A taste for our Compass Ride this last weekend. We modified our plan a bit, Fridays celebrations lasted much longer than anticipated!! Saturday saw us off exploring Ellemeham Mountain, saw turkey, deer, cows (Fletch loved this bit!), and yes, a moose!!! Sunday we went off in search of roads that were not groomed and graded to perfection, seems the folks of Okanogan County have perfected the gravel roads bit, some were better than the streets of Seattle. As we were getting some fluids for us we had a great Border Patrol Agent pull up, what better person to ask were the gnarly stuff is than the guy who works the area? HE gave us some basic directions and off we went. Our group had 2 F800GSs, a cheater KTM690, and a behemoth Moto Guzzi Stelvio, needless to say, kinda nuts but off to single track cow trails we went. At one point we were worried that the smoke coming off of the Stelvio may lead to a visit by the forest service guys, but we were deep enough in the woods that they never found us. After letting the Stelvio cool down we found some tamer stuff and worked our way back down off the mountain. Great day of riding. When we got back to Oroville we were getting some supplies for the evening and we saw 2 KTM990s roll by, they turned around and stopped to chat, it was a father son combo, they were looking for a place to camp for the evening, so naturally we invited them up. Good fairly early evening, Fletch Newland rocked the grill making some great Cheeseburgers, nice fire crackling away as we shared our days ride with our new guests. Up the next day, headed to do the upper two sections of the Washington Backcountry Discovery Routes North to South. Awesome riding for all. We parted company with our new guests at Carson City after topping off the tanks. 29ish miles from Lake Chelan a rock reached out and bit Fletch, Heres to healing quick Fletch!! In good fashion Fletch rode the bike out, on a bum ankle, with no rear brake... Down to Chelan we went, all was well so we headed for the barn. Closing thoughts? #1. Having a wife that is understanding of my addiction. #2? having like minded friends who take the good natured ribbing as part of the adventure and always willing to go brapping with me. #3? The riding, always the riding. #4??? The Bike. #5? Everything else, the list could go on forever, all I can say is if you want to see the entire list, come join me for one of our ADV Rides, absolutely one of the best things a person can do is find those roads (and trails) less traveled.
Posted on: Tue, 23 Sep 2014 19:14:51 +0000