Senior Moto Camping ADVENTURE / - Ep 1

Hey there everybody JR here. Welcome back to my channel. July 6, 2023. About to head out on the Oregon BDR from north to south. Same kit, same bike that I did 3,500 miles last year in the Wyoming BDR leaving out of this same location. I'm in Battleground, Washington. I've got some tracks laid out from here that's going to take me up into the Pinchot-Gipperd National Forest. We'll connect up with the Oregon BDR over in Hood River and should be a good time. So welcome. Ride along. Let's roll. Okay we're off and on our way. Some tarmac for a ways before we hit the dirt. Riding along the east fork of the Lewis River. Absolutely picture-perfect day. Blue skies. Extreme temperature is the last couple of number of days and now it's cooled off. Forecast is good. So we're off to a good start. Yeah we're coming up on Sunset Falls campground. Gonna be heading up into the Pinchot-Gipperd National Forest. Walk down here and take a little look at east fork of the Lewis River. Looking forward to this adventure and glad you're coming along with me. We're about 25 miles since departure and we're gonna hit some dirt now and the real adventure may be beginning. All right guys we're on the dirt now. Gravel and this will slowly deteriorate into less and less maintained roads and that's the way we like it. Still getting my feel for getting out of dirt with a heavy load again. It's been a year, almost a year, since I was on the trail last. So I'm really looking forward to this journey. I've got a full camping gear with me and we'll spend the night someplace. Tonight I have no idea where yet but we're about to head up into higher country here right now and maybe fewer overlanders or whatnot will have come through here and we'll see if the potholes go away but we're gonna start a climb. Well I looked down at the GPS and I missed my turn. I'm gonna turn around and go back pick up the trail I intended to do. All right back we go. Oh well part of the adventure right? See how much of a backtrack this was. Yeah couldn't be more than a couple miles. Yeah I didn't even see any cutoff so I'm gonna have to keep my eye open here. All right this looks like it is what I had on my GPS but I think this is an abandoned road and might be just a hiking trail now. Anyway I'm pretty sure the way I was going is the way I'm gonna have to keep on going. Yeah yeah somebody set up a little overlander rig here. Looks like it's an old ambulance. Some climbing gear. Yeah I can see the road supposed to at one time came in through there. So nope back the way I went originally. Okay that's all good all good. Let's head back up the mountain. Big switchback back there. Heading in some more steeper gnarly climbs right here I believe. So uh starting to get the feel of weight on this bike and uh making it do what I want it to do. Stand up when I have to. Pay attention. Keep momentum. Everybody knows that uh the GoPro's action cameras flatten out the terrain so it doesn't look as steep on the video as got. Very nice. Heading on up that way. Ah lucky here. Remnants of snow. 4,072 foot elevation where that snow is located. There's a little more snow up in there. Wow. Whoa baby. Okay we've come back up along that ridge over there. Cougar Rock Highway uh Forest Service Highway or Road 42. Got some snacks. Hydrated. Adjusted a few things. So uh let's get rolling on down the hillside. Yeah just came off of the gravel. A little Forest Service uh pavement. 16 miles to uh Carson, Washington. Okay I popped out onto uh two lane now. This is uh a portion of section one of the Washington VDR from Stevenson. Now we're headed south and we'll hit the uh main highway down along the Columbia Gorge. Columbia River. Go east over to Hood River. Cross the river and get on the Oregon VDR in Hood River, Oregon. And here we are. Highway 14. The mighty Columbia River and the Columbia River Gorge. So just crossed Bridge of the Gods here near Stevenson. Philly cheesesteak. Gatorade. Hood River, Oregon. Ready to get on the VDR. On the Oregon VDR exiting Hood River and it's uh 5 15. See how far we get tonight. Look for a campsite. Hood River of course for uh some of you who may not know it is uh kind of the epicenter of fruit production. Apples, pears, cherries and uh we're getting a good view of it here right now. Very gorgeous. It's nice to see that there are still family farms. They're still out here eking out a living producing food for America. All right right up there kind of misty in the evening sun is Mount Hood. What a gorgeous place to live. These beautiful orchards fruit trees and you get up every day to see that on the horizon when the clouds allow it. We're going to be moving up there closer around the base of that and we'll see uh how the adventure unfolds. About 10 miles out of uh Hood River. I'm on the dirt again. I've been climbing up at 3,700 feet now. Just entering the Mount Hood National Forest. I'm gonna stop by seven anyway. So that's my goal but uh really nice riding. Haven't met a single person. Hello. Yeah that was a gotchu uh tree and branch sticking out. Kind of a one-two punch there trying to get me. I've got a campground down the road uh in sight. We'll see how long it takes for me to get there. I'm not real sure how far it is but I think it's probably 10 to 15 miles so. Well so far no mosquitoes where I've stopped but uh that could all change for sure. Get my gloves on. Get my leg up over old gray bull here and make some more dust. Well I think I found my place for the night. It's a horse camp. Nobody here. There is tables. I'm tired. I've learned my lesson before. Stop when you're tired. Send a position report. Let your loved ones know you're good. So I'm going to set up my tent now. That's about a wrap for part one of my Oregon BDR adventure. Part two is coming up next. If you've ridden this BDR or you plan to in the future, leave your comments down below. I'd love to hear about it. If you enjoyed this video, give it the thumbs up. Consider subscribing and I'll see you on the next adventure.