Paul and Steve's EXCellent Interior Adventure

[ElChupacabra]

Greetings from Lilloet!

Steve and I are currently on our trip, and this Motel has high speed so here's an update.

The plan was a week of dualsporting around in the BC interior, we didn't really have much of an itinerary until the night before we left! Our original plan changed slightly when busboy asked me to help with the gps stuff for the Cariboo Ride. Steve and I took our KTM 450 and 525 EXCs up to ride the "big bike" ride. I can assure you it was a ton of fun on a "little" bike as well.

I had just pre-rode the Cariboo ride 2 weekends previous getting the 1100kms of GPS tracks, so last weekend was another 1100 kms and the first 3 days of me and Steve's holiday. Nice start!

http://www.dualsportbc.com/photogallery/data/628/46Coles_01.JPG

Back at home Sunday night, and it was bike maintenance and tying a few loose ends in the office for Monday - and some quallity time with the kids and SWMBO. After the kids went to bed, I put the new Dunlop 908 Rally Raid on Steve's rear wheel. I had 2500 kms on mine and it was wearing really well. Tuesday AM Steve showed up early and final preparation and packing begun.

http://www.dualsportbc.com/photogallery/data/628/46day1_01.JPG



We managed yo get on the road by noon:?. We were rolling, but we both were hungry. A quick stop for gas at the Lougheed Esso station in Agassiz, and then we headed North to Harrison. We stopped at the Old Setter PUB for a quick lunch then hit East Harrison bound for Boston Bar.

Following the same curse as the Routledge run, the roads were rocky and very scenic.

http://www.dualsportbc.com/photogallery/data/628/46day1_02.JPG

Packing a bike for a couple days on the road is fun if you keep the amount of stuff to minimum. Go heavy on tools, repair stuff, and raingear. Go light on the personal stuff - toothbrush, motrin... Here's a shot showing the gear strapped ontomy Katoom. Note the Wal-Mart LED tail/brake light. I'm using the Oxford soft panniers and a seal-bag on a Pro Moto billet rear rack. Wolfman's Enduro Carry-All is on the front number plate for the easy reach items.

http://www.dualsportbc.com/photogallery/data/628/46day1_03.JPG

Past Boston Bar our plan was to stray from the Routledge Route and take Spius Creek FSR to Merritt. Problem was the road ended at a big Ravine/slide and was completely impassable - the way we went anyway. We chaed down a couple roads and then finally conceded and backtracked to the Routledge Utzlius Creek route.

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We headed left on Dean FSR towards Spius Creek and had a ton of fun along the way.

http://www.dualsportbc.com/photogallery/data/628/46day1_05.JPG

We finally reached the Coldwater road North of Kingsvale somewhere and cruised the asphalt into Merritt.

First stop, COLD BEER STORE :hb:!! Then the Ramada near 5A interchange (cause it has a great Sushi restaurant and......



http://www.dualsportbc.com/photogallery/data/628/46day1_06.JPG

is close to a great PUB within walking distance. The owner is German and has one of our favourite German wheat beers Konig Ludwig Weissbier. The barmaid, Asia, says her dad has a R100 and does lots of adventure riding.

http://www.dualsportbc.com/photogallery/data/628/46day1_07.JPG

After totally pigging out on sushi:Pand quaffing several :tup:pints, it was time to tuck Katie and Kate in for the night.

http://www.dualsportbc.com/photogallery/data/628/46day1_08.JPG

Wewere headed for Lilloet tomorrow, and you already know we made it here ;), but wait till you see the helmet cam!!

More later (maybe) - pizza's here and the beer is COLD!

[ktmken]

Looks like a lot of fun. It was good to ride with you two at the Coles ride for a bit.

Ride Safe

KTMKen

http://khansen.smugmug.com/photos/88250265-M.jpg

[ElChupacabra]

Thanks Ken, it was fun cruising with the "big kids"!:clap:

[joker650]

Hey buddy.... thats some serious km's in 3 days:tup:



More pics please:hf:



Where are ya, maybe meet ya tomorrow!:dr:

Hey Paul.

saw your buddy today that was at Jimy's thelast time we were there. He's trying to get ahold of you. Itold him tocheck out this thread and PM you.

[640in604]

Thx dirtybill, I spoke with Brett and he told me you were practically in a body cast or something? Tell me Sgt. Highside, what happened?


I have more pix and helmet cam video from this ride report coming yet. (Including yours truly demonstrating a low side at 40+mph...) Awesome helmet cam.

What Happened??



Rider Error of course, again:clap:

[ElChupacabra]

Dirtybill wrote:
What Happened??



Rider Error of course, again:clap:

Oh ya, too much loud-handle and too little restraint...hehe... I'll get some more pics and report up soon, work(sucks) has been too busy plus I've started renos on the barn.:tup:

[ElChupacabra]

Thanks for the nice comments, sorry Day 2 has taken so long but it's summer and I have a barn to get ready for my horses and a zillion other things to do. Not to mention I currently do not have high speed internet here in the stix so I'm using my Cell phone EVDO 1X.

Day 2 dawned and we beat our prvious record of a noon departure and were under way by the crack of 11 am. :frustrated: We did a little map and GPS work to get our route for the day planned out, had a good breaky, loaded the bikes and wer off.

There's a magnetite mine just outside of Merritt, as we headed up the Aberdeen FSR. The day's route seemed pretty straight forward until we found that the GPSs road were OLD OLD OLD and nearly gone. We followed these roads less travelled anyway, and conditions were hot and dusty again.
http://www.dualsportbc.com/photogallery/data/628/46day2_01.JPG


We stopped on a nice twisty dusty empty road and turned on my helmet cam. We wicked it up with me chasing Steve for some choice footage. At one straightaway we hit about 60mph and a corner kinda snuck up on both of us.

Steve hit the brakes first and slid towards the corner. when I hit the braked I was gaining on him and was starting to come up beside him on the outside of the turn. I was blocked!

He was carrying too much speed so he was leaving his turn to the last second, and I had nowhere to turn, so down I went and slid in to the ditch at 40+mph. It was over in an instant and me and the bike were in good shape (ATGATT baby! :cool: )

Here we are stopped at the end of the straightaway post-lowside.
http://www.dualsportbc.com/photogallery/data/628/46day2_02.JPG

Closer inspection revealed I had can-openered the bottom of my left pannier, and had I continued I would have spread out my clothes yardsale style for a few miles. Grabbing my trusty roll of safety wire I stitched the bag back into shape which held nicely for the remainder of the trip.

http://www.dualsportbc.com/photogallery/data/628/46day2_03.JPG

We had targeted a road that switchbacked down to a settlement just North of Spences Bridge, on the Thompson River. After chasing down a bunch of forgotten trails and roads we ended up whee some loggers were falling trees directly on the trail we had wanted to take. We bailed on that plan and headed back south to find nother to Spences Bridge at least. We had burned up a few hours on something that shoudn't have taken so long, so wee would be cutting Ashcroft and Elephant hill out of our ride.

Somewhere we chose to leave the main trail again and try and come out as close to Spences Bridge as possible. We came down several miles of trail when finally we came to the Nicola Valley near Spences Bridge. It was hot, we had burned a lot of gas, and it was almost 3PM - time for lunch! BUT!! We were still a couple thousand feet elevation from the highway and there is a sign ahead.

"...Reservation...Gate Locked...No trespassers..."

We had pretty much passed point of no return, and being so close to our goal we decided to press on, and stop and talk to whoever seemed in charge when we got to the bottom. We started to decend these steep cliffs of snd and gravel on a narrow path that had been carved ito the side of the mountain. Steep! and getting hotter by the minute.

We passed through a couple gates that were open, and assumed that there could still be a locked gate 1/2 way down the mountain and having to climb back up and doule back and ride a bunch of asphalt into Spences Bridge was a possibilty. FWIW - I ALWAYS stop and turn around at NoTresspassing signs, this was a first. We rode with care, kept the revs down, anticipating a welcoming committee at the bottom. Surely everyone would hear these bikes coming down the switchbacks for 1/2 hour high over their heads.

We got down near the bottom and the road widened and the hoodoos started. It was probably 110F and the sweat was evaporating the instant it appeared.
http://www.dualsportbc.com/photogallery/data/628/46day2_04.JPG

Well, let's head down there and see what we're dealing with. When we arrived at the bottom, the place was deserted, totally abandoned except one house. I think they were hiding inside with the air conditioning cranked, or everyone was down at the swimmin hole. We headed to the highway through the open gates and proceeded down to Spences Bridge.


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Spences Bridge is famous for i's Thompson River Steelhead, big horn sheep, and the Log Cabin PUB. A cold drink and a couple smokies was dinner, and then we saddled up bound for Lilloett. Top off the gas tanks and the plan was to take Murray Creek FSR to Lulawussin down to the Hwy, then turn off at Fountain Valley for some more offroading.

More Day 2 to come....
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This story makes me just want to get out there and RIDE!!!:clap:

[ElChupacabra]

Talking about bikes is pretty good, wrenching on them is great, but actually RIDING THEM wins by a mile.

2 weeks and I will finish the ride report, I am typing this from my hotel in Paris. Wifey and I are on a holidy sans rugrats. http://paulnjoinfrance.blogspot.com for some pics etc.. more on the ride when I get back.

Paul:tup:

[TroUtman_888]

I wanna see the helmut cam wipeout :clap:

[malachi]

wicked ride report and pics guys. Looking forward to more:tup:

[PaulBurke]

I just realized that 3 years has gone by, and no video!!

Well, here's the first part of the video (there is no second part) but it covers some interesting parts of the trip. And of course, the wipeout...


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqkeTDlXWfs



I tried to embed it without much success.
Paul aka El Chupacabra

[T.Low]

WOW! :tup:

Now thats trippin'!

[joker650]

THanks PaUL.



WOW!!!! this thread N E V E R ends :hb: