"Zombie Weather" and Rerouting Around Wildfires: Oregon Backcountry Discovery Route 6, Day 2

I woke up and there was a fire going. The young buck emerges from his den. Jump off, find out. It should have probably hit the record button. Yeah, this is zombie weather. Is this for where the rough patch fire was? This is literally the Obi-Wan Kenobi route. It's our only hope. We made it. Free wood, cooler leveling blocks, misc. I want the misc. Previously on Lost. I'm going to ride my first Oregon BCDR backcountry discovery route section. It sounds like a house of ill repute. Like I can't see. Beef! See, damn! We're at the shire. Literally a water hole. My kid doesn't eat money. Because I'm stupid, that's why. Yeah, it's like the Flintstones up in here. And now the conclusion. It's wet. Got some dudes last night. It's been a long time since I woke up and there was a fire going. And honestly, I woke up, looked at my watch and was like, holy hell, how is it seven? I guess I should get up. And then I heard sticks cracking. And I was like, I'm just sitting here for a minute. And then I heard a roaring fire. And then I came out. And the fog is rolling in. You can actually see it up there. We need a sun to dry out all of our stuff that's all wet and dewy. But like I said, we're in the middle of a fog. That was clear a second ago. I could see the moon. It was. And right then is when Danny was taking the T7. The hour is now 8.12 and the beast is stirring in its lair. Watch as it carefully emerges from its cocoon. Here it comes. It emerges. The young buck emerges from his den. His long slumber over. It's like Morgan Freeman and Richard Attenborough had a baby. He rises to seek sustenance and warmth. But there is no sun. So I didn't come out very clearly last night. But the coach's chair broke. So he's been sitting on this rock. See? Tusk one, REI zero. Just putting the finishing touches on getting packed up here. The coach is all done because he's all minimalist. He's not glamping like us. So he's. Yeah, his stuff has been packed up for a while. He's just chilling on his rock. I decided to go with the rain fly outside the bag technique for today. Because it is nasty, gross, wet. And I just don't want it in the bag. I don't think this is actually going to dry it. But it'll at least keep it outside of the bag. So my sleeping bag and stuff's not getting nasty wet from it. We're gonna get back on the road. O-C-B-D-R. Section six. We should hit Sutherland at some point today. Gotta refill. My manta ray is completely depleted. They're not as fertile during this mating season. Or at least they don't carry as much liquid. Because they're migrating. And they have to, you know, travel light. I'm gonna have to refill that before tomorrow night. Because I got nothing left but what's in my hydration pack. Everything is wet. The inside of my helmet. My pants. We're just gonna deal with it. My goggles are fogged up on the inside. You can see the spots where our tents were very dry. And we're gonna get back on the trail. Yeah, I can't see sh**. This better do fog or I'm gonna have to take them off. You guys look cool in the mirrors in that fog. That looks awesome. You look cool in front of me in the fog. Oh yeah, we're gonna have some traffic today. Yeah, we are. We have to be careful with this. Too bad. I'm not gonna be tearing up setting any speed records. It's been all pavement this morning after we got off that gravel road. Hitting a lot of WAP. W-A-P. Wet Ass Pavement. That's what that's for, right? I've heard that term a lot lately. And I think I'm just surprised so many people are riding bikes. That they're really referring to the W-A-P. Wet Ass Pavement. Yeah. I know that's what that means. When it's new pavement like super dark asphalt. It's fresh ass pavement. So it's fast. Which is another term I hear a lot. People are really doing a lot of riding. Here we go, friends. Wow. I bet that is like wicked deep right there. Yeah. Jump off. Find out. Gorgeous. Look at this. Not bad. Anyway, that's the Ampqua. The river that we're on. Oh yeah. This is Oan. Highway. Lab. Clear. That was Ta'i Access Road. Bye-bye, Ta'i. So we're coming into Sutherland. That was fast. It's only 10.23. We've been on the road like 40 minutes. Oh, this is helpful. Shout out to the Astro here in Sutherland. They let us fill up our water bladders from their faucet. But the water's kind of warm and gross. So I'm not going to put in my hydration pack. I'll go with some Dasani. Nice and cold. It's not weird. Grabbing breakfast at the Apple Peddler. Because it's literally the only sit-down restaurant in Sutherland. I asked the lady at the gas station. She's like, yeah, that's about it. It's not good. But that's what they have. So I bet it's fine. She's exaggerating. Yeah, true. Oh, they have Wi-Fi. Thank you. Last hot meal for a while. Pepsi and water. I'm full. I'm stuffed. I don't know about you. Should have probably hit the record button. That helps. Jesus. I got on mine. Does that help? Oh, there you go. It's running. Perfect. So I got you f***ed up. Which is even better. Chicken fry. That's what I get every time. But Dakota, smart man. Also got a chicken fry. I'm a smart fellow. He's a smart smeller. Just getting myself a little refresh on the old hydration pack. A little bit of ice. Keep it cold a little longer. That was breakfast. Thank you, Apple Peddler. That was quite tolerable. And now we head into the wilderness. No civilization for two days, most likely. Still paved? Uh, no. Looks like it turns into hardback gravel. Yep. Sweet. Just seeing car after car, actually truck after truck coming down. It's the first day of hunting season and everyone's up here. So we're just taking it easy. But we are up in the mist, which means we're going to be above it before long. Wow, this is actually super frickin' cool up here. See? Very soupy up here. Yeah, this is zombie weather. I think we're in a cloud. It's not fog at this point. I bet this is a great view when you can see it. Probably is. We're coming up out of the fog. It looks like... Oh, yeah. Oh, this is weird looking. See where the kids... The Sutherland kids hang out. Yeah, you want to spray paint something or...? These guys are hunters. See how slow they're going? Yep. Well, they can see up here. Yeah. Interesting spot. But this is the kind of traffic we're seeing all day. Man, it is gone. Like, we came around this corner and we are in the clear. Oh, it's cute dog. Yeah, it's a super cute little dog. Oh, yeah. Hey, buddy. Yep. Wow, and it is immediately warmer, too. Look off to the right. Oh, we are above it. Yeah, we are. This is neato. All very obviously burned within the last year or two. Oh, my God. Wow, are we up out of it now? Wow. It's just fog, so we're going to spend the rest of the day in the clear. That's my guess. This is why I ride ADV bikes, folks. Oh, my goodness. Because of stuff just like that. Wow. Route 6, friend. Yeah. That's what we were in. I know. It's almost more impressive when you come out of that and see stuff like this just wham. Right. That creek looks super cool. Get around a corner. Dakota's like sliding, freaking me out. He's doing it on purpose, though. He is. But this is our route. Is this from where the rough patch fire was? We're right on the edge. We are. I'm going to drop that later on. Not a problem. We'll look at our map. Thank you. This is our route from the coast all the way up to Crescent Lake. And along the way here, as you can see, there was a recent wildfire that was sort of out by the time we did the trip. But it was still a concern. And so we were a little bit worried that we weren't going to be able to get, as you can see, the route goes right here, right along the north edge of the fire. But we were optimistic that we might be able to stay on this road because it doesn't really go through the fire at all. Well, unfortunately, when we got to about right here, it closed off all the roads that were leading into this area, including our route. So we had to improvise a little. Now, really, where we need to get is Hills Creek Reservoir because that'll get us around. Yes. There's sort of a sort of major intersection, Bryce Creek Falls, that area. Yep. I think we can get there. OK, let's get to Bryce Creek Falls and then we can remap. Well, that wants me to take this road that we're supposed to go on. But either way, if we get to where I've just marked, we can go out to Dorina Lake and I-5 if we have to. That guy's job is just to sit there and tell people they can't come up the road. Apparently. Well, damn, I was hoping we were going to be able to get through. Yeah. That puts a big dent in the day. So just a little route update. So we were down here at the edge, see here, of the rough patch fire, and we had to come out all the way up to here. This is the first major intersection we could find. But thanks to Dakota, it looks like there's a route we can take. We don't have to go all the way back up to 58. We can skirt the northern edge of the fire and get back on the route. That's the hope. So we're going to attempt that. And worst case, we're going to ride past a couple campgrounds and you can always turn around and go back to those. This is literally the Obi-Wan Kenobi route. It's our only hope. This better work, or else it's Dakota's fault. So that worked out well. We either got a solution or we got a scapegoat. Right. Still working on our work around, following the route, hoping we can get over the northern edge of the fire. And if it doesn't work, then we're going to have to re... It's going to be late enough that we're going to have to start thinking real seriously about what we do instead. Yeah. So let's hope we can get into the woods and find a camp spot. So our route was blocked. So we're going to try to cut over to Hill Creek Reservoir and figure it out from there. At least when we get to Hill Creek, I think it's Hill Creek, we can go north to Oak Ridge if we have to, or south to try to get back to the route. It's about time, not time to find a campsite, but it's time to start thinking about one. So that's an update on what we're doing. More, more pavement. Everything's blocked and it sucks balls is basically what's happening. It's fun pavement. Yeah, we're having fun. I just, you know, would like to know where the hell we've been off the route for half the day. All right, let's go have fun. Fun. He said fun. Well, I feel like I can convincingly and confidently recommend Gaia to people because it's been instrumental in our rerouting with the caveat that you definitely want to download the offline maps for the area you're going to be in. Yeah. But it's the only reason we even have some idea of where the hell we're going right now. So don't forget, Gaia's free. And if you want a premium membership, you can save 20% with my code. Ooh, car. Car, yeah. That is a large rig. I wonder if he's using Gaia. Probably using Gaia. That might be Gaia right there. Mr. Gaia. So we are back on gravel. It's wet up here. This is hero gravel because it's damp. Again, just trying to connect. So we're going to see if we can get through. There's a paved road down below us. We're trying to get to. Yeah. Stop ahead. Hopefully it's not a gate. Or a head. Yeah, it would be a head. Oh, if there was a head, I would stop. Yeah, got to get that on camera. Oh, yeah. 58 is only 9 miles. Oak Ridge is 10. We made it. Hell yeah. That actually worked. Nice job, man. I think we have two options, really. One, we can go to Oak Ridge, get gas, try to get back on the route, find a campsite in the next hour. It's after 4 right now. Or two, we go to Oak Ridge, just ride the 40 minutes to Crescent Lake, camp there tonight, and ride it backwards tomorrow as far as we want to or can. And camp at Crescent Lake two nights. And we can get beer. And I mean, that's just going to make the camping more fun. And we can do all that tonight. Yep. And we'll have ridden as much of it as we can. We'll get up in the morning. We got all day. We'll have full tanks. And we know we can fill up when we get back. Yep. So we can maybe even get to the boundary of the fire. Or we'll get to the washout or whatever. But we can still say we rode most of it. I just, after all of this, it'd be neat to know we had a campsite in an hour or so. You guys are cool with that? Yeah. Feels like a cop out, but. That's not a cop out. Because look at it this way. You just routed us through unknown territory. You're doing it. So that ain't no cop out. All right. So we're going into Oak Ridge. We're going to ride it from the back end. We're going to finger cuff this route. That's our plan. But hell, we made it through. I'm pretty damn proud of that. We found a way to navigate around. Did not have to backtrack. That's not nothing. So I feel good. What do you think, Travis? I'm digging it. Yeah. I'm digging it. So we'll just have a nicer camp experience with some beer. So we made it to the Odell Sportsman Center just outside of Crescent Lake. And we're going to get some refreshments and then go in and hopefully find a campsite. So interesting day of rerouting. And 99% sure the campground is open. And it's going to be a pleasant evening. I'm going to have just enough time to get set up, drink a couple beers, and get dinner going. Sometimes things are just meant to happen. We're here at Crescent Lake. And I came in the wrong direction and thought this spot was open because I saw the backside of the sign. Then I went to go pay for it and found out it wasn't. So I was like getting these guys out of there. I was like, no, no, it's ticket, it's ticket. And the lady came up and she's like, oh, we reserved this. You can have it because we moved and they wouldn't give us a refund. So we're going to stay here for free tonight. And I tried to pay her and she wouldn't take my money. Nice people out there in this world still exist. Now it's beer 30. Well, we're here at Crescent Lake, which was our destination that we wanted to get to eventually. But we thought we wouldn't be here till tomorrow. This is a nice place to be. And our plan is we're going to hit the track backwards. So and see how far in we can get till we either hit half of our fuel, just feel like turning around or get stopped by the fire. So we will have ridden as much of Route 6 as possible right now with the fire. I feel pretty good about that. We were trailblazing and we found a road through, which is probably the workaround for this fire. Not that anyone else is probably likely to try this this year, because it's going to be snowy before long. You know what else I'm going to do? I'm going to drive my bike down here. Everything is still just soaked from this morning. The only dry parts of this fly are what was on the outside of my bag, like tennis soap still. So I'm not going to put the fly on and let it dry out. Look at all this. Like it's just soaked and gross. So that means we ride them hard and put them away wet, or so I'm told. The water is very low, obviously, into the summer. Crazy drought. But there's the lake. There's Beards. That's Dakota. Here's my bike. There's Beards' bike. There's Beards cracking up. And my tent is over here. Tell us your impressions of today. It was cold and foggy and a lot more pavement than I thought. But fun. That's part of adventure riding. That's why they call it adventure riding. Yeah. You never know what you're going to get. I'll take it. A lot of closed roads. So many, dude. Like when we kept... I didn't get it recorded, but we kept... Okay, we're just going to go down to this intersection and we'll take this right. Nope, there was a guy there blocking it. And that must have happened four times. Yeah. And then we had to stop, pull over, reroute, stop, pull over, reroute. But I'm so excited we did not go back to the freeway. I was ready to until you came up with... No, guys, if we just go this way, we can get back to the track. I think you saved us today. I'm currently charging my helmet. Sub to his channel. DualADV. I'll link it right up here. Yeah, I'm going to sub it. I'm going to link it too. I've already subbed it. Right here, DualADV. Because this is day two and I don't know if I talked about it on this video yet. But give this guy a subscribe. This is the best part. This is the pieces of the video that I forget happened because I was drinking when I did it. It's like a little treasure chest I open when I start watching the video. Really? Oh, yeah! Oh, that's funny. It's a pirate treasure, but no sh** here. Apparently we're going on a field trip and I only have 18% battery. There's free firewood, so we're going to go get some. And by we, I mean them because I'm going to film it. I'm going to enjoy my Mr. Puff Puff. Free wood, cooler leveling blocks, misc. All right, I'll load you up. Here's the wood. All right. We are out of wood for our fire, so we're taking this wood in the middle of the night. You're going to carry some, right? Oh, yeah. I'm filming so good. All right, that's half. You're filming helpfully. Yeah, I'm such a helpful filmer. This is such a fun adventure. Good news. You get to carry it uphill. No, here, take this one and then we each have four. Yeah, I have four. I don't want that cooler. I totally have four. And the trailer leveling blocks and misc. I want the misc. Oh, I thought there was free misc. My bad. We're just walking back. It's taking forever. We saw a dead chipmunk. I didn't film it because that would be inappropriate. He's using his beard to hold it. It's not showing up on video. How about that? Look, right there. Pleasant campfire evening. And once again, here I am in my tent. I'm going to try to get some sleep, get up in the morning, and we're going to ride Route 6 backwards. So we're going to get as much of it in as we can. A very interesting day full of unexpected twists and turns, quite literally. All in all, it worked out well. It's been a fun adventure. We did 180 miles of riding today. It's been eight hours in the saddle. Happy that we managed to reroute and find a way through without having to go all the way back to the freeway or whatever. So true adventure riding today. But if you haven't yet, please consider giving this video a like. Maybe even subscribe to the channel if you like these camping adventures. Also, if you haven't yet, maybe subscribe to Beards' channel. Check out Dakota's channel, DualADV. Cool guys that deserve your support. But I am going to go to sleep. I'll catch up with you all in the morning. Good night. Excellent! Oh my god! Your jacket's the same color as all the foliage. We've officially completed Oregon Backcountry Discovery Route section six. Trev just put what he thought was mustard in the mayo on his burger and it's very, very horseradish mustard and ranch. Ice cold burr.