Honda CRF250L Dual Sport Adventure Ride: Rainy Day Exploring Hidden Ponds and Misty Mountaintops

Good morning, everyone. Welcome back to the dork side. It's me, your friendly neighborhood dork in the neighborhood, and today we're loading up to go riding in the rain. I know the weather looks okay right now, but let's see. It's not supposed to be great when we get up there. The intros have been a little lengthy lately, so we're gonna try some time lapse this time, see if we can get to the riding a little bit faster. and we've encountered a slight issue. Um, this is a tree across the road. This is a pretty major forest service road too. It's actually kind of chilly up here, so I'm gonna see if I can get, if there's any way to get the CRF around, and then there's a couple places I could pull off and park down there, I think. Could even just park right here, honestly. Let's look. It's pretty tricky. Looks like I can get around this. Nope. Trees all the way across the road. Damn, dude, it like shattered. All right, well, this isn't the only entry point. I'm not gonna silky saw this up. All right, well, we're gonna turn around. I know another place to get in. We'll just go back down to, uh, Trout Creek, I guess. Disappointing. Not what I was planning for this adventure. That's okay. We're not gonna not go riding. We can get under. Doesn't look like it. Yeah, this is impressive. This has to have fallen, like, in the last day or two. Crazy, dude. I said, this is a major road, and there's no way around this to get into the woods, so back down, back down. Here we are. So, this is the spot where we started our adventure, the rainy day dual sport ride. All right, I turned the navigation on, and it's making noise. Thank you. I know. So, this is where we started the rainy day dual sport adventure, and it's fitting because it's just starting to rain again. So, I'm gonna get unloaded, and then we're gonna head up. I managed to adjust the navigation, so I think we can get to the same spot from here. All these roads lead up into the same forest. Hopefully, we don't run into any more, uh, fallen trees, because that would derail us. So, I'm gonna get unloaded before the rain gets any worse, and, uh, we'll get started. We are ready to roll. So, a couple new pieces of gear I'm using today. You probably can't see. These are my built Tempest waterproof pants. I think they're Tempest. If they're not, I'll put the right link in the description. So, new pants, fit better. These are low cost. They're 140 bucks. They have a removable liner, and they're supposed to be waterproof. So, we'll find out today, although it's not pouring. I thought it was going to be. So, bonus. The other thing is, I got these IMS super sport foot pegs. First time out with them on the bike, so I'm looking forward to testing those out. So, let's go. Let's get out there. Let's ride. Let's ride. So, where are we headed? It's a great question. Duck Van and I came up a couple weeks ago, just to get up in the woods, and, um, shoot guns a little bit, and really just hang out by a campfire, and not go camping overnight, but at least come up here and hang out. And so, in the process of doing that, there was a spot I wanted to check out. And so, when we got there, I discovered, because I'd ridden by it, but I'd never checked it out, that there was a pond there, like a beautiful sort of beaver pond, tucked away in the woods, next to this dispersed camping site. So, it was a great spot to hang out, which, of course, got my wheels turning. So, I went home, got on Google Maps, and started looking around for other similar things, and found what I think is another one. So, I marked the entrance road on Google Maps. And again, I've had mixed results with Google Maps lately, as you know. But it's a destination, and it's a place to head towards, as we ride up in the woods. But really, the joy is just being up here, and look at this beautiful fall foliage. So, I'm going to try to find this new spot I haven't been to. And if there's time, I don't think it's too much of a detour to go to the other spot that I've been to, but I haven't shown in a video. I've passed a couple of hunters leaving the woods already. So, hopefully, this bike is noisy enough and red enough that it's clear that I am not a deer, and so, therefore, you should not shoot me. I think we're good. We're going to stick to mostly main roads today, except for at the end, like I said. So, I don't know. It's possible that there may be people camped at these spots, because it is hunting season, and people do camp up here while they're hunting. Speak of the devil. There's another rig. It's been there for a little while, it looks like. So, it's about 45 degrees here. I kind of was secretly hoping that we might hit some snow if we got up high enough today, but because there was a winter storm warning for this area, not down in the valley, obviously, but for up here in the mountains, and it looks like it's been a lot milder than it was supposed to be. Because, one, it's not raining right now, and I can see the sun, and two, I was checking the traffic cameras up a little bit higher in the mountain to see if the mountains up there got snow, because if they did, there's a good chance we'd get some up here, and there wasn't a ton, and it looks like it's warmed up some. So, I don't even know if what came down is going to stay, but it was a severe storm warning, like two feet, they were saying, but it doesn't look like on the very top there's more than an inch or two. So, I don't think we're even going to hit any, but I was kind of hoping we would today. I was looking forward to getting into the the first new snow before it gets too deep to really traverse. I'm excited to be testing out my new foot pegs. So far, so good. They're really going to be more of a benefit on the trails and when I'm standing up working a lot, but they're helpful all the time and more comfortable all the time, and so we'll see how much of a difference they make in casual riding. Like, today is going to be more of an explorer and less of a hardcore, you know what I'm saying? Oh, there's another hunter with horses. Howdy. So, I've got my inReach right here, and I don't, I normally keep it on me in case I'm separated from the motorcycle. So, good advice is to keep it on you, don't put it on your bike, because if you were to crash and fall down a cliff and need to call the SOS, you can't do that if your motorcycle and you are not in the same place. But, I sent a message to my wife, and it doesn't work so well when it doesn't have a clear view of the sky, so I just put it in a bag for now, just to make sure that it sent, because I'm not where I said I was going to be because of the tree that was across the road that I showed you. So, I wanted her to know where my new starting destination was, in case I don't come home, she knows where to send the search party, because I'd like them to be looking in the right place, you know, if I were stuck up here trying not to die. Unlikely, but, you know, it's unlikely that you're going to crash statistically, but you still wear gear. Oh my god, a full-on motorhome? This is impressive up here. Where are these people parking these things? Makes me feel a lot less hardcore on my dual sport when there's a motorhome on the exact same road, and everyone explores their own pace, their own level of comfort. So far, these pants are pretty warm. I don't know if I'd want to be wearing the if it were much warmer than this. So, it's a good temperature to start at. I've got my wool socks and my SIDICI Aventura boots. I actually built Discoveries, but now they're SIDICI Aventuras, they're waterproof. Everything I'm wearing and using today is in my dual sport gear guide video, and in fact, everything I'm wearing and then everything that's on the bike is in my other dual sport gear guide video. So, I've got one for stuff that I wear, and one for stuff that I carry. Okay, well, this road to the left is not a road to the left. So, if you're trying to tell me to go that way, you're stupid. That's not a road. I've been down it quite a ways. It wants me to go this way. Okay, good. Good, this is the way I thought it was. Oh, one other new piece of gear. Forgot to mention it, but I mentioned it in a video a while ago that I got a silicone cover for my GoPro Hero 7. So, again, I can't show it to you because I'm filming with it, but I showed it in an earlier video. I think it's a recommendation from Hippodrones, and I think that is going to solve my problem with having to use the mic adapter. Assuming the mic adapter is working right now, I probably should check that in the rain because you can't keep the waterproof door on it if you do. Fall is a unique and beautiful time of year up here. All the leaves are changing. Temperature's not too awful cold yet. It's the only time it looks like this, so I'm glad I'm getting some video of it. Yeah, it was pretty windy up here last night, though. Look at all the branches on the ground, and then we saw that big tree that fell. So, pretty wicked storm, wind-wise, must have been. Lots of new leaves on the ground, too. So, the trees got beaten up last night. Oh, yeah. Oh, man. It's the first time I've had to stand up. Footpegs made a big difference. Still got that ugly-ass Kortec tail bag with the stupid diaper cover on it on the back of this. That's where I keep all my survival gear. I'm really looking hard at upgrading. I'd like to get the Giant Loop Mojave saddlebags and maybe even the Klamath tail rack. Some people have asked. I do not get a kickback from Giant Loop. I just really like their stuff, but if you are looking for dual sport luggage, don't forget you can use promo code DORKINTHEROAD on GiantLoopMoto.com and get 10% off. I just don't want you guys to pay full price if you don't have a good deal. 10% is not nothing. $25 depending on what you're buying. I love this bike. One of the best purchases I ever made. They're on the fence about getting a 250L. Get a 250L. It's getting a little foggy. We're in the clouds now. Here's a good shot, maybe. Definitely high. It's just all fogs and clouds, but something. It's pretty. I'm sure it's very pretty when it's not clouds, but it's still pretty right now. Try to get three or four of those third person shots every video because I think they're cool. Looks like it goes right. 2024. There's a sign. Oh, I know where we are. I know where we are, so I definitely want to go that way. I know where we are. I know this spot. That's Gordon Lakes Road, I think. I am pretty sure this connects to where we come in. Oh, it sure looks like it. From Canyon Creek. Yep. Yep. Cool. That means we're going to drive right by. So advantage of going the other way is we're going to go right by that other pond that I wanted to show you, so we can stop there first and see if there's anyone camping there. Nice. Oh, yeah. This looks very familiar now. We stopped right here to go pee when Duck Fan and I were up here last time. There's a really cool snow covered mountain up there behind that cloud, which you can't see because, you know, cloud. Oh, yeah. This is the spot with the side trail thing. That's fun to take. Yep. Yep. Yep. Yep. Yep. Yep. No, I can use my new pegs. Oh, yeah. Beautiful. Beautiful. Funny, I found this pond spot that we're going to by accident because Little Dork and I took wrong turn coming down that time we came up here to see the super high viewpoint. That first real forest ride with her and went the wrong way and found it, but didn't stop at it because we were too concerned with having gone the wrong way. So there's a decent view right up here, but I bet you can't see it because clouds. Yep. Very clouds. Very clouds. Right here. This is it. That's not bad. It's pretty. It's pretty, pretty cool. I'll tell you what it is. It's a really good spot for a third person shot. Cool hillside. You can't hardly see it. Trust me, it's cool. So the pond is right down here. It's a neat little spot. Hopefully nobody's there. We're pretty far up. This is like 18 miles off the road, 15 from where we came in, 18 from Canyon Creek, where we often start. Here it is. So from the road, just looks like a real decent spot, right? To camp. But if you pull in, oh, no one's been here because that's the same garbage that was here when we were here that we probably should have packed out with us. But this spot is hella good. Like, I want to come to Spurs camp here in the summer. So I'll walk. There's a trail that goes around the side. I'll show it to you. First, let me get a cool picture. I'm definitely going to ride through that mud when I leave because that will be hella fun. All right. Let me show you this. It's a beaver pond. And I know that because there's the lodge. You see it right out there, the beaver lodge. And then we'll walk around and I'll show you the dam. Obviously a hunting spot because they've got a log tied up over there where they would hang a deer to dress it if they got one. So I'm really looking forward to coming back here and camping. In the spring, it's probably going to be snowy up here in a week or two. So I don't know that it's going to happen this year, especially in the tent. I mean, you're gonna have to excuse the breathing noises. It's a consequence of wearing heavy gear and having a microphone right next to my face. But this is the pond. There's a trail that goes. This is the beaver dam right here. It's an old one. I don't think it's active anymore, but you see the sticks and stuff. This is a beaver dam. It's getting starting to rain. Definitely going to get wet today, boys. Oh yeah. Now it's raining. Good timing, y'all. I knew it was gonna. I'm gonna give you a panorama. Anyway, this is a hell of a spot to camp. So I have a problem. A dilemma. I really don't want to get super muddy and dirty and all my new gear dirty, but it's probably happening anyway. But I also want to make cool content. So leave a comment right below if you think I should ride my bike through this big mud puddle. Tell me right now. Pause the video. Don't leave a comment. Like if you want me to ride through it, because that's how it works. You'll change the past based on what you do, right? Nobody likes. I'm not going through. I'll wait. Wow, guys. So many likes. Okay, let's go through. And if I get super muddy, I'm going to be clean by the time I get home because it's raining so hard. Let's do it. Oh, Jesus. That's nothing. Let's do it again. Let's do it again. So many likes. We're going to do it again. It's just a corner, so it's hard to get a big splash. Whoa. That's fun. So that's a pond camping spot. I dig it. Now you've seen it. Well, I might have to go to goggles because this visor it's not doing it for me. It's not enough ventilation. I have to ditch it. I got a water pool in here. It has to be closed because raindrops hit me in the eyeballs. It's a dilemma. Yeah, this fogging is bad. I should have brought the goggles. Left them in the truck. Didn't think I'd need them. It's cold up here. I wish I had a temperature gauge. I bet you it's 42 degrees. That's my guess as we've come up significantly from where the truck is parked. No, my ears are way less cold. I put my rain hood from my jacket on, but now I got to keep the visor open to see. So my face is colder. That's new. Oh yeah. Someone just dragged that out of the road. Nice. Okay. Here's our turnoff. Looks like we're just going to be in the cloud. Top of this hill is in the cloud. Let's go see. Let's go see. Oh, hell yeah. I love this spot. I'm so glad I found it by mistake. That just makes me wonder how much other cool ---- is up here that I haven't yet found by mistake. Oh, clutch baby. So nice to have one. This climb is much easier than it was last time I did it. I know I talk about my clutch a lot, but I'm really excited about it. Oh, there's a truck up here. I knew it. People hunting up on this hillside. That's a CRV with a stock. They're not even four wheel drive. I mean, they're all wheel drive, but you can't turn it on on purpose. It's an interesting choice. So there's definitely hunters up here. Oh, snow, but I'm making a lot of noise. So I think they're going to know I'm not a deer. Hopefully I'm not scaring off their ----. That would piss them off. But if they're hunting on top of this hill, what the hell are they doing? Oh yeah. We're up into the cloud now. Okay. Snow. All right. I was hoping to find some today. This isn't exactly what I had in mind, but it's better than nothing. So this is a spot I've thought about camping right here. I just want to see if there's any good cover. Not really. Not enough trees to cover anything, but I like it just to rig up a tarp to get out of the sun. That's what I don't like about being all the way up here. Snow, baby. That's so good. So good. All right, let's go up on top. I'm excited we got into the snow. I was really hoping that would happen, especially this early. This is the first snowfall I think of the year. Oh yeah. Clutch is getting it done. This is steeper than it looks on the GoPro, I promise. And rocky technical. But very fun, especially when you get up here. Yep. It's just clouds. We're just in the clouds in the snow. Pretty cool. Pretty cool. This is such a cool spot. I just dig it up here. Now you can't see anything. It's just fog. Anyway, I'm gonna stop here for a bit. I've toyed with the idea of trying to put together a dual sport group ride for next year. And I didn't do it this year because I just didn't feel like there was enough places I knew to go. That wind is whipping up. But the pond we just went to here, there's the other lookout from the Search for Epic Views video. I think I might blow my bike over. And then if this other pond is a place, that's four stops and about 40 miles of riding. So that's probably a pretty good route for a rally. But as you can see, it's gonna be snow up here soon. So that's probably a next year thing. Springtime thing. Unless you guys want to get hardcore. I would like to come up here when there's like inches of snow. I don't really want to come up here when there's feet of snow. Ooh, that wind just blew all the clouds out. Look. Look at that. Not bad. Hell yeah. Successful ride today, y'all. It's getting a little windy and the rain is coming. Almost blew my gloves off this cliff. So it's awesome up here. But it's crazy how fast this fog moves in and out. I dig it. Those hunters are gonna be down in this valley. Now we're actually gonna use the navigation to get to our final destination and see if we can find it. It is not 12 miles away. It cannot be. Is it really? No way, dude. So one thing I did not account for is, so the place I was trying to get to is very close from where we were gonna go. But it's not as close from here. So it's 12 more miles. And with the timeline I gave my wife, that doesn't fit super well. So I think we might save that spot for another day. We got a couple cool spots here. Oh man, it's cool over there. We are really close to that other view spot. Should we go check it? Let's do that. It's about five minutes away. It's just right down around, maybe 10, around this peninsula. So let's go get one more epic view. All right. Goodbye, awesome spot. Epic, awesome spot. Snow up there too. It's as low as it got, though. All right, so here's the plan. The original spot, looking at the map, is just a lot farther away than I thought because we didn't get to come in the way we wanted to. So I'm gonna save that for another day. But we are really close to the big viewpoint by the radio tower from the Search for Epic Views video. So let's go see what that one looks like in this foggy weather. And then we'll think about heading back. One more epic view coming. And there's a decent one on the way too, so we can stop and hit it as well. This good adventure is adaptable. You know that. You all know that. Guy's actually in his rig right now. It'd be hard to bring a deer back in that, I feel like. I bet he's surprised as hell to see some dude on a motorcycle up here in the rain. Definitely not hunting. I don't have me rifle. All right, one more spot. Overall, gear much better today. These gloves, I've had zero problems. I've taken them on and off a bunch of times. These pants are a lot more waterproof than the non-waterproof pants I was wearing last time. So that's good. There's some rain. Hopefully the camera lens is staying relatively not droppy. Hopefully. Got to see some snow, so that's cool. Not very much, but a little. Oh, here's a cool spot. Man, the sun's coming out over there. No snow. I was really hoping for some snow-covered hills. Some snow at the very top over there. Isn't it beautiful right here? It's just beautiful. Just amazing. So cool. No new territory today, but that's okay, because the old territory is cool. New territory to the anyway. Stuff I haven't shown before, at least. But there's plenty up here to explore. I plan to do a lot of it. So the road we're on right now, this road, is where this is the road that was blocked by the tree earlier, but 10 miles from here. So we were going to come in this way. It saves you some distance. Just boring, you know, going fast on logging roads versus fun, cool stuff. So it gets you there to the cool stuff faster. Front end washed out on me there. Less than ideal. But here's one spot. Pretty neat. Good view. Oh, I just shifted standing up. How fun. Another one around the corner. We stopped here in the dad-daughter, in the Wolf Rock video. We stopped here. My dad got off and looked off this cliff. This is a view you've seen before. Same spot, if you're curious. Pretty awesome. Pretty awesome. All right, and then that radio tower spot is right down here around the corner. It's right here. This is the road, access road. I wonder what... We haven't gone down to where the radio tower is. We should see if there's anything, a different view. Let's just look. As I know it's off to the right here, let's look at the left. As long as we feel like we can get back up. Oh yeah, no problem. Oh, these pegs are just, it's like standing on the ground. They're so stable. This is the access road for that tower, I think. So there's probably a gate. It's maintained, though. You see how they've taken out all the foliage. Yep, there's a tower. There's no fence or anything. That really surprises me. They just figure it's safe because nobody knows it's up here. Huh. Yeah. So there's the tower. This is the access road. I wonder what's down here. If there's a decent view. Let's look. I guess, well, a fence with like barbed wire might be a deterrent. So you can't actually get to the view. So that other spot is actually much better. But pretty cool. You can kind of see it through the trees. I bet it looks good from up there. How hard would it be to get up there? Not very. You think they've got some kind of proximity sensor illegal trespassing? It'd be marked, right? It's snowing. It's snowing. It is snowing. It is freaking snowing. Awesome. Okay, I want to climb that, but I don't want you to have to listen to me huffing and puffing when I know there's a really good spot just down around the corner where we can watch the snow fall. So let's go look at it. Next time, baby. This is a fun little ride though, right here. Maybe this is what deters people from messing with it. Oh man. I just want a little bit more snow. I want to ride in the snow real bad. That was not a jump. This is the road. It sure seems like the snow is not coming as well as I was hoping a second ago. Oh, there's some. I might stop and sit down just for a minute just to take it in while it's not raining. All right, sorry. Puffing a little. Let's turn the bike around. Headed out. Getting later. Not late, but definitely starting to feel the cold in my feet a little bit. And I've ridden, it'll be nearly 50 miles by the time I get back. So I think we're going to head back down. I will, of course, bring you back if anything eventful happens. But I just want to say thank you for coming on this super fun adventure with me. We were looking for some rain. Didn't really get it, which is a nice surprise, I think, considering what happened last time. All things considered, everything went better than expected. I would like to see some snow, so I'll try to come back in a week or two. Maybe when the weather is... I'd like to ride in a little snow, but not a lot. So I got to catch that wind though. But we checked out a cool dispersed camping spot by the pond. Got on top of the... Whoa, there's the guy again. Spooked me. Same guy. Got on top of the lookout point in the windiness, saw some snow, went to this other view spot, and now we're headed back. So all in all, a great adventure and I had a really good time. So thank you all for coming along. I appreciate you. Thank you for watching as always. Oh my God, and I forgot to tell you, if you made it this far and didn't know, I am the Dork in the Road and I want to be your internet riding buddy. And I'm better than your regular riding buddies because I'm available whenever you want and I come with the mute button. So please don't forget to hit that subscribe button and click the notification bell so you know when I post awesome new content just like this. Anyway, thank you for watching. I appreciate you as always and please do not forget to be excellent to each other. I thank you. Excellent! Beautiful. Look at this. Just a week from now, there'll be no leaves at all. Beautiful.