Stranded on a Mountainside at 4200 Feet: Camping and Riding My Suzuki DRZ400S

So I booked a campsite at Camp Sherman. On this trip, I'll be rocking the Ace Hardwear Maximum Protection Gloves. By the way, it's kind of gorgeous here. The view on the way out is not terrible. It is currently 94 degrees. We're gonna go find that lookout tower. That's the road down there that I was on. Oh no, this is not good. Oh, we are pissing gas everywhere. This is why I shouldn't be out in the middle of nowhere with my lack of mechanical skills. I don't even know what to do in a situation like this. Hello everyone and welcome back to the dork side. I'm the Dork in the Road and today I'm being a little bit of a wuss. I'm the Dork in the Road and I want to be your internet riding buddy, so please consider subscribing. So I booked a campsite at Camp Sherman. I'm gonna try something different. Go to a campground, explore an area I haven't really explored on the motorcycle before. I booked it a couple weeks ago and started looking at the weather forecast yesterday and today and it is supposed to be 98 degrees up there. It's already 75 degrees and it is 9 a.m. So my original plan was to take the Africa Twin, use my new around the world panniers that I'm super excited about, ride up there, camp off the bike, and have a grand old time. But this 98 degree weather has got me reconsidering that plan. And call me a wuss if you want, that's fine. Just the idea of riding three hours up there, setting up camp, having no escape from any of it. The whole time, it's supposed to be 75 degrees at midnight for Christ's sake. It just doesn't appeal to me. So I've decided to do a half measure. So I'm gonna take the DRZ, I'm gonna put it in the truck and drive up there and camp. Then we'll get the DRZ out and explore the area and try to ride up to some of the places I wanted to see. That's the compromise I came up with. You guys know I like to be comfortable and it doesn't, in my mind, diminish the actual riding when you get there to not have suffered along the way. I know some of you purists disagree with me and that's fine. That's what's great. We can all have adventures in our own way. So I'm gonna load up all my camping gear and my DRZ and I'm gonna head over the mountain to Camp Sherman and we're gonna get some camping, exploring and riding in today and it's gonna be awesome. So thanks for coming along. Also, shout out to Technogadgets for sending me these sweet sunglasses to try out. Put a link in the description if you want to look at their sunglasses selection and you can save 15% with promo code DORK in the road. Pretty sweet. I went with something different for me, the mirrored blue lenses. What do you think? Leave me a comment. What do you think? Am I too old to wear sunglasses like this? I don't care. I think they look cool. We're loaded up, ready to head out. Let's go have an adventure. So I just realized I forgot my riding gloves and my haste to pack everything up last night. So I'm in Sweden, so I'm gonna drive back into Weimar and get at least some work gloves to wear because they're a hell of a lot better than nothing. Damn it, that was dumb. We're gonna give Hoy's Hardware a try. Success! On this trip, I'll be rocking the Ace Hardware Maximum Protection gloves featuring TPU knuckle protectors and the ultimate in synthetic leather pumps. Double check your gear, friends, or else you end up rocking Ace Hardware Maximum Protection gloves. We're gonna stop here at Lost Lake and take a look at the campground. There's the lake, but what's left of it. This was pretty full even like three weeks ago we were here. Let's walk down, see what the lake looks like what's left of it. So there's actually a lava tube under this lake that all this drains into. You can tell I'm already in the part that's normally underwater. By the way, it's kind of gorgeous here. The water's receding and look there's the edge right there, but it's still wet here. I bet you this is disappearing at a foot or more a day easy. What a gorgeous spot. This is a future moto camping destination for sure. All right, let's keep going. When I was a kid, we used to come camp at Brown Lake with my grandparents and a lot of my family. And I haven't been up here in 30 years, but I'm eager to see it again and it's on the way. So five miles from here, let's go check it out. Also look at these logs. Backside of Three Finger Jack. It is right there like looming massive. So obviously when I came here as a kid, it was before all this burned, but holy hell does it look different. The view on the way out is not terrible. This is our campground gorge. Campground looks gorgeous. Hopefully. I've never actually been here, so I booked it sight unseen. Tried to find a spot that looked like it might be closest to the river. Definitely people in my spot. This is how close my neighbors are, so rad. Well, the good news is I have river access. The bad news is my neighbors are standing in it. It is currently 94 degrees, two o'clock in the afternoon, so it's going to keep getting hotter for about two more hours. Not a bad spot other than just right on top of each other here. Big picnic table. Nice fire pit. River access. I was worried I wouldn't have it. Very nice. I'm gonna put my riding gear on because we are going to the Green Mountain Lookout, damn it. That's happening. Soak this in water because I'm no dummy. It's hot. Of course, my sweet gloves. Got my helmet ready to rock. Let's ride. We're gonna go find that lookout tower. It's gonna be awesome. That's Three Finger Jack. That is Mount Jefferson. Wow, cool as hell. We are just coming up and up and up. We were just down there. The river is at the very bottom of this ravine. That's the road down there that I was on. I don't know if you can see it, but we came up, but there's that log that was in the road. Look at this campsite right here. Don't get out of your tent on the wrong side. Oh man, the mountain though. Look at it. Wow. Ah, killed her. That's Jefferson, which means that is Mount Hood in the distance, which you guys can't see, but that's cool. Mount Hood. That's a ways off from up here. Oh no, this is not good. She flooded? She's not liking the elevation? She was fine a second ago. Oh, we are pissing gas everywhere. Oh, oh, that's a problem. That's a problem. That is a problem. Good news is I can coast down if I have to, but I don't know what that came out of. That's new. Well, where does that go? Where did this come off from? Oh, that's gas in my eyeball. What a great place for a breakdown. It's not supposed to happen. We may not make it to the top after all. I'm gonna go back down to that shade and try to look at it and see where it came from. This is why I shouldn't be out in the middle of nowhere with my lack of mechanical skills, because I don't even know what to do in a situation like this. Oh yeah, okay, that's odd. So it doesn't like the rapid ascent is my guess. I'm gonna let some pressure out of the tank. We've come up quite a bit really quickly. Maybe that's the problem, because it vents through the gas cap and the gas cap is covered by my tank bag, so it's keeping it from venting properly. That's my guess. The gas is literally boiling in there. I'm gonna let it just chill. I'm gonna run this battery out. Beautiful place for a breakdown. Yeah, I don't know, guys. I was hoping that venting it would fix it, but it didn't. So I think maybe we're not gonna make it to the lookout today, because if I can get this going, I better head back to camp. I don't know what the f**k else to do. So, so glad there's this record in case I die. I'm just gonna wait and let it cool down. I don't know what else to try. After that, it's trying to coast down to the bottom, see what happens. We're so close. Yeah, we'll stay right on idle. Idle. Well, no Green Mountain lookout for us, because I'm reluctant to keep going up with it like it is, but I am gonna try to ride it back. I just gotta stay on the gas, because she won't idle. But that shouldn't be hard if I just keep it in gear on the way down. It's cutting our trip a little short, but I'd rather cut it short than have it never end, because I got stuck out here and died. My wife would like that too. So let's, let's try to go down the hill. Stranded on a mountainside. There's your freaking title for your video. Stranded on a mountainside. Let's try to get out of here. Come on, baby, get me home. Come on, we were working a minute ago. F**king battery's dying. Okay, well, we're bump starting then, aren't we? Yep, probably second gear is better. Bump started it, battery's dead. Try to charge it back up on the way down. It's good. It's all good. I think that water's about 40 degrees. Gonna have one of these, that solves everything. One spark, look at that. Feels good to be on bourbon. Might be more content on the horizon. Lots more content. This could be a total disaster, but let's give it a shot. This is Three Creeks Lake behind me. Wow, look at this.