DigDug
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This was filmed by a riding buddy last winter on a 5 day trip we did to a lodge along the Denali Highway.Doug, is that the lodge about half way in the middle of the Denali Highway, and the bar next to it is an old mobile home called "The Sluice Box" ? If so, I was there on my bike trip....see photos below.
Most of the time I've been on the Denali Highway has been in the winter and I've never seen that place open. Not much is. We usually truck the sleds up to Cantwell and ride the 65 or so miles into Alpine Creek Lodge which is at mile 68. It's one of the few places that are open in the winter. They don't plow the Denali Highway and only occasionally groom it - so snow machine is the only way in. I highly recommend Alpine Creek Lodge for anyone doing a trip down the highway. It's a small, family run business and they provide great service!
The one time I did the highway in the summer, we were fishing and camping so we didn't stop - but I know where the bar is.
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Say Doug,, What happens when the Cub drops into one of those snow holes? Is it only lakes you land on?
You don't!!! Or you DIG!!!! Actually, the Cub floats pretty well with the wide skis and light weight. There are times where you have to "stomp" out a little bit of a runway if you get sunk in too much, but a hundred feet or so gets you enough speed to "float" and build up takeoff speed. Heck, lightweight, I only need a few hundred feet to fly anyways!
You can land on pretty much anywhere flat and big enough with snow cover. Ski flying definitely opens up the most number of potential landing spots. Frozen lakes, snow-covered meadows, swamps, heck, even most small runways have a packed snow/ice covering (although slick ice makes for fun and advanced planning when you don't have brakes). As far as that goes, many roads have enough snowpack on them to land (yes, it's legal to land on the roads up here - I've done it a few times on wheels in the spring).
(cheesy picture, I know.)
(float flying in the summer to go trout fishing)
(beach landing at low tide to dig for clams)
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"Winterized"
More than drained liquids?
Merry Christmas Riding Buddy
"the bikes are winterized"
:good:/>/>
Merry Christmas Doug.
Those things look like lots of fun for sure! I'm afraid, though, that with a single/narrow track and ski, they'd be a nightmare in the deep/soft powder up here! Heck, if I could find one cheap, I'd give it a try though - I wonder if I'd still be street legal with that "mod"!!!
I've never seen one up here to even try though.
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Doug....great to hear from you...Merry Christmas !Nice plane and photo !
You're in Alaska, correct ?
Yup. Still in Alaska!
Pic,s of snowmobileing please ! :good:/>/>/>/>/>
I'll have to dig through my external hard drives and find some good pictures, but here's something better. This was filmed by a riding buddy last winter on a 5 day trip we did to a lodge along the Denali Highway. He designs and sells GoPro backpack mounts (VuVantage) so it's an "ad" video, but I'm in it a few times (not filming, just in the background). It's so much fun to find areas like these with untouched powder to carve some turns in!
Open it in YouTube and set it to HD to get the full effect!
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"Winterized"
More than drained liquids?
Merry Christmas Riding Buddy
Nothing so extreme. A little StaBil in the tank and carb, plugged into the battery tender and put in the back of the heated garage.
Thanks for the greetings everyone!
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Just a quick hello to wish everyone down south a Merry Christmas from the your neighbor up north!
The bikes are winterized and put away, but the snow machine and Cub are going strong!
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Great pics Doug! Need to get up there sometime and say hello :)/>/>
Come on up!!! I'd suggest waiting until next spring if you want to ride bikes though! Still no snow on the ground down here, but it won't be long - it seems like the snowline is moving down the mountains every day.
A person could ride a 690 there.
A big bike is probably the better bet up here. You wind up doing lots of miles to see the sights. I've definitely put more miles on the 950 than the 450, but that doesn't mean the little bike doesn't get dirty now and again!
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Nice pics. What kind of plane, yours? What is your rifle of choice for caribou? It should be getting close to snowmobile season there. When are you coming down for a visit?
Ken - nice to hear from you. My plane is a 1961 Piper PA-18 Super Cub. 160 horsepower, two seats of Alaska fun! It's got 31 inch bush tires for the gravel stips and sand bars, floats for the lakes, and I just picked up a set of skis for the winter landings out in the bush and up on the glaciers. It's not the prettiest plane on the ramp but it will do far more than I'm willing to do with it just yet! I was surprised at just how little of the state you can get to by bike/jeep/atv/etc. An airplane is really the best "SUV" to have. That and the snow machine. When the lakes, rivers, and marshes freeze up and get a few feet of snow, you can get around pretty well. Plus they're so much fun to ride!
For big game, I use a Remington 700 chambered in 300 WinMag. Easy to find good ammo in the stores up here and a nice flat-shooting round.
I'm not sure when I'm going to be back that way again. I changed jobs once again and am now spending most of my time flying the desk. I still get to fly with the AF a few times a month, but the trips are few and far between. I'd love to get down and do some riding with you guys when the schedule (work and play) allows!
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Wow, I ought to read the threads a bit more often on here. Thanks (only 2 months late)!
Actually, I had a good birthday, I was out on a Caribou hunt. They were a little rough to find this year - winter was rough on the herd so they were scattered around - but I got one and put over 200 lbs of meat in the freezer!
Things are going well up here for me. Not as much time on two wheels playing as last summer - more on three wheels and two floating things. I still got to commute to work quite a bit on the bike though!
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Other than the big Ruger symbol on the bag, this would be the ticket for ride/shoot outings: Ruger 10/22 takedown
It takes less than 10 seconds to assemble and shoots just as good as my normal 10/22.
If you want something more than a 22 and want to leave the scope on, pick up a Kolpin Gun Boot
These things are tough. Plus, you can put a lock on it if needed to be legal.
They seem to be the hot ticket up here...
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A little concerned about the touch screen though. I wear some pretty thick gloves.
You'll be fine - I picked up a Montana last fall and have used it on my snowmobile all winter. I can pretty much guarantee my gloves are at least as thick as what you'll be wearing, and the screen works fine with them. They even work great through the screen protector. Once in a while, you'll hit the wrong button if your gloves are a little "floppy" in the fingertips, but it's not unbearable.
I have mounts for the Montana for my bikes, and as soon as the snow and ice melt enough to ride, I'll mount them up. I really like the Montana - it's my new favorite. It does custom maps like the newer models, the screen is a great size (although the unit is a bit bigger, you may have to fiddle to figure out an unobtrusive place to mount it on a smaller dirt-bike style dualsport), and the mount is bullet proof! You'd have to beat the living crap out of it for it to come out of the rugged mounts Garmin sells. The battery is lithium-ion rechargeable so while you're riding, you're charging the battery - plus you can put in AAs if you want instead.
I bought mine on a whim from the snowmobile dealer. It came with the sled-specific wiring harness and mounting bracket for the same price Garmin lists it as for just the GPS. Plus, the dealer was having a 20% off sale that day. But yes - they are pricey units if you pay MSRP!
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I use carbonite. It works well enough for me. It's relatively cheap and just keeps backing stuff up in the background. (I believe you need one of the upgraded plans if you want to backup videos also) Dropbox is great if you want cloud storage - I use skydrive for that - same type of service that allows you to put a folder onto the cloud for access everywhere. Carbonite is different in that it backs up all your stuff and you get unlimited storage capacity for one computer (but not external drives). They also have iphone and android apps that both allow you to access your files on the go as well as back up pictures and files from your phone automatically. The mobile apps are free with a paid desktop subscription. Be advised - that initial backup can take a while if you have lots of stuff!
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no the 2010 B1000 track was easy. We went down about 3 weeks before the race & just followed the score race course 99% of the time. The reason was I knew everything would be open & marked..but now 2 years later will the tracks work perfect like they did for me?
Be careful with old SCORE tracks. They sometimes go through private property and SCORE pays the landowners money for that right for the pre-running and race only. Heck, when we were pre-running for the 500 last year (during the designated pre-running period even), we came across a closed gate. Apparently, the rancher said some pre-runners hit and killed one of his dogs so he wasn't going to let SCORE use his land. It was back open the next day, probably because SCORE ponied up the extra money he wanted.
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That was a pretty awesome SDAR ride! How the heck did you find that video on YouTube? I got an email a few weeks back saying that my Google videos needed to be migrated to YouTube. So I followed the instructions. I guess it worked!
Hey Crawdaddy, remember this one?
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It was great seeing all of you last night. Thanks for coming out! We head back up north tomorrow morning. See you next time around.
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These are the ones I bought on Joliet's recommendation.
Nice tiedowns: Very solid ratchet mechanism (easy to manipulate with gloves on), Soft loop that go around your handlebars and clips back onto the D-ring. Clips on both ends (these aren't coming off when the suspension compresses). I've been using them for a few years and have had no problems. They work great on snowmobiles too!
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Snowmobiles (or snowmachines if you're in Alaska) are so much fun. I used to ride in NY but haven't been on one in 20ish years. The biggest drawback is the horrible gas mileage. I guess it's just like dirtbikes only the top offs are 3x as much fuel. The payback is the insane acceleration. Comparable weight to power ratio as Formula 1.
No kidding! I've had the chance to get the machine out and ride it a bit. Wow! just WOW! Imagine a machine, 100 lbs lighter than my 950 Adventure with 50% more horsepower! Add to that, the fact that the weight is all up front so it doesn't "wheelie" as easy and you get a ROCKET on groomed trails where it's smooth and traction is good! Now, in deep powder, you use all of that power (think deep sand on a bike, only softer) to keep the sled foating on top.
Here's a few pictures:
Trial run down the lakeside trail.
Hero shot:
Hardcore dual-sporter:
True Alaska SUV (plane on skis):
What happens when you don't stay on the gas in the deep powder (lots of digging, lifting and pulling to get it out - typical noob mistake)
Great scenery:
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Hello from the great white north!!!
I just wanted to pop in and say hello to my warm-weathered friends down south.
My bikes are all put up for the winter - it's not much fun fighting the icy roads up here, so I think that gives me some time to play with my new toy.
I just picked it up today - my first real 2-stroke!
It's a 2008 SkiDoo Summit 800.
800CCs, two cylinders, oil injected so no pre-mixing, only 100 miles on the clock, 150 horsepower of snow throwing fun! This motor would make one heck of a motorcycle powerplant I'm sure!
It has reverse, but it's not done with gears. You hit a button, the motor slows to almost a stall, then spins backwards!
I'm hoping to take it out this weekend and run it around a bit before I head off to the Pacific for a two week trip.
Of course, I did wind up picking up a couple other 4-stroke toys too.
After spending 1/2 an hour digging just the truck out of the driveway (not even 1/4 of the driveway) after the first hard snow, I hit Lowes and picked up one of these:
And since the truck is running 260,000 miles. Plus won't fit into the garage (who wants to scrape snow and ice every day when it's dark out until 9am). The bike isn't a viable commuter so I picked up another 4-stroke toy/commuter:
I'm really enjoying the assignment so far. Yeah, it's cold, yeah, it's snowy, yeah, the riding is pretty much done for a few months (on two wheels anyways), but the views are amazing. Here's a couple shots from a local training flight the other day:
I'm already making plans for the ride all the way north next summer. Hoping my schedule will allow me to take a few weeks off and get on the 950 for a nice long trip!
Who is coming?
Have a great time down there everyone and stay in touch! Keep the rubber side down!!!
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What route are you planning to take? If you are thinking I-70, how much snow/ice riding/driving experience do you have? A quick check on the weather channel website says snow in Breckenridge tonight with freezing temperatures every night this week. Check a few cities along your way and be sure you want to undertake this ride. The toughest (weather wise) part of this trip is the last part, at the end of your ride when you are the most tired and probably at night. I just spent the last 4 days playing the icy road game on 4 wheels, and it is tiring as hell!!
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Interesting. Does typical GPS operation include directional degrees?
The gps will show you what direction you are moving, when you are moving. The compass will give you diectional info when stopped. I would not spring the extra for it unless you got a great deal. Heck, if you want the compass feature, pick up a 10 dollar hiking compass to throw in your bag. You simply won't use it enough on the bike to warrant the extra cost.
At that price, jump on it now!!!!
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Does De Luz connect to Wildomar area and Main Divide Rd too?
Check out this map link: http://dig-dug.com/files/html/FallbrookCoronaGoogleMap.html
The red track at the bottom is from fallbrook, up tenaja truck trail (Tenaja is dirt)
From there, the orange track is a spur up Margarita Peak.
The yellow track is a short road to meet up with the Cleveland national forest road and South Main Divide up to Ortega Highway and Hells Kitchen.
the blue and purple tracks are alternate ways up there but less dirt and less scenic roads.
the tracks north of Ortega are all fun but you have to check the gate status with the National Forest.
Here is a link to those tracks in garmin gdb format. http://dig-dug.com/files/GPS/FallbrookCorona.gdb
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On the trailhead/sign-in box at 5 miles of hell.
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While here in Arkansas, I have been out a few times to ride the local trails. A buddy has been tagging along on my old KLX-300, but it was not street legal. Until this past week!
I figured, what the heck, I might as well try and jump through the Arkansas hoops to get a plate for it. No hoops required. I ordered a Baja Designs kit, grabbed the title and went down to the DMV. 30 minute wait for my number, 10 minutes at the counter, and $19.50 later, I walk out with a plate in hand.
The lady understood exactly what I wanted and required me only to sign an odometer disclosure (I estimated 8000 miles - over the 7500 required for the bike to be considered a 'used' vehicle in CA), provide copies of receipts for the equipment I used to make it legal, and pay my fee. I should have a street title in the mail in 2 weeks. No bike inspection. No need to have any hokey VIN verifications done, etc.
I figured it'd be nice to have "buddy bike dualsport" and since I had the KLX, why bother selling it and buying something else. Only downside is the kick-only. If only CA didn't have such silly laws regarding conversions.
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cid
Awesome! Thanks!
Adventure Gear
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