New World Datsuns...

I won't waste time updating the Reaper thread because there's really nothing to update. I visited my brother's shop when I was working in Portland a couple weeks ago and it hasn't been touched since it's arrival last November. I didn't even mention it. When I got back into town my dad asked me if I saw him, then he asked for a status update. I told him. Anyway, he rattled my brother's cage but it probably won't get any attention until later in the summer...maybe.

Well, that apparently didn't sit well with him. He bought that '37 in hopes that the 3 of us would cruise them together. My brother's is a driver and mine's nowhere close. So, the old man decided to sell. I got a text this morning that he was out of town for the weekend and if I wanted to drive it, I better go over and do it before Monday because he thinks he has it sold. I backed it our of the shop to snap these quick photos but didn't drive it anywhere.

Supervibe got an oil change and tire rotate. New tires on order for next time. Replaced radial bearings on the viscous coupler.




I found that both U-joints have a little play. Of course they're "non-servicable" and the driveline assembly is $1100. I think I've found a source so I'll try to replace them. Always something. Currently 320,000 on the clock. Running better than ever.

Replaced fork seals on white bike.





Then I built an adapter harness and installed my Trailtech dash. NOTHING about it was bolt-on.

6 hours of weed attack today. Then did some white TW maintenance. Gave it a 250 mile oil change. Oil was dark but the filter looked good. Also did a carb rebuild and rejet. Need to do a couple trail days yo see if it needs tweaking.



No pics because, who cares?

It’s absolutely beautiful up there. So y’all can just ride around wherever and no one cares? Down here you are literally trespassing anywhere you go. I have a few friends that have joined hunting clubs just to ride.

About 2/3 of Idaho land is .gov controlled. Some of it is restricted for wildlife or leasing reasons but most is public access 24/7/365. I live in a very rural area. There's thousands and thousands of acres and hundreds of miles of roads and trails out here. There are pockets of privately owned land but it's mostly just used for grazing, so as long as you leave the gates the way you found them, the landowners typically don't mind if you ride through. It's not uncommon to ride all day out here and never see another human. Yesterday the only person we saw was a rancher feeding his horses. We slowed down and waved at each other as we passed his house. Being respectful of no tresspassing signs and quiet around livestock goes a long way for goodwill. I use OnX Offroad for navigation. One feature it has shows boundary lines letting you know if you're on State. Federal, or private property. OnX Hunt gives contact info for private land, but Offroad doesn't for some reason.




The ride yesterday was 7 hours and 80 miles and we saw 1 rancher next to his house. Last week was 7.5 hours and 96 miles. Aside from the fly fishermen as we left the parking area below the dam, we saw nobody else out there. We try to ride during the week to avoid other people. From Friday to Sunday there's pretty heavy traffic going past my house hauling SXSs, bikes, and 4wheelers.

That would be nice but out here just about all land is owned by someone. We have a wildlife management area nearby that I used to ride, somewhere around 36000 acres but haven’t in a long time. If a game warden sees you they get shitty real quick.

Supervibe got a new set of Pirellis today. I could have probably limped the Ohtsus to the next oil change but the RR inner edge was getting pretty scalloped and I was getting tired of the drone at 20 and 60mph. Took some extra time to degrease, scuff, and repaint the wheels too. They were showing their...experience.




I replaced the "non-serviceable" Ujoints too. The front one was worse than I thought. I'll feel better being able to squirter a little grease in there going forward. Since I lost a little gear lube, I serviced the transfer case again too.





Brown dog hung out for a little while. She wasn't much help but she pretended to patrol for a few minutes.



And if anyone was curious, these obnoxious buttholes are still stalking me.


Last time I saw them all together I counted 14. But this week I saw that 2 of the females had chicks with them. At some point I don't think my neighbor will notice if I harvest a couple.

I guess its probably safe to discuss now, as i'm finally gettting over the trauma. I was down watering my fruit trees last week and got attacked by a mountain lion.




It silently crept out of the tall grass behind my shop and immediately went for my femoral artery. Clearly, an apex predator. It seemingly came out of nowhere but was somehow everywhere all at once. I somehow managed to subdue it. Brown dog and I tried for almost an hour to domesticate it, but it was hopeless. We had no choice but to relocate it to a friend's wildlife refuge (farm). God have mercy on the rodent population of Canyon County.

Next winter's project has been trickling in over the last few days. Another 225/6-spd swap slated for the blue TW.

I did my (now) annual BDR style ride last week. Contenders were Rider 1, my brother, on his KDX400. Rider 1.5 (not Rider 2 because he followed so close) was Marc on a KLR650. Rider 3 was Tom, also on a KLR. Rider 4 was Jerod on his $95 '79 XL500s restomod. I rode sweep position most of the week on the mongrel TW.

The loop was a combination of OBDR route 5 as well as some highway to connect to other roads and trails. Rally point was Jerod's house in Pendleton. We met up Saturday night, ate steak and shrimp, then slept in his back yard.





We got up, secured our gear, and grabbed breakfast on our way out of town. Jerod had mapped out a route to Ukiah. We were maybe 3 hours in when Rider 1.5 got his 1st flat. We all pitched in and got it changed.



Once we were back on the trail we hit our first major obstacle. There was a lot of this to follow.



This leg was 186 miles ending at Phillips Reservoir just SE of Sumpter. About an hour from camp Jerod discovered that his sleeping bag had fallen off. We rolled into Sumpter kind of late and nothing was open. The guy at the gas station gave him an old grandma quilt that smelled like an ash tray. Beats freezing to death, I guess.









After breakfast we went back into town so Jerod could buy an actual sleeping bag. Unfortunately that meant waiting until the general store opened at 9. This was supposed to be our longest trail day. The plan (haha) was to camp next to a lake or river every night. Sometimes plans change. The biggest challenge for day 2 was getting to Seneca before the gas station closes at 7. Once we finally hit the trail we were making pretty good progress. There are 2 places where you cross the Malheur River.
https://youtube.com/shorts/56Gl0ada9WM?feature=share

As we were climbing up the canyon after the second crossing, Marc got his 2nd flat. Again, all hands on deck to change it out. For the sake of time, he borrowed Tom's spare tube.

We were behind schedule but hoping we could still make the gas stop in Seneca. Riding hard to make up time, we were just turning around from a wrong turn when Jerod's bike got stuck in 1st gear. At the same time, my brother looked down and saw that his front tire was flat. Simultaneous repair time.


Jerod leaned his against a dirt pile to tear the side cover off while I helped my brother with the flat repair. Marc and Tom eventually lost interest an started taking selfies for their Tinder (probably actually Grinder) profiles.



Jerod was able to free up the shifter and we were headed west once again. Made it to Seneca at 7:20 and it was a ghost town. We filled our water bottles and backtracked a couple miles, camping in the woods.

The next morning we got an early start because we were hoping to make up the 35 miles we were short and get back on schedule. Boy, was that optimistic. We got to the gas station a little after 7am and Jerod's bike got stuck in 1st again. The rest of us fueled up and refilled water while he fixed it again. This time he wrapped some electrical tape in there to act as a thrust washer. I didn't get any photos because my phone died for about 24hrs.

Random tower.


We skirted Yellowjacket Reservoir where we were planning to spend the previous night. Nice, quiet little place and fish were jumping. Shortly after, Marc crashed and sprained his ankle. This was the same ankle he screwed up right before last year's ride and couldn't go. We got him and his bike upright and going again. What followed over the next few hours was kind of a haze. We were riding due south on trails, then asphalt to connect to the next trail, when we encountered another padlocked gate. We decided to get back on the asphalt and try to find a bypass when Marc got another flat. We fixed it and he got maybe 2 miles before getting another, then another. It was well over 90 degrees and there was no shade. We were headed to Riley for fuel when he pulled into a rest area with...another flat. This time we completely dismounted the tire to check everything. He had managed to separate the chords internally and it was causing pinch flats. There was also slit in the tread in another spot. In short, his tire was junk. We used patches on the inside of the tire to cover the separations, then used my 18" tube in his 17" tire.



We continued on highway 20 another 10 miles to Riley and fueled up. Marc didn't really want to quit but had no choice. His ankle was hurt, tire was junk, and his rear subframe was only held on by 1 bolt. Tom was pretty worn out too and bummed that he hadn't been able to fish. Since Tom lives in Bend and it was only 100 miles away, team KLR headed west. The remaining 3 jumped back on the trail. My thermometer was showing 103. The next 20 miles was a mix of sand, heavy ruts, sharp rocks, and a "road" that is a seasonal riverbed. KLRs would have had a really rough time.



We stayed at someone's Elk camp that night and slept hard. Tuesday had been a long, hot day.

Wednesday morning we hit the trail early and conditions were near perfect. Some of the mapped route hadn't been roads in quite a while so we got to do some trail blazing. This area is SW of Delintment Lake.


We were working our way toward Mitchell when we kept running into more padlocked gates leading into BLM land. If you're an Oregon rancher and you do this, GFYS. That's not how BLM land works.



We cloverleafed all the way around but couldn't find an open gate. Eventually we got to Paulina. Their gas pump was out of order but a local from across the road came over and got it working for us.



Paulina to Mitchell was mostly gravel roads with some rough trails connecting them. There was some asphalt too. We got caught up in a grasshopper migration that was pretty gross.





We ate at Tiger Town Brewing in Mitchell. It's basically a food truck next to a little bar. Meh.
Our intention was to ride rough roads and trails from Mitchell to Spray. Once again, more locked gates. It ended up being many more miles of asphalt but at least it was scenic and twisty. Just north of Spray we had to pump up my brother's front tire. I guess it has a slow leak. I was digging my pump out of my bag when I noticed my rear rack was cracked. Oh well, press on.
We enjoyed more twisty asphalt with some gravel and dirt mixed in. The target was Pendland lake.

Maybe 25 miles from Pendland Jerod tossed his chain. He had intended to replace it and the front sprocket before the trip but ran out of time so he just put them in his bag.




By the time we rolled into Pendland Lake we were all pretty beat. Wednesday clocked 211 miles.








We had mapped a route that would have paralleled 395 up to Pilot Rock. It's Gurdane Rd on the map but was gated at the south end with No Trespassing signs. Ignore. We went about 1/2 mile and were about to come out of the trees when we realized they were driving cattle directly ahead of us. We doubled back and took 395 back to Jerod's house.


Unofficial tally was 731 miles. TW soldiered through without much complaint. No flats, no crashes. I'm still not dead yet.

My little fruit trees are trying. The birds got the cherries but there were only about 6 or 7 between the 2 Bings anyway. No big loss. My established Aian pear is pretty covered and my yearling has about a dozen.


I have a single plum on 1 of the 2 trees.



My new Honeycrisps are fruitless but my Gala has a few.


The saddest of the bunch is a Nectarine tree that I thought was dead. It has new growth so maybe I'll prune it this winter and give it one more chance.



I stumped this Clymatis to the ground this spring and thought I might have killed it. Nope.



My grapes are still in pots but doing pretty well. I nipped off any clusters that tried to form. It's recommended to do that until the third or fourth year to prioritize root growth. I guess I missed a couple so I'm going to let them go and see if I get anything edible.

Ride looks like a lot of fun. I don’t have 4 friends that like the same things.


I think it’s been a weird year for growing. Out of all the things we have planted, (not much mind you; a small, 2-row garden and some potted stuff) we have only gotten 1 & 1/2 cucumbers, 2 tomatoes, and about 8 jalapeño and habanero peppers. No squash and few blueberries.
The fig tree that didn’t do much last year has enough figs to keep Nabisco in business for a month right now.

Yeah, weather is weird all over this year. Gardens seem to reflect that. My garden went in late. I didn't post it because I haven't gotten anything out of it yet.

I did not get near the strawberries this year that I would normally get, it was a cold start, but I have been eating Raspberries for a month now, my cherry bush had 100s of cherries, but they are not really that good for eating, I think they are better for pies, I have not had enough blueberries to pick pints of them, but I have eaten them every day since the 4th of July and expect to keep eating them for another month as a lot of the berries are still forming, I have early and late types, and I have a lot of plants.
I have picked 2 pickle type size cucumbers, and I have eaten 2 of a special trellis type that are really tasty, the lemon and straight 8s have not produced yet, the Watermelon plant has not even started growing yet, I think it was too cold and stressed it.
Last year I planted corn and it took a couple weeks before I started seeing any starts, this year what corn I planted was up in 4 days, but I saved and used one corn cobs for seed from last year and planted them instead of buying corn seeds as this corn was not a hybrid type, it was an heirloom type that produces viable seeds.
I have a lot of lettuce plants at different plant times, I should be good for sandwiches and hamburgers for a couple months at least.
My tomatoes are also late, but it should be a bumper crop when they start ripening, I have eaten maybe 4 Sungold cherry tomatoes, I also have 3 volunteer tomato plants in that greenhouse I made, they look really heathy for where they are, I do not know what type of tomatoes they are yet.

We were on track for early planting because of a mild spring. Then we got a late frost. Everyone who planted early lost everything. I had procrastinated and had everything started in pots. Went out of town for a few days and nobody watered them. Then a windstorm came through and scattered everything. I had to start over. I built a little greenhouse in my basement window and my starts did great. I planted them a couple weeks ago.




I was working out of town for the last few days and found that the oscillating sprinkler I have set on a timer got stuck in one position. Basically watered one end of the garden while the rest cooked in the 103* sun. I watered everything really good last night and I'll fix the irrigation system thus morning but it's likely too late for 3/4 of my plants. Sucky.