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'15 Sasquatch redux. (Only the southerly pieces)


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Well after much finagling and a shove through the local dealership for a valve adjust, el Superbeasto is finally through her 12k and I'm off for four whole days of blissful solitude as of Thursday. I'll take my usual Scholls-Bald Peak Mountain- Carlton- Hebo route, then 101 south to Florence where I'll pick up the Sasquatch DS run from last year to Port Orford where I'll pop back in and use a combo of Sasquatch and Garmin/Google to get to Packer's Cabin where I have reservations Thursday night.

From there I may continue with the DS run which will have me in Grant's Pass in the evening and try to pick up route 3 of the OBDR off of 66 but I'm not terribly sanguine about riding that solo this early. If that falls through I may head down and then up to Steen's and the Alvord to take in the hot springs finally.

I've been out there 3 years' running and I've yet to access the lake bed or the hot springs so at last I could say I've done that. Additionally the pull of the Owyhees is very strong, I've only properly run there once, Summer of last year and it was a blast. But I just shot straight through on both ways and didn't explore.

I'm much better prepared now with proper topos of the whole route and skills I didn't possess then, in addition to a bunch of stuff that might prove handy that I've accumulated over time.

So long and short, anyone looking to ride any or all of the aforementioned over the Thursday through Sunday time frame let me know. I would post a .gpx of the coastal route, but since Tom Mehren at Soundrider is the man that developed these I will respect his wishes (and copyright) and not publish them here. I'm sure he would be OK with sharing a .gpx file amongst riders of the same group, but I'll need to ask.

Otherwise feel free to join in if desired, suggest routes, critique my stupidity in riding solo or just provide some general information, it's all good as they say. I will put it right out there that I have SPOT, decent 1st aid kit, numerous ropes, a snatch block and anchors ,2 gallons each fuel and water and I will be packing two garmins withi Topos in addition to all the MVUMs and Benchmark Oregon road atlas on my iPhone. Should be a fantastic trip, all the better in that although I'm not firm on destination yet I have adequate supplies for a good many potential rides and the time to do them.

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  • 1 month later...

Well that was a rousing flop. First day and night all went well then my stupid iPhone quit outside of Shasta necessitating a return to civilization. If I'm out solo I WILL have a working phone on me in addition to a SPOT so when mine came up a deader it put a damper on the rest of the trip necessitating a quick return. As my Business just went from 20 to 80 percent workload damn near overnight I've been a busy boy and not had much time to post, let alone ride. The first day as I said was just flawless including the ride through the woods at midnight to get to my reserved site at Packer's Cabin. I tried not to notice the claw marks on the shutters or let the banging of same keep me up that night and I was able to get some pretty good sleep in spite of any concerns. Might've helped that I had my .45 right by my side so I could sleep but all in all a good first day. Day two wasn't too bad dinking around down into California and the Shasta area with a planned stop at a motel for a hot meal and shower in K Falls at the end of that day. Then it went to Hell when my phone quit and I had to rely on SPOT messages to my Wife until I could get to somewhere with wifi to send a message from my Garmin through Facebook to my Wife letting her know what had happened. Did you realize that there are almost NO pay telephones anymore? I rode for hundreds of miles through lots of small towns with no pay phones until I finally reached Bend.

I might try to get my Wife to let me go again this year, but so far I'm pretty slammed schedule-wise so day rides are probably it for the year unless I can con someone into going with me. Oh well, had an epic 500+ mile ride last week out into the high desert and I'm sure to manage a few more this year so all is good. Plus I'm able to assuage my loss a bit with the beastie in the back of this:

image.jpeg

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