Early Spring Motorcycle Camping in Near-Freezing Temperatures: First Moto Camping Trip of the Year

Photo campin', go! Lead it to the right, makes it feel like it's gonna fall off. It's like I got a badonkadonk. We're gonna set up camp. I know I won't die. The question is, will I be comfortable? Made it through the night. Pretty exciting. I'm shivering right now. It's so f***in' over! Hello everyone, welcome back to the dork side. I'm here on the side of the road with Duckfan on his WR. His well-loaded, fully-equipped WR because we are going moto camping. First time actually off of both these bikes. I've never actually moto camped off the twin before, so should be a good time. Are you excited, Duckfan? I mean, if I can get there, yeah. It's a good thing you're tall. I can't even get on that thing from the ground, period. Here we go! You gotta love Duckfan's self-correcting setup. So the more he leans to the left, the more it leans to the right. It's a really well-thought-out design. It's not just a bunch of s*** strapped on haphazardly. That would be ridiculous. Oh, leaning to the right makes it feel like it's gonna fall off. It's definitely at times approaching vertical when you lean to the right. He has the tiniest little triangular rack on the back of that WR. I'm honestly in awe that he even agreed to do this and attempt this with that. I offered him my excursion bags, and he said no. He's gonna make it happen his own way. So this is 100% Duckfan personified right in front of me. It's probably fair to warn you that I'm gonna try not to show his face because he would rather I didn't. So apologize in advance for any awkwardly framed shots. She definitely handles it different when she's just loaded down. That's good. That's good practice. Oh, yeah. Good views up here, though. Good views. This is a pretty amazing spot. Yeah. Looking around. I don't hate it. And I like that you can see three sides because the cascades all the way to the coast range and the whole valley in between. Alright, that was a fun overlook. Now we are headed to our campsite to make sure that no one is randomly camping there on a Tuesday afternoon. The view's not bad. The weather's good today. Supposed to rain tomorrow, so you gotta get in while you can. So this is all Bureau of Land Management land. I'm interspersed with some private land, but I have an app that tells me where if we're on private land or not. And the campsite we're headed to is not on private land. Oh, speaking of which, let's check in with the Zumo and see what it's got because this is definitely a Forest Service back road, off road. People are always asking me if the non-main roads, if the Forest Service roads are on here. And every road around us that you see is on here, and I have not loaded any extra maps. So it has pretty good coverage of this type of road. Let's see how accurate it is as we keep going. I'm a little bit surprised this secondary road is on there. My favorite sign. We're about to pass my favorite sign in this whole place. No OHV beyond this point. Well, guess what? Street legal, baby! We can go wherever the hell we want. Okay, I'm pretty sure this is it. If not, sorry. Alright, is this road on it? So this road... So that was a secondary road. This is a tertiary road, and it's not on here. So, not every single road in the backcountry is on here. But this road is on Onyx. In the app, I know. There is one log we're going to have to ride over, but it's so smashed down now that I doubt it's even a concern. Unless something new has fallen in the interim. I've got to quit using all these $12 words. Interim, tertiary. Oh, here's a tree. Yeet! Nothing left of that. Alright, a little bump here. A little log to ride over. Snoop loggy log. Your sidebag definitely caught that thickness. Oh yeah, I've got to forget I'm quite a bit wider than I think I am right now. It's like I've got a badonkadonk. Dumps like a truck. It's good, I'm supposed to test the durability, so. Real world testing. Slamming through a bunch of blackberry briars. It's actually hard to get good shots of from this angle, but there you go, everyone. Cool waterfall. That's your water source if you need it. Here it is! Is there anyone here? It's a little soupy at the entrance, but not so bad once you get past it. We're here. What do you think, D-Fan? Whoa! Does it work? It's secluded, that was my goal. This was genius. Damn, dude. Soft loop underneath. That carabiner is the only thing holding that on. Ha ha ha! This is the Duck Fan Special, so all my coordinated bags. Thank you very much, Wrecking Mountain ATV. But you don't have to go this route. You just bring what you have, strap it on with a random-ass carabiner, and pray. That's what Duck Fan's done. Run what you brung. He made it happen. What a guy. This part is unloading it, all I have to do is undo that one carabiner, and it will just like bloop, dead free. And then we didn't use it all, so we stashed it. Nice. Yeah, I'm thinking we're here, Duck Fan is here, he somehow survived with his amazing setup of things. We're gonna set up camp. Let me show you the spot. Here are the motorcycles. And it's just a spot, man. It's a pretty decent size. There's the fire pit, some wood. Duck Fan's gonna set up over there. There's these pretty good little woody areas back in here that it's pretty easy to get into, and there's a bunch of dead stuff in there, so I don't think we're gonna be hurting for firewood. We're not gonna have to go very far. The road is right there. Alright, it's tent time. So, as I was packing up, these water bottle holders I discovered are exactly the right size for my 5x8 tarp. They fit perfectly. So, if you're not wanting to carry water bottles or fuel bottles, but you want a little extra storage, this is a great thing to think about putting in there. And my tent is in here vertically. These pilot panniers have ample space. It's very nice, actually. I totally forgot to mention, this video is sponsored by Motocamp Nerd. Motocampnerd.com, the only site that I'm aware of catering exclusively to the needs of motorcycle campers. If you're gonna buy a motocamping gear, I would encourage you to buy it from a small business owner and not necessarily give your money to Amazon. There's a link in the description that will be links to everything I use in this video, and if you use promo code DORK in the road, you can save 10% on any purchase at Motocampnerd.com So, big thanks to Motocampnerd for sending me most of the gear we're testing out. We're gonna test it tonight, and then I'll give you my thoughts on it in a separate review video later. Fun fact I just discovered about the ionosphere, because last time I set it up and threw the rainfly on right away and didn't realize, but this front entrance actually unzips around the corner, so there's a lot more room to get in and out than I thought. And I'll demonstrate by putting this 25x72 AirCore Ultra air mattress in it for you. Yeah, that's what I thought. Ta-da! I'll give you a little tour of the inside of the tent. It's definitely not as claustrophobic as people think it is, but there's not a ton of room. Plenty of room to roll over and stuff, but side to side you don't have a lot, but it's not usable room anyway because you can't sit up to get down there and do stuff. I like it. Good, very awesome tent that packs small. The quality is really good. SnugPak TravelPak 4, 19 degree bag. Always. Sea to Summit Aeros Premium. This is the good one. This is what Joe Robinette uses. That's why I got that one. Alright, well, SnugPak Ionosphere, ladies and gentlemen. That's my home for the night. I'm gonna cook on the fire tonight, so we gotta find and process some firewood. And I brought my Agawa Canyon Boreal 21 and this is the greatest style of all time. Let me show you why. Also, Duck Fan is out testing the upper twin right now, so you may hear him pull up. Look at that. This thing is slick as hell. I really like it, so link to that in the description. A lot of this dead standing stuff down here underneath. Oh yeah, I don't even need the saw. It's already broken off, but we're just trimming out the forest, man. Look how dead it is. But it's standing up, so it's not wet and rotten, so this would be good firewood. Weird. Done. Damn, dude. You're efficient. This took me a while. So we delimbed all these trees. We got a big pile of firewood here, so this will be enough to cook on and get us some fire warmth until it runs out, and then we'll be done having fire warmth, so that's fun. I wouldn't call that a raging fire all night, but it's definitely something. I got this Combat Wild Fire Starter off a deal they were running on a Facebook ad. They call it the Buy None, Get One Free deal. And you just paid shipping, so I paid $5 and got one of these, so I figured it's worth a try. Shout out to Combat Wild and their fire stick, so we're gonna put it underneath here and try to get a fire started with this and a ferro rod. Shout out to Breon Corn, who sent me this. Supposedly you just need a little bit of this. See that? Get it all fibered up. Our bee's not very tight here, is it? No. That was my poker stick, I just realized. Damn, dude. That's going good. Got the fire going. Enjoying a little sippy sip of some bourbon. Tried to limit myself this time, so I only brought one 8-ounce flask. I usually bring a pint. The problem with that is then I drink it and I end up having to pee and stuff all night and, frankly, not in a campground with no human beings around playing with sharp things and fire. I don't want to be that drunk. So 8 ounces it is. We are enjoying, about to enjoy Mr. Puff Puff here by the fire while we wait for it to burn down so I can use the coals to cook dinner, brats for dinner. How's your trip so far, Duck Fan? It's been pretty good. I mean, no crashes or anything. Is this the first time you've ever moto-camped? It is. See? He's a moto-camping virgin. This is the first time I've ever dispersed camped off a motorcycle. It's cooking time. Got some coals in there, so I'm going to knock all this apart, put my grill on it, and make some breads. Those are not pre-cooked. That's the real deal. Brats, baby. Don't say inane things. Don't say what? Random inane things. Because it'll be out of context and won't make any sense when I'm trying to get this footage. Gotcha. Also, I said a bunch of inane things. Alright, brats on the grill. Alright, time to flip these bebelettes. Oh yeah, those are cooking up good. Oh, that one's real good. I'm going to get hot juice on myself. That's what she said. Some people use not their hands when they cook. Not me, bro. These are going to squirt everywhere when we cut into them. The sausages are going to squirt everywhere. That one's not as cooked, so we're going to do a little rotating, because this side's obviously hotter. More coals. Good stuff. Love cooking on the fire. Love it. How's your Mr. Puff Puff, by the way? I have to explain this in every video, but I got a video demonetized once because I said the C-I-G-A-R word. I was talking to my daughter, and she was way younger then, and I was like, I've got to call him something else, and she was like, you should call him Mr. Puff Puff. And it's just sort of stuck, so we call him Mr. Puff Puffs, because it's funny. I actually am not sure if you actually get demonetized anymore, because now that you can self-certify the content, it's not one of the options. I can't pick that there's tobacco content in my video, but it's just funny to keep calling that. We have our little things, you know? Our little inside jokes on this channel. It's exciting. Anyway, cooking sausages. Excited to eat them. Brats. Alright, these are about done. It's about time to eat. Let's just take all these off for now. Dude, I'm not going to eat. This one's yours. This is extra protein. Listen, this stuff, if you eat it, you're immune to COVID. Brats, and barbecue sauce, baby. Cool smoke things. Yeah, red. I like the way they eat. Smoke time. I set up a shot in everything. F*** you, smoke. It's leaning all over. I demand that you eat it. Brats. Real good. One other piece from my kit that I got from Motocamp Nerd is the Sea to Summit. This is a 4 liter water bladder. So, I'm going to do some dishes and show you how it works. But you hang it up. It looks like a green manta ray. That's exciting. And you just push this little spigot and water comes out. I know. Crazy, right? You can rinse your dishes off. Real good. And that was in my pack under pressure and didn't leak at all. So, I'm happy with it. These are my Sea to Summit titanium utensils. Working real good. Really happy with everything I got so far. It's important to point out that I'm not advocating the use of this object. Mr. Puff Puffs are bad. They're bad for you. Do not enjoy the deliciousness that is Mr. Puff Puff. Surgeon General's warning. Do not do. Don't do it. Duck Fan. Tell me all your thoughts on your first motocamping experience and this spot. The spot's good. Now that I kind of understand where it is and why there's nobody else here. My bike, I think if I put some like pannier racks on it or something I could carry quite a bit more gear. But I feel like I would be making that bike worse at what I intended it to do, which is to be essentially a trail bike that I can ride on the street if I want to or need to. So, what you're saying is you need a second bike for trips like this. Duck Fan is considering an adventure bike for trips like this for the Giant Loop ride. I've been trying to talk him into well, you can guess because I think the Africa Twin may be the best adventure bike ever made all around. I would go so far as to say it's in the conversation. He likes the feel of the KTM, but what do you guys think? In the comments, Duck Fan loves to lurk in the comments and answer comments, so in the comments if Duck Fan was going to get an adventure bike what would you recommend? He wants a KTM, I want him to get an Africa Twin for reasons. We're just chilling around the fire. Firewood we collected real good. I'm real happy with it. I'm pleased with our fire. I just ran out of bourbon, so that's sad. It's a very clear night. The moon is very bright. You probably can't tell. Fire's going well. What do you think, Duck Fan? I'm pretty happy. We're going to have some good stars, I think. Having a great time, honestly. Spring moto camping. It is March 23rd. So it's barely spring. It's essentially winter. It's going to be a good test of my snug pack bag and tent. My bag is supposed to be a 19 degree bag. It's not supposed to get below 35 tonight. So cold, but not freezing. That's a 3 degrees above freezing for you Canadians and international folk. So it'll be a good test of that setup. I'm hoping I don't die. I know I won't die. The question is, will I be comfortable? I feel like I should have more to say, but the thing with moto camping is you come out, you get your firewood settled, you set up your tent, you have dinner, and then you just hang out, man. That's the point. That's what we're doing. Nothing exciting is happening. It's simple. I am excited to test out. So this is the UST Sprite lantern that I got. Check this thing out. Let's see how bright it is. So, and it glows in the dark, but it was in my dark bag all day so it's not charged. But this is good. Good light. We haven't needed it because the moon is so bright, but it has three settings. That's super bright. Halfway. And then this is the night light setting that supposedly lasts like three days or something. Crazy. So I'll play with this a little bit, but good product. And it's funny. Fun fact, I got this for free because I did the kit. Motocamp Nerd has a kit where the more items you add, the bigger your discount gets. Goes up by 5% for every certain number of items you add. So I added this, which is like $18, and it added another 5% to my discount, which actually made it cheaper to get it than to not get it. He gave me free gears, but I'm not saying this out of obligation. That site is awesome. They keep adding cool sh**. He's a motocamper. He listens to motocampers. I don't know of another site that just sells gear that's designed for motocampers. I'd be recommending it even if I wasn't working with him and he wasn't sponsoring this video. I can sincerely say that. Check out the gear. It's all quality stuff. That's what I like. No cheapo garbage that's going to fall apart on you. He doesn't want you to buy something that isn't good. Don't forget about your discount code. Show how that thing glows when you turn it off. Glows in the dark, baby. I don't know if you can tell because the light's on. Can you see that? But if you left it out and charged it all night. So you can find it in your tent at night if you turn it off. Pretty cool. This uses triple A's and lasts forever. There's a hook on the bottom so you can hang it up. Pretty neat. I'm officially in the tent. In my bag. On my hair mattress. On my pillows. It's time to put this gear to the test. That is Duckfan rolling around on his mattress. Not thunder or whatever the hell else it might sound like. Enjoyable campfire evening. Having a good time hanging out with Duckfan. Thanks guys for coming along. Maybe you're just cool and poofy like this because I'm laying on my back. I'm going to try to sleep. See you in the morning. Peace. Good morning guys. As you can see it's a little overcast. It's cold. Like 37 degrees. And I've got to tell you that was not a good night's sleep. I don't know if my setup is quite good enough for the 34 degrees it was overnight. Air mattress is definitely not insulating enough. So I need to upgrade that if I'm going to sleep in these cold conditions and I think that just made everything else not work as well. So definitely some coffee in the offing this morning. I don't know if there's enough wood left to make a fire but damn it's cold it would be nice to have one. Made it through the night. Pretty exciting. I'm shivering right now. It's that cold? Like I'm wondering if you need like full full down outfit or something. It's time for coffee. I'm going to boil water in my Sea to Summit X-Pot kit and there's a cup that's in here and I'm going to boil it with my USC Trekker stove. It's much warmer with that fire right there I'll tell you what. Comes with a stand for safety. The wings. Got to extend the wings so you can fly. We're mostly packed up. I just got to tighten down the bags and we are good to go. So first motocamping trip of the year is in the books. Everything I brought worked the way I expected it to except I might have some thoughts on that sleeping bag and maybe my sleeping pad so make sure you're subscribed because I'm going to do a video where I review all of my gear that I used tonight and kind of give you my thoughts, pros and cons on each piece in that kit that I originally built for Motocamp Nerd. Do you have any final words of wisdom? Am I bringing a mouth guard next time to keep my teeth from chattering so loudly? He said he's going to bring a mouth guard to keep his teeth from chattering so loud. We were both very cold last night so good to know. Early spring camping requires a much better sleeping pad than I have. Thanks for coming along. Check out links to all my gear in the description. Appreciate you and please do not forget to be excellent to each other. I thank you. Excellent! In case you crash or your sh** flies off. I don't want to miss that. This is a good epilogue. Well, that's good. Glad the camera's running. I'm going to need your help. There's a rock under my rear tire. I thought I could just goose it over it. There's about 200 pounds of extra gear on here. Oh yeah! No piggy! Let's not do that again. There's your epilogue, dude.