24-Apr-15 China Hat Camp & Ride Report
 

For the 2nd year running, a group of misfits and maroons packed up and headed over the Cascades for a long weekend of hanging out, riding, and generally doing things deemed unacceptable in the general public. The mayhem started late Thursday afternoon and continued throughout the weekend as guys showed up when their schedules allowed. The plan was simple, go riding during daylight, eat and drink too much once the sun went down, and hope you found your tent before all lights went out as it was freakin' freezing cold.

I had the pleasure of being first to camp and thus picked out the best spot for my tent. It wasn't long before several of the other usual suspects showed up and beers started flowing; along with all the sarcasm and bad humor that accompanies a trek like this.

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JP packed a whole bunch of fresh oysters from Tillamook and those served as the best appetizer I've had when camping; perfect thing to chow down while waiting for the halibut bake to finish. Of course, more beer was consumed and various bottles of whisky, tequila, and other spirits started appearing.

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At some point during this revelry, I actually heard my phone alert me to a text message. Go to check and sure enough, it's our friend TY who has the directional sense of a gnat. Not sure how tough it is to follow the directions: stay on paved road until you hit gravel, but we'll leave that alone. Needless to say, getting Magellan to camp took a concerted effort, but a few shots of whisky and hot fire smoothed everything over...lol.

I'm pretty sure the rest of the night was more of the same; we ended up with a cat condo to sacrifice to the fire gods, enjoyed good grub, and at some point I stumbled to my tent and actually made it into my sleeping bag, though I don't recall all said events specifically.

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The next morning arrived, though my head was telling me it really wished it hadn't...lol. About the only good thing was all that antifreeze didn't quite allow the freezing cold to permeate my bean, but it struck home while trying to get water and realizing the damn jug was frozen. Onto breakfast and copious amounts of coffee to help get the synapses firing the same direction.

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We jumped on the bikes and headed out for a 40ish mile rip - awesome conditions and a great time in the saddle.

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Back to camp for a quick bite and fuel top-off, then back out for another 40ish miles.

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With an awesome day of riding done, it was time to get the fire going, get the beer flowing, and kick back for another night of debauchery. It must have been good as the only shots I took were of the camp fire...lol.

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Headed out for the next day and with the poker run being slated for trails up north, we headed south and had a great time bombing around. It actually started snowing on us as we made our way around - too bad it didn't knock the dust down some. Hit the ice caves for a stop, then back-tracked to camp for lunch and fuel top-off.

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Finished up the day with another 70ish miles total and started our last night of being fools in the woods. As has been the case in the past, our buddy brought 40s for all to "enjoy" and the phrase "no fault malt" was coined...lol. Tons of food was consumed, even more beer and whisky, and a giant camp fire.

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All in all, another fantastic guy's weekend of camping and riding. I had one good off after getting a set of whoops completely wrong. Hard to make the bike do anything as it pogo-sticks into the trees. At least the trees were kind enough to throw me back into the trail, though I would have preferred going arse first instead of head first...lol.

Here are a few videos from the fun if you have the time to waste.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=932kn0RDJcc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cuAX9jfsA3U

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7z3LpEfTLtw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUiOGZt-yZ8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LdNfnfbiwyE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWlnOEXUGBo

Can't wait to do it again :cool:

As always a great report Brad! Looks like you had perfect China Hat traction conditions. You always have the best food and drink on your trips! Impressive.

Gotta ask. Is that the KDX in a KX125 frame that was for sale last year, the paperboy bike ? I wanted to try that bike badly! I bet it's a blast to ride.

Russ

We'll be at Morrow Co. June 2-8. Come on out, we'd love to have you.

Holy moly, terrible taste in bottles. I'd be in bed instead of riding.

Looks like a fun trip. One of these days I'd like to make one of these meet up rides.

Hey Russ - I don't know if it's the same bike, but very well could be - Tom picked it up a while back. We swapped for a while during our rip Saturday and it was fun to ride - suspension was absolutely plush and the power was comparable to my 200. That said, it felt much heavier and the front wasn't nearly as nimble as my GG. It handled really well and made ripping through the banked sweepers a blast.

I'd love to head out and join you for the Morrow county fun, but my oldest boy's 6th birthday is June 6th and we're heading out for 10 days of vacation starting June 15th...going to be a crazy summer. Be sure to post up a ride report man - looking forward to hearing how it goes!

The upside is we had good whisky to counter all the crappy 40s...lol.

Heading to Gifford Pinchot in July with some of the same nuts, though I imagine it's quite a trek from Los Gatos :( We'll do 3 days of riding and be completely exhausted by the time Sunday rolls around :)