Hidden Pond Camping Spot Deep in the Woods: A Honda CRF250L Dual Sport Exploration Adventure

Just in case. Not getting stuck like last week. Hello everyone and welcome back to the dork side. It is I, your friendly neighborhood dork in the road, or in this case in my truck, and today we're headed out to go riding in the woods on the CRF. We're gonna find that pond I tried to find last time but didn't make it to. So we're in the truck on the way to the mountains, to the foothills really of the Cascades outside of Sweet Home Oregon. It is a cold day. My truck tells me it is 37 degrees outside. It's a very clear cold fall day, which means no rain like last time when we got drenched on, but it is gonna be a little chilly up there. So I got all my warm gear and probably some hunters up in the woods still today, but we're gonna try and see if the tree that blocked us last time has been cleared. But I brought my chainsaw just in case. I don't think I could clear that particular tree, but I might be able to clear enough of a path to get by it on the bike if all else fails. So it's a destination adventure today, trying to get to that spot because I want to see if there's a decent camping spot there. So maybe less side road exploration adventures, but who knows? I sometimes get wild hairs and go in all directions, so I just want to say thank you for coming along with me. I appreciate it. Hope you enjoyed the video. I'm just curious, faithful audience, how do you feel about the non-riding portions? How do you feel about the riding up and the sort of really quick talking in the truck shenanigans? Valuable addition? Cool context? Interesting insight into the circumstances surrounding the rides? Or do you just want to see the rides? I'm curious. And I'm also curious about the talking on the bike, so I talk a lot. And believe it or not, there was like six minutes of talking in the last video, but I cut out 40 minutes of talking because I talk the whole time I'm riding up there. It's just a lot of covering miles in the woods before you get to your destination. So what do you think about that stuff? Just right? Too much? Not enough? Tell me in the comments. Anyway, appreciate your feedback. Thanks for coming along. Hope you enjoyed the video. And don't forget that I am the dork in the road, and I want to be your internet riding buddy. And I'm better than your riding buddies because I'm available whenever you want, and I come with a mute button. So please don't hesitate to smash that subscribe button. Turn on those notifications so that you know when I post awesome new content just like this. Thanks again for coming along. I'll see you when we get there. All right, well, here we are in the same spot where we got stuck trying to come up here last time by the giant tree. And the bad news is the tree's still here. Good news, somebody cut a hole through it. So we can get through and get to our spot this time. I knew that would happen. I knew this wouldn't stay here forever, but look how crazy it is. Crazy big tree. All right, we're gonna go up to the spot we were gonna unload last time and unload and get riding. Here we are at the spot I wanted to get to last time. You can see the truck is here. This is a campsite, a dispersed campsite up here that is always full. There's always people here in the summer. I've never been able to camp at it. There's actually three sites. There's one here, one over there, and one back over here. But it's right next to the river, as you can see. So I might walk down and look at that. But I want to show you something else first. The thermometer in my truck says 36 degrees right now, but if you're curious how cold it gets up here at night, there's a bunch of ice. So it gets cold. It gets a little cold. Let's walk down to the river really quick and then let's unload so we can ride because that's why we're here. Oh, it's beautiful. This is about a mile and a half past House Rock Campground if you're local and you want to check it out. Shouldn't be giving away all the good spots, but I trust you guys. All right, before we take off, a couple things. One, I'm sorry if I'm muffled. I'm trying out balaclava today. I'm hoping, one, it'll keep my face warm, but two, it'll keep my breath from fogging up the inside of this visor as much. And I brought my goggles, so worst case, I can put them on and then the balaclava will cover everything. Goggles aren't covered, but it's going to make breathing even harder. So I'm sorry, huffing and puffing. Two, I like this sign. Act like a cat. If toilets are unavailable when nature calls, pretend you are a cat. I dig it. Thanks for our service. And three, I wanted to show you a new piece of gear I'm very excited about. So these are my Giant Loop Mojave saddlebags. They're the gray ones. I've been wanting these for a while and Giant Loop did not send them to me. I ordered them. I paid for them myself. That's how much I wanted them. We're going to do a full review on these a little later, but I just wanted to introduce them to you and remind you that if you decide to order something from them, please remember to use the promo code DORKINTHEROAD. I used it and saved 10% off these things, which was 20 bucks. So not nothing. So I got the full Giant Loop setup now, pretty excited about it. So everything that was in that crappy Cortec tail bag I had is now in these way more out of the way, way more durable and way better looking Mojave saddlebags. So I'm going to give these a good test today. But from tests riding around and stuff, they seem like they're super out of the way. You can't even tell they're on there. So I'd be surprised if I noticed them much today. So I'm pretty excited about that. They look amazing. I think so. Like I said, full review to come for now. Let's go ride. So I just realized that drinking while riding is going to be a hell of a lot harder while I'm wearing this thing. My face is much warmer. I can already tell though. So that's cool. So we got a ways to go on this main road before we hit, and this is the entrance to the Sanam Wagon Road. This is a really cool trail if you've never hiked it. But we got a ways to go before we hit the intersection that I, and I know how to get there. So I'm not going to worry about navigation until we get that far up. But it's just going to be some, some of this lovely forest road riding, some Forest Service road riding for a while. So our destination today is what looks like an entrance road to a small pond that is just off of the main road. So I have no idea if it's accessible. There could be a giant trench. There could be multiple trees around it. There could not be a pond there because Google, I use Google Maps satellite view to find it. And those maps are years old in most cases. So things change. There could be no water in it because of the time of year it is. I don't know. I just want to go see because I'm interested and have been if you've followed any of these videos in the past in finding spots for some secluded dispersed camping in the future and also just cool destinations. So today we're going to be covering some miles with a bit of a more interesting exploring riding at the end rather than going up all the side roads and getting into cool technical stuff all the time. So it's still cold. Like I said, we're at 36 or something when I got out of the truck, according to the truck's thermometer. And it's only going to get colder as we go up, but the day is also going to get warmer as we ride. So I'm not worried about it being super cold. It's not going to be below freezing. It's supposed to end up being 65 down at the bottom here today in the afternoon. So it's a very clear cold day. It's going to be a nice one for a ride. I think Lava Clava is pretty tight so far, but I think that's what you want. But it's definitely doing the job of keeping me warm. It is making it harder to breathe, not surprisingly. This is where we unloaded last time when we went to Wolf Rock. The dad-daughter grandpa ride. I wanted to check out that campsite down below and it's a good off the road spot. Cool bridge right here. Cool waterfall. Cool spot for a picture. Need to take some of those. It's dark in here. That's kind of cool. This is a neat spot when this is a raging waterfall, which it is for much of the spring and summer. A cool spot, y'all. Pretty neat. I don't think there's anything cool up there. Just a big hillside. Here's the extreme. Pretty pretty. Anyway, onward and upward. Man, I am warm. I am good. I told you I would test out the Storm 2 Pants on the last ride and let you know how they did. They've done really well. I'm very comfortable right now too. What's remarkable, I think, is that I'm warm. I had them on the whole time I loaded up last time. Because they're the only waterproof pants I had with me. They were not in my way. They're very comfortable. My last pair of waterproof pants felt really bulky and these do not. As far as waterproofing, they're perfectly waterproof as far as I can tell. I'd recommend them. $140 for a pair of waterproof, warm, adventure-worthy pants. That's pretty good. It's the cheapest, I think, pants along those lines that you can find. I often have trouble with pants like this because I have short legs and so the knee armor falls in the wrong place. That's why I didn't get the Aventura pants but the knee armor is right where it's supposed to be for me on these. They cater to short-legged dudes and ladies, I assume. People, really. This big bird, which I'm sure you can't see. It's like a pheasant, I think. He's flying up the road though. This is where you turn to go to Gordon Lakes. Gordon Lakes is a really cool little hiking area and place to backpack camp. Pretty neat. I don't really want to hike down to the lake in all this gear today. That pheasant is still flying up the road. You see him? He's trying to race me right now. Trying to make me look bad. There he goes across into the trees. That was funny. I'm happy the weather's nice today other than the cold but again I really wanted to get into some snow so we'll have to keep coming back until we hit some. Now I've talked it up so much I have to do it. Good one coming up for you right up here. More ice too. Fun. Oh yeah. This is gorgeous. Gorgeous. Gorgeous. Magnificent. What movie? Anybody? It's Avengers Infinity War. I'm gonna get you a panorama. Oh wow. Mount Washington or Jefferson's poking up over there. You probably can't see it. Another cool spot. Keep going. Keep the air flowing. The spice must flow. Another tree in the road. Lots of that going around. Another beautiful spot right up here. It's actually the backside of that ridge we rode around last time. Neat spot right here. Pretty neat with lots of bark dust. Hard to see I think. It's too sunny but there's a really cool ridge up there. Pretty bomb. Man this mask is... I'm warm. Doesn't make it feel like it's hard to catch my breath though. A couple good spots up here. No that was my turn right there to the... Yeah it totally was. That was my turn to the radio tower. Let's stop and look at this one a little bit. Why not? We're here. At the very end of the last video was filmed on this road right down around this corner and it took us hours to get here and I'm here in less than half an hour today. That's why that other entry road is so much better for getting where we're going today. I think this balaclava is too much. I just gotta go. It's getting pretty hot already. I thought it would be a little cooler up here but with the wind blowing everything but I'm pretty warm so I'm gonna take the liner out of this jacket. Yeah oh yeah that's not much better. Yeah I'm sweaty but this is a good call. All right gear update. I've ditched the liner in my jacket and put it in my pouch. I got a badonkadonk now. The balaclava is gone and I'm pushing the goggles on the helmet which you can't see because I'm filming with it but it is surprisingly pleasant up here today so I'm gonna get warm. So I may even have to take the liner out of these pants. I just would have to take my pants off to do that so not quite there yet but beautiful view. We're gonna keep going. We're about two miles from the intersection where I need to start using navigation. This should be a massive airflow difference. Let's see. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. I might get cold. Goggles. Big difference. The air is not that cold though. It's really surprising how quickly it got warm up here when the sun comes up. It's like a whole different place when it's dry versus when it's wet. Super wet last time. Oh yeah I could just breathe so much easier. I was definitely getting overheated. I'm getting heated. I mean I'd much rather be taking off layers than wishing I had them to put on or heading back to the truck because I got too cold. So it's a good thing. Yeah there were leaves on all these last time. Remember the excellent was right here. Everything was very pretty yellow. It's all dead winter brown now. Okay so this is the intersection where I need to turn on the navigation because I don't know where to go from here. So let's do that. I mean I know I need to go this way but I don't know where up here. We're still probably 10 miles from the spot is my guess based on distance from the last time we turned around. Oh another big tree. Yeah we've had some weather up here. Look at this. This one's not even really clear. People are just riding over it. Exciting. Driving over it. Oh yeah that's a big one. Decent view over here but I don't know how you get to it. How far up does this side road go? Looks like it goes pretty far. Well something to check on the way back. Although what's right up here? Let's just look right here. Huh. I mean it's not nothing right here. It's pretty pretty amazing. Well I want to explore this but I want to get to this destination first. That's our priority. Destination equals priority. This little up might get you a good vista. I don't know. I don't know. I'm not going to do it right now. Lots of side roads to explore. You could explore. I could ride up here for the rest of my life and not see every road there is. And not just because they keep making new ones. Except if I'm going to be on the right because the left goes down a cliff. Here's that spot. You guys it's that same ridge. That same ridge. We just came down around it. Stop for a sec. Panorama with the cool music. That was fun but we're really close to the turnoff. Or at least where I think the turnoff is supposed to be. So let's see if we can find it. Should be right up here. Okay so it's going to be down this valley. This one goes around near it but not to it. It looks like that's the road right there. Yeah we're here theoretically. All right so this is our turn. Yep right where the map said it should be. Oh and it's a decent road. This should only go to the pond if my Google Earth, Google mapping, Google satelliting is correct. Or at least the big hole where the pond should be. It certainly looked like there was a camping spot or something down here. So let's see. We are off the map. Thank you navigation. We'll take it from here. Man we are pretty high up. Like pretty severe cliff to the side. So must we come to a pretty big flat spot. I don't know. This is definitely off the main road though. That's good if there's something down here. We're gonna find out. Longer than I expected. Still pretty severe drop off on the right. The road's in nicer shape than I expected. So people have been down here. There must be a reason if it's a dead end. This ought to bring back memories of the side roads on the Wolf Rock video because they're really close to here. Okay getting a little technical. That's good. Keeps the riffraff out. Okay already longer than I was expecting. Good. Good explorers. Also keep an eye out for just side roads that might lead to it. Maybe it's not right at the end of this. There's just nothing. Now it's going up. Okay we can go up. Does this loop around and back out? Because if it is then I missed it. And it's down there where I just was somewhere. I should stop and look and get off. This is steep. It doesn't look it I'm sure but it is. Oh what if we're here? You guys. You guys. This is it. I wouldn't get in the water. That is a nasty green. But this is the spot. Mission accomplished. Destination reached. This is a hell of a good camping spot. Hell of a good one. Look at this. We're having lunch here for sure. For sure. There's like a little trail that goes around. We're gonna have to explore a bit. Cool. Discovery. Thanks Google Maps. You don't always lead me astray. Just often. Not always. Just often. All right let's look around. So fire pit. Important. Necessary. Lots of extra wood. People obviously camp here. Of course lights. Thanks Rednecks for destroying beautiful things. Oh this is like a spider smorgasbord right here. Look at this. This is rainwater. Awesome. Just super awesome. So happy that we found this. And clearly the water is typically much higher based on where the logs are sitting. Awesome dude. Google Maps. You're my best friend. I've decided not to put the helmet on and walk around with it on but I do want to explore this a little bit. There's a trail over here I want to check out. So I'm going to take you with me on the tripod. So I'm sorry if there's sometimes a few of this thing rattle a little bit so you get a little weird noise. But I think this is going to be better than the alternative. So I just want to walk around a little bit. Check out this spot. It's pretty tight. Yeah this water obviously gets up much higher different times of the year because all these logs floated up here and settled. Cool man. There's my bike. The other side is still in the shade. It's got frost from this morning. And this side is so warm. I took my jacket off. This is clearly a trail. Game trail? People trail? Both. That goes down to the water. Yeah probably not rideable unfortunately. At least I'm not willing to risk it when I'm up here by myself. I'm not about to get close to this edge and go over. Cool man. Pretty cool. Yeah this is gotta be a game trail. There's no way there's enough people up here to make it this distinct. Yeah and people aren't running side hill up this thing either. Doing this in my riding pants sucks. I hope this is good footage y'all. This is the end of the decent trail but that's okay. I just wanted to get a better look at the pond anyway. So this is it. Cool spot. Already have some good footage. Anyway I'd say this spot is a total mission accomplished. Thank you Google Maps. It doesn't always fail us. I don't think it's super well known. The road on the way in is not amazing. So especially that last section. So I think that means it's probably not something a ton of people know about. It has been used. Obviously there's some beer cans and stuff but not a ton. Beautiful back up to this. I like it. It's enough to discourage casuals. Steeper than it looks on the GoPro. You're just gonna have to trust me. Good little spot for people to turn around if they don't like steepness. And then this not well-traveled but occasionally traveled road. It's nice. Leads up to it. Some technical rocky stuff just for fun. It's a good little road in here. I like it. Getting her done. Man that's really cool. So you gotta wonder. You know and I say this a lot but it makes me wonder how many other undiscovered wonders are out here. Just gotta take these side roads and see where they go. So I'm excited to keep doing that and keep exploring. It's amazing what you can find and it's amazing how much the world opens up when you own a dual sport bike. So I recommend it. Great dual sport adventure today. And actually reached the destination that we tried to get to last time. It was closer than I thought. I think navigation was giving me something funky. We totally could have made it last time but the weather wouldn't have been as nice. So I'm glad we went today. All right back on the main road. All right everyone. Well I'm gonna make my way back down to the truck and load up and probably head home while the weather's still nice. So I'm gonna head down and not do any on-foot exploring. Take another look at this because it's amazing. Not stop and do as much exploring but instead just concentrate on getting back to the truck. So I just want to say thank you for coming with me. I appreciate you. I hope you enjoyed the adventure. If you did don't forget to like, subscribe if you haven't. I'm trying to get videos like this up a couple times a month at the at least. Which encourages me to get out into the woods so I appreciate that. You're watching encourages me to get out into the woods so I appreciate you. Thank you for making it possible. But as always thank you very much and please don't forget to be excellent to each other. Thank you.