Pickett with Repo and the Wisconsin Gang
Repoman come in this week for his fall homecoming, he asked me to get together a ride for him and the gang from Wisconsin. So, Saturday we all gathered at Pickett for what would turn out to be the Perfect day for a Fall ride at Pickett. We had Repoman. Lil Jimmie, Matt, Dan & Wife, Powerebomb, Yoshi, Big G w/ 2 guys in a RZR, and me. This was to be the break-in ride for Repo’s new Orange 900xp, Lil Jimmie was riding repo’s big 850, we all got loaded and hit the trail right at 8:30 AM central. As usual I headed right for 100 to give the 900 a good work out before we got too far from the truck, to make sure all was tight and it didn’t need anything. T100 was in perfect shape after the rain, the rock climb was slick but doable. The colors down in the hollow were breath taking, with the rain the day before we hit the peak dead on! About ½ ways out of 100 I noticed that me and Dan were alone, I called on the radio trying to reach the rest of the group but no answer. After waiting for a few minutes and still no word we turned around and went back to find that the 850xp Lil Jimmie was on had blown a belt. Never have I heard of an 850 XP blowing a belt…out comes the tow rope and we pull him to the intersection of t1 and 100. We decided to take it back to the truck and lock it in the bed of my truck in the LA guard dog, Lil Jimmie would ride shotgun in the 900XP the rest of the day….Day salvaged! Once we had that done and had the group back together it was off to Tea cup rock. I don’t believe I have ever seen Tea Cup as pretty as it was yesterday, the rock formations were framed with amazing color. From Teacup it was on to Horse rock…several in the group had never been across horse rock. I got a kick out of watching the 2 guys in the RZR S, the driver almost got in the lap of the Passenger trying to get away from that edge….LMAO. From Horse Rock it was on to Edwards Mountain and the Mill Point overlook, via the short cut trail thru the Canyon. Again the blazing fall colors made this trail the prettiest I have ever seen it. At the overlook we took a few Pictures and then it was off the Mountain to the picnic area at the Waterfall on T54 for lunch. After lunch we made our way across T65 to T21 and Arch rock. Up next was the Mud Trail, I thought it would be fun after the day of Rain we had the day before, the 1st big whole we came to Powerbomb and Yoshi Gave us a great show on those sport quads trying to get thru it, Powerbomb eventually made the climb on the bypass and Yoshi was bound and determined to make it thru that whole…after several attempts she finally hooked and went thru, with some help from Lill Jimmie. We took a left onto T8 and made our way over to T3. I had the bright Idea to go thru the middle whole at the top of T3 and T16…after what seemed like 10 minutes of work I finally made it out of that thing…later I would find out the damage was done. From there we made our way over to the Elbow rock trail, again several if any had never been on this trail. The Elbow Rock is a HUGE rock that juts straight up on top of a ridge almost 200’ high, I have walked all the way around this thing trying to find a way on top of it. But, short of scaling a sheer rock face I have found no way up. After a short break it was back to more new trails for the group, I took a trail off of the elbow trail that took us on a very steep decent down into the valley, I found this trail by accident last fall and had not got to run it since. I think it was one of the groups favorite trails of the day, it circles around and comes out just below preachers rock. It’s getting late and some were getting a bit tired so we decided to head for the trucks. At the intersection of T1 & T2 I put Repoman out front so he could stretch the legs on that XP900, Big G fell in behind him with me hot on his heels. G mad a valiant effort to keep up but just could not hang with the big 900. About 2miles into the Mad dash back to the trucks….POW the belt on my 850XP exploded, the fight in the mud whole a couple hours ago had weakened the belt and it just could not take the stress I was putting on it on the run back to the trucks. Out came the tow strap and a slow tow the 5 miles back to the truck. We finished the ride with 56 colorful miles behind us. No major accidents or Flats and 2 850XP’s with blown belts….a 1st for me. All in all a Perfect Fall day at Pickett!!!!
