is huge effort in making and breaking camp and tending to daily chores of gear, body and bike maintenance. I really need to get a photo of all the stuff I am carrying! I know one thing for sure, I know exactly why kids can make such a mess! It is far easier to pull all that stuff out than it is to put it back where it belongs in a tidy fashion. I'm not kidding when I say that just the daily unpacking and packing is really good for character building and the spiritual journey of presence and patience. It requires such careful and meticulous attention to put it all away in its little bags and pouches and back on the bike just right. If one didn't have the patience for this it would become annoying, overwhelming, frustrating and get old real quick! The other option I guess would be to make a quick sign out of forest materials, bang it it the ground next to the dirt road and write "yard sale" on it. The only problem with that is nobody might come by for days! Hmmm, I guess I'll have to continue my efforts in packing and paying attention to the quality of my participation with this never gonna go away task! Joking aside, I have grown to enjoy the process and believe it does contribute to the true essence of adventure!
Nice colors ehh!! Just to report I have not altered any colors on any of the pics I have posted. All natural baby! Anyways, here is an okay example of the gear involved. Truthfully theres more over by the bike and the pile by the tent has already seen a good thirty minutes of effort, but hey you get the idea! Now go load all that stuff on that dirt bike!
I utilized The Backcountry Discover Routes for a huge portion of this part of the ride. Check out there website at: www.backcountrydiscoveryroutes.com I wanted to say a personal thank you to the folks who have been developing these routes. This is hard work and my hat is off to there dedication and passion for doing this and sharing it with others. Thank you so much!
Washington Backcountry Discovery Route
When I pulled out of the Driveway the feeling of "yep this is it" was flowing through my veins. It is interesting to put your heart and mind into something for so long and then actually realize that "vroom vroom", it's happening! It's really happening! I rode the old scenic highway towards Hood River where I hooked up with my good friend Dan. It turned out to be fantastic way to start the mega journey since I will be solo for the rest of the foreseen trip. Dan and I had three great days of adventuring together. He also took great care of me by supporting me for those days so I could save my buckaroos! He even got us a hotel and took us to dinner on the third night. What a guy, great guy! Thanks Dan, you da man!
The was the second time I've been on the Washington route. It is amazing to be able to ride right out your backdoor and within 25 minutes be on a dedicated ride across the state. The first sections are nice and forested until you get outside of Packwood and start climbing up the mountain headed for Ellensburg. This is a relentless full day of rocky riding with tons of loose half fist sized to half bowling ball size rocks! It was truly a banging challenge and Dan and I saw one group who did not fair well in this section and there trip was over due to damages! We made it thru safely with a couple close calls, ya know where you say to yourself "I almost didn't make that", but alas you emerge upright with a little giggle of victory!
I pulled off here just to get a quick pic of the rocks for perspective, but the truth is on a scale of 1-10 this little section represents about a 2 on the rockiness and size that was involved. It was challenging enough that in the tough sections I never stopped to get a picture because getting going again after a stop on these marbles can be sketchy!
As you climb out of Ellensburg on a groovy single lane paved road, the landscape turns surreal in a half lucious and tree burned zone with incredible views off to the west of the cascades and goat rocks. The route in general is running north climbing and descending ridges(mountains) that run east and west. Up and down and up and down! The GPS when I did the Route 2 years ago said 65,000 feet of elevation gain and loss when the route was completed. What this does for you is give you lots of incredible views and since much of the route is at the edge of the forest and desert. Certainly one nice component of the washington route is the great views versus being trapped in the green tunnel when your in the forest. The view as you come to Lake Chelan from above is memorable and always reminds me how much I love the water and being in it, so of course a swim was in order when we got settle in for the night.
Cascades and Goat Rocks wilderness.
Looking east to Lake Chelan and the desert of eastern Washington.
I parted ways with Dan and the discovery route here the next morning and used my own creative routing to get over to Idaho to start the next route where I'll finally turn south! There were a couple of surreal moments riding thru 8" deep silt pits in the middle of a bizarre mixture of farmland and wide open eastern style desert terrain. I ended up loving this combination of following the GPS and then figuring out my own routes. Navigation is fun and rewarding, but sometimes its nice to just follow the purple line on the GPS. I ended up riding on some of the paved roads that I road when I was on The V-strom on my first five week tour which was kinda cool for memory sake. So, no trouble in Washington. Just good times, good challenging riding and sharing some of it with a good friend. Thanks Washington, what a beautiful state!
Some of that Jason creative adventure routing! Bizarre area with silt, farming and notice the basalt rock clusters. Shortly after this it crested a slight rise and looked off to the east with one of those forever views! I got off the bike and took a picture and sent it to mom with this question, "Is this the way to South America!?". It was a funny moment to realize the nature of adventure ;-)
Idaho Discovery Route
Did you boys and girls know that Idaho is a really long state? Holy cow it's as long as Oregon and Washington combined with really rowdy mountains! The Idaho route went on and on and on! If any of you want an extended off-road adventure trip where ya follow the GPS this is it! I could write a book on the Idaho route. It is vast with lots of memorable moments. They make good dirt roads in Idaho and except for some sections where the road makers scattered there marble rocks on the roads. There was literally days and days of 1st, 2nd and once in awhile third gear riding. This does wonders for ones patience and balance on the bike so I enjoyed it!
Super cool fire lookout with great views. Ya see that road off to the left there? You see the nature of those mountains out there? The route goes through there for 100's of miles and so you can see why things might be slow going.
Being by oneself in grizzly country with no car to climb in and no firearm was a little intimidating for me as this was my first time in grizzly country. But honestly, a lot of my travels this summer I've been in black bear country and so keeping a clean camp and hanging food at night have become regular activities. I lost some sleep in the beginning of these travels being overly sensitive at night and so anymore I just throw in the ear plugs, say a wildlife prayer and sack it out! I wonder if a Grizzly knocked a whole in that sign trying to disguise his handsome mug?
The other big highlights were celebrating my 40th birthday while riding the famous the Lolo Motorway, staying with my friend Ken in Missoula who took great care of me and helped me service my bike, Frank Church-River of no return wilderness, historic Florence, The Salmon River, Burgdorf hotsprings, making new friends while repairing my radiator in Boise, Trinity hot springs, and riding along so many rivers its hard to count! Idaho is beautiful, rugged and remote! Some of the little towns are as quaint as any I've seen in this country. This is where they build most things out of trees, not lumber!
I am so happy the sun has come over the ridge. It was 25 degrees on this morning and everything was covered with frost. I was painful on the hands to pack up and I remember wishing I can't wait till it warms up as I head south. If I think back to my idaho adventure experience this sums it up! Joyously challenging!
The lovely Salmon River. Put this on your adventure list if you haven't been. I can tell you it's going on mine because I would love to get back and experience more of this River.
Burgdorf Hotsprings, what a place! Snowmobile, ski, hike or fly-in only in winter. There was a cabin on the property from 1865. Wow! This was my only true layover rest day of the whole trip and I soaked until I could barely walk back to camp, got some food and then repeat the process as many times as you can! Good for the body an soothing to the soul! I had some great conversations here too. People probably swam away thinking" boy that guy likes to talk a lot"! Little do they know I don't talk to people for days on end and so when I get a hold of somebody watch out!
Another Fire Lookout at Trinity Peak. This is a quintessential shot of what the Idaho route was all about. Big, rugged, remote, stunning colors with vast differences in rock colors, water everywhere in lakes and rivers and hot springs galore!
As you can tell I could go on and carry on! I took around 1,000 pictures in Idaho alone and I promise I don't go to all the effort to slow down and stop, turn off the bike, take my glove off and often dismount the bike to take a picture unless it is worthwhile. I still took a 1,000 pictures even though it involves this cumbersome process which means there's more beauty than imaginable. Thinking back the IBDR was an amazing ride and experience I will never forget and I highly recommend it even if you were to check out one of the roads for a little ways. I actually really enjoyed the last section from south of Lowman to the Nevada Border which is closer to home for the folks near the Columbia River Gorge area. Jump on my Delorme page so you can see the route and plan a trip to Trinity lakes area and stop in a trinity hot springs in paradise to enjoy the largest hot spring pool I've ever soaked in. Idaho, you Rock! What a place and I'm so grateful to have soloed that sucker! Life is good! Adventure is invigorating! Go get some!
“We live in a wonderful world full of beauty, charm and adventure. There is no end to the adventures we can have if only we seek them with our eyes open.”
Utah and Arizona to be Continued..................
"It's time to go to Mexico!"
Your friend and adventurer,
Jason