Riding Oregon BDR Route 3 and Motorcycle Camping at The Giant Loop Fall Campout

We are headed over the mountain to Bend to ride part of Oregon BDR Route 3 and attend the Giant Loop 2021 Fall Campout. Gastar and Skillet deliciousness. And I'm like, it kind of looks like Tim Allen from the Santa Claus. It's a colonoscopy lamp, I think. I didn't sign up for SANS. I have the worst job. He's a better rider than he gives himself credit. I think we've had eight people with their hands in the fire. And now it's time for my least favorite part. Hello, friends, and welcome back to the Dork Side. I'm the Dork in the Road, and today we are headed over the mountain to Bend to ride part of Oregon BDR Route 3 and attend the Giant Loop 2021 Fall Campout. I'm the Dork in the Road and I want to be your internet riding buddy. So please consider subscribing and don't forget to turn on those notifications. So I'm actually standing here in my garage several weeks after this trip was completed because my GoPro failed me and I lost my whole intro in the very beginning of this video. So let me set it up for you before we jump into the camp. Late September this year, which was incidentally before I bought my KLR. So let's keep the why didn't you ride your KLR comments to a minimum. I was actually sitting there on my phone negotiating the deal this whole weekend though. Went over to Bend to attend the 2021 Giant Loop Fall Campout, which was an event where we met up in Bend and we rode all the way to Crescent Lake on Oregon BDR Route 3. So I went up the night before to camp with Dan from Giant Loop and a couple special guests who showed up and it was a great time. We had awesome time. I did also lose a little bit of the sound on some of the riding footage. So you're gonna have to excuse me if there's a little bit of a music montage in there. This is that trip. It was a great trip with some awesome people. Got some great riding and had a really fun time and it was one of my last trips on the Africa Twin. So it was a great way to say goodbye to it and I hope you enjoy it. All right, let's get to the camping. Okay, we're here at camp. You know, some people don't dig on the Central Oregon Ponderosa Pine Forest, but God, I love it. It's like coming home every time I'm up here. It really is like so open underneath except for all this damn manzanita. We're just off the side of the road here and I passed four or five people coming in that were camping, but dispersed camping. I am really impressed and surprised with how close we are to town. Like we'll be at Giant Loop in 10 minutes tomorrow. Easy. Van's here with his awesome van set up that doesn't make me want to buy a van every time I hang out with him. Just kidding. Sorry, honey. Not where I'm gonna put my tent yet, but that's cool. I'll drink three beers and then I won't care. I gotta claim the good spot. So I just got a message from Nathan and they're actually gonna come up tonight. So Chris and Nathan will be here too. So I gotta take the good spot before they get here and take it. We're just chilling out, talking business. Talking new bike purchases. Is that a thing? Hmm. I mean, you'll see. You'll see when we get there. I've drank one beer. I gotta drink this other one and then maybe I'll put my tent up. I don't know. We got friendos. Oh, there's a Husky. This guy does not have any Giant Loop bags. Is that a 501? Yeah, I think so. So Dan's making some dinner because Dan is a badass. He's like, don't worry about dinner. I got this. And I'm like, cool. That's less things to bring on my bike. But look at this. Cast iron skillet deliciousness. Damn. I wish I had smell-o-vision right now because it smells so good. Also, I've had five beers. Can you tell by the fact that my eyes are like this? And I'm like, zhu-zhu-zhu-zhu. Thanks, Dan. You're a rock star. Look at that, fellas. Friends. It's, god, that smells good. He's also sharing his beer with me because I stopped and got two but they're long gone. So we're drinking some Rognier. Pacific Northwest favorite Rognier. And yes, that is how it's pronounced. Rognier. Always. It's pronounced Rognier. It's French for shitty beer that you can tolerate. Exactly. Great translation. Mm-hmm. But he does. Dan just bought all this premix at Albertsons and just heated it up. Thanks, Albertsons. Look at this. That is some good stuff. This is camping, friends. You know what I brought? Almonds, jerky, and a freaking mountain house meal. Thanks, Dan. You missed it, but it's Mr. Puff Puff time. Kind of remember there was this bar, The Ram in Salem, which is like a brew pub. But it's also a restaurant. And we used to go there all the time and drink their beers. And one time, we brought some cigars because you could smoke in the bar. This was back when you could still, which was a decade ago. And so we all had, like four of us had cigars. And I remember looking over, and there was like an outer layer of tables, and then a sort of a lower down layer in the middle. And it was just this haze hanging over everyone sitting in the middle. It was kind of eating dinner. Like, I felt kind of bad in that moment. Like, we had just basically smoked everyone out. But technically allowed, right, at the time. It's probably good it's not anymore unless you're outside. Sorry if you were at The Ram in 2003 when I did that. Check it out. This is the debut of my new Mr. Puff Puff sweatshirt. So this is the Mr. Puff Puff design that a very cool, very awesome follower designed and shared with me. I don't have my flask, but I have a beer. I'm trying to recreate the pose. Does it look just like it? Except it kind of looks like Tim Allen from the Santa Claus, which I, it's a compliment to me. But I do the dance sometimes because it's funny to me. But I got a bright orange so that no one shoots me with a bow and arrow. It turned out really well. So these are available in the Teespring store. And there's a link in the description if you, for some reason, want to wear a sweatshirt or a t-shirt or a sticker with my face on it. Big shout out to Eric who made this. Thank you, Eric. Badass. I hope you got yours that I sent you. But it looks really good on the t-shirt and the sweatshirt, both of which I have. So enjoy that. It's bright orange. It's brighter than anything else in this picture right now. Like, it's dark outside, but I am bright as hell. I will not be shot. Gann was like looking around for something to shoot with his hunting gear. And he saw me and he was like, not that because I'm so bright orange. This is a good color to have with you when you're in the woods, just in case. It's easy to find you. It's a different orange than like full safety too, which is like, it's a little, it's tamed down a hair. Yeah. Yeah, it's a tasteful safety orange. It gets dark so much faster in the fall. It's officially fall. It's eight o'clock and we're still waiting for Nathan and Chris. I'm a little worried about them because it's dark. I don't understand like they're hardcore. They'll roll into a camp and set up in the dark. They do this all the time. Like I really like setting up in the daytime. Checking with you guys with Nathan and Chris get here. I hope they eventually show up. Chris and Nathan are here. It's a 838. I hear him pulling up. That's definitely a KTM. Yep. That's Nathan right there. I can tell by their freaking headlight. Here he comes. I don't know if you can see him. Hey, there's the man. There's Nathan right there. Once again, he rolls in after everything's taken. Where's your wife? Oh, there she is. She's rolling in. Good. How are you? Great. Hey, Chris. We made it to the campsite for the night. It is after dark for sure because we did a lot of dilly-dallying. Is that your word? We did some dilly-dallying. You dillied but you didn't dally. We went to the wrong campsite and then we had a little whoopsie and then we found the right campsite based upon the light ring that Dork has here. And by the way, we are with Dork in the road, which is awesome. We're camping here. And Dan with Giant Loop. I don't know if you guys can see him in the light there. Should we set up the tent? All right. Oh, what the hell was that? Chris had a whoopsie. Oh, damn. Chris had a little boom-boom. But look at how sturdy the Giant Loop Siskiyou panniers are. Chris, get in there. Get in that frame and tell us what happened. Replay it all for us. Replay it all? I was reaching for my light and I brushed the bike into the moon dust. I need to hear the noise again. What was the noise? Oh, I forget. Koo-vunk. Wonderful. Central Oregon soil here. Yeah. Kickstands are useless around here. Here's what's crazy. Look at where it landed. You just mis-hitting Dan's van. Like you positioned it perfectly. Chris knows how to make an entrance is all I'm saying. We like to arrive spiritually. Yes, you do like to arrive spiritually. With spirits. I feel like you were very spirited. Hello, viewers! It's double, double action. Nathan's here, camera-ception. What's that light you're showing me? Oh, it's your headlamp. It's a colonoscopy lamp, I think. It's about 1045. I'm in the tent. I just heard Nathan and Chris talking to themselves and their camera. So now it's my turn. Had fun chilling around the non-existent campfire. So glad Chris and Nathan made it. I'm going to settle in for the evening. Try to stay warm, get some sleep. And I'll catch up with you guys in the morning. Hey, if you like these moto-camping adventures, maybe consider hitting the like button and even... This sounds crazy. I know. Just stay with me. Maybe even subscribe if you haven't. Because there's more to come. Good night. Good morning. It's about 7 a.m. Dan's over there making coffee because he's an awesome dude. Slept okay. You know, same as always. You wake up here and there, but pretty, very comfortable in that Diamond Park bag with the insulated pad. I really like that setup. I'm liking it even better every time I use it. So... Don't have a lot of time to dilly-dally this morning. We'll probably have some coffee and pack up. And we gotta head over to Giant Loop for the shenanigans. Chris is getting establishing shots. That's her right there. It does change camping a little bit. I remember it better when I film it. So I mostly packed up. You know I'm committed when I put my chair in the bag. So we're gonna head to Giant Loop here pretty soon. And I'm putting the camera away, so I just want to film this. Okay, see you guys in a bit. People are starting to gather. The bikes are arriving. We're gonna have a good group. We're gonna ride out to Crescent Lake and camp for the night. And I'm bringing you guys with us. What are we doing, Harold? Well, we're waiting for all the riders to show up here for this little fall campout that we put together. Yeah, we decided to just do a really nice kind of casual, no charge event where whoever wants to just show up and go ride and go up to Crescent Lake and camp with us is welcome to join us. So I think we'll have somewhere in the neighborhood of 40 people, it sounds like. Always great to just pack the gear on the bike and get out of town. Pretty informal, obviously. I sort of, I guess by default, end up sort of being your hapless leader here. Just us silly YouTubers bringing up the rear. But that's fine. That's how we like it. But we're off. Let's go, friends. All right, Route 3. Here we come. This is not rad. I'm glad it's dry. Oh, this. This, dude. I didn't sign up for sand. Not cool. I'm just gonna keep going, keep swimming. Glad I got the new front tire on. There's Harold's bike right there. I'm sure we found him. Are you hungry? I'm starving. Oh my God, I can't wait for food. Let's go find the food. We must find a food. A food? A food. Let's eat a food. We're gonna eat a food. There's Nathan. Hello. I don't know why I put this hat on. I guess because I brought it and I feel like I need to justify it. Twin Lakes Resort. We can't find Harold, but he's here somewhere. Oh, good for you. We're having fun with video this weekend. I like to set realistic expectations. So they know what they're getting themselves into. Right, you're watching a channel called Dork in the Road. Did you think I was gonna be good? Okay, so we're more than halfway then. Especially because we went up all the way out and then back down. Not all the way, but got on like there-ish. I didn't look very close. They have ice cream sandwiches. Yeah. It's practically a sandwich. You can take it with you. What could go wrong? Well, that was a fun little snack stop, but we're gonna be getting down the road to Crescent Lake. Good to go? Back the way we came. Wow. There's not much lake here, is there? This is Wickiup Reservoir. What's left of it? God, even the intake is out of the water. Oh, man. I have the worst job. Sneaky suspicion when they weren't behind me that Nathan wanted to stop and screw around on this gravel pile. And sure enough, there he is. Doing Nathan things. Loose up here. Is this the awesome view? Holy sh**, there's an awesome view. Coming in. Nathan did. Wow. Holy crap. That was worth stopping. Wow. Sometimes Nathan's shenanigans pay off. At least you can see this lava flow and then there's just trees all around it. So, you know, this was molten lava millions of years ago. It's kind of loose. What am I doing here? So, Chris and Ben are coming down the challenging way. It's a little steep there. And you can see Chris is doing perfectly because she's a rock star rider. And Ben's coming right back here behind him. Woo, that was a little wobbly. Oh, there goes Ben. He's a better rider than he gives himself credit. Well, that was sketch, but we survived. This road is actually quite fun. Keep waiting to hit some loose stuff. I haven't seen it yet. It's just this nice hard packed dirt. Yeah, this is much sandier. See it. Look where we are. Interesting place to come out. This is where a road goes in? Like, seriously? That's a road? Wow, we're at Manley's Roasted Chicken. We're in Crescent Junction. Well, should we go to the lake? Yeah. It definitely is an airstrip. Weird. We're here. We made it. Starting to get camp set up. Party's already started. Everybody's kind of getting to know each other and gathering under the giant loop tent. Harold's tent is way back there. That one's mine that you're seeing. Harold's is, like, way back in the bushes behind it. We've got six or seven sites here and a bunch of people getting set up and they're all going to come congregate, I'm guessing, in this sort of central area. Awesome, super fun event so far. Another group of riders here. Some across the way. So we got this whole, basically, side of the campground. And the lake, you can't hardly see it, but right down there is where the lake is. So we are here at Crescent Lake and there is a lake. My guess is it's semi-crescent shaped. We have several campsites, but we don't have any on the lake. But let's, these are on the lake. Let's take a look at them. Yeah, my guess is normally the lake is up here. That's something, huh? This would be a hell of a spot if the water was up here like normal. Anyway, that's the lake. Just wanted to prove that it's here. I brought some decent bourbon, guys. I don't want to take that bottle with me. So drink it, please. That larceny over there is, it's for everyone. I think we've had eight people with their hands in the fire. It's a bunch of guys that are used to camping by themselves. Everyone's got their own way that they do their, like, we're all the people that make the fire when we go camping. Now I feel bad I was one of the only ones that didn't mess up. We're all just hanging out, talking. I couldn't, all the words I know for talking are not appropriate. We're conversing. We're wool schnodding. Yeah, that's it. That's the evening, but it's so nice to have a fire. Chris is here. You can't see her, but you can hear her. I had to put on the Mr. Puff Puff sweatshirt and make it, make it happen. It was a fun evening. Just hanging out with everyone. Talking, chilling, drinking some beers. Some amazing riding today. I'm exhausted from it, but had a good time riding. Really impressed with how much I was able to tackle on the Africa Twin. Couldn't really feel myself getting better at riding it, which is good. I'm still sketched out on the sandy stuff. It wasn't my favorite, but I handled it well and feel pretty good about it. So, all in all, a great day. This has been a great trip. You know, huge thanks to Giant Week for putting this on. I hope everyone else that is here is having as much fun as I am. They seem to be. It's nice to just get together with a bunch of like-minded folk, motorcyclists, and camp and enjoy some friendship and fun times. So, but it's bedtime. It's not even cold. I might take the sweatshirt off and go to sleep and I'll catch up with you guys in the morning. If you like in the video, if you enjoy it, please consider hitting that like button. And if you haven't, maybe even subscribe. That's fun. Everyone likes subscribing to things. It's fantastic. It's free. Good night. Harold showing off his fire-making skills. I don't believe how fast this thing goes up. Instant Boy Scout. It was windy last night, but I didn't feel it at all down here. That's why I was like I can hear it, but my tent isn't rippling at all. Yeah, that was nice. Fun morning. Got some coffee. Thanks again, Dan. Always hooking up with the coffee. A little bit of bacon. Now it's time for my least favorite part. Packing everything up. You guys have seen me pack up enough times. I think I'm not going to film it, but just know that I'm going to take all this, put it in bags, and put it on the bike. Exciting. Well, friends, I'm all packed up. Bike's good to go. Dan's already gone. He had to head out. Harold's packing up his tent. I think it's time for the Giant Loop Fall Campout to come to a close. So super cool of Giant Loop to kind of give us this opportunity for everyone to get together, you know, one last time, at least one end-of-season time. Got to meet a bunch of cool people. Thank you to all of you who came. Cool to meet you and hang out around the campfire and swap stories and drink beverages. Just a great event. So I had a great time. I also have to say a big thank you to all my patrons and channel members without whom content like this would not be possible. You're the reason I can get out and do this stuff, all of you. So patrons and channel members get early access to videos. They get to see them as soon as I finish them, which is often a week in advance or more, and merchandise discounts and other perks. So if you're interested, there's a join button below the video or a link to Patreon, whatever you prefer. If you want to support the channel without a monthly commitment, which I totally get, you can also just use my affiliate links to RevZilla, Amazon, Motocamp Nerd, or Rocky Mountain ATV. And those are in the description too. Click on it, you buy something. I get a little affiliate commission. You pay no extra. Everybody wins. It's been a hell of a trip. I'm pretty excited to get on the road and get home. I've been gone every weekend this month doing stuff and it's been awesome, but I also miss my house and my family and my wife and my pets. So we need to get home for a few days before I go out on the next big trip, which is Oregon Backcountry Discovery Route 6 next weekend. Looking forward to that. Thank you all for watching. Thank you for those likes and all of those of you who have subscribed. All of that really just helps me keep this channel going and, you know, feed my family now. So I could not do it without all of you and I sincerely very much appreciate it. I know that you're all the reason that I'm here right now doing all this fun stuff. So thank you for your support. I will catch up with you guys on the next one. Thank you. And please do not forget to be excellent to each other. Thank you.