Crushing Baby Heads

No. 49

My buddy Jacob met me after work and we went on a little mid-week adventure.

We met up in Beaverton, OR and rode 35 miles West before we started trail-riding. The first portion of this trail was fast paced Forest Service Roads where I was one-handedly taking photos with my iPhone while riding.

The second portion of this trail was full of deep ruts, loose rocks, slippery mud, and lots of steep areas. At the end of this “technical” part is an abandoned trail tunnel.

“Tunnel 27” is an abandoned train tunnel located on the Tillamook Bay Railroad.

Large portions of this railroad were destroyed by a winter storm in 2007, and never fixed due to the high cost of repairs.

No. 48

As you may already know, every good ride starts with good coffee. And today’s ride started with a cortado from Never Coffee in Downtown Portland.

For me, prepping my bike entails lowering my psi, shifting my handlebars in an aggressive position, lowering my windscreen, and putting my knee pads on.

Sam brought his buddy Artur, and it was a pleasure riding with him and his DR650. Sam and Artur definitely make me miss my XR650L.

They say “if you’re not crashing, then you’re not pushing yourself hard enough”. I like to tell myself that in order to feel better about always dumping my bike lol.

I don’t know why, but I always think photos of people peeing is good story-telling content.

After Kilchis Falls and Triangulation Point, we decided to jump back on Highway 6 and ride 10 miles east to Browns Camp OHV for some fun single-track.

I like this sort of riding because it’s great for building skills; high speed stopping, hard accelerating, power sliding, body positioning, etc…

No. 47

Not much to write about this day of riding, other than it was much needed.

No. 46

I left work Friday afternoon and headed straight to camp in Mount Hood National Forest. I chose somewhere close (about an hour away) and familiar, since it was my first time camping in my new truck. I also didn’t bring all the creature-comforts, so I decided to grab a sandwich and chips from the Italian deli for dinner.

I filled up three garbage bags of trash from this camping spot, and I also built a little wood-holding area.

No. 45

This was the first day with nice weather in a few weeks, so my buddy Alex and I decided to take advantage of it.

This morning started at 30° and foggy, and then quickly warmed up to 55° and sunny. I’ve been daily commuting on bike every day, so some recreational riding was much needed.

We rode several miles of fast-paced forest service roads before we got stopped by some snow and ice (a little past this downed tree).

This “trail” wasn’t marked on either of our maps, and after a few miles we realized why — it was overgrown and washed out. It probably hasn’t been used in years.

Some burgers after a long day of riding in Mount Hood National Forest. It’s always funny how many hours it takes to ride such few miles — today was 50 miles of trails in 3 hours.

No. 44

After 17 years of daily-commuting year-round on motorcycles, I finally decided to buy myself a truck. I bought a 2005 Ford F-350 with a V10, 6.8L Triton engine.

I still have my bike(s) and I promise this won’t turn into a blog page about my truck.

Side-note, my goals is to sell my 1994 XR650L and buy a small displacement dirtbike — preferably a 300cc 2-stroke.

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No. 43

I received an Instagram DM from someone I’ve never met saying they recently bought a DR650 and wanted to hit some trails. So after a few texts, we decided to make that happen.

On our way to meet up, Sam called and told me his rear tire was flat and he was gonna head home to make the repair. I decided to meet him at his house while he quickly swapped out the tire.

Sam got his tire situated and we headed West, to Tillamook State Forest. But first, a quick coffee stop in North Plains, OR. We also filled up a few thermoses with hot coffee since it was 37° and misty.

We randomly bumped into Jonas in Tillamook. I first met him on a dirt trail in Southeast Oregon, 400+ miles away, at The Unrally (Blog Post No. 30).

We were in the middle of riding a tight, twistie, muddy single-track when we dropped into this Lord of the Rings lookin’ movie set.

I went around this closed gate and my tires slipped out. It’s hard to see in this photo, but my bike was balancing on the skid plate — both wheels were off the ground.

Meeting random people from social media sounds weird I suppose, but I’ve had nothing but good luck so far. And Sam was nothing short of that — another friend made!

🟦 Military. 🟢 Quarry. 🟦 Julies. 🟢Powerline.

No. 42

This was a great day-ride (200+ miles). There’s not much story to add to these photos.

No. 41

Blaine and I met at Umtanum Creek Campground in Ellensburg, WA on Wednesday night. Thursday morning we headed to Washington-BDR Section 3, where I lightly “guided” my bike down on the pavement — no damage at all — I didn’t even fall. I quickly picked my bike up, and without thinking I lifted with my back instead of my knees… I felt a sharp pain… and then a pop! My back was fucked from that moment on! It got worse as the day(s) went on; agony with every rock, whoop, bump and body movement.

My back was in lots of pain and I started to get the “sloppy fatigue” feeling when I slammed my left handguard into this gate which shoved my bike to the ground (again, I didn’t fall). Blaine was kind enough to lift my bike up since I physically couldn’t.

I sat on the bike… put my hands on the handlebars… aaaand I seen my handlebars were pretty fuckin’ bent!

The original plan was to meet up Wednesday night. Ride WA-BDR Sections 3, 4, 5 and 6 to the Canadian border, and also hike 10 miles to Colchuck Lake.

Our buddy Mike met us in Leavenworth Thursday evening before heading to a great disperse camp site that Blaine knew of.

Before heading to camp, Blaine purposely slammed my front wheel into a curb enough times to straighten my wheel. After reassessing my “handlebar” issue, we realized the handlebars were fine, but my front wheel was misaligned.

I woke up the following morning and was feeling miserable! My back was in pain, and I slept like shit, plus my whole body was tense from the cold night in the tent. There was no way I was gonna be able to hike to Colchuck Lake with Blaine and Mike. Even the idea of trail-riding gave me pain and anxiety. So to my better judgment, I decided to throw in the towel and ride home solo (Blaine and Mike hiked to Colchuck Lake and then continued riding the BDR).

I rode Scenic Highway 2 from Leavenworth to Monroe, stopping at Espresso Chalet for a Chai Latte. I gassed up in Monroe and then rode 235 miles home without stopping — which isn’t normally a big deal — but it sure is when you’re in pain and have a slight handlebar wobble from the frontend still misaligned some.

With all that being said… I had a GREAT time! It’s always fun hanging out with Blaine and Mike, and Section 3 had lots of breathtaking views. Sadly, this was probably my last camping trip of the year, and it got cut short!

No. 40

My name is Rob, and I love motorcycles!

I started this Blog Page about two years into owning my Tenere, so every post prior to this one is playing catch up.

I got tired of the Social Media bullshit and decided to take a hiatus from it. Since I’m a visual person, I still felt a need for a creative outlet. I like the old school concept of a Blog Page; no followers, no comments, no likes, no ads, no Ai, no hidden agendas, no bullshit… just simply a photo journal of my motorcycle adventures.