This was not the Ural's first time off the blacktop, but hopefully it would be the longest to date, by far. In fact, by the time we reached Twin Pillars Trailhead, about six miles into the Ochoco National Forest, it had already tripled its previous record.
Dan's bike, a Triumph Street Twin, is (as its name suggests) designed to stick to hard surfaces. It's a standard, upright riding position motorcycle, however, so it can handle some pretty rough stuff, in the hands of an experienced pilot - and Dan is certainly that!
So far, the gravel had been wide and smooth, but a tad loose in places. We pulled over here to check that our loads were still secure, have a snack, and consult the Forest Service map I'd brought along.
Dan seemed to agree that my ride is quite photogenic. So I snapped a picture here of him and his bike, snapping a picture of me and mine!
Circling Mill Creek Wilderness, I spotted something that deserved a pause in our progress, and pulled over to grab my camera. Dan, following far enough behind to stay out of my dust, soon pulled up beside me.
This is also a good time to point out my custom leather cross bar pad cover! Another good friend of mine, Rich, who lives not far from me in the rural farmlands surrounding Tillamook, made it by hand, tooling it with a compass motif, with mountains on one side and my initials on the other. The pewter pin depicting the Western Hemisphere was my contribution. It suits the Ural's style much better than the gaudy plastic cover that it replaced!
I'm not sure if this is Twin Pillars (and the other one is hidden?) Forked Horn Butte, or something else entirely. But this northwestern portion of the Ochocos is known for its towering rock outcrops. We'd seen Steins Pillar before reaching the traihead in the first photo, but for some reason I didn't get a picture. Regardless, they're fairly unique in Oregon, and fun to try and spot as you're traveling along.
I don't recall why we stopped in this particular spot - perhaps simply because it was a beautiful stretch of forest road. When Dan dismounted, however, he immediately noticed that one of his extra fuel bottles was hanging from its tether, having worked its way out of the steel clamp that had previously held it securely.
This was Dan's first attempt at carrying extra gas on his Triumph, so he was still working out the kinks. Concerned that there might not be a station in the tiny town we were heading for, we'd agreed that bringing some extra fuel would be prudent. I'd put about two gallons in the steel jerrycan mounted to the sidecar, back at our last fill-up in Prineville.
It only took a few minutes with a screw driver to remount the bottle - this time, in an even more secure position. And it was never an issue again.
I took the time to reposition the little pack I'd strapped on to the back of my seat before leaving home. It had worked fine on the highway, but kept sliding around on the rougher roads. I'd need a better system eventually, but for now, it was more of an annoyance, than a major concern.
This was also close to the high point, geographically, of our first day. According to Dan's GPS, we made it up to around 5,500 feet. Prior to this trip, the Ural's max was only about 1,600, so we were smashing records in every category! The highest point in Russia's Ural Mountains is only 6,217 (according to Wikipedia) so we may have been approaching its design limits.
By mid afternoon, we'd completed the "off-road" portion of the day (about 30 miles), and merged with Forest Road 27. As the yellow sign there warned, it proved to be about five miles of incredibly twisty and steep good pavement, all the way back down to State Highway 26. It was a blast on the three-wheeler, but a tough work out. I learned to lean my body over to the inside as far as I could - before entering each tight curve. If I waited until the g-forces began to build, by mid corner it would be nearly impossible to counteract the centrifugal force. At that point, if I couldn't get my body sufficiently leaned, I'd have to slam on the brakes to avoid either running off the road to the outside, or tipping one of my rig's wheels into the air.
Does that not sound like fun?!
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