Trying (and Failing) to Ride My Honda Africa Twin Off Road. Forest Road Gates Suck!

Hello everyone. Welcome back to the Dorkside. It is I, the Dork, in my garage, about to get on my Africa Twin, and we're going to head out and do a little bit of back road exploring and try to get to an area I'm not sure if I can actually get into, but we're going to go out there and hopefully find a new way to get into the wilderness, maybe a little bit closer than where we usually go. That's right everyone. I am the Dork on the Road and I want to be your internet writing buddy. And I'm better than your regular writing buddies because I'm available whenever you want and I come with a mute button, so please consider subscribing and don't forget to hit that notification bell so that you know when I post awesome new dual sport and adventure motorcycling content just like this. The other thing we're doing today is a little bit of a shakedown run for a new piece of gear. I've got the Mototrek panniers, Mototrek panniers, panniers, panniers, Mototrek bags, soft bag from Giant Loop, and the pannier mounts from Giant Loop. So these things are super slick. Check it out. Oh, I want to take my bags off. Done. Should I put them back on? Okay. It's that easy. They're locked in. But we're going to head out to a place that's roughly 30 miles from here. We're going to try, and I'm telling you now, and we could totally fail because I've read Conflicting Things, but we're going to try to get to Indian Prairie Lake. This is an after work ride. I just got home from work, changed my gear, and we're going to head out. So we're going to try to get out there and back before dark. This is just a little bit of an exploratory mission. I know there's some wilderness out where I'm headed. I also know a lot of the roads out there are super gated off because there's a lot of private logging company land. It's right on the edge of the San A.M. State Forest, so it's got to be possible to get to some public land. Tradition is you got to get tunnel exhaust on the bridge. Sounds good in here. Not as good as Duck Fans Ducati, but let's be honest, nothing sounds as good as Duck Fans Ducati. So we're going to head up this way towards the fish hatchery. Tree Farm Road. This is it. Okay. This is a dead end, but this one says dead end too, but that's not what's on the satellite. That one dead ends in a gate. I know it does. This one goes for a ways. Let's just go see because I think it's possible, perhaps, to get onto a forest service or I should say a state forest road up here, but it may just be logging roads that are gated off. I don't know. And if it is, this will be a very short video, a very short, frustrating video, a cautionary tale about trying to find ways to ride on private forest land because they're often just closed off to outsiders, but you can see there's a whole lot of forest over to the right. The question is, can you get into it? So I've never been up here before, so this is definitely, it's just blind exploring. I don't see a gate yet. Oh, yes, I do. Yes, I do. Locked gate ahead, that would be disappointing. Well, here's a little bridge, give you a little scenery. You know, it's not a total waste if we hit a locked gate. There it is. Locked gate. Lame. Super lame. This is, this I hate. I hate this ----. I hate it a lot. Thanks, Weyerhaeuser. Some of us want to be able to use the forest land because this road goes to the state forest. All right, well, I've got one more avenue to explore, but I'm reasonably sure it's also going to have a locked gate because it all goes up into the same land. Short video today, everyone. If I can't get out there, we'll have exhausted this possibility, which is frustrating to me. I mean, you know why these things get closed off? It's not because of people like us. It's because of people who go up there and dump garbage and start fires, sometimes both. Not cool, man. Not cool. So we're going to move on down the road. But if nothing else, it's a good shakedown run for my new panniers, for my new soft bags and rack. See, there's another closed off road. I am pretty sure there is a gate up here and that this is someone's driveway. Yeah, private property. So this is a road, but there's a gate up here. I'm sure of it. I'm going to go see anyway. Because what the hell? No trespassing. Permit required. Well, let's at least go up to the gate and turn around. I was just looking for a spot to turn around. That's all. It's too bad. Yeah, this one's got a little thing on it too. Hopefully I don't have to turn around on this hill. The traction control is on, which is not what I want. Trying to climb a hill on uncertain footing. I put it down to one. So, I think this is about to be disappointing. Yeah, I'm pretty sure. Oh, somebody's house is right here. Yep, and there's our locked gate. Not awesome. Alright, well, so much for our off road exploring adventure today. The thing is, I've even heard they put cameras up here. And you can get a permit? That's what sucks. You can get a permit to get through these gates, but you're not allowed to do it on a motorcycle. So, it has to be a truck. Which is, you know, how the garbage gets up here. I just want to ride through, but I can't. Because I can't get a permit. Sucks. Alright, well, so much for this avenue. I don't know. I didn't see any other roads with potential access. There's a few little side roads that I'm guessing don't go very far. And or go into private property. Because it seems to be there's a lot of that up here. Like this whole right side is someone's house. Someone's property. Oh, pretty view though. That's not bad. Not bad at least. It's not a total loss. There's a lot of bugs. You guys can see that. It's pretty. I really should turn the ABS off before I start going down this hill. So, a little pretty scenery for you. But mostly just a frustrating wild goose chase. Really a frustrating confirmation of my fears is what it is. Yep, see all these side roads are just blocked off. Not cool, man. It's a big ol' suck. I mean, we're in the woods kinda, so, you know. It's only 90% of a total waste of time. I love standing up on this thing. It's pretty bomb. Pretty bomb. That sucked. So, I mean, we'll keep our eyes out. Maybe we'll go home a fun back road way, but I don't think we're getting into the wilderness. Well, this is a boring video. So, if you made it this far, I'm impressed. I'm impressed with your perseverance. Your stick-to-itiveness. I'm gonna reward you by riding through the fish hatchery so you can see it. Why not just do a little drive-through so you can see it. Roaring River Fish Hatchery. People walking around. That's fun. There's actually a disc golf course back here. They're feeding the fish. That's good times. It'd be a cool job. Okay, well. Can't decide which way to go home. I don't remember where this goes. And the sign doesn't tell me. I've definitely been out here before. Should we go on a little bit of a road ride and just see where we end up? Probably. Yeah, so there's the bridge. This is the Larwood Wayside. It's not really a park. It's almost a park. We're gonna take the long way home because why the hell not? So this is a rare Dork in the Road video where I'm in the road. What's this right here? What's this thing? It says dead end. You think someone lives at the end of it? I mean, should we look? I don't know where any of this goes. I have not Google mapped any of this. Let's go see. It looks like it heads up this damn hillside. Wouldn't that be cool? My guess is it heads right to a gate. Or somebody's driveway. That's probably it. But that's the forest we're trying to get into and can't so far. There's a dead bird on the road so that's fun. I guess these are people's driveways. Yep, driveway. This looks like private property. Yep. Okay, well, that's less fun than I was expecting. Fun little jaunt. This is what I'm talking about, y'all. I would love to own one of these places backed up to one of these mountains. Like one of these, not mountains, one of these, backed up to one of these forested hillsides. How cool would that be? You know what? I'm gonna get you an extended experience this time. We can take a slightly longer route home and hit up another nostalgic location, another site, another tourist attraction, another iconic Oregon location. Why not? It's right up here. What the f*** are you doing? Alright, here it is! The iconic, historic Oregon landmark. It's coming up, I promise. Right around the corner. It's gonna look beautiful in the sunset. It's the Hoffman Bridge. It is the Hoffman Bridge, built 1936 on Crabtree Creek. There it is. Two bridges in one video. That's how you know it's good. That's how you know it's a dork in the road video. Two bridges, one video. That was the Hoffman Bridge. But we're definitely gonna head home now. So I hope you enjoyed my sort of not-adventure on the Africa Twin. I hope you'll tune in for the next one. And if you made it this far, I don't suppose I could convince you to hit that like button. Just bust a like if you think that this looks like methapalooza. But anyway, thank you for watching. I appreciate you. And as always, please do not forget to be excellent to each other. Thank you. Excellent! Yay! What a disaster of a video. Hey buddy. That's another Africa Twin! That was an Africa Twin twin! A twin bro! We're Africa Twins! Awesome! Thanks for watching!