Falling Trees, Owl Attack, and Overnight Rain: First 2022 Kawasaki KLR 650 Moto Camping Adventure

My first moto camping trip on the KLR 650. Oh, he's going to get it. I'm stunned right now, but I brought some barbecue. It's going to be good. Beverage is Mr. Puff Puff. Hello friends and welcome back to the dork side. I'm the dork in the road and it's the day you've all been waiting for. My first moto camping trip on the KLR 650 and we're going to go meet up with duck fan and camp in the rain cause it's October. Yay. I'm the dork in the road and I want to be your internet riding buddy and camping buddy and getting wet overnight buddy. So please consider subscribing. This is my 2022 KLR 650. I just got it. A lot of people are very interested in it. And one of the first things people said was, when are you going to go camping on it? Well, uh, right now, it's going to be chilly and wet overnight, but that's not going to stop us from going camping. So we're going to go camp duck fan and I had our favorite spot out by Elsie falls and I'm taking the KLR and I'm taking all of you with me. So let's go. We're here at our spot. We were a little worried it might be taken, but it doesn't look like it is. There's not even mud on the way in. So it hasn't rained that much. Hey, why don't you go first like get some cool footy or you what do you, that's what we call it. That's what us tubers call it. Also we call ourselves tubers. There's some water. Yeah, a little bit. A little more than last time. So the other fire pits gone too. I might have to get a little creative. They take the rocks. They did. Yeah. They were gone last time we were here. Remember? Hill to turn around. Whoa. I'm just going right here. Okay. We're here. We made it our favorite spot up at Elsie. Someone came and took the fire pit out. So we had to build a new one. And for some reason I didn't film any of that. So we built a new one. It's kind of small, but these are the rocks we could find. It'll be fine for what we're going to do. It's a brand new fire pit, right where the old one was. You can see all the ashes and stuff, but there's the KLR. She got me here of course, cause that's what KLRs do. And I'm going to set up right here. Duckfan is setting up over there. There's his bike. I know there's a lot of new people here who may not have seen Duckfan cause it's been a little while. So he likes to play this game where he doesn't show his face. At first it was because he works in the school system and didn't want his kids to find him. And now I'm convinced he just likes to troll me. So it's harder for me to edit. But you may see him wearing a mask and or skillfully or not skillfully covering his face like Wilson from Home Improvement. That's a good shot of you and your bike. Very wide angle lens. Let's go find some wood because it's actually getting dark pretty quickly and we have to cook on the fire. So we've got to find some wood. But I see a downed tree that I want. I bet it's dry and dead. That's my plan. I've got my Agua Canyon. Haven't seen this in a while have you? Cause we haven't been able to have a fire. My Boreal 21. Shook the earth. This one's dead. Oh yeah. Ow. Did you get that? Did you catch it? I did. I want to say these two trees are probably enough. I would think so. Look at my stump. Getting it up off the ground helps a ton. So this stump is very convenient. I love this saw. I'll put a link to this cause you're going to want one after watching this. Start doing that cause I get tired. Yeah. See, as always my favorite way to start fires is with these Bigfoot Bushcraft fire starters. These little pink cottony things. You just twist it apart and they go up. First spark. If you get a good one, I'm not so great with the fire steel that I can do first spark every time. But these are awesome. They're not expensive and you get a discount. If you use promo code dork in the road, should be a link in the description for you and you can get this cool fire steel, which I like a lot. There we go. So third spark this time. My bad. What do you call this? I call it the flying V because mighty ducks, but that's not actually what it's called. Just nice to get some elevation for your kindling and then these logs will burn and I use two every time. And you know, you buy the kit. I probably got three years with a fire starters and the one 10 they give you. We, uh, we got a little tired halfway through fire processing. Some of these sticks are a little longer than some of the others, but they'll work. It's all good. We haven't been able to cook on the fire in a while, so we're going to have brats tonight. So we need some coal. So I'm just going to get this going, let it burn down. And then so that's going to happen, but I'm probably going to have a beer now that fire's going and the tent set up. We're coming in. Cool. You definitely could back out guys. Hi. Yeah, it's not that kind of campground. So we live in a world full of interesting and unique individuals, some of whom are not very considerate, but I've yet to have a problem with campsite etiquette. Once someone discovered you there. So they're leaving. That's fine. There's plenty of campsites out here. It's a good thing we got here when we did. Here's a beer. Here's my face. This is the sixth weekend in a row I've gone camping. I'm living the dream guys. Living the dream. My wife is like, who are you? Duck fan has done the impossible and he has damaged his tusk folding chair, camp chair, uh, to a degree that we're not sure it's going to hold his weight. So he's going to attempt to sit in it and we're going to enjoy it. The leg is very bent, like at a weird angle. He just noticed that it won't even like hardly stay in the hole. There's an owl in this tree right there. You probably can't see it. It's right behind the sun and there's a squirrel in the same tree. Is he hunting? That is some prime wildlife right there. I know. He obviously knows we're here. I want to get closer, but I don't want to scare him off. Maybe he's trying to eat that squirrel. Is that what's going on? He's looking at it. Squirrel knows he's there. Did he just land there? Yes. He is right there. That's like a barn owl. Hey buddy. Don't be afraid of us. Oh, he's going to get it. He got him. Oh my God. Oh my God. Sorry, squirrel. You're done. Please tell me I got that on camera. That is literally 20 feet away from us. I'm stunned right now. That was cool. Unbelievable. That squirrel is dead as hell. Oh, he's done. Dude. That's the coolest thing I've ever seen at a campsite. My chair fell over. I got so excited. Look, I knocked my chair over. Wow. Cool. He did not care that we were here. Until he caught it. And then he's like, I guess I'll leave. I don't want you guys stealing my kill. Wow. So the softwood is pretty wet and it's not cooling up well. So not ideal brock cooking conditions, but we're going to just start cooking them with a little flame. Cause I'm not sure if we let it burn all the way down the coals, it'll last long enough to cook them. So this is what the fire looks like. We're about to put the brats on. At least I think we are. So we'll just keep an eye on them. We'll rotate them if they get stingy. You did get the one. We're going to cook them up. Probably don't want to rotate them because I'm guessing the center is a lot hotter. Oh yeah. Okay. That's what I was afraid of. Here's the thing about brats. The grease is really flammable. Everyone can see my excellent brat technique. I haven't used this grill in months. The fire has calmed down. This is much better grilling temperature. Although I say that in the flame is kicking back up. These are going to be ugly, but delicious. Just like me. I mean, it does not matter what else we do on this trip. Nothing will be as cool as that owl killing that squirrel and flying off with it. An owl in the daytime. Who knew? This one's just like molten cheese, bro. I'm afraid to flip it. I'm afraid it'll roll off. These are about done. Time to take them off. I just dropped this one off my plate back onto the grill cause I'm that good. That good. They're a little stingy, but that's what happens when you cook brats on the fire. Guy Fieri, I am not because I'm actually slightly less obnoxious than him. So it is possible. The brats are cooked. I got one on a bun. I took the singiest one cause it's my fault. They're like this and I brought some barbecue. Duck Van's going to go mustard. I get it. People like that. I'm not a mustard guy. I would rather put ketchup on this. I know, it's our religion, but I brought some barbecue. It's going to be good. And that is how it's pronounced. Barbecue. Look at that. Totally cooked. Duck Van's struggling with his mustard. He's got a little squirting problem. The second batch is cooking well, which is ironic because I think we're going to be full by the time they're done. First one was good. I'm gonna have another one. Little barbecue. Oh man, this beats the hell out of a mountain house. Beats the hell out of it. The hell. There's no hell in the mountain house when these are around. This guy's not screwing around. Sauerkraut, jalapenos. So glad your tent is pretty far from mine. More mustard on top. It's mustard sandwich. I literally just had barbecue on mine. So it is 6 57 and it's pretty much dark. Um, it's a little bit darker down here in the trees. Obviously the sky's not all the way dark, but this is October, man. Like the days are just so short. So we built up the fire. I just went and found another tree to cut down really quickly. A small one just so we'd have a little bit more wood, but we're kind of stuck here in the dark. So we're going to enjoy the fire and Mr. Puff Puff. Chill out. Dinner was great. The broths turned out well. We got some extras. I don't, I'm probably gonna throw those in the fire at some point. The rest of this trip could be terrible and it'd still be one of the best camping trips I've ever been on. Cause the owl was crazy. We're just like marveling. If I didn't have it on film, I don't know if I'd believe it happened, but it's that time. So I'm going to enjoy Mr. Puff Puff. And it kind of buttoned everything up just because it's supposed to rain tonight overnight. Most, not all the way done by the time we wake up, but it'll be a lot lighter and more infrequent, but stuff is definitely going to get wet. And this is just what happens if you go camping in the fall in Oregon. So tents are up, rain flies are on, got our bags all sealed up. And we're just going to hang out by the fire for a bit. Enjoy some beverages, Mr. Puff Puff, senior Puff Puff and have some combo conversation. So catch up with you guys in a bit. Maybe when I go to bed, not sure yet. See you then. Hello friends. It is 9 40. We ran out of firewood and it's been dark for a while. So I'm in the tent. I'm gonna hang out here for a bit. I might read. I'm not sure I have my Kindle. My GoPro died. So I'm on my phone in the tent. It's pretty bright. Got my moto camp nerd nipple lamp going. Some bugs got in here. That's not good. But, uh, I might read my Kindle for a bit, but I'm going to go to bed pretty soon. So I will catch up with you guys in the morning. Thanks for coming along, hanging out. It's not going to be that cold, but it is going to rain. So I'll button up in the tent. Everything is all my gears in here. I don't want any of it getting wet and everything else on the bike is waterproof or can be left out there. So I'll catch up with you guys in the morning. Few seconds for you. Hopefully many restful hours for me. I'll see you in the morning. Good night. Good morning. It's about 6 30 AM. I just got up and went out to go pee. And I had to grab another battery for my camera because the last one died on me while I was recording my going to sleep bit last night. And it's pitch black, like 6 30 pitch black. Sun's not going to be up for another hour, but I'm awake. I'm going to read for a bit. It's raining. Not crazy bad, but everything's a little wet outside. You can hear it kinda. And I woke up half an hour ago because there was something making a lot of noise. Not too far from our camp. I'm not sure if it was an owl or a coyote. It could have been either one. But anyway, there's not a lot going on, but it is morning. Just chilling in the tent for a bit till the sun comes up. Definitely rained last night, but it doesn't seem to be raining now. It's just water dripping off the trees. I saved a little firewood before we went to bed last night, put it underneath my rain fly. So there's enough for a fire for maybe an hour here. So first trip camping off the KLR. I mean, not surprisingly, but total success. Got everything I needed on it. I'm not going to run those Kawasaki side cases forever. 21 liters a piece is fine. And it's nice to have a hard case just for some variety, but I miss my round the world pannier so much. So as soon as a pannier rack is available for the 22, which I'm told could be before Christmas, I'll probably take those off and go back to my round the worlds because 21 liters versus 48 liters is quite a difference. It's coffee time and enjoy some coffee. Soak up the morning. It's gorgeous in here. It's just beautiful. Either coyote or an owl had to have been. I've never heard whatever that was before. Yeah. It wasn't really a who. It was like a, which sounds like a coyote howl to me. Uh, do not adjust your screen. Duckpants Jetboy is a little jacked up. Can you see how much it's leaning? It's like a leaning tower of Java. His man coffee. It's a joke, but it is like super tilted, bro. That makes me anxious. This is actually a great shot. I got your bike in the chair and your table. I'm such a good, the cinematographer this fire. I gotta say you guys somewhat immodestly, but I'm getting pretty good at making fires. Pretty confident with my fire making skills lately. The fire starters help obviously it's cheating, but Beards, bikes and camping, shout out to him. Sent me this video last spring about how to make fires when it's wet. And it's just a technique that I've really adopted and it's works well for me. It also works when it's not wet. It's just a way to make fire. Um, in our forest we have a ton of those little twigs and then all these trees, as you can see, the lower branches are all dead wood. You can take it. It doesn't hurt the tree. So you've got plenty of different size dead dry wood to draw from to get a fire started. And then once you get it hot enough, even the wet stuff will burn. I wouldn't think about this all night actually, because I don't think I mentioned it yesterday, but it is legal and allowed to gather campfire wood in the forest, in the public forest, like where we are right now. But you can't cut live trees and you shouldn't anyway, cause they won't burn. So just enough for your fire, deadfall or dead standing only is what we go for. And we don't use much. We use two small dead trees yesterday. I'm burning up the rest of that this morning. If you're wondering, and I know a lot of you don't live in places where you have public lands or you live in countries that don't have public lands, but it is legal to gather firewood pro tip deadfall. That's like suspended is what you want. You don't want stuff on the ground cause it just gets wet really fast. And then you just, you're doing might as well be a live tree for as well as it burns. Anyway, that's my lecture on how to gather forest wood, forest wood, firewood properly. And also look up and don't drop branches on your head and then cower like a ingenue in a slasher film like I did cause it's like something's falling on my head. Starting to rain a little, not bad under here just because the fir trees protect us, but it's definitely raining. Let's go down by the water and see. All right. Enough moments of Zen. Probably need to pack up if it's going to keep raining. My tent's not getting any drier. Lowering himself to the ground right behind my bike. I almost walked right into him. So much wildlife on this trip. What are you doing bud? I'm talking to this caterpillar. Damn, I didn't get the camera out and it was so cool. He was just like hovering in air. It's all about the wildlife on this trip. I guess we're going to start packing up cause that's what you do. Worst part of camping, but when you can watch it in time-lapse, it's a lot less annoying than when I have to do it in real life. So really quickly, just want to show you the bag set up on my KLR. I know a lot of you have KLRs are interested in how I got all my camping gear out here. So it's just, I'm using the factory side cases. That's 42 liters total. My Fandango tank bag there, that's eight liters. And then it's a Tillamook dry bag and a Rogue dry bag. So 48 liters here, 17 liters here, all waterproof. Uh, the Tillamook has these anchor straps so I've actually just attached it here to the factory side case mount. That's not going anywhere. And then the Rogue is attached to the Tillamook bag here. And then there's a little, little dingle dongle down here that you can wrap this around. And that's given me the up and down security. So the setup's worked well. I've got 115 liters of storage with this. I'm going to rock the factory side cases until somebody makes pannier mounts for the new 22. Then I'm going to get pannier mounts so that I can go back to using my giant loop panniers cause I really miss my round the worlds. But until then this setup will work. And I want to do a trip or two to kind of show people with the stock factory setup, how they could set up their bags and take stuff out without doing all the fancy crap that I'm going to do just because I really, really like my 48 liter panniers a lot. So I'm excited to put them back on this bike, but I will be without that for a little while until I can get a pannier rack. So I'm just about all packed up a great camping trip. Thank you duck fan for really encouraging me to get out and camp again. I've been camping, like I said every weekend the last two months and I was ready to take a weekend off and this guy's like, no, we should go camping and it worked out pretty well. Rained a little last night. Not too bad this morning. We managed to find enough firewood. Dinner was good. You know, we finished all of our beers. So mission accomplished. We literally saw mutual of Omaha's wild kingdom 20 feet from camp with that, that owl swooping in is like maybe the coolest thing I've ever seen in the woods. It was pretty awesome. I just want to say thank you to all of you for watching. Thanks for coming along on this trip. I want to give a big shout out to my channel members and patrons who make content like this possible. Channel members get early access to videos. They get merchandise discounts and other perks. And there's a join button right below the video for YouTube or a link to Patreon. If you prefer Patreon right below the video. Also if you want to support the channel without having to do a monthly fee, which I totally get, you can use my affiliate links to Rocky mountain revzilla, Amazon or motor camp nerd in the description below. All you have to do is click that link and then anything you buy while you're there, I get a small commission for you. Support the channel. It costs you nothing else and you help put food into the mouths of my family and help me support my dream. Keep living my dream camping and making videos for you. So I appreciate all that support. I thank you so much to all of you that continue to use those links. It means the world to me and it really, really helps sincerely. If you liked the video, don't forget to like it. And if you haven't yet, maybe even consider subscribing. But for now, and as always, I just want to say thank you very much for watching and please do not forget to be excellent to each other. Thank you. Excellent. Here we come. Duck fan, the daredevil, ladies and gentlemen. Oh, it's a little slippery in there. Ooh, I survived. Yay. Yay. Me.