4th Of July On The River...And The 18th of July, too!

Good lord we should start a anniversary thread.
Cheers and congratulations to all that have made it this far.

No kidding!

27 years?? Dang, I got my rookie butt kicked on that one

Congrats to all! Heaven knows it ain't easy sometimes...at least, I think that's what Eric says


WoodsChick

Yeah, camping is much more fun when you don't have the P's running around telling you what to do, that's for sure

No GPS tracks, but I could scan my map and send it to you. I'm a low-tech kind of adventurer, preferring to look at the scenery instead of a screen

I say go for it on the TAT. We'd like to do the Oregon Back Country Discovery Trail one of these days. We'd like to do the CA one, too.



WoodsChick

Well, we went back to the river last weekend for some more ridin' and swimmin'. It was just as spectacular as it was over the holiday, but it was hotter and the water was warmer

We varied the route a little bit in order to hit Mattole Beach for a gourmet breakfast of chili and tortillas. It was cold and windy, with a black freight train of fog barreling down the coast. I had to put my wind-proof vest and hat on!



The labyrinth is still there after several years, but the maypole with all it's glorious flags is gone...




Eric filling the fuel bottle so we can fire up the stove and have breakfast...



My reason for living...



One last look at one of my favorite places in CA before heading inland...





More to come...


WoodsChick

Linkies instaed of pitchurs?

We headed inland, and the temperature rose with every mile that rolled by. We had a spirited ride, and once again I was reminded of why I bought an SM in the first place. The 610 is simply the most fun motorcycle I've ever owned. It's proving more and more to be my favorite bike ever, and I've owned a lot of fun sportbikes and dirtbikes over the years. My Pirelli MT60's were working well, even on the dirt and gravel we were doing, but the square profile does leave a bit to be desired. The rear is a 160/60-17 and could use a bit more edge to it. It's a drag running out of rubber. This is what they looked like after riding about 50 miles of pavement, then 30 miles of dirt and then about 80 more miles of deliciously twisty supermoto-grade (i.e. super-funky) pavement. The thin black line on the edge gave me pause and made me think twice about leaning it over farther than I had previously been doing...



We got to the river about 2pm and it was easily 100 degrees. This time, though, we left all our gear on for the ride to our campspot...






I really like my little grill...



Dinner was steak, creamed spinach, mashed red potatoes with roasted garlic accompanied by some Balvenie from the flask I bought Eric for our anniversary in `06...



The stars were out in force, and we could see each and every one of them since we left the rainfly off. I awoke before dawn and was treated to the spectacle of the crescent moon peeking over the ridge, in all it's amber glory, accompanied by Jupiter and another extremely bright star...Antares maybe? It was truly heavenly.

We splashed around all day and found a neat-o spot for next time. It looks just like Blue Lagoon (without the naked Brooke Shields, of course...) only on a river instead of the ocean. We'll have to hike a bit to get there, but it'll be worth it!

We suited up about 4pm, while it was a blistering 103 degrees out, and made our way back home. The gravel here is deep...



And the rocks are kinda big...





I had a bit of a moment getting out of there. I was getting pretty squirrelly in the sand (I know, hard to believe...) and ended up shooting off into the big rocks to the left of the shore way before I was supposed to. I sat there a minute sort of hoping Eric would bail me out as I was extremely hot and didn't feel like falling. Well, he was extremely hot, too, and didn't feel like dealing with it so glanced over at me and then he kept going. Honestly, I have no idea why I ever married that guy! ..... Anyway, I did what I had to do and made it through without any additional drama. It was actually kinda fun once my temperature came back down to normal.

We had a great ride home, although the oppressive heat conspired to make our tires even greasier than they already were. I did my best Gary McCoy impression in a 10mph switchback and, I gotta say, it was big fun!!

Anyway, that's it for the river trip.



WoodsChick

Ooh...you're quick

Yeah, I was trying to use the SmugMug thing Coffee set me up with but, well, uh, I was experiencing some technical difficulties. Eric lost the damn notepad I had my notes on and I obviously couldn't figure it out on my own without them.


WoodsChick

Nice report (again or still, whichever) and great pics, however your heated descriptions of the sweltering temps made me feel a little warmer than actual. I think Jeff and I will do a night ride pretty soon to beat some of the heat.