Sections 1 and 2: Bethel Ridge, Mt. Adams, Bridge of the Gods. Washington BDR on a Norden 901, Day 5

Name: Sections 1 and 2: Bethel Ridge, Mt. Adams, Bridge of the Gods. Washington BDR on a Norden 901, Day 5
Uploaded: 2025-10-23T09:40:31.569Z
Duration: 20 min 52 s
Channel: Motorcycle Adventure Tour

Motorcycle Adventure Tour

12 followers

Oct 23, 2025

After five days and six nights of riding and camping and the loss of four out of our six original riders, the end of the Washington BDR is finally near. In this final installment of the WABDR video series, Tim and I finish WABDR section 2 and jump immediately into WABDR section 1. Our Washington Backcountry Discovery Route journey started in Canada, and today we reach the Bridge of the Gods and the Oregon Border. We started our BDR Adventure this morning by waking up atop Bethel Ridge on Washington BDR section 2. After descending the ridge, skirting the edge of Rim Rock Reservoir, and gassing up in Packwood Washington, we turned off the pavement onto Washington BDR section 1, the last and easiest section of the WABDR. This WABDR section 1 is mostly fast gravel, with a few cool highlights like Mt. Adams, Takhlakh Lake, ice caves, natural bridges, and the like. After a long day of Husqvarna Norden 901 off road riding and covering a ton of miles, we finally reached our destination: The Bridge of the Gods and the end of the Washington BDR.

I saw a Sasquatch taking a poop in the woods and turns out it was Travis. Maybe we finish today, I don't know. What a ride! I wish someone had warned me, which is why I'm telling you. This, behind me, is Mount Adams. I guess there's no more. I don't want to get this far and screw it up here at the end. And there are birds flying below us. Tim, my man, how do you feel? Tired. Thank you so much for sticking it out and finishing it with me. We're gonna try to finish this thing. Washington VDR is cursed. But I'm fun, I don't mean fun. Beehive Reservoir? This is the road? That's the worst thing I've ever done on an adventure bike. It's awesome, but I hate it. I guess your bravery is being scared sh**less and still doing it. I've been incredibly brave today. This is Lion Rock. Uh, what? Closed for the season. This must be Baby Baby Head. And that majestic figure is Tim. This doesn't suck. Look at these potato skins. This is the coolest place I've ever camped. And now, the conclusion. There's a woodpecker in the tree. I don't know if he'll come off on the camera. Right above, literally right above Tim's tent. It's right there. Keeps going around the back side, it's like he's camera shy. Nope, I think I just scared him off. Oh, he's in the tree above my head now. Ha ha ha ha! He's just crawling up it vertically like he's hopping on the ground. That's crazy. Get your meal, bud. Wildlife encounters. So that's a bear. About 11 deer. Two rabbits. About 15 squirrels. And, uh, I saw a Sasquatch taking a poop in the woods and turns out it was Travis. But, close enough. We are all packed up and we have to bid farewell to probably the most amazing place I've ever camped at. I always say things are the most amazing that thing I've ever done, but this one's pretty damn hard to top. It's not hyperbole this time. Tim, what do you think of this spot? It's the most amazing place I've ever camped. Wow, see? Two for two. There we go. So we'll see. Our plan is to tackle the rest of Section 2 and get on to Section 1 and if it's as fast as people say it is, maybe we finish today. I don't know. We're not, like, gonna force it, but if it seems doable, we'll try to get there. We're gonna head down the ridge into, uh, Packwood and then tackle Section 1. Oops. I did not mean to kick that into gear. Squirrel right there. Bye, squirrel. Bye, campsite. You've been awesome. All right. Off we go. Into the wild blue yonder, quite literally, as we are up here in the damn sky. Gotta get my sea legs back before we hit it hard. Not bad, though. Hell of a view. Every morning I get started, I forget how hard I rode this thing yesterday fully loaded. Feels like a frickin' boat again. Look at this. Gorgeous. What a ride. That is Mount Rainier right in front of us. Holy crap. Gorgeous. Sort of like cobblestones, but, like, way shittier. Inconsistent at best. Othello Norden. I love it. So we're gonna hop on Highway 12 here for a bit and head towards Packwood. Have a safe trip. You guys doing the BDR? Section 3 is, uh, lots of fun. There's a washout section up on top of Section 3 with, like, seriously straight down. It's all washouts. You go down like this and then right back up. The other side's about 10 feet. So, that's the worst ---- I've ever ridden on an adventure bike, so. I wish someone had warned me, which is why I'm telling you. Alright, have fun. So that's the dam we were looking down on last night. And behind it is Rimrock Lake, which is the lake we were looking at from our campsite. That's cool. This is the highway we saw the cars on. Oh, there's a tunnel, too. Sweet! Tunnel is off, go on. That is Rimrock Lake. It looks a lot bigger from down here. Crazy cool. Here we are in Packwood, which means we've officially completed Section 2 of the Washington BDR. We're gonna fuel up and crush Section 1. We are in the homestretch. It is all downhill from here. We're gonna get this thing done. Maybe even today. I am excited. I think the ibuprofen I've been taking every morning for my hangovers has been masking how sore I am. We're now leaving Packwood, which means we are leaving Section 2 and starting Section 1. The first part of which I did when we were here at the Summer Opener. So I've seen the first, I don't know, 20 miles or so. And it's pretty quick riding. So let's see if we can knock this thing out today. Pretty excited. But we'll turn left off the road up here in just a bit. Forest Road 21. The beginning of Section 1. Actually, the end of Section 1. Let's do this. Yeah, this was a fun section. There's a bunch of switchbacks here at the beginning, but it's really fast once you get up on top. I mean, we were doing 50 miles an hour up here last time. The weather's a hell of a lot nicer. It was raining, muddy everywhere when we were here just a few weeks ago. So this will be fun to see it in more ideal conditions. Also, washboard. The TC hates washboard. Well, I gotta say, and it's not over yet, so I don't want to speak too soon, but this has been a hell of a trip. I think far more difficult than I was expecting. And I think the most surprising thing is not that it was more difficult, but that I was able to rise to the challenge and complete it. No drops to this point. The hardest sections are behind us. And I just, I don't know, I feel really good about if and when we finish this. It's quite an accomplishment. And if you do it yourself, you should feel really good about finishing it. It is a lot of riding, a difficult route. This is my longest multi-day motorcycle camping trip of my life. Six nights off the bike is the most time I've ever spent living off the bike. It's double my previous record. And then before that, it was only two. So this is only my third multi-night moto camping trip anyway. So if you're thinking about doing the BDR, my advice to you is I think you need to be a pretty decent, pretty confident rider. Like intermediate at best, confidently intermediate. And a pretty confident camper because there's a lot of interesting places. Yeah, we got a couple campgrounds. We also got some dispersed sites. And you just have to be comfortable with your setup and your gear in whatever conditions you end up in. And you also have to be comfortable with not knowing where you're going to stay every night. That's something that took me a little while to get used to. And it really helps to do it with people that have done it before that are good at that. Tim is fantastic at finding campsites for sure. A big shout out and thank you to Tim in particular for finishing this thing with me and helping me, you know, get through it. Because I don't think I would have had the confidence to do it on my own. But it was important that I did, both to me personally, but also for the channel, I think. So it's just been a great adventure. And I just would encourage you to think about preparing yourself for it. But I will say this. I don't know that I'll do another BDR on a big bike. I think it was way more difficult than I was expecting. I kind of pictured a lot of roads like this with some more abandoned two-tracky stuff in between. I did not picture the crazy technical stuff that we ended up doing and the hill climbs and the big baby head rocks and all that. I got through all the stuff except baby head hill because we didn't do it. But I don't want to do it again. Not Clement Mountain. Not all that stuff. The washout section 3. 3 and 2 were pretty tough. I wouldn't do them again on a big bike. 6, 5, and 4 I would. And 1, we'll see. It remains to be seen. But it's supposed to be pretty good. Probably, I think I could do it on a big bike too. But the rest, 2 and 3, I would not. Anyway, we're going to keep cruising. So let's hope we get this thing done today. So we're on this cool pavement section now. Section 1 is going fast. But we've got cool river views. That's something. I've got to get in about 14 more of that something before we finish. That's a campsite right there. Not bad at all. It's getting a little more interesting. Not a ton. We're off of the really nice gravel and onto the less maintained stuff. Oh, that was a big rock. Now this has just been a pleasant cruise. Lots of these nice roads. Cool bridge. East Fork Adams Creek. Oh, that's pretty as hell. This is a wooden bridge, yo. That's nuts. Neat bridge. Oh, it's all beat up too. Crazy. That's gorgeous. Still snow. It is mid-July. Still got snow. So this was the section that wasn't passable recently, I bet. Because of all the snow. There's still some on the sides. Snow right there. This was the last part of Section 1 to open. Right before Tacklack Lake. There's more snow. Schnabder. Beautiful meadow. Oh, there's an informational sign. It's a wet meadow. This is the Tacktack Meadow. Gorgeous. Chain of lakes. Tacklack Lake. One quarter mile. There's a campground. Holy sh**. You wanna check out the lake? Let's take a look at it. You can get down to the lake. That's a day use, I bet. Not a huge campground, but it's pretty. It's empty. I like it. It's an old school campground. These are the ones I like. You're back in the trees. The sites aren't right on top of each other. It's nice. I would totally camp here. I dig this place. Anyway, let's check out the day use. That's what we want to see. I could have parked over there. I don't like that spot either. I want to park right over here. In front of this tree. That's what I want. I'm just trying to find a shady spot. Well, this is gorgeous. I'm glad we stopped here. This behind me is Mount Adams which is the mountain we were looking at from our viewpoint last night up on Bethel Ridge. We've come all the way around it and now we're on the other side. I guess if you're doing the BDR the right way this is the front side of Mount Adams. It's gorgeous right here over the lake. Wow. Washington BDR. Mount Adams, everyone. Crazy. You can touch it. We're going to get back on the trail. Hello, rest of Section 1. There are a few points of interest just off the route. This is the road up to Baby Shoe Ridge. It's just past Hack Lack Lake. We thought we'd go check it out. It probably overlooks the lake, I'm guessing. Oh, fun tree. No bridge. Is this the viewpoint? This looks awful. It's a gravel pit. What the hell am I looking at? Okay, well that's fun. This is the waypoint. It's literally just a gravel pit. I guess there's no more. Tim's going to do Tim things. He loves to do Tim things. Oh, he's going up on the ridge. That's the majestic Timbo. Well, Tim never crashes when I'm filming. Or at all. You've got epic ridge riding footage. That's something. Go Tim. There he is, coming out over the asphalt. Anyway, back to the main route. Well, so far Section 1 has been all fast gravel and pavement. It looks like we're getting back on the pavement again right here. If you're a beginner looking for a section to run, there's a reason why they recommend this one. The riding is pretty easy, but the views are cool. You get to see some cool area. We are at 4,000 feet. This is the Lewis River. Cool. Oh, nope, right back to gravel. Okay, so they just paved around the bridge. But still, you see this gravel highway? A lot of this. Another cool bridge. Sorry, I feel like I'm not getting a lot of footage today, but I tried to turn the camera on for interesting riding or interesting scenery, and there just hasn't been much of either here on Section 1. So, you're getting cool bridges. It's just me bombing 45 miles an hour down a gravel road for hours so far. Here comes a car. That's interesting. There's a car. I think it's a Prius. So you know this is a hardcore road when you pass a Prius. A little bit less wide-open highway. A little bit more loose gravel 2-track. That's something. Ooh, that branch is right in my face. This is probably the most interesting road on Section 1 so far. Seriously. Oh, the view isn't terrible. Holy crap. Not terrible at all. Ooh, a tree. Okay. This is more interesting. Finally, like, the steepest hill we've had. I'll get on the high side. There we go. Ooh, we've got sort of a water crossing here. Quite the stream running down this. I wonder where all the erosion ruts are coming from. Curious. What the hell is that thing? Uh, that's a weird place for that. Whatever that is. Looks like a tanker truck. Weird, okay. Okay, decent view on the way out. Not bad. It's hot. Hot. Okay. Some of these ruts are no joke. I don't want to get this far and screw it up here at the end. Better take it a little seriously. Some very interesting water bars on this road. And I'm doing things I should not be doing on this bike. On them. Now watch, I've got the camera on, I'll screw this up bad. Oh! I don't know if you can see, but I'm jumping. I got a full-on pogo off one of them. It was awesome. This is bouncy. It's really really water-damaged down here. Interesting. A lot of fun on a little bike. It's not not fun on a big bike, it's just tiring bouncing all over all this stuff. I don't know if you guys remember, but in the secret spot on the Wabdra camping trip I did with Travis and Ryan, we came up this part of second one and so I happen to know that I'm about to turn, make the last major turn on the last bit of gravel on the whole Wabdra for us. Then it's pavement for the rest of the way. So, this is it. In fact, that's it. That's the end right there. That's the end of the gravel on the Wabdra. It is pavement all the way in to Carson and then Stevenson and then the end. So we're almost there. I'm ready. I'm ready. I'm very tired. We are a stone's throw from the end of the Washington BDR. We go out of town a little, over the Bridge of the Gods, and we have completed the Washington BDR from Canada to Oregon. We're so close I can literally smell it. We just have to get through Stevenson and over the bridge and we can celebrate victory and a job well done, hopefully. And have completed this journey in honor of those who were unable to complete it with us. So Mike and Charles and Danny and Travis, it's for you guys. Oh man! Here we go! Bridge of the Gods! Here we go. Bridge of the Gods. Me and Timmy completing the Washington BDR. Five days of riding. The toil and hardship. These guys are doing it. That guy. Holy crap, that's a lot of stuff. Oh man. Losing members. Riding some of the hardest stuff I've ever ridden. And just generally camping and being dirty and having a good time with good guys. I can't believe we did it. We made it. I can't even come up with a good speech right now. I'm just excited. And now the sketchiness that is the Bridge of the Gods. You can actually see through the deck. Super wobbly with the Wanabe tires. And there are birds flying below us. But for us, it's more than a bridge. More than a crossing between two states. It signifies the end of a journey. A journey from which I learned a lot and a journey which I really enjoyed. And so I just want to thank you guys for watching and for coming along with us on this journey. Oh, motorcycles. Two dollars. Thank you. We're here on the Oregon side. We made it. Our long journey is over. Tim, my man. How do you feel? Tired. Same. That is a blast. That is my primary emotion. Tired. Yeah, yeah dude. Thank you so much for sticking it out and finishing it with me. It was a pleasure and I'm really glad you came along. You too. I just want to say thank you to all my channel members and patrons for supporting me and for making really amazing long trips like this possible. Channel members get early access to videos. You get access to the live stream after parties. You get merchandise discounts and other perks. So those people are really the ones that make all these things happen and help me continue to feed my family while I go out and have these adventures. But also all of you clicking on those affiliate links to RevZilla, Amazon, Rocky Mountain ATV, and Motocamp Nerd. Anytime you click those I get a small commission. You don't pay any extra and you help support more dorky content. So I just want to say thank you one more time to all of you for supporting and watching. Thank you to Tim for being here. Thank you to Travis and his friends for putting this trip together. But I am so ready to get home right now. There will be a video later, kind of what I learned from the VDR, but I don't have any philosophical in me right now. I'm just ready to get home. So thank you for watching. Such a great feeling to have completed this and looking forward to the next one. Of course, of course, as always, please do not forget to be excellent to each other. Thank you.