Thanksgiving weekend was spent once again at the Tillamook State Forest in western Oregon. This year it was just myself and my husband Tom, which is always nice.
The 6 hour drive on Thursday ended up being 7 1/2 hours with holiday traffic, a down tree partially blocking a lane of I-5, massive rain and some hail just for kicks. No worries though, we pulled into a decent campsite late afternoon, deployed the awning to provide a little relief from the rain and fired up the heater in the trailer. We then made a lovely taco dinner for Thanksgiving complete with adult beverages and a nice selection of CD's to drown out the incessant rain hitting the roof.
Save for a few elk hunters, we had the place to ourselves on Friday. Since November 2006 has been the wettest month on record for the last 30 years or so and accompanied by lots of windstorms, we knew there could be washouts and/or down trees lurking around every corner. That means I'm riding with my trusty Husqvarna chainsaw on my back and we've tried to plan a route that will avoid the known bad spots. About 3 miles from camp we encountered the first bit of snow on the ground and it's raining (of course!). Tillamook's big claim to fame is two-fold: huge hills and slimy mud. We've elected to camp and ride out of the south end where it's much rockier terrain than the north end and has little muck to deal with. The mucky north end is also the quad zone, which we avoid like the plague; we're all about single-track. Anyhow, we start off in the Diamond Mill area on a trail that neither of us can get up and it's back out to the road to link back in above the impassible hill. Doing so gets us to a nice loop with some killer hillclimbs and the downhill freefalls that come with them. We had a blast climbing some unreal terrain, hootin' & hollerin' and challenging each other to some big climbs. Many of the trails in this area are posted as "One-way", as you simply cannot ride a dirt bike up them. That means that once you push over the edge, you're committed. Another good reason for packing a chainsaw! The saw was out several times throughout the day and we were very thankful to have had it. However, a saw doesn't always save the day... We came upon a big washout on a road about 1/10 mile before a trail we were aiming for. Three logs about 3' in diameter were wadded up across what was left of the road and then it was a straight drop of about 30 feet into the abyss. We surveyed the situation and figured out how to wheely/carry our bikes through the mess after a little light "trailwork" with the saw. Cool, we made it through! Then things really went got bad. About 1/4 mile into the Muesial Creek Trail we hit another washout. A big landslide had come down the hill and water had carved a trench about 12 feeet deep across the trail. No more go. We looped back up to the road that paralled the trail to see if that would work. Aren't we the big dreamers?! The same landslide took the whole road right above the trail. Back to the first washout for a little pack & carry across the logs again to where we started. Such is life in the Pacific Northwest, but we were actually laughing about it by this time. A short road ride took us back to our original starting point and off to another series of trails.
Things got real good on the second half of the day's ride. Lots of really fun single-track and unbelievable hills to climb with some snow here & there to keep things interesting. Tom & I stopped mid-way up a hill for a little breather where I snarfed down 1/2 of a Payday bar. My snack was interrupted only because I was tired of the freezing rain/hail pelting my head. Looking up the hill I told Tom he should go first and that the next stretch looked pretty entertaining (think lots of rocks, tree roots, a little snow and a seriously steep grade winding through the trees). The next time I saw him, his Yamaha was up-side-down at the end of a perfectly executed "S" in about 4 inches of snow blanketing a hillside of cantelope & watermelon-sized rocks. When I shutoff my KTM he asked if that was entertaining enough for me. Of course it would have been better if I'd actually witnessed the carnage! No damage done, so the antics continued up & down the hills through the trees. We dropped down through a particularly fun one-wayer called Wolf Point and onto the Mongos Canyon Trail where the chainsaw earned it's keep again. It looked like a war-zone in that canyon! A big landslide had taken dozens of trees down the hill and into the creek along with about a gazillion yards of mud & debris (that's a lot!). Luckily the destruction was mostly on the opposite side of the creek from the trail and we arrived out the other end unscathed. We looped together a few more trails and finally ended up back at Cedar Ridge Trail which took us back to camp. About 1/2 of this trail is open for two-way traffic (if you're good enough!) and the bottom 1/2 is one-way only. The final half mile or so is the steepest thing I've ever ridden down. I was dead-engined, dragging the brakes, using everything I had to stay off the gastank and/or handlebars and trying to pick lines that wouldn't result in a giant endo. Just to make sure I wasn't slacking off, the chainsaw was trying to climb over my head all the while. Tom, Yamaha, Lori, KTM and chainsaw all made it safely to the bottom. What a rush! My arms may never be the same again. A couple miles of road took us back to camp where we thawed out in front of the heater for a while.... a long while. All totaled up, that was 40 miles in 6 hours requiring a full tank of saw gas. Not a very good average for most riding areas, but decent for Tillamook following a month's worth of storms.
Saturday we were prepared to tackle a whole new set of trails north & east of camp. About 2 miles out of camp (and basically straight up) we broke out of the clouds into blue skies and about 2 inches of fresh snow on the ground. No rain, game on! We jumped into a particularly fun maze of trails through the trees winding up & down a couple hillsides. The big challenge was trying to keep snow on the low-hanging tree branches from getting inside our coats. Where the trees were really thick the ground was bare & wet and traction was great. I was leading up a root infested hill and got stuck on a nasty root step. To avoid holding up the old man, I quickly backed down out of the way and he zipped around me and over the roots. When he went by his bike made some horrible noises like rocks were going through the chain. Sure enough, the tips of every tooth on the countershaft sprocket had broken off. This was about the 4th ride on that chain & set of sprockets, dammit! Tom tightened up the chain as much as he dared and we made our way back to camp. No spare Yamaha sprockets in the spare parts box, so we were done.
About 30 miles south of home we got into snowfall on I-5 which only got thicker the closer to home we got. Towing a trailer with a 2-wheel drive van in the snow is not for sissies... thankfully Tom was driving! There's now about 10 inches on our back porch and that stripped Sunstar is our favorite sprocket ever. If it had stayed in one piece yesterday we would have been traveling today in a big, ugly snowstorm. Funny how those things work out!
Another fun & adventurous holiday is in the books.
LT
The 6 hour drive on Thursday ended up being 7 1/2 hours with holiday traffic, a down tree partially blocking a lane of I-5, massive rain and some hail just for kicks. No worries though, we pulled into a decent campsite late afternoon, deployed the awning to provide a little relief from the rain and fired up the heater in the trailer. We then made a lovely taco dinner for Thanksgiving complete with adult beverages and a nice selection of CD's to drown out the incessant rain hitting the roof.
Save for a few elk hunters, we had the place to ourselves on Friday. Since November 2006 has been the wettest month on record for the last 30 years or so and accompanied by lots of windstorms, we knew there could be washouts and/or down trees lurking around every corner. That means I'm riding with my trusty Husqvarna chainsaw on my back and we've tried to plan a route that will avoid the known bad spots. About 3 miles from camp we encountered the first bit of snow on the ground and it's raining (of course!). Tillamook's big claim to fame is two-fold: huge hills and slimy mud. We've elected to camp and ride out of the south end where it's much rockier terrain than the north end and has little muck to deal with. The mucky north end is also the quad zone, which we avoid like the plague; we're all about single-track. Anyhow, we start off in the Diamond Mill area on a trail that neither of us can get up and it's back out to the road to link back in above the impassible hill. Doing so gets us to a nice loop with some killer hillclimbs and the downhill freefalls that come with them. We had a blast climbing some unreal terrain, hootin' & hollerin' and challenging each other to some big climbs. Many of the trails in this area are posted as "One-way", as you simply cannot ride a dirt bike up them. That means that once you push over the edge, you're committed. Another good reason for packing a chainsaw! The saw was out several times throughout the day and we were very thankful to have had it. However, a saw doesn't always save the day... We came upon a big washout on a road about 1/10 mile before a trail we were aiming for. Three logs about 3' in diameter were wadded up across what was left of the road and then it was a straight drop of about 30 feet into the abyss. We surveyed the situation and figured out how to wheely/carry our bikes through the mess after a little light "trailwork" with the saw. Cool, we made it through! Then things really went got bad. About 1/4 mile into the Muesial Creek Trail we hit another washout. A big landslide had come down the hill and water had carved a trench about 12 feeet deep across the trail. No more go. We looped back up to the road that paralled the trail to see if that would work. Aren't we the big dreamers?! The same landslide took the whole road right above the trail. Back to the first washout for a little pack & carry across the logs again to where we started. Such is life in the Pacific Northwest, but we were actually laughing about it by this time. A short road ride took us back to our original starting point and off to another series of trails.
Things got real good on the second half of the day's ride. Lots of really fun single-track and unbelievable hills to climb with some snow here & there to keep things interesting. Tom & I stopped mid-way up a hill for a little breather where I snarfed down 1/2 of a Payday bar. My snack was interrupted only because I was tired of the freezing rain/hail pelting my head. Looking up the hill I told Tom he should go first and that the next stretch looked pretty entertaining (think lots of rocks, tree roots, a little snow and a seriously steep grade winding through the trees). The next time I saw him, his Yamaha was up-side-down at the end of a perfectly executed "S" in about 4 inches of snow blanketing a hillside of cantelope & watermelon-sized rocks. When I shutoff my KTM he asked if that was entertaining enough for me. Of course it would have been better if I'd actually witnessed the carnage! No damage done, so the antics continued up & down the hills through the trees. We dropped down through a particularly fun one-wayer called Wolf Point and onto the Mongos Canyon Trail where the chainsaw earned it's keep again. It looked like a war-zone in that canyon! A big landslide had taken dozens of trees down the hill and into the creek along with about a gazillion yards of mud & debris (that's a lot!). Luckily the destruction was mostly on the opposite side of the creek from the trail and we arrived out the other end unscathed. We looped together a few more trails and finally ended up back at Cedar Ridge Trail which took us back to camp. About 1/2 of this trail is open for two-way traffic (if you're good enough!) and the bottom 1/2 is one-way only. The final half mile or so is the steepest thing I've ever ridden down. I was dead-engined, dragging the brakes, using everything I had to stay off the gastank and/or handlebars and trying to pick lines that wouldn't result in a giant endo. Just to make sure I wasn't slacking off, the chainsaw was trying to climb over my head all the while. Tom, Yamaha, Lori, KTM and chainsaw all made it safely to the bottom. What a rush! My arms may never be the same again. A couple miles of road took us back to camp where we thawed out in front of the heater for a while.... a long while. All totaled up, that was 40 miles in 6 hours requiring a full tank of saw gas. Not a very good average for most riding areas, but decent for Tillamook following a month's worth of storms.
Saturday we were prepared to tackle a whole new set of trails north & east of camp. About 2 miles out of camp (and basically straight up) we broke out of the clouds into blue skies and about 2 inches of fresh snow on the ground. No rain, game on! We jumped into a particularly fun maze of trails through the trees winding up & down a couple hillsides. The big challenge was trying to keep snow on the low-hanging tree branches from getting inside our coats. Where the trees were really thick the ground was bare & wet and traction was great. I was leading up a root infested hill and got stuck on a nasty root step. To avoid holding up the old man, I quickly backed down out of the way and he zipped around me and over the roots. When he went by his bike made some horrible noises like rocks were going through the chain. Sure enough, the tips of every tooth on the countershaft sprocket had broken off. This was about the 4th ride on that chain & set of sprockets, dammit! Tom tightened up the chain as much as he dared and we made our way back to camp. No spare Yamaha sprockets in the spare parts box, so we were done.
About 30 miles south of home we got into snowfall on I-5 which only got thicker the closer to home we got. Towing a trailer with a 2-wheel drive van in the snow is not for sissies... thankfully Tom was driving! There's now about 10 inches on our back porch and that stripped Sunstar is our favorite sprocket ever. If it had stayed in one piece yesterday we would have been traveling today in a big, ugly snowstorm. Funny how those things work out!
Another fun & adventurous holiday is in the books.
LT
