Searching for Nearby Areas to Ride My Africa Twin Off Road: A Successful Africa Twin Adventure!

Hello everyone and welcome back to the dork side. I'm the Dork in the Road and today I am determined to find a place where I can get into the woods that's not so far from my house. I failed on this quest just last week but today we're gonna succeed. I can feel it. We're gonna find a place to ride in the woods within a half an hour of my house. Wish me luck. Come along for the ride. That's right everyone, 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 consider subscribing and don't forget to turn on the notifications so that you know when I post awesome new dual sport and adventure motorcycling content just like this. Yes that's right, today we're out on the Africa Twin and we're about to get on the freeway and go down the freeway because we are going to go check out a road that I think I know of that is approximately 30 minutes from my house that will get us into an actual wilderness area near Shotgun Creek OHV Park. Now I'm not planning to go on the trails today but I know there's a lot of forest roads to ride around there and it's also a place where you can disperse camp. Today is just a scouting mission to see if I can get there in a reasonable amount of time and if I can this is going to open up a whole new riding area for us. It's not like I don't know this area exists but it's close enough that it's a quick even after work kind of jaunt and it's close enough that it's well within the range of the 250L so multiple opportunities here. So we're going to go check it out. Thank you for coming along for the ride. We're going off the freeway here at the bustling metropolis of Brownsville. Just wait till you see it. Don't blink though. I always sound like I'm talking ---- about small towns. I actually love small towns. Grew up in one. Grew up in two different ones but they are small that's all I'm saying. This is the world famous Pioneer Villa truck stop so if you're ever in Oregon on I-5 and you don't stop at the villa what the hell are you doing with your life? World famous I said. So those hills over there that's where we're headed. I think we can get up there. I feel good about it. So this is Brownsville. I missed the sign with the population but I think it's like not even a thousand maybe less than two thousand but it's a very small town just off the freeway. That's the whole thing so I hope you enjoyed Brownsville. So now you can say you've been well you haven't been to but you've seen Brownsville. You've seen it. Congratulations. We're going to go up to the back side of Shotgun Creek OHV and you normally have to go around to Maricola to get in but there's a road you can take to come up and over this hill to get to the park. I want to exploit that because there's lots of roads to ride up there and this is a lot closer and faster than going all the way around especially when my goal is to get into the woods so why wouldn't I take the road that leads me through the woods to get there? Right? Just makes sense. I are a smart big brain time as the kids like to say. I am so smart S-M-R-T I mean S-M-A-R-T. It's a Simpsons reference for the record. If you know that one you're cool. If you don't know that one well now you do. Okay right where that guy's turning I think is where we're turning. Yep there it is. This is our road. Hi horses. Hi horses. Get it? Get off your high horse says. Now uh why do I know about this road? Well I'm a local. I grew up about 10 miles from here so I had friends in high school that lived all over these here parts. It's the kind of thing only locals know about. It's no big deal. We don't really tell you outsiders that and it's actually on Google Maps if you know where to look. But we're headed straight up into those hills and those hills are Shotgun Creek OHV area. Oh I love this motorcycle. How has there been a perfect motorcycle for me out there and I didn't know until four years after it came out? It's like you built it for me. It just took me a while to find it. We had to find each other. Thanks motorcycle gods. There it is. Up into the woods. You see that? This is open rain so uh you could literally hit a cow. And yeah that does happen. I think I want to go straight. Yeah the road is turning but I don't want to. I want to go straight. It's like tree road or something like that. It's got a weird name. Timber road. Yeah tree road. Same thing. Tree, timber, whatever. I don't know how much exploring we're going to do if we can get in. The point is just to see if we can get in. But if we can get in I want to come back on a Saturday when I've got time to ride around and check stuff out. Oh no gate baby. No gate. We are in. It's too cold to have my visor open but I do. What's this? Somebody's driveway or side road? Oh that's definitely a side road but it has a gate. Okay we don't like gates. I'm gonna have to go slow just because I have to keep my visor up and it's cold on my eyeballs. Really wishing I was wearing my other helmet right now. Oh I honestly expected this to be gravel by now. Yeah. Okay well we're definitely in the woods but I wouldn't call this forced road riding yet. But I didn't look at what time I left the house but I bet it was a half an hour ago. So half an hour into the woods. We're not on gravel but we are in the woods. Got my new Fandango tank bag on here. It's quite a bit taller than my Diablo tank bag from Giant Loop but I'm standing up right now. It's not in my way at all. Actually this will surprise you because people are always like is it in your way and in fact no. Not only is it not in my way I actually enjoy leaning up against it. When I do that I know I'm all the way forward on the bike where I need to be. So it's actually a little bit of a comfort thing for me to have the bag to lean up against when I'm standing up. It's very flat on the back so it doesn't get in the way and it's soft so even if I did make like a weird move it would just compress. So you know if you're looking for a big tank bag the Fandango is quite a bit larger than the Diablo. I'll probably do a full review later but that's sort of my impression so far. I'm really enjoying it. I mean if nothing else I'm in the woods. I'm on a fun little road like hell yeah. I haven't seen any... see all I have to do is say it and it appears. Okay well that's looks like a logging company. That's just a little road. Oh it doesn't really go anywhere. A little down and out. Still paved somehow. Not well paved as you can see the potholes go halfway to Australia. Man I probably should have the map up. I'm kind of curious where we are. I should pull over and turn it on. What do we got here? Oh an abandoned closed off road. Weird how that works. Let's get it. See if we can get to Shotgun Creek. Well it doesn't start with a Z so... but we are fully in the forest right now. Look around. Cool right? Super quiet too. Okay well here's the twin. I just want to see what's up this little little jaunty right here. It says we're six miles from Shotgun Creek. Yeah. Although I might be able to get the 250L through there. Looks like people have been shooting up here. I don't know where the private land is but I know there's dispersed camping near the OHV park so that's where I would look if I were going to try to find a camping spot. Shall we continue? We shall. Let's see how these tires do on the mud. Oh just fine. Just fine. Turning it down. That TC is kicking in way too easily right now. This pavement's barely wet. Oh here it is. Oh just some gravel. I thought it was the end of the pavement. It's just a washout. This is a boring video. I'm gonna cut out a lot of this. Just me dodging potholes. You ever notice I was leaving the part when I say I'm gonna cut something out? I think that's funny. I'm easily amused. I should probably figure it out by now I assume. Look at this mud. This super shitty mud. And when you get in it you'll get stuck. And it this stuff here like there are stains on my 250L from the first time I ever rode it here. It is the stickiest clayiest mud I've ever ridden in. So I know some of you are Africa Twin owners. I've heard a few times that this crossbar that my phone is mounted to is weak and vulnerable to breaking if you put weight on it like I've done with the phone. And so Camel ADV sells a brace for it. But is that really necessary? Like are they really? It says it breaks the welds if you put any weight on it. Which one? Why would you put that there and not brace it? Because you know people are, it's an adventure bike. People are going to put GPS's and stuff on it. But um two it just that surprises me that Honda quality would be that that they would put something that thin. But have you heard that? That that the welds will pop loose and that you need that support brace? Is that actually a common thing? Oh we're getting close to the top here. Getting some viewage. Getting some epic viewage. Here's a campsite. Technically I would not want to camp here. We're getting some views. This is a side road which goes nowhere. People just shooting up here. Okay a lot of these side roads on this side don't go anywhere. Good to know. I know there's an extensive road system up here because I got lost one time trying to find a trail and we toured a lot of it. I'm just really glad there's no gate. Like this is actually open. Also people are driving their trucks through this. Crazy. That is some deep mud. Dude you're legit if you go through there. But there's there are full-size 4x4 trails up here. So you get some guys up here in mud rigs I'm sure. It's probably nothing to them. There's a mud hole. Oh no I'm not gonna. I'm not gonna get my new twin new to me twin stuck in that deep ass mud up here by myself. Sorry guys. It's okay leave your comments. That's not why we're here. Well so far it's not a complete success because we're still not on the gravel roads but we are at least in the woods. So this is a uh this is a d plus mission. We're a 65 right now. There's a gravel road. Wonder where that goes. All right decision time. Do we just see if we can get to the staging area or do we see what kind of explores we have? Um I want to pull off and just see where this goes on the map maybe. Might be an out to a to a dead and if it is it's worth checking out. I mean we're up here to get into the woods right. It dead ends. Okay let's just follow it then. Let's see where this gravel road goes. Mission accomplished. We are on a gravel road in the woods and probably I don't know 45 minutes after I left home. I don't know where this goes but I know it doesn't go very far. So let's see where it leads us. Well there's a muddy little out that doesn't go anywhere. Oh puddles. Going over a little stream. There's a branch. Oh there's a little bit of a view. Can we get to it? I don't know. Yeah there's a lot of briars right here guys. You can cut oh you can see the whole valley. You see that? You see that? I can't stop. You really pretty up here. Like you got a lot of valley that you can see. That was a blackberry briar. Oh yeah. Cool. I don't know if there's a window through these trees where you can see what I'm not standing up on a very tall motorcycle. Maybe right here. Oh maybe right here. You guys seeing this? Look at this. Damn. Cool. See it's a little steep up here. I only came this far. Never gonna get better if I don't push myself. I think that was our view opportunity. I don't I'm not seeing any more clearings. We'll see maybe. I mean it's a junction. That is not what's on the map. Okay well when in doubt I like to go up. So that's what we're gonna do. We're gonna go up because up is always better. All right well there's exploring to be done up here so that's good. That question's answered. Oh pretty. Pretty. No clear unobstructed views today but we're at least high and you can see stuff. Steep because I cannot lean forward enough. Traction control is pissing me off. Stop it. Huh I can't tell which of these is the main. Well which one looks like a better road? I don't know. When in doubt you go up. Yeah I'm gonna go up. Let's go up. No bad traction control. Bad. Oh okay. This might have been a good call. Might have been a good call. Oh look at this quarry. Oh hell yes. Look at this. Okay we're gonna go back down there. Look at this you guys. Okay all right. Mission successful. This is a little quarry. They're shooting it looks like but I want to get over there on that edge and take a look. So let's go down there. Hold on I'll give you a better view first. Here we are. Awesome. Here we go. Here we go. Pretty. I should have brought the drone. Damn it. I almost threw it in my bag. Almost. Cool. Really cool. This is a fun little spot. Big party spot I bet. Oh yeah. I bet the kids like to party up here. I'm sure there's water in this part of the year. I don't know. I just ran over. Hopefully it wasn't sharp. Can't tell. Stay tuned for more explores in this area for sure. Goodbye beautiful view. We'll be back soon. Successful mission. We successfully got into the woods. Successfully found a beautiful view and it's going to be dark very soon so we're going to successfully head home. So we'll just head down the steep downhill. Got a little tire spinach on the way up as you can see. That was awesome. I mean not the most epic adventure but like I said this is a recon mission and as a recon mission it was quite successful. So I know how to get here. I know that I can get here. I know how long it takes to get here and I know that there's a lot more to explore up here that I haven't seen. So it's always nice to get into different areas. You guys are probably getting tired of Canyon Creek by now. So I just want to say thank you very much for coming along. I hope you enjoyed this exploring adventure. This will open up the door to future more involved adventures when we have a little bit more time to spend. So if you haven't yet please consider subscribing to the channel. I'd love to have you along with me on future adventures. If you wouldn't mind hitting that like button that actually really helps the video and the channel. Makes the videos a lot more visible and YouTube's a lot more likely to recommend them to other people. So it really does make a difference. So if you wouldn't mind. It's not too much trouble. I understand if you're not feeling it but if you enjoyed the video or any part of it. If you enjoyed one second of the video you know maybe hit that like button just for me. Leave a comment below. If you want to ask me a question or have any any thoughts on the adventure. If you're real crazy you might even consider supporting future adventures on Patreon like these fine folks. Thanks patrons. But for now I just want to say thank you very much for watching. I appreciate you and as always please. It's very important to me that you do not forget to be excellent to each other. Thank you. Excellent. It's a fun little gravelly roadie. Oh the sun is going to be brutal. You're not gonna be able to see anything on the camera.