Fall Moto Camping Trip With Friends on My 2022 Kawasaki KLR 650 Adventure

It is fall, very fall, and I am going motocamping near Detroit Lake. That's normally floating. A fifth of Blantons. That thing is at least seven KLRs long. You don't want to hang out with those people. Squirty cheese. I just found out no one else has had any of the 12-pack. I may have drank too much last night. Hello everyone and welcome back to the dork side. I'm the dork on the road. It is October 30th, so it is fall, very fall, and I am going motocamping near Detroit Lake with our friends, For the Love of Knobs, McLovin Moto, and Beards, Bikes, and Camping. Let's go freeze our various parts off. Or not. That's right everyone, I'm the dork in the road, and I want to be your internet writing buddy, so please consider subscribing. The KLR is all loaded up. All of our bags set up that I showed you actually in that Giant Lube Bag Setup video if you're interested. I'll link it for you. Got the Manta Ray freshly filled with juice, and we are headed out to go motocamping near Detroit, Oregon. Up above the lake, I think, is where we're going, but I'm not 100% sure. This is a site that Nathan knows, and we're just trusting him to get us there. So KLR is all loaded. I'm just waiting for the boys to show up, and we're going to take off, and I'm taking you with me. So let's go camping. Look who's here! For the Love of Knobs, Beards, Bikes, and Camping. Tiny bit early. As expected. Deep frosting, actually. So this is Nathan's 500 EXC. So he is truly, truly dual sporting it on this trip. So I won't be the one on the smallest bike, but his is a lot faster than mine. And he's decided to go super minimalist. Check it. He's got the Mojave and the Rogue, and that's it. I couldn't even get my tent in that much space. So I have the tent poles on this side. A sleeping bag and everything I need for the inside of the tent up here. And then all my cooking stuff. I even have a chair with me on this side. No, you don't. Yeah. That's impressive. It's cool. That's impressive. A little light on the tools, but I got an air pump and a camera. Most important piece. McLevin's here. The other two are also here. They just went to get gas while we waited for McLevin, and he pulled in the second they left. Following the greatest comedy of errors of all time, trying to pair headsets. Look, Duckman's here. And Nathan's here. And we can't all get on the same center, so we're gonna go two and three. But we're off to Detroit the back way. So let's go. This is the Shamanic Bridge. One of the few red-covered bridges in this part of Oregon. Shamanic? Shimanek? I don't know. Shamanic. It's red. It's pretty. This one has the shutters on the side. It's a unique feature. So we're about to ride through the big, big Oregon wildfires last year. We're up here in San A.M. Canyon, so it'll be interesting to see what the road looks like. And I know they're still working on cleaning up and rebuilding, so it might be some interesting footage. A huge tragedy, and it's great to see this community rebuilding. We'll get a chance to see what that looks like right now. Definitely fire in here. Yeah, O'Lally, that road is completely closed. Look at the marina down there. Completely out of the water. Wow, that lake is very low. This is the one gas station, huh? The only one that survived? The city of Detroit was destroyed by this fire. So these are literally shipping containers. That is a little store and a gas station. Wow. Amazing resiliency. You love to see it. This is normally lake. If you wanted to get an idea of how much, that's normally floating. All of it. So it's not related to the fire. It's just we had another record drought year this year. Unbelievable. And it's like, it's been low so long that like grass and stuff is growing. This used to be, there was a store here and a bunch of stuff all got burned in the fire. We stopped for lunch at C-O-B-L-L-C, Connor's Barbecue. And this guy, for some reason, decided to pay for our food. Hey, you know, you guys do a lot of cool stuff. And I want to, I don't know, share the generosity, I guess. Go subscribe to him because he just earned it. He earned your subscribe by feeding me. Because it keeps me alive and I keep making free content for all of you. Hey, you know what? If you guys wanted to get free food, you're gonna have to get it from Ben. That's fair. But the thing, what he doesn't know is if there's food around and I'm here, there isn't any leftover. These guys got burgers. What'd you get, Travis? Old pork. Yeah. Travis and I got the correct option when you're at a barbecue place. Old pork. That's where it's at. Camera reception. Filming, filming. Literally, the rest of this trip could be terrible and it would still be a good trip because I just found a fifth of Blanton's at the freaking Detroit grocery. They have a little liquor store in there for retail price. My fellow bourbon friends will understand why that's a big deal. I've never seen one in a store, so I had to buy it. I don't have room in my bags, but Duck Fan does. He's going to take it home for me. Awesome. Well, this is magical as hell. Look at these leaves just falling in slow motion. Wow. So we are on the south side of Detroit Lake. We're headed towards it right now. It's a little slippery on these wet leaves. This is our road. Oh, fun. Whoa, that is fun right there. Here we are at camp. This is our camp for the night. We are literally just right off of the south shore of Detroit Lake. You saw the road we came up. It's right here, but the road on the south shore is right down there, and you can see the lake, that open area back there. The lake's in it, I promise. Nathan's wisely setting up far from us. Nick Levin's here. There's Beards right there, and then I'm setting up right next to the fire because I like when there's holes in my tent. There's really not a lot of flat ground, so I wouldn't normally set up that close to the fire, but there's actually... I should just roll my bike back and put my tent right there. I might actually do that. I just realized it's been a minute since I've shown my sleep setup in here, and I know there's a lot of new people who maybe haven't seen what I've been using this year. I just think it's worth sharing because it is easily the most comfortable, not just motor camping sleep, but camping sleep I've ever had. Nathan's never seen it either. Hi! That's Nathan's face. So this is the Big Agnes Ultra Air Core Insulated. This is the deluxe. It's a little bit wider, which is nice because I'm a little bit wider. The piece de resistance is this big... This is the Big Agnes Diamond Park Zero Bag. So it's a zero degree sleeping bag. It's down. It's very warm. And as some of you might remember, at the beginning of the summer, I had the Diamond Park 30. And for winter and fall camping, I've changed to the Zero, and it's very warm. And honestly, it packs down to almost exactly the same size. So I kind of just wish I'd gone with the Zero in the first place. It does get a little warm on like a 50 degree night, but you just unzip it. And that's the great thing is the top is not like a traditional sleeping bag. It unzips down both sides and it's like a quilt. It's the most bed-like sleeping setup I've ever had in a tent. Let me show you why. It's got this sort of... It looks like a pair of tighty-whities. Goes over your mattress on the bottom. And you cannot slide off your mattress. It cannot roll out from underneath you. Nothing, because it's all attached in one setup. It's not actually this hard. I'm just doing it at a weird angle because I'm trying to show you. See, just like that. You can see how it's got the pad as part of the setup. And then inside... So there's no insulation on the bottom because it's designed to be used with an insulated pad. So this is just like a sheet. Feels like a sheet on your bed. And then you can unzip the top down both sides. Here and here. So it's very bed-like when you lay in it. So when it's a hot summer night or you don't need all the warmth in the world, I just leave it sort of half unzipped and just tuck this up under my neck or whatever, like a blanket on my bed at home. And then when it's cold, you zip it up all the way and it turns into a mummy-style bag that you can roll around inside of. And that's what's so comfortable. I hate sleeping bags that move with me and I'm a side sleeper and a stomach sleeper and I move around a lot. This has been a godsend, a game changer. Now, the caveat is it's not cheap. It's like a $300, $400 sleeping bag. And the pad is 90 bucks. But you can save 10% on both at motocampnerd.com if you use my code, dorkintheroad. It's the kind of thing that if you're just getting started motocamping, I wouldn't go out and buy. It's way too expensive. But if you've done a lot of camping and you know you're gonna keep doing a lot of camping and so the investment will pay off long-term, that's sort of when I decided to invest in a little bit more expensive stuff. And it's been great for me. Let me show you my pillow too because I absolutely love my pillow and it's a little bit less expensive. So this is the Nemo Philo Luxury. And it is an inflatable pillow. It's actually kind of a hybrid. One, it has its own stuff sack, which is kind of neat. It's got a foam. It's a foam top, like a memory foam top. But it's inflatable underneath and it is the most pillow-like inflatable pillow I've ever used. I love this thing. All of this is linked in the description if you want to check it out. All of it, you can save money on at Motocampnerd with my code. I do get a small commission, but I'm honestly just joining these programs so that you guys can get discounts. It's not even a couple hundred dollars a year I make total. And then pro tip, because this doesn't come off and can't be washed. So you just get like a neck gaiter. You put a neck gaiter over it like this and I can wash the gaiter. But that's my sleeping setup that I'm very pleased with. It's my silky gomboy, by the way. I actually carry it when I'm just out exploring for clearing trail, but it's also great for processing firewood. They went like way far out of field. It's funny because these three logs are right over there. It's not even out of camp hardly. This wood is very dry inside. So I feel pretty good about it. That'll do, pig. Travis always brings wood. I've told you that. Look at this log they just brought down. Like I thought we had plenty. Nah, look how long it is. It's almost all the way to Nathan's bike. That thing is at least seven KLRs long based on where I'm sitting right now. And moves at the same speed. Yeah, yeah. If not slightly faster. Downhill. I want to need a new battery. Oh no, I'm gonna need to charge this battery with my battery charger. The battery on this camera is red. It might actually die while I'm doing this. So it's time to charge it using my... Looks like it should be called Togo Power. I want it to be that. But it's actually Togo Power. This is my Togo Power Advanced 240 that they sent me to test out and review for you. So that's coming soon. But I'm gonna plug it in and charge my camera with it. It fits perfectly in the pannier of my KLR. Pretty awesome. I gotta do a full review very soon. From a moto camping point of view. That's what they asked me to do. So that's why I'm out here camping testing it. There's a light on the front and the light right there. So you can light your whole tent inside. And this is bright as hell. I'll put it on the only beards. That's cool. Okay, here's my pile. Oh, you guys have three. That's good. I'm stuck. We went up into the woods to find wood. For no reason. There's trees right there. Hey, we f***ed around and wasted time. It's not our fault you were working. Well, when you put it like that. The boys just left because they were gonna go ride. And I was gonna like make a fire and kind of get camp set up. Take some pictures. But they're back. Five minutes. Why are you back? We got a flat. Nathan's got a flat. Flat tire on the back of the 500. The good news though is it's Tubliss. T-U-B-L-I-S-S. And so all we have to do is find the hole and then plug it. Real time. Second spark. Nathan's over there fixing a flat. So the dialogue is hilarious. I don't know if it's picking it up. But it's quite good. Well, I've done it one time. So if you need any advice. I had a street bike. Didn't mention it. Those were the Bigfoot Bushcraft Firestarters. 15% off. Promo code Dork in the road. Link in the description. This wood is pretty wet. But we have a lot of it. So the plan is to build a big hot fire. And just keep it burning. So that we can dry stuff out in the fire. While the stuff that's dry burns. But I also have to cook on this. So I need to get it going. I'm gonna sharpen this. Because I'm gonna use it to cook brats in a bit. And I'm gonna use my Leatherman signal. Which I haven't really used in the video. So this is a sweet little survival outdoor item. It's got a fire starter and a whistle. And a bunch of outdoor survival specific tools. That makes it better for what we do. Than a regular Leatherman. So check it out. I'll link it for you. That'll do. That'll do the job for the brats I brought. And this way I have to cook them one at a time. And enjoy them one at a time. You hear that sizzling? That's all the moisture boiling out of the wood. It is gorgeous up here. Apparently Travis and Nathan went riding. And found way better spots to camp. So we're gonna come back. That's our plan. We're gonna camp all year. That's what we do. We make content. Fire's sort of going. Been fighting it. A lot of wet wood. Really fighting it. But it's finally kind of going on its own. Which is good. And I'm sort of trying to dry all the wood as we go. Even the dead stuff that we found. It's just saturated on the outside. We live in the temperate rainforest. Pacific Northwest rainforest. And it is hard to get a fire going when it is wet. I'm actually drying all the wood around the outside. Hoping it'll be a little easier to put on. But the fire's going well. I actually have to cook on this. So I have to stop putting wood on it. So I can get some coals at some point. That's what we're doing. We're drinking and talking about inappropriate Sausage Fest things. Travis, give us status report. On the Sausage Fest? No, but sure. How are you feeling right now? What is your impression of this trip so far? I'm feeling amazing. The trip is awesome. It's been a very busy year. So it's nice to just get out and just not have an agenda at all. It's like you said earlier. This trip is for us. There's no event to go to. There's no specific plan. None of us are... Well, three of us aren't working. Leave that in. I'm gonna leave it in. Don't edit that. I'm gonna leave it in. Letter to editor. Leave that in there. And it's nice to be able to do this this late in the year. And not be soaking wet. This was a great idea. So thank you for messaging me. Because it was nice to look at the weather and be like, Saturday night over is not going to be bad. Saturday sun is going to be... We should do something. Because you got to just take a chance when you can. When it's not raining. Nathan, what do you think? Oh, are you not done? Do you want to point the camera at him? It is pointed at him. I can see it. Can you see myself? I got you both in the shot. Oh, I can see you. I'm not Nathan, but I have done this before. You have? Yes. Nathan, what do you think? I think we're here just for this. Getting together and laughing about stupid stuff. That's what I needed. This is the kind of medicine that my soul needed right now. You've been doing this a lot for work. Because you have to. Yeah, it's been good. I need the cathartic experience of just being in the woods camping with no agenda. This is the busiest guy in the ADV world. I'm not kidding. And he works a full-time job. And then he goes out and does his BDR stuff. And helps his wife with all the things that she's... He is constantly on the go. He's not even filming. It's good for this guy to just get out and relax. And remember that we love camping and it's fun. It's not always work. This was your idea, so I appreciate you. Yeah, and thanks for asking, Ben. That means a lot to me. You're welcome. I can't tell if you're mocking me or not. No, no, it's totally serious. Okay. Can we hug it out? Come here, buddy. Come in here for a hug. I love this guy. I should point out, several people have been like, that's not real beer. Okay, one, I know that we live in the land of microbrews. I enjoy delicious beer often. But here's the thing. I'm old and I get hungover if I drink 10 microbrews. I just do. But you know what I can drink unlimited amounts of and not get hungover? Coors Light. It's 97% water. Correct. It hydrates while you enjoy it. And it's a test. If your friends are Bud Light people, you don't want to hang out with those people. Everyone here, when they choose a crappy beer, it is Coors Light. So they're all good people and that's how I know. Sorry to my Bud Light drinking fans, but switch. Just change everything if you are. McGlovin's here and he's been MIA all summer. It's been a while. This guy's been busy as hell. So how are you feeling? This is your first trip in a while. I needed this. It's been a couple of busy months with work, working on the weekends for football games. And I've got a lot of stuff going on with my kids. They play soccer. And kids' sports will take up a lot of your time. Every weekend. And so it was just tough to get away. So I'm thankful for the invite. So thank you, Nathan. To be fair, I wasn't going to invite him. That's why I said, thank you, Nathan. I was like, you already texted him? It's great to be out. It's great to be camping with the fellas again. Everyone here has a channel that you should subscribe to. This is McGlovin Moto. You couldn't tell from all of his freaking clothes. Another thing I love about Ryan is he goes hard. Like he's like, I got McGlovin Moto underwear on right now. You want to see? No, that's off-camera shenanigans. That's the only pants. Only beards. This is For the Love of Knobs. Great channel. With his wife, Chris, who is fantastic. Nathan's fine. And then... That right there behind the camera is in the road. And this is Beards. I don't know if you can tell. Bikes at Camping, who has been in, I think, the last 10 videos I've edited somehow. So I have definitely shouted out Beards a hundred times. If you don't know who this is, welcome to Dork in the Road. I hope you subscribe. Thousand subs. Yeah, yeah. He just hit a thousand subs. Actually, thanks to all of you because I asked you guys to go. Not that he doesn't deserve it and didn't earn it on his own, but he was close. He was like 40 or 30 away and I was like, let's go sub to this guy. And you guys did. So thank you for that. All right, we're going to cook on the fire even though we don't have coals. The wood's too wet and I just don't trust it. If we burn it down to coals, I'm not sure we'll get the fire going again. So these are the pre-cooked ones. So all I have to do is heat it up enough to eat it. I was going to cook on the coals, but I just, again, like I said, I don't think the fire is going to handle it. So we're just going to cook on the flames and do our best. Mine are actually chili cheese flavored, so. Mine are better with cheddar. I'm going to have to heat it up and then let it cool down because the molten cheese inside is actually very uncomfortable to eat. I feel personally attacked and what makes me mad is that you're right. Do you even listen to us? No, who are you? Who are you? I didn't realize you were still here. Yeah, Doug Fan was with us earlier. You saw that, but he bailed because he just came to ride and he's missing out on all the delicious sausage fest. It's a sausage fest. Hey guys, it's all guys here. It's a sausage fest. I think that should be the title of the video. Sausage fest. This is hot. I'm going to give it half a second while I enjoy this beverage. Oh, I got the best. I got. Oh, it's so molten. This is where it's at right here. Yeah. It's like my pterodactyl and my wife can't stand. Yeah, I thought you vomited. No. That sounded like Whitney Houston to you? Pretty much. My singing has gotten better. Riding and you're singing. Yeah. Everything is improving. I ride like Whitney Houston too. Thank you, Ben. These are delicious. You're welcome. I got on camera saying that. These are good. I like these. I wouldn't eat them every day. They're not really good for you, but they're really good. No, they really do taste like chili. It's kind of crazy. Yeah, it seems like a weird thing to have in your brat, but it works. It totally works. These guys are talking about inappropriate stuff and I am offended because I'm a very righteous person. That's the biggest **** I've ever heard. Also, we're literally eating wieners off of sticks. Camping. Can you see this cheese? Nathan just bit into his sausage. Okay, look how far away he squirted all the way onto that chair. There's squirty cheese all down the drain. It's Mr. Puff Puff time. How many beers have you had? Nine, apparently. Here's the thing. McLovin brought a 12-pack and I just found out no one else has had any of the 12-pack and there's only three beers left. What does that mean? Everyone, quick, do math. Plus you had the three tall boys, remember? That's irrelevant. Yeah, it is. What time is it? Seven. Seven o'clock. And this is Mr. Puff Puff time. Full disclosure, I drank too many beers. So I didn't film anything. Somehow my feet are wet and I was wearing waterproof boots all night, though I did melt them by the fire. I'm sorry this video is, shall we say, substandard quality. But the light that you're seeing right now is the light on the handle of my to-go power power station, which I've been using to charge my phone and camera all night, both of which are at 100%. So it's worked well for this trip. I'm not unhappy with it. And the light is quite bright on the handle. So bonus, I do not understand why my feet are wet. I'm pretty annoyed. I'm gonna sleep all night. I have one pair of socks. I tried to hydrate, but I'll probably have to get up and pee in the night. That's gonna suck. It is cold. Everything is already covered in dew. The fire was disappointing all night. Trying to burn wet wood is a pain in the ass. So the fire was barely warm. We managed to cook on it, which was good, but we burned up all of our wood and I don't think any of us were warm at all. But anyway, I'm gonna listen to McLovin snore all night because he's way too close. Good night, and I'll catch up with you in the morning, probably, if I'm not dead from freezing to death because it's cold. Good morning. It is 7.39. I may have drank too much last night. These guys would agree. It's a little chilly. My feet were cold in the bag, but otherwise warm. And I was just, you know, dueling snores with really the three of us that are camped close together because I'm gonna talk crap about McLovin snoring, but I know I was doing it when I was asleep. We just took turns waking each other up. But anyway, I have a little footage I'll put in for you so you know what I was sleeping through. It's mostly McLovin you're hearing. Speaking of McLovin, he's gotta go do, like, obligation, like, real world adulting. So he's all packed up. Family stuff. That's right. So how was your night? It was okay. I was warm. I was warmer than I thought I would be. A little uncomfortable. Just, I should have taken some water with me into bed. My throat was a little dry. Yeah. I didn't really want to get up, so. Right. Toss and turn a little bit, but otherwise it was okay. Excellent. Yeah. Nathan's here. He survived the night. Hello. What's up, Nathan? Good morning. How was your half tent? It was fantastic. Good. Glass. Very good sleep. I'm glad to hear it. At least one of us. Those logs are exactly the size they were when we went to bed. Like, they did not burn at all. No. McLovin is McLeavin. Later. Thank God the cop is gone. We can relax. That's a joke. So it's about that time to start packing up. My least favorite time. But I thought before I did, I'd give you an update on the to-go power. So I charged my phone with this all last night. I have to charge this GoPro three times. So I haven't gotten into my extra batteries. I just keep recharging it on there. And it is at 64%. And I probably charge more than most people just because I have to charge all my cameras and stuff. But if you had a phone and some stuff and you were charging it, you want to run a light, charge your headlamp, whatever, you could easily get three nights out of this, I bet. At minimum. If you were conservative, maybe even more. So stay tuned for, like I said, a full review. And I'm going to get out and test the solar panels that came with it. But we're going to pack up, I guess. I don't want to. Talking about it makes it feel real. Everything's wet. I just hate packing up when it's wet. Fun fact. The John L. Tillamook bag is also a freestanding container when you pack it the way that I just did. Easy peasy for throwing your crap in there. Well played. No strings, no wires. Just fully freestanding shenanigans. I thought that was funny. So we're all packed up. Nathan's got his bike all set up. Bike's ready to go. I just got to tuck some straps in. Beards is almost there. Throw my jacket on and we're going to head down the mountain. Maybe try to find some breakfast. So that could be good. I like food. I'm fat. Well, we're going to get out of here. Ride down the fun road. Thank you all for watching. Hope you enjoyed the video. If you did, don't forget to hit the like button. Make sure you go check out Nathan's channel for the love of knobs. Go check out Travis's channel, Beards Bikes and Camping. And even though he's not here, I guess you can check out McLovin's channel, McLovin Moto. Want to give a big shout out to all my channel members and patrons to make content like this possible. Channel members and patrons get early access to videos, merchandise, discounts, and other perks. And there are links and a join button right below the video. And if you want to support me without paying a monthly fee, you can also just use my links They're in the description below too. You buy your stuff. I get a little commission. Everybody wins. My kid gets to eat this week. So thanks for that. Thanks for watching. And please do not forget to be excellent to each other. This guy knows. Are you in here? He's in here. You're right. All you can hear is his exhaust. I'm so excited to be a part of it.