Church of Dirt by Three

Wednesday, December 30, 2015 -- Swamp Monster, Ghostface KLR, and MotoBum met at Tahuya for a sunny but cold dirt rip. Snow covered the ground from a few days prior, making some of the trails somewhat slippery while the subfreezing temperatures kept the dirt stiff and less forgiving than usual.

GFKLR ended up lowering his front tire pressure to compensate for the conditions after six near loss-of-front wipeouts. No other close calls were had... none particularly memorable anyway.

The last-of-2015 ride ended at El Huarache Azteca again where MotoBum drank the "Margarona," a margarita with a bottle of Corona tipped into it.

Baker, eh?

Ghostface KLR and Swamp Monster's Mexican Chihuahua, Pid

Glorius Sun and Snow at Tahuya

Swamp Monster's Instagram Post of the Day's Route

MotoBum's "Margarona"

Church of Dirt by Two

Sunday, December 13, 2015 -- Ghostface KLR and MotoBum hit Tahuya for some Church of Dirt action. The weather turned somewhat decent for the ride. Even though exhausted from a day of shredding, the ride continued past the sunset time of 4:18 PM, the earliest sun down at this latitude in 2015.

Recent fall storms made this ride one of the wettest in TDC history. MotoBum's WR250F choked out in the middle of a deep large "puddle," which forced a boot-soaking push out. The boots were so soaked that MotoBum actually took them off for a moment on the trail to wring out his socks.

After a $2 four-minute bike wash in Belfair, El Huarache Azteca in the booming metropolis of Silverdale took money in exchange for tacos and libations.

Ghostface KLR and a Setting Sun

Ghostface KLR and The Wand

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving from a mad man on a motorcycle.

MotoBum rides on Thanksgiving Day 2015

2huya

Sunday, November 8, 2015 -- MotoBum, Ghostface KLR, and Shotgun Ruthie went to the tacky dirt at Tahuya. Not too far into the ride, Ruthie tried to total out her Kawasaki on a tree, but ended up only bending the front brake disc. She was fine. After limping that green bike to the 'lot, MotoBum and Ghostface KLR took off for an hour of go-go-go sliding and riding.

MotoBum found a driver's license was found lying on the trail and mailed it to some dude later in the week.

The bike-trashing celebration took place that night in Silverdale at a restaurant called "2 Margaritas." It was next to Chuck E. Cheese's in a strip mall. Yum. That experience rounded out two nights in a row of partying as one of Ghostface KLR's bands had played at Darrel's Tavern the night before.

MotoBum Thought About Adjusting the WR250F Chain Before This Ride 

The Gull at the Edmonds Ferry Was in Fine Form

Valentino Rossi Was With Us In Spirit That Night at 2 Margaritas

TDC ADV 2015

A subset of The Dirty Crew take a northern central Washington state long weekend 527-mile dual-sport motorcycle adventure tour. This video is a memoir of the trip taken in October 2015.

2015 Yamaha Demo Rides

Shotgun Ruthie, E-rock, and MotoBum saddled up, rode out to I-90 Motorsports in Issaquah, and rode the 2015 Yamaha models out of the demo truck. MotoBum rode the FJ-09 & Super Ténéré, E-rock rolled the Super Ténéré & FZ-09, and Shotgun raced the FZ6R & FZ-07. After the ride, notes were compared. The FZ6R sounded to be the most fun and comfy. The others? Well, they were okay.

TDC rocked Caffe Ladro in Bothell, pre demo

Souvenier bracelet was also the ride pass

Guest Star

Today TDC East featured a guest star... G-Rock.  Francis Marion National Forest dirt road action.  We even took a turn onto the Wambaw Cycle Trail for a short bit.  One shot is a still from a skillfully shot Video Moto Selfie with E-Rock trailing on the XT (#250takeover).  Hopefully we will see the whole video soon.  G was a big fan of the big DR.

Fly and rent

Dirty Crew East checking in...

Here at TDC East, we read a lot of ride reports.  Many of these ride reports go on for months and even years.  TDC East has a 12 year old, so these longer trips are just a few years out of reach.  That being said, flying somewhere and renting a bike for a week or so is possible.

Here are the ones that we at TDC East have our eyes on.  What, Swamp Monster?  You can get the time off?  Sounds good, let's go!

Quito, Ecuador.  Freedom Bike Rental.  http://www.freedombikerental.com/

Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.  Bike Mexico.  http://www.bike-mexico.com/

and maybe, just maybe, we can get 3 or 4 of TDC to do this someday.  A much bigger trip, but if TDC East had a bucket list, this would be on it:

Pamir Highway, out of Osh, Kyrgyzstan.  http://www.muztoo.ch/

Sunday Lowcountry Ride

Sunday 1/25/15, there were no kids activities planned, DW was off, and it was sunny.  I got a hall pass so I went out for a few hours.  First decision was which bike to ride.  I went with the big DR because it has better wind protection and it was a bit chilly.

Exactly one mile from the house I realized I hadn't attached the Walmart trash can wind screen (can be seen here:  Walmart Windscreen.  I turned around and started over.

I live about 14 miles from the intersection of Hwy 17 and Guerins Bridge Road north of Mt Pleasant (SC).  From there I went north on some dirt and some gravel and some pavement (Willow Hall Rd, Whilden Rd) until I was close to McClellanville.

Nice and hard packed:

We've had a lot of rain recently:

Sunshine!

I then crossed over to the east side of 17 into McClellanville.  There's a dirt road (Dupre Rd) heading out of town north.

I liked this house that was for sale in McClellanville:

Headed up S Santee Rd, then back on 17 briefly to cross the river, and another right turn onto N Santee River Rd.  Followed Estherville Dr and S Island Rd up into Georgetown.

This house is behind the little abandoned store at 17 and S Santee Rd:

Here's the address:

And here's the only other picture of the bike today:

This is along N Santee Rd:

I went into Georgetown and down Front St to the park at the end of the road.  Stopped for a cup of coffee to warm up, and then zipped back down 17 all the way home.  I need to take more pictures.  It was about 140 miles total - almost no traffic, blue skies... nice day.

Here's the approximate route I took to get up to Georgetown:

01 Jan 2015 Dirt Ride

The Dirty Crew started the new year right. The Church of Dirt was attended at Tahuya, as had been done three years prior. It was the right thing to do.

Those in attendance were Ghostface KLR, MotoBum, Swamp Monster, and Guest Star 4-Fiddy.

Check out the amazing ride documentation video and interactive ride route map.

The interactive map of the 01 Jan 2015 ride

View this ride on a Larger Map
Download this track (.gpx format)