Astro camping: 5 days of enduro riding and overlanding
Posted: Sat Jun 09, 2012 8:13 am
This crappy little 8 second video (sorry about the massive bouncing around 
) sums it all up:
After a couple of us convoyed over one of the most beautiful mountain passes in North America (Hwy 20 through the North Cascades) to go enduro riding in the mountains, we were not certain where our other friends had already set up camp. After getting to the town of Wintrhop, we headed up the road along the Chewuch River knowing they were up there somewhere. We came to a fork in the road and there was Dan sitting in a camp chair patiently waiting for us next to his KTM 520, ready to guide us into Bellingham Dual Sport Riders Chewuch River Camp.
5 of us would be riding the mountain trails and forest service roads through the North Cascades from town to town, returning to base camp each night. Then, when all my riding friends would have to return home after three days, my buddy Brian (with his Sportsmoblie 4x4 E350 PSD) would meet me at camp to go overland exploring in the vans for the next two and a half days.
Lyrics: Dave Mathews
"I can't believe that we would lie in our graves wondering if we spent our living days well".
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83wuMzms7ec[/youtube]
GPS trax: You can see where camp was, in the intersection of all these loops. And that's just the riding portion of the trip. No trax for the overlanding vans portion.
SMB navigates gumbo mud.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vio339cU-E0[/youtube]
More to come if I can find the time. Thanks.
) sums it all up: After a couple of us convoyed over one of the most beautiful mountain passes in North America (Hwy 20 through the North Cascades) to go enduro riding in the mountains, we were not certain where our other friends had already set up camp. After getting to the town of Wintrhop, we headed up the road along the Chewuch River knowing they were up there somewhere. We came to a fork in the road and there was Dan sitting in a camp chair patiently waiting for us next to his KTM 520, ready to guide us into Bellingham Dual Sport Riders Chewuch River Camp.
5 of us would be riding the mountain trails and forest service roads through the North Cascades from town to town, returning to base camp each night. Then, when all my riding friends would have to return home after three days, my buddy Brian (with his Sportsmoblie 4x4 E350 PSD) would meet me at camp to go overland exploring in the vans for the next two and a half days.
Lyrics: Dave Mathews
"I can't believe that we would lie in our graves wondering if we spent our living days well".
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83wuMzms7ec[/youtube]
GPS trax: You can see where camp was, in the intersection of all these loops. And that's just the riding portion of the trip. No trax for the overlanding vans portion.
SMB navigates gumbo mud.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vio339cU-E0[/youtube]
More to come if I can find the time. Thanks.
Great idea! I tend to fill bins when I go away for a holiday trip or to haul tools to help family out of town. I always strap then in! Been in enough accidents to know how everything flies forward! My 85 astro had just had 6 large containers of wet mulch put inside, with the 2 bench seats folded and pushed up to front seats when I hit a small car broadside at 40mph. My injuries were due to the weight of the mulch slamming the bench seats into the front seats. If, I were wearing a seatbelt, I would have been crushed between seat and steering wheel! In all my work vans and now my toy filled vans, I always build in something behind the driver's seat. 
