"awhile" meaning since I got the KLRs and have to spend every spare moment and all my money keeping the fleet running
That is an old photo though. about 25 years ago at Squaw Creek Crossing, near Sisters, Oregon. Me and Toad rode down there with camping gear and a couple of girls riding pillion. It was cold up on the mountain, but warmed up considerably as we cut across the desert behind Lake Billy Chinook.
Toad was on an R65. Like my Commando it had stubby clubman bars which made the heavily loaded bikes a handful on the sand roads of the high desert. Toad and Pam were well ahead of me.I was hanging back to stay out of his dust.
We rounded a cut bank rising above us on the right and dropping off on the left side to a rocky, dry pasture. In the road, about 3 yards out front, was the biggest f---ing rattlesnake I have ever seen. It was towards the right, sidling across the road. I figured the big twin thumping up and down just above idle would alert the serpent to our presence and it would either boogie off the road or it would coil and I'd stop and wait for it to split. But it didn't. It kept making lazy S's in the sand slithering towards us as it crossed to the left side of the road. When I drew abreast the snake it turned and struck the bike between my foot and the passenger peg, rattling as it came, it's mouth open so wide I swear I saw daylight out it's asshole. You don't hear the sound a rattlesnake makes with your ears, you feel it in the pit of your stomach. In an instant, it hit the bike, turned and was gone. It must have been as big around as a beer can at the center. I wanted to go back and get a photo but my passenger didn't seem too interested in that idea. We came up on Squaw Creek Crossing just a little bit after that. It was a good weekend.
