Real bikes get dirty...

[sTD]

and real riders do too

Drew was looking for a creative way to escape his lovely wife's baby shower, and baptize his new (to him) Multistrada.  So he invited my friend Tom and I down for a couple days' worth of roosting/camping around the Hoosier National Forest.  That's Tom's shiney red 05, with all our latest adventure farkles, and my old gray bagger with all the hacked-up prototype shite:



Tom and I rode down Friday evening, parked the bikes, then joined Drew at the Rock Bottom Brewery in Indy for a few microbrews and wait for it... Chicken Mac 'n' Cheese... oh yeah!  Suitably stuffed, we waddled back to Casa de Drew, crashed for the evening, then after java with the crazy baby shower babes, blasted south at the crack of 10am.  Took 70W to 39S through Martinsville (which was painfully clogged with fall gawkers... imagine that?), then a left into Morgan Monroe State Forest at the first dirt road.  Magnifico!  Of course, I was in charge of the route, so I there was a lot of this painful indecision until I had a chance to get into my usual 'feck it' mode...



From there we basically got lost in the fall colors, helped in no small part by one tasty dirt road after another... and the Multis do love hard pack.  The plan was to work easterly, avoiding anything that remotely resembled asphalt, traffic, town, people, pets, etc.  The canopy was simply awesome:



Nashville. Urgfff. Everything I hate, except gas and food. The late lunch break in Tourist Hell at 'The Ordinary' netted a decent pheasant sammich, but then we headed south into the Hoosier National Forest before the next funeral, err, bus procession.  Finding dirt isn't too terribly hard, but finding fun dirt means heading further south.  No matter when you're riding through this...




 


Drew's windscreen says it all....



Couldn't resist finding the dustiest spot in 40 square miles, and practicing our miserable camera skills, while Tom practiced his mucho better roosting skills...





In the middle of the HNF, we passed the same lookout tower the Missus and I climbed last year... so we decided the exercise could do us some good.  Especially Drew







See the Dirtee Happee Ducs?



Lucky Lizzard



We chilled for a bit at the top of the tower (so Drew could catch his breath), and the whole time, there are dozens of hornets flying around Tom's head... Didn't faze him at all... But of course we didn't tell him either   (Yet another crapass camera job... get used to it)



We'd been turned onto the Valley Branch Campground by a friend, so with dark coming on, we railed up 135N to... imagine this: Valley Branch Road.  But not before I narrowly missed getting a speed receipt by one of Indiana's finest, after zinging around a car at double the posted limit   Pulled into the campground, to find a wedding reception going on inside their sizable, um, barn?  There were probably over 100 people inside, but the bride, groom, and a few others were milling outside drinking beer... and offered us some... way cool!  We paid our site fee, rode back to the site, and in the process Tom managed to get dog poo on both his bike AND his bootie.







We pitched out tents, cooked pasta and salmon in the Jetboils, built a fire and enjoyed SoCo and cigars (Coronas) for a while until THE PARTY started.  We'd been warned that there was a huge fraternity party going on at the site at the end of the lane, which happened to be about 50 feet away.  Lots of college shenanigans going on, and more entertainment than any of the banal 'reality' shows on the tube.  We'd also been warned than quiet time was 1AM...... ya right!  But almost on cue, the din was silent... buncha lightweights...

Up again at the crack of 9, we rolled up camp, but not before the token peeping camera shot:



The plan (if you can call it that) was to head southwest... and... well, get dirty-er.  The scenery sucked.







Another bad attempt at 'perspective'



And bad taste



We did manage to find a road... or more correctly, a 'two-track', that was very steep and very loose... awesome.  A dirt bike kinda trail, only these ain't dirt bikes... ah well, no guts, no stories to bore the grandkids with, right?  Couldn't tell you the name of the 'road' but it went on for miles... just yummy.  Somewhere on the northeast edge of Monroe Reservoir.  Did run across some other guys on KLRs and KTMs, but they seemed to be saving their tires and fuel for something.  Not us, we're what you call 'wankers'.

All too early it was time to head for home, and Drew's magic windscreen summed up our trip: 'SUPER FUN'

[DucLeone]

looks like you guys had fun!!

[jensou]

awesome narration!  looks like such fun, but sorry to hear you guys missed out on the baby shower.  those games are so fun 

[nsu max]

The weather looked great, and so did the ride!