Day 4 April 16th, 2003
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Northeast of Superior we eventually turned East on Cherry Creek Road and crossed this pretty deep ford. We offroad adventurers get an extra bang out of conquering water crossings for some reason. I failed on several other crossings as you will see a few days down the road. We were having a blast and got on the wrong trail that wasn't heading where we wanted to go. |
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| No fear------Here is Bill Anderson (Country Boy) to help us find our way. I was dumbfounded to see this fellow tooling down the remote desert area at us on his trusty and dusty 1963 Honda CT90 with dual range transmission. When you travel, sometimes you meet some really nice people as you go---and if your lucky you meet one that just kind of warms your heart for their love of life. Bill was one such person--he was so nice. He has been riding these deserts I guess for a long time as he new every inch of it and was so helpful in helping us find a trail toward where we were wanting to go. Bill was packing a good size sidearm--and we were about to find out why. |  |
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Here's ole' Bill leading us to the trail we couldn't find------and we had 4 GPS's among us !!!! Bill didn't need no stinkin' oxygen sensors, anti-gravitational devices, heated grips etc.---just a blue sky and his little CT90. Later he started up a mountain switchback and his bike was slowin' down----no problem, he just crammed her down into low range and unleased all 4 horsepower with a sudden beller of smoke of his amazing machine. Thanks Bill------I told you, you were going to be on the internet didn't I ????? Now your famous. Bill--if you get to see this----e-mail me at bigdogg@mvn.net (He did----nice to here from you Bill) |
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| OK-----here's why ole' Bill was packin' heat I suppose-----rattlesnake !!! I seen it in the trail and missed it and stopped just passed it and got off for a picture. Here comes Kenny who runs over it then Don who runs over it too. I was hollering "rattlesnake" to Don and pointing under his bike. It was hilarious as Don tried to balance his bike without putting his feet down. He said "Where??"----"right under you bike". He couldn't see it for his saddlebags. He was poking for his electric starter---but alas---he ain't got one, but has found "The" reason to tell his wife why he needs a new bike with one!! Don blurted out to me "you told me to stop"---"yeah but not there" !!!!! I think something very similar to this happened a couple or years ago in Colorado--something about some cow shit or something :) |  |
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Well-----I must admit we weren't sure what kind of snake it was. But I must say I had you squirmin'----didn't I ???? The "Good--The Bad--and The Ugly". (imagine Clint Eastwood movie music playing in the background). Don (left)-----"The Good" Kenny(middle)----"The Bad" Me and my KLR---will have to be "The Ugly" I suppose.
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Well look at these pitiful "gringos". After climbing up those stairs of the fire tower at 5,000 ft. of elevation they were 2 tired amigo's. Don had been workin' out in preperation for this trip----or otherwise he said he would have never made it. Don (green jacket) as always is a blast to have along. It can get cold, rain, snow---whatever. He never complains---- always looking at the good side of every situation---a great riding partner to have a long. Don wasn't going to be with us for the duration of our adventure, as he had to split up his vacation time with another trip he had planned with family. Besides---he has to suck up to his wife to get that new dirt bike with one of them electrical starters. |
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| We ended up for the day in the very very small town of Christopher Creek----which may on may not be on your maps. This was a little out of our budget but was the only place to stay. They had some nice cabins here and we were ready for some nice rest and relaxation. And luckily there was a very good "Mom and PoP' restarurant across the road. No--gas anywhere to be found. We had run all day without any kind of services. I wasn't sure we would make it to services and Don would be running very low as he had the smallest tank (4 Gallon) of us all. Another good reason for Don getting a new bike----too small a gas tank !!!! Debi--are you reading this ????? |  |
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Again-----life on the trail is tough. Yeh---and a real fireplace !!!! I put the snorers in the bedroom, shut their doors---still had to wear earplugs. This year we were very lucky again, as to find lodging every night---although we had some close calls. An injury, bike breakdown or bad weather could have spelled big problems for us. More than once we limped into a small town on empty and found a place to lay our weiry heads. |
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Here I am jotting down little notes of the days ride---which I used as reference for this webpage. I found it best to do it while all the events of the day were fresh in my mine. I was using a Delorme Gazetter also for help in planning the next days ride. The light in the room wasn't good, so Kenny had one of those cool little LED headlamps which was really helpful. These are the best thing I have found for working on your bike---and the LED's will burn for ever it seems, before changing batteries. I got my Moab hat on from last years offroad adventure which can be accessed from my homepage. |
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I thought some of you would like to know about our riding gear for this trip. Me and Kenny both had on "Moose" completely waterproof gortex riding gear----Don opted for carrying a rainsuit which was never needed and wore regular offroad gear. We all our experienced offroad riders and learned along time ago about the dangers of crashing. Complete body protection was worn by all of us---knee--shin--elbow pads, chest and back protector, offroad boots, helmets and good gloves. Me and Kenny had Collett 900mgz. communicators mounted on our helmets which we had enjoyed using in the past----but we just didn't use them hardly at all on this trip.
For navigation we almost totally depended upon our GPS's---however it was handy occasionally to have a map to look at or use in conjunction with the GPS. I carried a Delorme Atlas Gazetteer which has GPS coordinates on it for cross referencing. For you tech geeks---I was using the most advanced unit among us----a Garmin 176 which has features that suit my riding perfectly. It has more track log, waypoint (3,000), routes and map storage than any unit I found and is a nice bigger size than a III+ or V. Our GPS were loaded with Garmin "Roads and Recreations" map detail--but I carried another data chip with me and could use topographical map data if I wanted by just switching data cards.