Day 24 LaPine to Canyonville (Oregon)

We spent last night sleeping in the truck, pretty much in the middle of nowhere (well Diamond Lake) so we had a great view of the stars in the sky, due to the lack of cloud, and more importantly, light pollution.

Last night was the first time I'd been hoping NOT to see any wildlife !!

We only had a 100 miles to complete before the first fuel station (and first sign of civilisation), which was lucky as the fuel can for the KTM had suffered from the being thrown from the bike one too may times!!

So, off we set, on easy gravel roads that twisted through the National Forest. After maybe an hour, I spotted an airfield on the GPS, so we diverted to check it out;


It was quite an odd site, carved into the middle of the forest - with no sign of life.


So, I attempted a grass landing;


At the airstrip, this tickled me - how on earth the pilot can spot the windsock is one thing, but being so close to the trees renders it pretty useless;

The gravel roads continued to wind through the forest, offering great views;


We were soon to come across another road closed sign , but continued. It quickly became clear why the road was closed - trees down everywhere;


We crossed the first 10 or so trees, with varying style;


A few hundred yards further on there were some HUGE trenches that had been dug - presumably to stop people going down the road. So we continued;



After riding, pushing, lifting and dragging the bikes over trees, through trenches for an hour, we had only covered a mile. I walked on, and in the next 100yds I counted 18 trees over 1.5 foot in diamater criss-crossing the trail. The trail continued for another 2 miles, and we were losing time, and wasting fuel, so we turned back :-(

The return journey was a little easier, until the KTM refused to start at the bottom of one of the trenches, After repeated attempts, the battery gave up - and there was no kickstart. There was no way we could push the bike out of the trench, as it was too steep and slippery, and was probably 3metres deep !
Out came the trusty fuel straps - this enabled us to push and pull the bike (on it's side) out of the trench.

Once we got our breath back, we had the small task of starting the bike - we had to push start it. This would normally be easy, but we were inbetween a deep trench and a fallen tree, and the trail resembled a ploughed field, filled with boulders !

We tried pushing but no good. The strap came out again, and we managed to bump start it by towing it behind the XR.

The remainder of the route was uneventful, and we stopped at Tiller for fuel and lunch. Tiller had one shop, with a single fuel pump.

Over a burger, we chatted to this hunter, who was out sleeping in the wild after some deer - hopefully (for him, not the the deer), the 23rd out of the 28 big game in North America for him. He was hunting with bow and arrow, and had been out for the last 2 weeks hunting this one animal. I asked what was his trophy to date - the answer - a polar bear, with an arrow !


After lunch, I then back tracked 80 miles on gravel and twisty tarmac, back to the truck, whilst Phil continued 20 miles to get a motel in Canyonville.

I then had a great drive in the trailer and truck through some great twisty roads, with fantastic scenery - until I got held up by a biker on a Harley Davidson. I sat behind him on some fab roads, with the 'Country and Western' blaring on the CD player, without getting any kind of road rage. Am I becoming American ??

So.
Tomorrow, should be the final day - but it is 144 miles to the coast, and the road route to collect the truck is even further. So there will have to be some careful planning tonight...