We’ve been scrambling to put the Tipi Tour together and we have managed to bring the cost down at the same time increasing what is included in the package.
We will provide lodging in the tipi Friday, August 19 through Thursday, August 25. Dinners and breakfasts are provided.
We will move camp three times to keep us close to the best riding available. Friday, Saturday and Sunday we will be at Sakura Ridge, just West of Hood River.
Monday and Tuesday we will camp at the East end of the Barlow Road near Wamic and Wednesday and Thursday we move to the West side of Mt.Hood near ZigZag.
All campsites have bathrooms, showers and laundry facilities.
Our new reduced prices are $1500 for the tour
Bring a passenger for just $600
Sidecars are not included in the price, but we do have a few sidecars available to rent.
We will offer an additional $100 rebate if you bring your own sidecar rig to ride.
If you have joined us for a previous Adventure Sidecar Tour or Adventure Sidecar S/TEP class we will give you a $200 rebate.
rebates will be mailed after the tour is completed
Call Hood River Community Education (541)386-2055 to sign up for the Tipi Tour
Adventure Sidecar Tipi Tour August 19-26,2011
Adventure Sidecar Tipi Tour
August 19~26, 2011
Price Reduced to $1500 !
.Passenger Price Reduced to $600!
Don’t want to drive a sidecar but want to come along for the ride and campout? We have room for one or two passengers with our guides. $800 for the week, camping, meals and a ride in the sidecar included. Contact us by e-mail info@adventuresidecar.com for details
Vernon
Tipi's are remarkable dwellings. I lived in one when I was young and doing the hippie thing. They can be surprisingly warm and snug in the winter with just a small fire going. They are less than ideal in wet weather, but set up correctly, again with a small fire going, they are dry and snug towards the edges and back.
The rain falls through the smoke hole which is front and center. The fire deals with that, but once the fire is out it gets cold and wet there. A good bed roll and a tipi liner are essential for comfortable off season camping. The liner is sort of an internal rain fly which also adds insulation and improves draft so the fire burns cleaner.
In the summer no liner is needed and you can roll up the front of the cover and the tipi is an airy shaded place and quite comfortable
In nice weather an outdoor fire/cooking area is the norm.
In inclement weather it is quite possible to cook inside. We always kept a teapot going on the tipi fire.
The key to a nice tipi is the fire and the key to the fire is to keep it small and burning clean.
The tipi is set up back to the wind and the smoke flaps are adjusted to cope with wind changes and keep the fire drawing They can be shut up almost entirely if it is raining or snowing hard. The best tipi fires are made with small branches or split sticks of very dry hard wood. I was burning maple, cherry and apple last winter-this also made good coals for the dutch ovens! When we lived in the tipi years ago we used mostly oak and maple. The maple was awful if it got damp-smoking and steaming and giving off an odd sweet smell. It works great dried.
Smaller tipi's are intolerant of smokey fires. The smoke comes right down to the floor and you have to lie flat on your back to breathe. Tipis larger than about 12'(measured from the door to the back of the lodge) are more forgiving. if the wind changes or the fire starts smoking you can see a cloud form above your head, but you are comfortable in clean air just beneath it. Stoking the fire or moving the smokeflaps will move the smoke out of the tipi in short order.
For information about tipi's most people start with The Indian Tipi
by Reginald and Gladys Laubin. I actually prefer a newer book, Tipis/Tepees/Teepees by Linda Holley. For years the Laubin's book was the only readily available resource, but it seems some of the more recent research has been more carefully and accurately done. Of course I am just an old Hippie. I don't have any pretensions of being a born again tribal member; I just like tipi's because they are beautiful and fun. They really are the best way to go camping!
the Red Menace
What beautiful riding country!
Sakura Ridge
Sakura Ridge is a top notch Bed & Breakfast and working organic farm in the West hills of Hood River. Hosts John and Deanna Joyer are letting us set up camp in the woods below the farm for the first few days of the Tipi Tour.
Last month I’d lent them one of the Tipi’s for a family reunion and I went up to the farm over the weekend to take the tipi down and to do some prep work on our camp site.
We will be nestled in a remote, wooded glade. It is very pretty, but the access road will provide some of the most technical riding of our tour. It is steep and off camber. I have taken a couple of my sidecars in and out of there- it is doable but it is a challenge! I didn’t dare take the flatbed down there, so I parked at the gate and John and I drug the tipi poles down the last section of “road” to the camp site.
John’s nephew, Max, helped us set up the base for one of the tipi’s. I wanted to get a better idea of how the tipi’s would fit and where we should set up the kitchen. John will use his tractor to drag the rest of our kit in and out.
After we got the poles up we did some bushwacking, looking for an alternative route out of the dell.
John’s Gator is a little wider than my hacks.
It also is a little sluggish and doesn’t have the turning radius of the sidecars. He took it out the bottom last week, but couldn’t remember the exact route.
There is a game trail and an old logging road but they are quite overgrown and difficult to follow. It all looks about the same out in the bush and the vine maple hides stumps and dropoffs.
We popped out in this meadow below the lodge.
This side hill is still very steep and the grass and brush are tall-we felt like we were on safari until we finally made the lower access road.
If I can remember how to find the trail this should be fun!
Mac & Molly, who took the Adventure Sidecar Novice S/TEP class with us in May are coming for the first 3 nights and the Advanced S/TEP class
Mac competed in the Black Dog this year, right after taking our class-and took first place over all in the Sunday only riders class!
Unless things change at the last minute, Mr.Cob is planning on coming down for the class and the tour.
All these guys are really fun people and I can hardly wait to ride and camp with them! I anticipate some great stories around the campfire!
I'd really like to fill out the Tipi Tour with a few more guests, both 'cause more people = more fun and because I hope to use this years trip for promoting next season's programs. More sidecars and more folks having fun will make for better photos 
Towards that end I have decided to offer a onetime only big discount:
$500 for the Advanced class and weekend riding, Friday through Sunday, Tipi camping and meals included, bring a passenger for free.
%50 off for the entire tour, which comes to $750 for the Advanced Class + 7 days of riding and camping and meals, bring a passenger for free.
No other rebates apply. Bring your own sidecar or rent one of ours.
contact me directly at info@adenturesidecar.com to get these rates
the Red Menace
2011 Adventure Sidecar Training Schedule
Adventure Sidecar Tipi Tour August 19-26, 2011
"You are measured by how you ride by people who ride, and how you pose by people who pose." Alejo
"Riders who get ed off are doing it wrong." DAKEZ
"Bob wondered to himself 'Why is that car getting bigger?', and then it hit him." Heyload
