Looking for advice on a dual sport ride

[Devaclis]

Sooo, after a few days of research I discovered that Yellowstone does not allow ANY off road riding. The Pie and I are looking to get a couple of dual sports this spring and want to do a week long trip that includes some on road and off road riding, camping, fishing, and seeing some GREAT scenery.

Anyone been on a trip that they would like to share? Routes, length, gear, that kind of stuff? We do not want to have to ride 400+ miles per day to do this trip either. We would like to have no set times and be able to stop often.

Post up yer stuff

[fook]

my 3 cents worth

last time i did something like that it was 2002 and I went to southern Utah... been a long time for me but theres no shortage of things to see, places to go and roads both paved and upaved that make you wish it'd never end.

i'm sure others who do those kinds of rides more often could go into more detail but i'd look into moki dugway, lake powell ferry, burr trail, grand staircase escelante<sp> and dixie nat'l forest.. there are a ton of natural wonders to see around that area and no 400mi days required.

I spent a week in and around there.. we went in mid may(much later and it gets REALLY hot) and it was pretty nice weather wise.. in the 90s during the day but a couple nights camping north of Zion on hwy 89 it got really cold at night, i had mesh riding gear, camelback, a nice sleeping bag and 1man tent. only miserable night was when we went down to the north rim at the end of the week and camped one night.. musta been 90 degrees at 11pm when we got to our campsite near the vermillion cliffs.

[rforsythe]

How far do you want to go? I have a trip plotted out (hopefully doing it next year sometime) that will cover ~5,000 miles, but it could be truncated for your purposes. Tons of great stuff, NO interstate highways, all back-road two-lane kind of stuff for the most part. I'm building up my dual sport (VStrom) now for that trip, as it happens. If you want I can send you the google map links.

I'd also recommend playing on Google Maps; pick towns you want to travel to on your trip, and then just drag the road line onto something more interesting. That's what I did and managed to route the entire NW quadrant of the country with no big highways and more scenery than I can probably absorb. The trip atm is all asphalt, though I intend on tapping local knowledge for the fun dirt parts.

And on that topic, check out advrider.com too. If you want to see cool places to go on a DS, that is the defacto site to find out about it on.

[Devaclis]

Yeah, been on the ADVRider regional forums for a while now. We are going to do some weekend over nighters to make sure the Pie is up to this kind of thing. Make sure she likes it.

5k miles is def more than we want to travel in a week on this trip. I think we will stay all in CO and just see some cool stuff. We DO have a lot of great sites here.

[rforsythe]

5k isn't doable in a week if you intend to enjoy it anyway. You might see where you can go around the Tetons (Jackson WY) and maybe even into Idaho a bit on Hwy 26 there...
http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=4...351074&t=h&z=9

It'll probably be less touristy than Yellowstone, and I have no doubt you can find some amazing places to go in that area. Definitely a season-dependent area though. For my trip I was going up through Yosemite during the week to avoid the crowds, and on the return passing through Tetons from the Idaho side (after hitting MT, Calgary, Nrn ID, OR, WA, and CA, then back through OR and Srn ID).

Also read the ride reports on ADV. They have a special forum for those, and people are usually pretty descriptive on where they go and how cool it was.

You might also look at nearby parts of the Trans-America Trail (southern CO and UT in particular), it's all dual sport and reportedly a pretty fun time. Plus then you can get cred being like "Yo I rode the TAT, bitches!".

[Devaclis]

ooh, I can get a TAT tat!!!! Rat a tat tatt!!!

[Devaclis]

Sorry, the prospect of getting a dual sport and riding off-road with the Pie is making me a bit giddy.

[BigE]

CO, UT and South Dakota...take your pick

[Devaclis]

Yeah, I know that CO has YEARS worth of great stuff so we have decided to stay here for a bit

I would LOVE, more than just about anything, to take her up into the Adirondacks where I grew up. I know that region like the top of her head. She would have soooooo much fun up there.

[FZRguy]

Here’s a two day ride that is 400 miles and about 50/50 pavement/dirt that would be a good shakedown for your week long trip. Head west on 67 from Sedalia to Deckers. Pick up dirt road at Westcreek to Florissant, Hwy 24 west to Hartsel for lunch. Weston Pass over to Leadville for the overnight. Next day head back east over Mosquito Pass to Alma, then north over Hoosier Pass to Breckenridge, and south over Boreas Pass to Como. Same dirt road will take you all the way south to 24 and east to Florissant for lunch. Take the same dirt road back to Westcreek and 67 to Deckers, Sedalia, home. Probably be June before all this is clear. Maybe we can get a group together to do it over a weekend.

[dallas]

What if you did a little tour of all the old mining/ghost towns in the mountains. I would love to do something like that. Stop at take a look around for a bit and then move on. Bring a tent or stay at the local mom & pop hotels.

[Nick_Ninja]

Hummmmmmmmmmmmm............................

Might go that route too.

[Devaclis]

Hummmmmmmmmmmmm............................

Might go that route too.

Dooo eeeeeeeet!!!!

[Sortarican]

Here’s a two day ride that is 400 miles and about 50/50 pavement/dirt that would be a good shakedown for your week long trip... .

John's route is a great break in for the Pie.
The whole Summit/Park/Lake/Chaffee counties have great on and off road routes.
And of course you can use the cabin as a base of operations.

You can easily extend it too.
Hopping back and forth over the divide a couple dozen times and head through Eagle county
up into the White River National forest back down through Glenwood, up to Aspen,
over to Gunnisson and back for a week long outting.

What if you did a little tour of all the old mining/ghost towns in the mountains....

You have a place up in Park country, right?
You should get Bashy-Boy and the SoCo dirt/dual crew together and do some link up rides, camping, shenanigans.

Hummmmmmmmmmmmm............................
Might go that route too.

I was expecting you try and talk them into doing your Baja run.

[dallas]

Yes, the cabin is a pretty good kick off point to start something like this. I would love to go explore the Gunnison area. There is supposed to be alot of old mining towns and such scattered through the nearby mountains.

[Sortarican]

.. I would love to go explore the Gunnison area. There is supposed to be alot of old mining towns and such scattered through the nearby mountains.

I hunted north/east of Gunnison for a couple years way back when.
There's enough old jeep and mining trails to spend a week riding and not even scratch the surface.