Gray Man, Inc.

[Taterhead]

I’ve only got tomatoes and a few zucchini so far. Squash is rotting. I think it’s because of all the rain and moisture we’ve had. Fig tree and blueberry bush got zapped by a 3 day freeze with nothing happening yet.

The tiny house is looking great. Trust me I know how much work is involved in that. Especially the finishing out type stuff.

As always, looks like a good ride. Beautiful up there.

[DRIVEN]

I've got the trim work 98% done. The water heater and shower head are installed. It's up to my daughter to finish painting before I can install the vanity and toilet. I'm hoping to get the trenching handled in the next week or two so I can hook it up to power, water, and septic. Also connecting my shop at the same time for the eventual bathroom completion there.











I've previously hotwired the electrical system with an extension chord and the water with a garden hose so I'm not anticipating any issues.

[DRIVEN]

Here's a little update on my dad's '37 pickup project, even though I haven't done any of the work. He's got the brakes all done. He had the flathead and transmission out and cleaned up the framerails and firewall. Rebuilt the steering box with new gears and bearings too.


He popped the shift tower off the transmission and it looks beautiful inside. Remember, this was parked 43 years ago.


He's had really good results cleaning up the chrome dash and window frames. These pieces were originally painted but the previous owner had them plated. They were looking pretty rough when we first saw it.




He picked up a really nice 60k mile 307 from a '68 C10 that's slated for a buhjllian horsepower quad-turbo LS swap. He saw it cold start and said it had no smoke and ran perfect. He's just going to ditch the A.I.R., replace the timing set, reseal it, and toss on some 283 C H E V R O L E T script valve covers before a quick repaint. Everything else stays stock including the 2GC and the rad scalloped air cleaner.,


He's also repainted the inner door frames and the dash, as well as replaced the door glass.



Remember back when he bought this and said he'd save it for next winter?

[DRIVEN]

I dragged home my next project yesterday. 2011 Outback Limited (leather, Harman Kardon, etc) with low oil pressure. It runs and drives but clatters. Previous owner was a middle-aged teacher so it's got near perfect interior. Exterior looks pretty good too but it could use a good detail. I'll need to do some exploratory surgery to see if this engine can be saved. Even if I need to replace the engine, I couldn't pass it up for $1000.

[DRIVEN]

Dinky house project is winding down. Spent the last week running utilities to it and the bathroom in my shop. I don't enjoy this type of work.

[wayno]

Digging is tough around here, it has to be harder in your area with all the rock in the soil/dry rock-hard dirt, of course I could never use a machine as it could cut thru utilities.

[DRIVEN]

Funny you should say that. I snagged my shop power, just enough to make a mess and add extra work. Luckily the only wire that was actually damaged was the neutral. One of the power legs was nicked and severed exactly 1 aluminum strand. The insulation on the ground wire was nicked. I was able to unkink everything and wrap all the wires before doing a waterproof conduit repair.

I was there when that trench and conduit were buried by the builder. I would have sworn it was 3-4 feet deep...but it was about 12". Good thing I had the breaker off. My dad was helping me and wanted to hand dig that section. I was in a hurry and used the trencher. I should have listened.

[wayno]

[DRIVEN]

It's funny now but I threw an absolute sailer tantrum when it happened. When I hit it I was imaginig having to replace the entire run of wire. I think it cost about $1100-1200 the first time. I wasn't looking forward to paying that again. Luckily it only cost maybe $20 in materials to fix.

[wayno]

I expect you will never forget how deep it is again, 12" is not that deep.

You need to remember where all your underground utilities are.

Is it common to use Aluminum for power wire, I thought Copper was the best.

[DRIVEN]

Copper is preferred but very expensive. Aluminum is very common for service line from the pole to meter and meter to breaker panel.

I made a master map with length and depth measurements. Even if I don't need it, a future owner of the property would certainly appreciate it. Remember 3 weeks ago when I couldn't locate the septic tank? Would have been nice of the previous owner to have left me a map. He died 6 months after I bought the place so I couldn't ask him.


I went over to my dad's yesterday and reasealed the 307 that's going in his pickup. He tore it down to longblock and had the tins hot tanked. It's all together now so he just needs to paint it, then it's going back in the frame.

[DRIVEN]

[DRIVEN]

Just got back from riding the IDBDR. We had conflicting odometer readings but it was right around 1600 miles total over parts of 8 days.

Day 1 everyone met at my house and we rode 2-lane road to Wild Horse Reservoir. We were too excited to leave and didn't get a group shot at the beginning so this is the first shot.


Forecast high was 107 for the day and we eventually saw that. Mormon crickets were on the move and thick too. At Wild Horse we hit gravel and were headed to Jarbidge. There was a well documented Jeep trail called Purple Pancakes Fly at Midnight and it connects forest service road to the west side of town. It was mostly uneventful...at first. I found Christine buried in the river bank.



We were a little over half way in when we hit a pretty rutted hillclimb section. I was on my blue TW and clawed my way past the rough stuff and waited about an eighth mile up. There was no shade. Marc followed me up a few minutes later on his DRZ but said Jerod was having trouble with his old XL500 boiling fuel. We waited about 30 minutes and watched from a distance as Jerod and my brother struggle to get the XL going. It would stall, wheelie, or dig a hole. Finally my brother rode up and told us that Jerod was exhausted and resting. The hill was steep and his gear was heavy and too far back, making it hard to keep the front wheel planted. I tossed off all my gear and rode to the bottom, planning to haul his up. We finally got me loaded and situated and made another run. He was about 1/2 way up when his clutch gave up -- completely. I passed him and went to the top to tell the others, then back to the bottom and unload. Then a 3rd trip back up to get all my gear and bring it down.

We weren't quite sure what we'd do in the end but we knew we'd need to get back to the FS road. We used my Tusk tow strap and my brother towed Jerod out behind his KLX (DRZ). We had to stop every couple miles to let the DRZs cool down. They didn't like going slow in the 100+ heat. It took almost 2 hours just to backtrack 10 miles.

It was probably around 8 when we got back on the gravel and I'd formulated a Plan B. We used Marc's Zolio to text my dad about meeting us in Glenn's Ferry the next day. My brother kept towing the XL all the way to the Jarbidge Confluence well after dark, where we camped next to the river. We were all beat from the heat and wolfed some Mountain House before crashing around 11.



The next morning the 3 of us ran down to Jarbidge to top off fuel. It was Monday morning and nothing was open.



While we were getting fuel, Jerod stayed at camp and braided a longer row rope from paracord. Once again, my brother was tow driver. Aside from just a few miles of asphalt, Jerod ate gravel for a total of 147 miles from the hillclimb to Glenn's Ferry.


I had left Supervibe hooked to my trailer just in case we needed to be rescued. My dad saved the trip by hauling my white TW to the trail and we sent him home with Jerod's disgraced XL. After a fuel and lunch break, we headed north, stopping to resupply in Pine, and on to Trinity Lakes campground for the night. It was almost completely full and we got the site at the very end.

[DRIVEN]

On day 3 we all got up around 6, had breakfast, and broke camp. We rode up the goat trail to Trinity lookout (9500'), which was technically a side spur to the route but not to be missed.







The trail was treating us really well and we were making good time. We were on Middle Fork Rd approaching Barber Flat when we came up on a Sheriff's truck partially blocking the road. There were two mountain bikers standing there and an SUV upside down in the river. Sadly, the two occupants didn't make it. One of the bikers had tried to get them out but it was too late.

About halfway up Barber Flat my brother noticed that his dry bag had fallen off. It had his sleeping bag, toiletries, hoodie, and other misc items in it. Jerod and I were both following him and never saw it so now we were on the hunt for a replacement sleeping bag before nightfall. We were hoping to score one in Lowman but kept running into big orange signs telling us that highway 21 was closed. Unfortunately they didn't say where. We should have just ignored them since we later learned that the closure was in Garden Valley and nowhere near our route. We wasted a lot of time trying to find workarounds before just charging through. We eventually got to Sourdough Lodge for fuel and lunch. It was much better food and service than when I was there last year. They didn't have a sleeping bag though. Last ditch was the Mercantile where we got their only one.

We hit gravel again and set our sights on Deadwood Reservoir. The early evening swim was welcome.



The morning of day 4 we stopped in Yellowpine. The general store had no fuel but the Corner Bar did. It was $10/gal.



What followed was a lot of steep, dusty trail to Warren...for more $10 gas. We stopped in the Baum Shelter for a late lunch, and it was much better than anticipated.





I was trailboss after we left Warren. We encountered a couple very rude (not just clueless or inconsiderate) locals near Burgdorf. One actually tried to run us off the road. A little ways further down the road I surprised a Sherrif on a blind corner. He was going much, much faster than me. I went around before he knew how to feel about it. Then he got mad and screamed at the other guys as they caught up. Oops.

Quick stop at the famous green bus.



We made a wrong turn and found this old Chevy in the woods. Too bad we were off course because it was a really fun single track.



There is a bunch of elevation change in this portion. French Creek Grade is famous for a reason.




Elk City was our goal for the night and we just made it.

[DRIVEN]

We stayed at Riders Rest in Elk City. The proprietor has created a 4 space campground behind his cabin. Each space has water, electricity, a covered picnic table, and fire pit. There are also 2 bathrooms and 2 showers available and he even provides towels and bodywash. It's a great mid-trip stop.



When we got up on day 5 we hit the Magruder Corridor. It was very scenic but a lot of it is burned and there's quite a bit of SXS traffic along with lots of other bikes. We came out in Darby, MT and fueled up before riding 60 hot miles of asphalt to Lolo where we ate Subway. The air conditioning was pretty nice. We picked up more water and evening beverages then took the offroad option that bypasses many miles of highway 12. We were hoping to camp at White Sands campground but it was full. We ended up boondocking on an abandoned roadbed.



Day 6 took us to Lochsa Lodge for breakfast.


They have a single gas pump there and we got behind a group of 6 BDR riders. They were surprised and impressed that we were doing it on TWs. We leapfrogged that group all the way over the Lolo Motorway. Again, lots of other traffic.





We thought it might be cool to camp at the Blue Heaven cabin so that's where we headed. When we got there we found 4 old dudes sitting in front just cracking their first PBRs. They were friendly enough to let us look around and we chatted for a few minutes. 2 were on big KTMs and the other two were on XR650s. We nicknamed them Wilford Brimley and the Fire Marshal.



Since the cabin idea was a bust, we rode another 5 miles or so and camped on a side spur. The road leading to and away from the cabin is very rocky and rough.



About midnight I woke up to the sound of dirt bikes riding by, then later some distant gun shots. At around 2am, different motorcycles. When we got up we all compared stories to see if we dreamed it. Nope.

For the first few days of the ride we'd been covering a lot of miles. As we got closer to the end we realized that we were going to finish a day early. Only problem with that is our ride home wouldn't be able to meet us. We figured we'd just slow way down and do about 150 miles per day instead of 250.

The decision was made to ride to Avery for breakfast. On our way there we saw the 4 bikes belonging to the old dudes at a campsite next to a creek. We hit Avery and enjoyed the specialty called the Dirty Joe.



Just as we were digging in, Wilford Brimley and the Fire Marshall rolled up. Apparently the owner of the cabin and his buddies in 5 pickups showed up and evicted them. Wouldn't even let them camp outside. They all left in the dark and got separated. The gunshots were to try to locate eachother. Blue Heaven cabin owner is a dick.

[DRIVEN]

Avery is probably most noteable for its rail museum. It was pretty interesting.






As you leave Avery and head to Wallace there are 2 route options. One follows the river and the other follows the old rail line through several tunnels and over some trestles. We'd already seen lots of rivers.





Wallace has an interesting history. We stopped for gas and when we tried to leave town, found a pride festival blocking the route on 6th street. I took no photos.


Wallace to Clark Fork had a lot of active logging.



Random airstrip in the middle of absolute nowhere. Not sure what it services but it looked well maintained.



We camped at Pend Oreille for the night.

[DRIVEN]

On the morning of day 7 we backtracked a few miles to Clark Fork to resupply. Ate breakfast at Cabinet Mountain Bar and Grill. Most of the staff and patrons looked like they were still there from the night before. Food wasn't very good and neither was the service.

There's a loop above Clark Fork that shows Char Falls and Lunch Peak as small side spurs. I would have skipped them but I'm glad the other guys wanted to stop. Char Falls is beautiful and you'd never imagine it would be there.






Lunch Peak had un unoccupied 2 story lookout. Great view up there. Probably why they made it a lookout, I suspect.



The route drops you back on the highway next to Pend Oreille for a few more miles of asphalt before going north again.



There's a choose your own adventure to Roman Nose and we took the one marked expert. It was rough but not a big deal. Jerod spotted a small lake on the map about 12 miles from the border. It had OHV trails marked going in and out so that's what we took. Brush Lake was alright but it's half covered in lily pads. We took the group space and we were surprised there were so many other campers up there.





We had coordinated a meeting time with my dad for 8am at the border crossing. DRZ rider managed to fit in one more crash on the way out of camp. It was easy gravel road to Porthill.






My dad trailered his Roadking to the endpoint. We helped him unload and put our bikes on the trailer. We just motored down 95 all the way home.

[Taterhead]

Dammit man that looks like a blast. I always envy the trips that you take with your buddies. That is a whole lotta miles to be sitting on a bike.

[DRIVEN]

Thanks for reading the novel, Tater. This was the 4th year for a trip like this and it's the last with this crew. I was butting heads with one of the guys all week and it finally popped off at my house the night we got back. We go back to grade school but I've distanced myself for the last few years. This divorce has been in the works for a long time. I still plan to do a ride like this every summer but the roster will just look a little different.

[Taterhead]

Yeah I’ve started 2 years ago doing a road trip with my son so I know that takes a lot of planning. Ours are usually around 1000 miles total, not on bikes mind you. I don’t know when we’ll fit one in this year.

It happens with buddies sometimes. I’ve experienced that too. Just get fed up with the bullshit and once you’ve had enough that’s it.