Icy Hail to the FACE is Unpleasant: Winter Motocamping Campsite Scouting on Honda Africa Twins

And I'm out on the twin, about to meet up with Mick Loven. Hey, go in this, go in this, but let me get footage. These are the Tusk pilot panniers. I'm testing them today. Uh, the forecast didn't say anything about hailing. Look at that! Ow! Damn! Just trying to collect firewood along the way. We're going to hang out here for a bit. Hello, everyone. Welcome back to the dork side. I am the dork in the road and it is raining. And I'm out on the twin, about to meet up with Mick Loven. That's right, everyone. I'm the dork in the road and I want to be your internet riding buddy. So please consider subscribing and don't forget to turn on those notifications. I'm going to meet up with Mick Loven just right down the road. I just stopped to get gas here and we are headed out to the Shuckin Creek area because I found a campsite not too long ago and I want to spend a little time working on it, checking it out before we come out and camp. It'd be neat to just get a fire pit built and do a few other things. And we've had pretty massive, uh, colossal windstorms the last week or so. And so I'm also concerned that maybe we can't even get to it. So we might have to clear some some brush and stuff today down trees. There he is. There's Mick Loven. So much for our good timing. It's been clear all day and it just starts raining right when we meet. I'm gonna go turn around. Hey, I'll follow you. Bro, I know you can see us. Yes, good. Thank you. I love the sound of this thing. And I love that it's so unassuming at low revs. But when you lean into it, she roars. Hey, go in this, go in this. Let me get footage. No, thanks. You want to ride down to the gravel pit and get some pictures in there? Yeah. I bet it's really, I bet it's a giant pond right now. Yeah, you're probably right. This is it, I think. I'm assuming there's nobody down here shooting on Saturday. I'd say there's a good, good chance of that. Yeah, that's true. Although the weather chases them out. Yeah, it's pretty pondy, but not too bad. Yeah. My concern out here is always metal on the ground because people just dump so much garbage and burn it. Yep. Water crossing. That's a big, big puddle over there. Yeah, dude. Stuff still on there. Yeah, good. I use my rock straps too. Damn, son. I use my giant loop pronghorn straps. Nice. I've got those too in case I needed them. Yeah, I was carrying a couple extras for... You ever know, you might want to strap your jacket down or... Yep. So we're up here. This is just a stop because it's an interesting background sort of scenery place. Obviously, lots of shooting taking place, but first good look at what's on the bike. So these are the Tusk Pilot panniers. I'm testing them today. I've got two camp chairs, a hatchet, and my cigar box in this side. And then the other side is all my fire starting gear, wood cutting gear, and everything. And so far, they're doing pretty good. They're not waterproof without the dry bags inside. So the dry bags are in there, but I didn't steal them because it wasn't raining when I left. I think it'll be fine. So we're going to go scout a campsite and maybe do a little work on it. But I want to stop here first. You feel that? Yeah. That's hail. It's got a little bit of... It's hailing, bro. This is frozen. This is... We don't screw around. We go ride, you know? It happens. Okay. Shower's my ass. It is... I'm more than a shower. It is full on hailing. The forecast didn't say anything about hailing. No. What the hail? What the hail is going on here? What the hail? This is hail. Look. What is going on? I don't think I've ever ridden in the hail. Oh, this is lovely. Look at that. Goodness. It is full on hailing right now. Oh, what am I doing? Oh, it's getting down my neck. No, it's not working. Why are we out in the open? It is full on hailing right now. We are in the woods. It is hailing a lot. Hard. Yeah, this is ridiculous. Oh, it's pushing the buttons on my phone. We have the best luck. We do. Let's get under the trees. Holy moly. It stopped. Weird. Well, hopefully the hail will drive the looky-loos out of the forest. No kidding. Less competition. That was entertaining. Yeah, right? I'm glad we stopped. All right. Well, I don't see the point going up to look up right now. I don't either. Oh, there's the trials, right? So, Honda engineers, I know you've heard it 10,000 times, but it's so annoying to not be able to turn off my ABS on the fly. Agreed. Especially when I can do it with the traction control. Yes. Oh, man, that's a good view, isn't it? Yeah, if you like fog. Oh, man, cool. Good thing I'm standing up. That's right. Okay, you have a clutch. Use it. The tree's still here. Oh, yeah, it is. Look at that. I can't believe this thing hasn't fallen. Especially with the wind lately. Yeah, the longer it stays up there, the faster I ride under it. My hands are cold, man. I got to turn this heater up. You got to turn your heater up, too? Yeah, I'd love to. You're like my buddy on his GS, where he just brags about how warm his hands are. And his seat, probably. Yeah, and his seat, yeah. These are Christmas presents, though. I have to use them to honor my wife for giving them for me. I'll tell you what, this bike is easy to stand on. Yeah, it is. It really is. There's a blue trail right up here. You want to take it? This one? Yeah. Yeah, you first, buddy. I don't even think I can make that corner. I'm 90% sure this is the right road. I got rain in my face. I'm having a hard time seeing. Yeah, man. I'm good. Goggles. Goggles, heated grips. You just, you did it all right today. Let's just go for a couple miles more. What the hell? I'll be honest, I'm glad we're not camping tonight. Yeah, no kidding. Oh, the hail. The hail is back. I can feel it on my face. I love this sign when I'm on my street legal bikes up here. This is my favorite. Oh, no problem, bro. Oh, yeah. I don't give a ----. Ow! Dude, I had to put my... Yeah, visor down. This hail is painful. Holy crap. What are we doing? We're exploring. This is not in the forecast. What is the point of the forecast? One of the few places you can suck at your job and still keep it. There's just going to be a lot of going very slowly on the brake. It gets a little squidgy. This is the road that made me decide I didn't like the Deathwings anymore and I wanted better tires on the PRZ because I was getting real slidey around down here. Okay. Oh, okay. Stay off the brake. Yep. Rear brake. I'm always impressed when my instinct kicks in and I manage to stop it before I do something stupid. I'm getting a little better. Oh, okay. Yeah, okay. Okay. I'll be in the middle. Yeah, I'm going to get into the gravel parts and just coast, I think. That was neat. This will be fun to climb. Yeah. This little road off to the right is fun, but it's definitely a DRZ road. It's pretty muddy, ruddy. My hands are getting cold. I gotta crank up these heaters. Well, the parts of my hands that are on the levers are getting cold. Yeah. It's a big difference. I can totally tell. There's almost no insulation on the bottom of these. Those gloves. Yeah. Okay, we're just going to keep going. Yep. We're not going to crash. That'd be stupid. No. Here's the tree. Oh, yeah. Nice. Nailed it. This is where I went off, right there. Do you see where the little indentation is? Oh, yeah. I'm right above the culvert. I got my wheel right in there. It was scary as hell. Yeah, that's not a good spot. Yeah, I was not stoked. Big rock right here. Okay, thank you. That would have launched you off into the... Well, I was a half a second from jumping off the bike and letting it go. Yeah, why? Because I didn't want to go with it. Yep. I was like, oh, shoot. Just barely got it back up. I mean, it was... There was some pucker, I think. I could have cut diamonds with my butthole. You got a branch stuck in your undercarriage somewhere. Bad or... It's a little one off to the right side. There's a waterfall. Oh, dude, that one's cool. Oh, yeah, you got it. Oh, this is the branch you're talking about? Yeah, that one. Bro, I ain't worried about that. I ain't a branch, that's a twig. I just wanted to make you aware. Actually, I think there's another one, a bigger one. Oh, just trying to collect firewood along the way. It's much more efficient. If we... Oh, that's in there. Yeah, what's it in? My rear stand, yeah. Funny. Yeah, or my center stand. So this is not usually like this. It's usually imperceptible. Nearly imperceptible. This is the biggest one, but not bad, guys. Not bad. Man, this is cool back in here. Yeah, we're almost there. Got a little marshy area. So the first time I came down here, I stopped here. I was like, OK, this road doesn't go anywhere. So I stopped at this spot and I was going to turn around. And I was like, I'll just look at my map. And this road ended right down here. So I came down and checked it out. I'm glad you did. Yeah, this is... Oh, I'm so glad I'm standing. Yeah, and I don't want to trim that back because it discourages people from coming down here. Right. Oh, it is soggy. So this is it. It doesn't look like much in the soggy winter, but remains of a fire pit that obviously doesn't get used. There's plenty of dead standing wood and it's really secluded and close to home. All right, so this is one spot that I like. It is a little soggier than I remember. So we are just going to look at a couple or at least one other spot we saw on the way in and get a sense of which ones might be better for winter camping. I feel like this is a good summer spot, but I don't like how soggy everything is at the moment. Right there is not easy. I want to get more momentum. Yep. More mentums. Yeah, I'm squirrely. I'm squirrely. Tree, worth it to get to the gravel. Absolutely. I don't think this is any better. Soggy, soggy. Well, it's just not as cool. It's not as cool. I'll give you that. Where's the water going? Oh, there's a culvert right here. Interesting. That's weird. I don't know. What about that other one off to the side we saw? Do you want to look at it? Yeah, let's go up one more. So far, so good on the bags. No complaints. Seem to keep the weight nice and low. Getting a little dirty, but that's why we're here. That's the other spot. Yeah. I mean, I think for a winter camp, this might be... Yeah, I don't hate this. This might be the best. I don't hate it. I don't need to build a fire pit. It's pretty flat and soft. Yep. Doesn't seem as soggy and waterlogged. We're going to hang out here for a bit. This spot looks much better for the type of winterish camping that we're thinking about doing soon. Excellent!