My 360 miles this weekend on my TE511 report

So buddy Ken has a cabin that is 120 miles by highway. Between our houses in Vancouver WA and his cabin is nothing but endless amazing deep woods. Mt Adams, Helens and Rainer are all in this area as well as the Columbia gorge so it is nothing but epic wilderness. We have for a few years talked about riding from our houses to his cabin on dirtbike using as much off road as we can. So we finally did it this last weekend. I mapped it all out, many options to take. Sent Ken the GPX file, loaded our stuff and off we go.

Get gas and few supplies and head out. Out fist stop was 10 miles down the road to put on our rain gear. Oh well, no dust.



5 miles up the road and the route already starts giving. nice river with a big ass waterfall. Fun...





And away we go. Part of my route plan includes the Washington Backcountry discovery route. that did not disappoint. GREAT fun fast gravel roads smooth and ripe for massive powerslides and wheelies :>) here my GPS route to us to a nice view...



but unfortunately lead us to an old decommissioned road so a little back tracking was in order



Next time I want to leave earlier and not have a time to get to our destination because there were a lot of sweet 2 track and trail outt here to poach.



So Ken and I are blowing up this amazing gravel road and blow right through our turn we are having so much fun. See the 40 foot skidmarks.



yep, we need to turn here...



Did not make Lunch stop til 3:30, were planning on 1. really good food at a cool place in trout Lake WA, a little nothing town.





Sunshine and food, good times. (Ken)



drying my boots and stretching my toes some...



such a nice place



Foods here and Ken seems happy ha ha ha



Lets go do 80 more super fun miles Ken...





right after this pic we went around the lake and on our path to fine 2 crazy drunk guys in a side by side that offered all kinds of wrong info. :>) Then we busted past a truck stuck deep in the snow and down another long very fun old road to another much bigger lake and then onto the cabin.

Kens very nice little cabin in the woods...



Day one complete, time for beer and ribs!!!

After being rained on half the day on Sat we were hoping for sunny and 65 like the weatherman said. Nope, more rain. Oh well, we have the right gear. Took a completely different path home. Rode through the Gifford OHV area so we took advantage of the trails on hand.







After some nice single track we hit some pavement and onto some backroads and off the path stuff to end up where we thought we might find some friends riding. we did, in fact the forest was littered with our friends. The little DS road we came out on ended right at buddy Jake and Rory trucks.

Pro rider Rory Sullivans truck, him and jake and crew were out on an epic adventure and almost ended up in the woods for the night. Sounds like that was an epic day.



Down the road a spell and turn into an area and see buddy Ricks truck. No pix.

then down the road some more to see how buddy Rollie is doing. He is out riding his wife tells us. As we are about to leave him and another guy arrive and one of their buddies had snapped a chain. He made it back down tot he pavement and they were getting the truck to rescue him. Looks like everyone is having an adventure today.

Then down the mountain to the town of Cougar for some gas at 80 miles. Then another 60 or so home.

The trip was very successful. Zero bike issues even though we packed 20 pounds of crap just in case. Only issue was Kens bike blew the headlight bulb, we could not find one so he road the 160 plus miles home without.

what I learned...

1. Want to plan more time. even though Saturday was 6.5 hours on the bike there was a lot fo stuff to look at we could have hit. Ken has some people at his cabin and was more head down lets get to the cabin than I wanted to be. Leave earlier and have no time constraints is my plan for next time.

2. The Kenda 270 is a great do it all rear tire.




3. The cheap Bilt brand plastic waterproof pants were a blessing. That and a garbage bag vest and I was toasty and warm there whole way even in some pretty hard rain.

4. my 45 rear sprocket was perfect. Cruse 55 and still be able to do trails.

5. Kens KTM 350 got 50 MPG while my bike got 39. Then again my bike feels like it has 20 more HP. we were both good for 120 plus miles as setup which next time I'll be able to plan a little less worried about fuel. We had plenty even after the 80 mile legs. My Nomad tank works flawlessly.




6. My motosportz damper was very nice to have. Yeah, sure, thats a product plug but made the ride so much more relaxed. I turned it up for the fast gravel and it ruled.

7. My new FMF pipe and mods worked fantastic. Gobs of power, OK noise level and zero EFI or running issues. Runs fantastic. ZipTy suspension was amazing again. ZipTy oil upgrades worked perfect. Could not be more happy with the bike.



8. time for new chain and sprockets and some love and do it all again.



So fun. This has been a great do it all bike for me. Off to the next adventure...

Thanks. All taken with my cell phone.

Narrow? I got the 510 one (largest) and think it is about perfect. About like a 120 I usually run. The tire is really impressing me. I have done some real slick mud and clay with it and it did as well as the knobs on bikes I was with. I run 5-6 psi off road and 10 psi to this trip, hooks up well. Like the reports I have read it floats around some, feels kinda squirmy at times but never lets go or slides out to far. I find it very predictable. I very good all around tire that lasts forever.

Yeah but honestly I wanted more. I would have rode more stuff both days. Would have also been fine with another day or two of it. I'm a little silly that way. I was with my two day limit friend, I have other friends that would not bat an eye at more in fact demand it.

Jake

You said yesterday 2 days was your limit. Thanks for dropping my stuff off. That was a blast.

good possibility. theres a lot of great DS north of there and piles of killer single track too!