Monday, August 31, 2009

Long Horns and Monkey Butt

Here is a little story how Outsidevan's Espar Power Hauler and owner spent the weekend. Thanks for the story, we love to hear about your Dodge Sprinter adventures on the Outside!


"Yesterday, I swam thinking the surf was not going to happen. Then I got the call that Shark fin was going off. Turned out to be one of the best SUP sesh's to date--big, glassy walls to a wide channel. One tow-team out earlier that am. Then, Tim showed up with a ski and we towed a building swell at the Siletz River mouth for two more hours. I then (red) bulled-up and drove to bend. I wanted to check out a dual sport link from the China Hat single track area to the Christmas valley dunes. (In preparation for the upcoming Dune/Carne Asada fest in October). It ended up being three tanks/250 miles of exploration. Soft red cinder gravel, twisty singletrack, technical rock gardens, long drones on lonely country roads and wind groomed pumice dunes. I left Bend in the morning. That evening in La Pine (with a Margarita, some fantastic mexican food, my flip flops and a change of clothes. AHHH!) Backed my van up to a gravel bank and I roosted my 690 KTM right in, bonking hard. Great route past several caves, multiple ecosystems, and epic desert vistas. The cave in the picture was used as a civil defense bomb shelter back in the day."


Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Outside MTB


New levels of backcountry travel and shuttle. Crossing days of "hiking" in hours, we explored single-track mostly reserved for high-end moto's. The Southern panhandle of the Pacific Northwest Wilderness was camp, home, and a spaghetti bowl of almost 80 miles of logging roads. Hauling up to 5 Giant mountain bikes, 5 people, 1 dog, lots of H20 through the wash board roads the Dodge Sprinter was a perfect means to getting totally lost for two nights and three days of rad dirt exploration. Underestimating the elements in such a remote setting has led to rescues and evacuation, don't forget your matches, zip-ties, and level of capability. ~ osv ~








Wild Strawberries!
Quality times

Sunday, August 9, 2009

Norco Shore

... helps getting out the cob webs




Saturday, August 1, 2009

Coast Escape

105 in the Gorge with no wind calls for the coast!
Fun on the Surf Tech Takayama "in the pink"
And even some wind in the afternoon for a kite session on a Slingshot Rpm
Dan from Werner Paddles joined us and both Dodge Sprinters made it through sand- momentum is your friend.