Owning the road

Have you ever had that selfish feeling you get when you're 50 friggin' miles from nothing on some left turn. It's a wonderful feeling. You look down at the track yer on and the only tire prints you see are those behind your rig.
How far should you go. How long should you stay? That my friend is your decision.
I just want to command and control that road I'm on. One thang fer sure. My life will be enriched with every pit and shore, dune or arroyo I cross. I envy the likes of Neil Johns, squarecircle et all. Yah, I'll be out there owning my own road as soon as I can.

I need a fix bigtime!.

Osprey: I agree with everything you are saying, but I hope that your days of driving vehicles on animal tracks are over.
I do a lot of dual sport motorcycling here in Northern California and only two things really P me off. Clear cut logging and the scars left by people who won't be satisfied to just use the tens of thousands of miles of dirt roads that are open to them.

On our last two rides we got a chance to stop and watch a pretty little doe and her two spotted fawns, we crossed the tracks in the dust of two bears, one of them a cub with feet the size of a coyote, a covey of quail with chicks the size of your thumb, and an Osprey with a pan sized trout in it's bomb rack. We passed zero other vehicles on the dirt roads.

Its different than Baja, but almost as good! Here's the highest elevation from yesterday. Sheep Rock in the foreground and Mt. Shasta (very bare this year). Castle Spire is just barely visible on the horizon, and Black Butte is in the smoke from the Happy Camp fire at center right.

I can't wait to get back to Baja now that I have a dirt bike again.

If you really want the experience of getting back in the boonies, you've got to park your 4x4, quad etc., put on your hiking boots, saddle up your nag and get a map.

New track, old track, no track?

I would agree in principal that blatant trailblazing can be detrimental in varying degrees upon varied terrain. As an example, I don't see the harm done to tidal beaches from vehicles driving along them. I'm not talking about the bother of hordes of quads. Just the terrain.
By contrast, driving off unestablished roads or tracks can do bad things. Many of these old roads or tracks lead to ranchos or beaches or ?? and are seldom used anymore. Occasionally the military Humvees will follow your tracks or just take these routes as part of the drug patrol. I've been shocked to see them in many places out in nowheresville.
I prefer to think that nomads have enough common sense when it comes to oof-roading er, off-roading.

Besides how else can some remote beautiful place get exploited. Just post the greatness along with the GPS and highlighted maps. You'll soon have a Pemex at the fork where everyone turns off.

Now, go find your own desolate track and let me be!

I prefer hiking boots and a bicycle, where possible; in Baja or in Northern California. Also, if I can get away from the terrain scars and the noisemakers, I'm happy!
(My avatar self destructed. I'll have to work on that.)
Here is a view from my deck:

Nothing wrong with Shark's quest for solitude on trackless roads.

[Edited on 7-31-2007 by toneart]

Quote:

Originally posted by Cypress If you really want the experience of getting back in the boonies, you've got to park your 4x4, quad etc., put on your hiking boots, saddle up your nag and get a map.

I love the spirit of this thread.
My brother and I made a quick trip this past weekend to discover new areas. The place where we camped was ruled by 4x4's, quads and dune buggies leaving scars all over the place. We woke up early, drove my truck down an established dirt road for a few miles till it narrowed to a path, parked the truck, put on our hiking boots and wandered a few more miles in a direction that lead us to an area that no machine has ever been. We hiked over boulders and through canyons that few, if any people have ever been while the off-roaders tore up circles miles away.

Right on Cypress - Park the cage and hike.

It was a great weekend, except for the 3 hour wait at Otay.

I was up at the observatory a few weeks ago, midweek. The national park is wonderful. We were the only tourists there from what I could tell. The road is paved except for the last 10 kilometers or so. Cars and large RVs would have a tough time on the last stretch. The Ford Condominium did fine.

There was no wind, it was completely silent except for an occasional bird. I enjoyed listening to a woodpecker do his thing.

You could smell the pine.

Smiley on point.

aspen

Ford Condominium at campsite

One other "adventure" at the park. Osama the mutt named so because he terrorizes Smiley, got off his leash at the entrance to the observatory (about 9000 feet elevation or so) and being the dumb dog he his took off. So this fat oldhippie had to run after the puto (he likes to hump Smiley, also a male). I caught up to him in a full sweat. Guess I'll skip the cardiac stress test this year.

I have a Callen Camper on my 2001 Toyota Tundra-great campers

right on sharks!

is that such a bad thing? no gps or detailed maps allowed!!!

"the squeeze" - dry river crossing, this time!