VEHICLES, CAMPERS, and BOATS > Bikes Motorcycles, S x S's, Tractors, and Mowers
Ride Reports!
turn_one:
How about we start a thread for those of us who get out and get dirty on these things too (heal up Chief and we can put the DR to the test).
Let's see/hear them...past or upcoming...adventure or maybe just some OHV journeys.
turn_one:
Okay, me first.
Living in the PNW I get a short but great opportunity to ride some awesome areas. One such area that I've yet to check out until this last weekend in the Gifford Pinchot Nat'l Forest. This area occupies a great swath of land in between the mighty Mt Rainier and Mt Adams, 2 Cascade volcanoes reaching 14,410' and 12K'-ish.
Trail map here:
I headed down with some shredders from the shop I blow all my $'s at, I-90 Motorsports in Issaquah. These dudes know the area well, go there often and kept me from getting lost. The above map (a pic on my phone taken at the dander station) was all I had for navigation and despite 2 solid days of riding we covered about 30% of the trails I'd guess.
Day one there were 4 of us. Me on my trusty KTM 350 XCF-W, one guy on a smoker 250, another on a 450 XCW and the outsider on a Yamaha YZ450R (think fast). I'm use to camping in tents...which is fine with me. I do not however object whenever a buddy invites me in his toy hauler that sleeps 8. Here's us set up at the Blue Lake campground:
We headed out in the morning with the Yamaha guy as trail boss. He prefers gnarly stuff and gnarly we rode. Most trails were a combination of loose to solid rock, good dirt, roots that develop rises that only a 21" wheel with someone skilled behind it could overcome. All this is done at speed because momentum (to a point) is your friend on such trails. The ability of a modern day, purpose built dirt bike is truly amazing...things can climb trees. During one such gnarly section my buddy's bike skipped sideways and his foot caught a root and pinned it back under his foot peg. This appeared to break 3 of his toes...which was unfortunate for all of us because we had to listen to him belly-ache for the rest of the ride (which he completed). The other folks along suggested he call a 'whaaaa-ambulance'. I'll spare you from the graphic purple foot shot I've seen as his feet are pretty messed up pre-accident.
No camera on the first day...second day a few other shredders showed, one on another moto KX450R (very fast) and yet another 2-smoker 250 KTM. Here's the crew minus me. Despite their portly outward appearances these dudes rip.
Shortly after the above photo was taken we were missing Tom (250 2 stroke). Now Tom is a solid A rider and can compete in AA if he wanted....he's not usually too far behind. So we sent a guy looking for lost Tom. We found him cruising up the trail looking quite disheveled, his bike picking up some Terra firma in his absence. He arrived with the group having ZERO recollection of the crash...and the last 10 minutes for that matter. he repeated to us no less than 25 times within the hour that he must've crashed and his right shoulder was hurt. Obviously he had some loss of consciousness but according to his buddies 'this happens all the time with him'. Guess after multiple concussions the next one comes easier. He still has no idea what happened. Just says he was riding along, wondering where everybody was and then saw Brent (guy we sent back for lost Tom) and thought it was weird somebody was coming down the trail he thought just seconds before was going up.
Mountain single track riding at speed is what can best be described as a series of linked recoveries...because you're almost always in some type of crash...you just stay loose and rely on the bike to sort it out. The rest of the day was riding much like this. Our bikes at rest:
My goal was to hit Jumbo Mountain for I have seen it in several pics before and it seemed to offer the type of riding I like; high mountain single track. My front tire conspired against this plan and got a flat 7 or so miles prior so we had to take a maintenance break. I run Tubliss on this bike, a high pressure small tube with a protective bladder that seals the spoke holes making the wheel air tight. This allows you to run no tubes which equal no pinch-flats. My tire actually compressed into the beadlock on the Tubliss and cut a hole in it. This meant I had to plug it...and I didn't bring plugs...which meant I had to patch it...and I didn't have patches..which meant I was screwed. Until someone dug a patch out (just 1) that was my only shot at getting back on trail. This patch held for a little while...long enough for me to get to Jumbo:
My bike on Jumbo:
Mt Adams to the south:
...and the awesome trail that led us there:
Many of precarious sections led us back to the road...where my air in the front finally gave up the ghost. No harm though, with Tubliss you can run most tires flat and not risk breaking the bead.
A big, fat and greasy sausage completed our day. I got in the truck with gimp-boy (broken toes and pulled off another 60 miler day) and we made it home with another awesome weekender in the bag.
Thanks for looking.
Flyin6:
Breathtaking!
JR:
Thats just a few hours north of me, sure wish I had rode there!!
Flyin6:
Kentucky does not have such panoramic views...
But we do have hollars...
You guyz have hollars??? 8)
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