Taste of Adventure Touring

Oh.. what a glorious day! While I'm waiting for the big Cagiva to get here from Denver (or wherever it is) I decided to take the little 'Zuki for a run out along the outer rim of Hood Canal.

The road I selected was one that I had last visited almost 5 years ago (not long after arriving here) on one of my street bikes. Not long after we had reached the point of the penninsula it turned into a pure uphill gravel grind. Not something my street bike (nor I) was prepared to tackle at the time. I did vow to find out just where that road went some day.

Today, was that day.

It started innocently enough with me checking the status of the bike shipment and becoming more and more frustrated with the lack of progress. I came to the conclusion that one of two things was going to happen today:

1 - Open that new bottle of rum and proceed to become obliterated by the time noon came around.

2 - Get on the DR250 and find some dirt.

Much to joy of my liver (and overall health) I selected the latter of the two, donned the old dirt-riding gear of yesteryear and hit the road. Nearly 100 miles later I was fulfilled. This is how I did it.

Starting off not long after noon (waited for the battery in my Canon mini-digicam to charge up) I headed to the local Shell and gased up the bike. Good thing too since I'd been running it on gas over a year old. It was running OK but after puting in some fresh gas I got another 10 MPH top-end out of it. Happy bike!

Before leaving I printed off 4 pages of semi-detailed maps from Micro$oft Streets and Trips, stuffed them, my Canon S110 and a cell phone into my pockets and hit the road looking for some dirt and a little adventure.


It's amazing how much fun you can have on a 250cc street legal dual-sport! Sure the knobbies crawl in the corners and the suspension is soft and mushy but hey, to be really honest I was only about 10 MPH slower than the top-speeds I'd typically push with my ultra high-performance Ducati. Hm.. a lesson to be learned there for sure!


After *not* passing a lot of traffic on the way to Seabeck I found myself behind a dwindling string of cars until Holly road where they finaly vaporized and I had the road to myself!

It was not long before I had reached Holly and began my accent away from the waterfront. Looking for one of the many roads shown on the map that cut into the heart of the county all I found was an endless parade of gates and large signs courtesy of the county telling me not to use these public roads. I made a mental note to write some letters to the three county commissioners and give them a piece of my mind. How dare they block the use of these roads from the public. We own them!!! Well.. that's ANOTHER blog for another time. This tale is all about riding.. so I must digress.

Since my plans had been foiled my next objective was to try and find the trailhead for North Shore Road just outside of Dewato. Fortunatly for me this time around it was not only open but very clearly marked public road. That was a nice change.

I was fairly certain this was the road of years past and about a 1/4 mile down the tarmac I was rewarded. This indeed appeared to be the road I had been seeking. An peaceful joy over came me as I blipped the transmission back into gear and started my little (very tame) adventure.


A short distance after passing the sign that the road began to deliver the goods. It had been years since I'd really been on the dirt and closer to 10 since I'd really off-roaded anything on two wheels. The old hard tires on this well used bike had no bite whatsoever and as I leaned into the first turn (OK, so maybe I was going too fast) she started to tuck, then the rear began to wag back and forth as I attempted the first steep (unannounced) decreasing radious blind left-handers. HELLO! This is gonna be FUN!


It was a couple of miles (seemed like much more) before the road started to level out and the turns widden. It was then I was rewarded with a glorious view of the water. Breathtaking. The little 2 MP old camera simply cannot do it justice... but I think you can get the idea from the picture. And it only got better from there on out!


Buzzing along the western edge of the penninsula turned out to be more beautiful and challenging than I had anticipted. As I rode along slipping and sliding along this fairly short (8 miles) of primitive road I realized my wisdom at turning around those many years ago. This is NOT a road for a street bike!


Upon nearing the end of my journey down North Shore I came across a home for sale (people actually live out there.. those fortunate and wise souls). I stopped and grabbed flyer and poked around the property. 2 bedroom, 1 acre, nice view (obviously) waterfront (they have a section of beach!) and this glorious seclusion all for under 1/2 million. Makes me laugh when I think my parents could sell thier old run-down 3 bedroom in the middle of suburban hell, buy this place and still have close to $250,000 in the bank. Blows one's mind.


After a really joyful 8 miles I reached the tarmac that I'd turned around at so many years back and stopped to decided on the next corse of action. I had a number of options but to boil it down it was either head along the very slow pavement into Belfair or turn around and head back up the dusty road from which I came. The decision was obvious. Look at that scene.. now tell me what you would have done! :)



Sadly time was my enemy today with the wife having plans and me being 1/2 way cross the continent (or so it would seem at times..) I had to start heading back, but not before taking a couple more detours and locating a pair of lakes at the end of a VERY bumpy but very fun gravel/dirt/sand road. Man.. I'm really digging on this off-road stuff again that's for sure! I'm going to make a point of getting the family out here for a weekend of camping or my name is Tom Marti!


After what was already and excellent day of riding I decided to hit some of the official ORV trails around the state forest. The land is lousy with them (that means it's excellent!!!). As I rolled down the road I found dirt heading off into the wilderness and finally decided that I just HAD to hit some single track before my retun to civilzation (as I know it anyway).

Since I did not have a riding partner with me that day I did not go very deep into the forest since bad things seem to happen when I'm riding by myself in the woods (I should have listened to that inner voice only 30 min. later). Not wanting to get stranded, stuck or really screwed with a pinched tire I returne to the road.

Rolling down Gold Creek I passed the new ' Green Mountain' trailhead and decided to check it out. It's been quite a few years cine I'd been out in this area and that was on my old XR600R. That thing kicked my butt on the super-technical single-tracks this area offers. Althought I did not have my full dirt-gear on I thought I'd give it a run. The mountain did not dissapoint. Not long into my trek I was bouncing the cases off rocks stumps and roots trying to keep from tossing the bike and myself down into the brush.

Calling the trails single-track is generous. I had braches smaking both hand-guards at the same time. Thank goodness those puppies were on there! My plan was to head over the ridge and down into the Wildcat Lake area but not long after I had pummled myself on the track I ran into an area that had been freshly designated nor ORV access. Crap.. that sucked. I then say a sign for 'Plummer' and recalled that should get me on some double-track to the summit.

How wrong I was. After much smaking on roots and rocks again I found myself back down on the highway but this time on the wrong side of some new barricades (ie. large tree root balls.. massive actualy) that had been dropped across the trail to block access. My only option appeared to be a return up the mountain where I came (I was already sweating and tired and I'd been going downhill!). I then spotted an 'illegal' trail that skirted the blocades. It required some searious bashing of bike to get over and around the very narrow passage but the little 250 just fit and I was back on my way.

In the end it was almost 100 miles of pure joy. Took a few hours and really recharged the mental and emotional batteries as well as added furthe fuel to the Adventure Touring fire. So far, I'm hooked and can't WAIT for that big nasty beast to get here so I can make this same track with some serious, power and weight to make things even more interesting.

Stay tuned..