South Olympic Mountains with Dual Sport Riding Club

Overview

The Dual Sport Riding Club did a Ride Shelton Area/South Olympic Mountians event on Saturday, July 22, 2023 at 9:30--15:00. We met at the Walmart parking lot just behind the AM/PM gas station in Shelton. 9 riders attended. I used this as an opportunity to test the "dual sport" capabilities of my new Kawasaki KLX230S. It was a 100+ mile freeway ride from Vancouver up to Shelton followed by a 100+ mile forest roads ride. The bike performed beautifully. It's not particularly comfortable at 70 mph on the freeway, but it can do the speed. MPG at 65--70 mph is about 56. MPG enthusiastically riding forest roads is more like 85. And the fuel gauge reads empty when one of the two gallons has been used. It starts flashing with about 0.6 gallons remaining.

Shawn led the ride with the usual format of each rider being responsible for the one behind them. You don't make any route change turns until the rider behind you takes your place to signal the next rider; then you can proceed.

The only mechanical issue on this trip was Shawn's KTM 1250 Adventure blew out the aftermarket rear shock putting a lot of oil on his exhaust. He skipped the second half of the ride, taking paved roads home.

The ride was 90% forest and logging roads and 10% tarmac. Shawn gave it a 2 out of 10 on the difficulty meter.

We took a long break for lunch at Lake Wynoochee where Kathi and I had visited last year, July 2022.

Attendees





Ride Log

TimeMinuteskmkph avgComment
6:40amdeparted Vancouver WA
6:40am140213 km95Highway to Shelton WA
9:15am15McDonald's Breakfast Shelton
9:30amArrive ARCO/Walmart Meetup area
9:30am9Get gas; rider's meeting
9:39am0.6 map
9:40am1.30 km0
9:41am3.3 map
9:44am17.818 km61
10:02am1.5 map
10:04am11.210 km56
10:15am3.9 map
10:19am4.6 map
10:24am16.912 km42
10:41am2.4 map
10:43am19.611 km34
11:03am1.6 map
11:04am2.70 km11
11:07am16.2 map
11:23am16.915 km52
11:40am3.7 map
11:44am30.218 km35
12:14pm7.3 map
12:22pm23.313 km33
12:45pm3.5 map
12:48pm8.07 km56
12:57pm5.8 Shawn's blown rear shock absorber
1:02pm5.63 km33
1:08pm56.6 Wynoochee picnic lunch stop
2:05pm44.328 km38
2:49pm7.3 map
2:56pm32.222 km41
3:29pm1.2 Chris,Tree,Joe go look for lost PLB
3:30pm4.94 km46
3:35pm12.3 Looking for Joe's PLB at High Steel
3:35pmTrack log stopped, lost ~1hr of data
3:35pmRoute back to Walmart
4:20pmFinished getting gas, 82.5 mpg, 119 miles
4:29pm17Called Kathi
4:46pm160147 miles kmDrove back to Vancouver with a couple of stops at rest areas
7:15pmHome
 
6h12m3h56m moving167 km42.4 kph63% moving, 136 minutes of breaks