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Camped up a mountain

2822 Views 12 Replies 7 Participants Last post by  Hercanstein
Took the beast to the very top of Pickett Creek Friday afternoon and camped solo for the night. The Kodiak went up every trail without a hitch, carried all my gear easily and was a wonderful ride. The southern Oregon scenery was GORGEOUS!

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Looks like a great experience. The warm weather cannot get here soon enough.

Took the beast to the very top of Pickett Creek Friday afternoon and camped solo for the night. The Kodiak went up every trail without a hitch, carried all my gear easily and was a wonderful ride. The southern Oregon scenery was GORGEOUS!
Looks great!
So how cold did it get at night?
I'm guessing it was in the upper 30's through the night. I stayed warm with a Thermarest under me and sleeping bag and wool blanket over me, but i definitely pulled the covers over my head to get to sleep. Woke up about 2:30 am to "water the bushes", stoked the fire up again, and got to sleep in until 8:30. I just LOVE sleeping in the woods!
The sun was out today, and I had a little adventure near my place.

The pics are of the Kodiak at the lower portion of the mountain. Afterwards I discovered a really challenging trail that was super long, narrow, steep, rocky with logs and a drop off on one side. It felt like it was make it or you don't get to go home, and my right ear started hurting from the rapid elevation change with ear plugs. I turned around about 3/4 up cause I started shaking after a near roll over where I had to turn near sideways to the fall line and did a stupid and stopped like that with me hanging off the up hill side. Luckily that little diff locked goat bit in and saved the day. The trip down was much easier than I expected with the engine doing most of the braking.

**** these handle good once you get used to the size and get on the throttle some.

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That last story raises my blood pressure just thinking about it. Glad to hear you and the machine made it out undamaged.

Nice view, I'm jealous.
That last story raises my blood pressure just thinking about it. Glad to hear you and the machine made it out undamaged.

Nice view, I'm jealous.
Thanks.
I kept moving further away from the cities till I found this place a few years back. The trail head is two blocks from here, but with my old three wheeler I never ventured very far... until now.

My pulse was elevated even with BP meds. :eek:

Where I turned around was a pretty dense forest.
I'll try to make it to the top in the next couple weeks. There should be a better view from up there to get some pics.

This thread has got me thinking about camping up there once summer rolls in. Just have to get my CPAP to work on a battery, and bring a 12 Ga bear swatter! :smile2:
The sun was out today, and I had a little adventure near my place.

The pics are of the Kodiak at the lower portion of the mountain. Afterwards I discovered a really challenging trail that was super long, narrow, steep, rocky with logs and a drop off on one side. It felt like it was make it or you don't get to go home, and my right ear started hurting from the rapid elevation change with ear plugs. I turned around about 3/4 up cause I started shaking after a near roll over where I had to turn near sideways to the fall line and did a stupid and stopped like that with me hanging off the up hill side. Luckily that little diff locked goat bit in and saved the day. The trip down was much easier than I expected with the engine doing most of the braking.

**** these handle good once you get used to the size and get on the throttle some.
Boy that brings back memories of some trips on the little 300 Brute Force where I'm hanging over the handlebars jus' prayin' that those back wheels keep on bitin' on some seriously steep stuff.

The part where you talk about having to stop cause you were shaking reminds me of a trip I took up a single track a few years ago on my Tw200 motorcycle.

It was really a walking/horse trail, but was open to motorcycles and I saw a video on YouTube with a 14 year old kid cruising up it with his dad. I did tell my wife where I was going, but went out riding alone again, not the smartest practice. Well the trail wasn't to steep, but the Butte (right at the California end of Applegate lake) that it winds up IS.

Well I get about (I don't know, 1/2, 1/3 of the way up? I haven't been to the top yet) prolly 2-3miles up this thing, after numerous peg scrapings where the trail was so danged narrow and multiple wide spots where I think "I could turn around nice and easy here." I find myself stopped on a narrow, off-cambered, uphill corner scared shitless and shaking! I stop, prop the bike somehow and take a break, drink some water, let my heartbeat get back to normal and my hands and arms stop shaking. Then I commence to try to turn the bike around 'cause I am DONE with this trail! It was sketchy, but I got the bike turned around without any mishaps and went back down the trail. All went well on the way back scratching pegs in the same narrow spots, until I proceeded to lay the bike down on the very last corner (ugh). No physical damage, (BarkBusters ROCK] but my pride took a bit of a hit (prolly not a bad thing really : )B).

I found a Bushcraft shelter up in the woods behind my house this weekend, near where I camped in the original post at a lower altitude. Was very interesting. There was a Cross like a gravemarker there with a fox racing baseball hat on top and motocross gloves where the cross meets and a metal recipe box at the bottom. I looked inside. Some 12 gauge shells and handgun shells of different caliber. All unfired and ready to shoot. I meant to leave a round myself out of respect. I will remember to next time. I took a short video there.

Here is the link: https://youtu.be/wXZsFNgvtt8

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Nice! Looks like a great time, thanks for sharing the pictures!
I'd be looking for a trout stream next...dinner.
Probably some good sized fish to be caught on the Rogue river. My wife went on an outing with me the other day with her Kawasaki Brute Force 300. Was a lot of fun. Once she got the nerve up to ride the Kodiak, she didn't get back on the little Brute Force!
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You made a mistake letting her rid the Kodiak, you will now be selling that Kawasaki and buying another Kodiak.
Maybe, but we will be keeping the little Brute Force. It is paid for, is very easy for beginners and our nieces and nephews to ride and is still LOTS of fun, just nowhere near as plush as the kodiak. The Kodiak is just so smooth with that independent rear suspension and respectable travel it blows the little Brute Force away in comfort. I don't think another quad is in our near future, I still have the Tw200 to rebuild, and our Honda fatcat needs a new timing chain. Our toy box is full. 😁
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