What are the coolest/strangest experiences you've had while out exploring with your rig?
There is a great thread in the "Roads you've got to try" subforum from Metalcarver about The Blue Mountains of Oregon. In the thread there starts a discussion of being in the middle of cattle on the route. Link to thread.
Which got me thinking about "coolest/strangest things you've seen. Being new to sidecar driving, for me so far the coolest has been a cattle drive experience:
The very first "off road" ride on SYZ was up into the Uinta Mountains. I come up over a rise, and there is a small heard sauntering down the road towards me. So I pull SYZ into the ditch to get as far out of their way as possible. Shut off the bike, and just sit there still. Cattle hadn't ever seen a Screaming Yellow Zonker before, and were going well off the fire road to get around me. They were being driven by a group of youngsters (oldest may have been 13-14), cowboys and cowgirls on horse back. Behind them were trucks with cattle & horse trailers being driven by some very proud parents and grandparents. The kids did an excellent job of rounding up the heard and getting them back on the fire road past me.
I kick myself now for not grabbing the phone and getting video/pictures of all this, but at the time I didn't want to spook the cattle or the horses any more than they already were. The cattle wanted absolutely nothing to do with a giant bright yellow contraption on their road.
Picture of the fire road north of Roosevelt, UT. after the "experience".
Hold my keyboard and watch this! 🙃
Well to date my all time favorite has to be while tooling around Yellowstone we were surrounded by Bison's just walking around on both sides of the road.
Like you we were so amazed by site of them we didn't think to get the camera or phone out to get pictures until it was too late
that would be followed the awe inspiring beauty that nature has to offer that we were seeing for the first time.
couple pics from that trip.
Also in Yellowstone…..
But then this off our back deck…..
No pictures of the event but here is how it went with SWMBO & I in Torres del Paine National Park in Patagonia, Chile; As we were traveling on a small dirt road just off on the shoulder we see a guanaco (similar to a Llama) lying dead. We had seen 1,000s of them before, but this was the first that looked like it was roadkill and it was very fresh. It's back was towards us and it's feet were pointing away from us. As we slowed to a crawl and were looking at the guanaco, on the other side of the guanaco a puma raised it's bloody face looking right at us!!! Because it was only about 10' from us we decided it was better to keep moving rather than gawk or attempt to take pictures.
Quote from StrongBad on December 14, 2023, 5:47 pmNo pictures of the event but here is how it went with SWMBO & I in Torres del Paine National Park in Patagonia, Chile; As we were traveling on a small dirt road just off on the shoulder we see a guanaco (similar to a Llama) lying dead. We had seen 1,000s of them before, but this was the first that looked like it was roadkill and it was very fresh. It's back was towards us and it's feet were pointing away from us. As we slowed to a crawl and were looking at the guanaco, on the other side of the guanaco a puma raised it's bloody face looking right at us!!! Because it was only about 10' from us we decided it was better to keep moving rather than gawk or attempt to take pictures.
Ok, I got nothing that tops that 🙂
Quote from StrongBad on December 14, 2023, 5:47 pmNo pictures of the event but here is how it went with SWMBO & I in Torres del Paine National Park in Patagonia, Chile; As we were traveling on a small dirt road just off on the shoulder we see a guanaco (similar to a Llama) lying dead. We had seen 1,000s of them before, but this was the first that looked like it was roadkill and it was very fresh. It's back was towards us and it's feet were pointing away from us. As we slowed to a crawl and were looking at the guanaco, on the other side of the guanaco a puma raised it's bloody face looking right at us!!! Because it was only about 10' from us we decided it was better to keep moving rather than gawk or attempt to take pictures.
If I recall correctly, you and your bride had an event on the same trip that, in my opinion, tops the puma encounter. I think having winds so strong that they lifted the heavily laden chair with your monkey in it would be an event to remember.
I don’t know if it qualifies as strange. But when I bought my double bandit rig. On the way up to the rally in spirit lake. Out in the middle of nowhere on one of those stretches of freeway that 15 and 20 miles between exits. I see a guy walking on the side of the freeway. It was about 95°. And this guy is in the middle of nowhere. Sidecar full of stuff. No idea if there was a helmet law in the state or not. But I pulled over and gave him a ride up to the next exit. This guy had no water. And was Definitely in a bad spot. I kind of laughed because my first passenger in my sidecar rig. Was someone whose name I don’t even know. Cleared space in the rig and gave him a Gatorade out of my cooler.
Quote from Kevin on December 15, 2023, 7:24 amQuote from StrongBad on December 14, 2023, 5:47 pmNo pictures of the event but here is how it went with SWMBO & I in Torres del Paine National Park in Patagonia, Chile; As we were traveling on a small dirt road just off on the shoulder we see a guanaco (similar to a Llama) lying dead. We had seen 1,000s of them before, but this was the first that looked like it was roadkill and it was very fresh. It's back was towards us and it's feet were pointing away from us. As we slowed to a crawl and were looking at the guanaco, on the other side of the guanaco a puma raised it's bloody face looking right at us!!! Because it was only about 10' from us we decided it was better to keep moving rather than gawk or attempt to take pictures.
If I recall correctly, you and your bride had an event on the same trip that, in my opinion, tops the puma encounter. I think having winds so strong that they lifted the heavily laden chair with your monkey in it would be an event to remember.
Yes, we got hit by a big gust of crosswind that lifted the chair. The winds in Patagonia are a force to be experienced.
This quick little video shows the Patagonia winds in Torres del Paines across a small lake about 10 miles from where we had the puma encounter. For whitecaps to develop with little fetch is pretty amazing but to see the water blown off of the surface of the water is something else. I was told that it takes a 70mph wind to do that.
That wind blew a guy on a solo bike off of the road. Another sidecar couple decided that his monkey was better off riding in the chase tuck. He loaded his sidecar with large rocks and still had wind issues!
Here is another great experience with the MotoDiscovery Ruta 40 tour we took when crossing from Chile into Argentina in the Atacama desert. The Chileans are the world's best bureaucrats and if some official with the stamp you need to enter or exit Chile, you will be made sure that person has total control. Here is Skip, the owner of MotoDiscovery and first time sidecar pilot with a rig that Ural provided:
Just to add a little more to the story. Not all of the Chilean border crossing were open yet due to their Covid 19 restrictions. We had filled out all of the proper documents on line the day before we crossed while staying in San Pedro de Atacama. The online process was such that if you were attempting to cross at a closed border, it wouldn't allow you to finish the process. Like Skip said, this Chilean customs gal got all upset because she claimed that the crossing was closed to all but commercial traffic. The top Argentine customs official was quite upset that she had held up 2 sidecars one bike and a chase truck with a Ural on the trailer while 2 bikes, and 2 sidecars had gone on into Argentina. They were yelling at each other and the Chilean official was poking her finger into the Argentine's chest. Meanwhile MotoDiscovery's office in Buenos Aires was called and they called the Argentine tourist bureau, the US State Department, as well as the Chilean tourist and state departments. Like Skip said, this went on for 4 hours. Finally a Colonel with the Argentine Army stepped in and convinced the Chilean official that we were on a "commercial tour", this gave the Chilean gal a way to save face and allow us to pass. The MotoDiscovery office said that we made the news that night!
The night from January 5 to 6 2019 I learned how to sleep in the Ural tub.
You know how?
Like an "origami"! *
10km from the next paved road I broke my final drive right at "sun light switch off" in the rain forest. My buddy with another missionary colleague (who got later killed by US doctors, because they did not want to apply the medicine the Costarrican Doc had prescripted) picked me up 22 hours after the break down. All that passed by in these 22 hours were 1 strawling dog (19h) and a 82 old man with his girlfriends in a Toyota Landcruiser from around 1968 (20h), who did only have a jute sack and machete with him on a 80km trip through the cordillera rain forest. "All you need is the machete for to lower a few guineos (banana kind to cook with beans and pork)."
It is interesting to hear the boars (Zaino are very small only about 40-70kg, but come in huge packs) passing by on the cobble stones just beside you and you are unable to see the hand before the eyes.
Photo 1: There were a few "marbles" left over from a earthquake at the start of that road.
Photo 2: At the beginning all I saw was a bent u joint... later in the shop showed up a lot more damage. "a full job" = total loss.
Photo 3: I had a lot of time to prepare the rig for a haul. (Pass the dust cap from outside to the inside of the final drive to separate the spline drive of the back wheel.) But the 2 Missionaries came with a horse trailer.
Last note: Do not trust a GPS in a iron ore containing mountain range. The GPS showed a place 150km away on the other side of the Cordillera. My Buddy only found me just because he remembered the place where he broke his shift lever a month before, which was 75m uphill from where I broke the final drive. (40% grade)
*: albeit I used my spline and elbow protectors I had blue/green marks all over and was soar for the next 2 weeks.
So there was this time I was driving the Ural across the Idaho flat lands and I noticed that there were leaves and debris all over the road. But the coolest thing was that everybody had pulled off the road to let me by. Cool. It had been really windy and I looked straight up and saw the clouds moving around in a tight little circle. It's hard to skedaddle with only 41 horsepower.
I stopped in Forestville, about 100 kilometers from Baie Comeau, finally got tired of the rain and wind and cold and decided to hit the first motel I saw and warm up and dry out. I pulled in to the driveway and under the roof they have covering part of the parking lot I ran into Elmer and Sharon. I was running the Trans-Labrador Highway clockwise and Elmer and Sharon were touring through Newfoundland counter clockwise. they were a few days ahead of me so even though we were in contact we had no plans of connecting. I had been riding in pouring rain all day and just couldn't go any further. I couldn't believe I saw their rig in the parking garage as I pulled in.
Several years ago, three Ural riders (Rudy, David and myself) were making the run on old US-50 from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Lots of laughs, lots of interesting people met and interesting places seen. Each one of us experienced mechanical, ah challenges, but we all completed the ride across the US and back home again.
One of the few places where we all agreed to NOT stop for camping, gas, food, rest or anything was DOWNTOWN OLEAN...
June, 2013 I was cruising up the Natchez trace on my way to the National in Kentucky and I caught up to a nasty rainstorm. If you have not been on the Natchez trace south of Tupelo, MS then let me describe it. It is raised about ten feet above plowed fields with little or no windbreaks. The rain got so bad that at times I had to stay within a bikes length from the Cadillac in front of me. Occasionally we would get into a small cluster of trees and looking up the tree tops were going in circles. Eventually I came across an exit and I pulled off and sat under the underpass for a little break from the weather. When I finally got to a hotel in Tupelo I was completely soaked through my rain gear. Now this is the only time I have ever been scared because of the weather, come to find out that I rode through a Derecho, look it up. Sorry, no pictures on this one.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/June_12%E2%80%9313,_2013,_derecho_series
Quote from DirtyDR on December 18, 2023, 6:24 amJune, 2013 I was cruising up the Natchez trace on my way to the National in Kentucky and I caught up to a nasty rainstorm. If you have not been on the Natchez trace south of Tupelo, MS then let me describe it. It is raised about ten feet above plowed fields with little or no windbreaks. The rain got so bad that at times I had to stay within a bikes length from the Cadillac in front of me. Occasionally we would get into a small cluster of trees and looking up the tree tops were going in circles. Eventually I came across an exit and I pulled off and sat under the underpass for a little break from the weather. When I finally got to a hotel in Tupelo I was completely soaked through my rain gear. Now this is the only time I have ever been scared because of the weather, come to find out that I rode through a Derecho, look it up. Sorry, no pictures on this one.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/June_12%E2%80%9313,_2013,_derecho_series
Woah! Lets hope that same thing doesn't happen this year. I'm meeting up with a buddy right after the National, and we are going to do the Natchez Trace Pkwy.
Hold my keyboard and watch this! 🙃
