New year’s weekend 2011-2012
12/31/2011
Saturday morning found us at Brimstone for a New Year’s Eve ride. We had Dan, Captain Dan, Buck & Shelia, Sammy, Marie, The Bigshow & Krystal, Darryl & birdie, Rhino guy, and me & Liz. I asked Dan to take the Point ad I am not that familiar with Brimstone yet. Boy am I glad I did, the trails Dan put us on were second to none. I don’t remember all the #’s maybe Dan can add to this. We went over 44y Rebel Yell…I think you could hear Liz squealing all the way back at the trucks when I started over that thing…LOL! On the way up the Twisted Sisters Marie had a little trouble on the slick hill climb…Thanks to a team effort she made it up it. At the top the Rhino was hot under the collar, that thing was Boiling! After a close examination it was determined the Rhino Radiator curse had struck again. It was plugged solid with mud, after 20-30 minutes washing with cooler water we had it in what we thought was pretty good shape. They added some antifreeze to the overflow bowl and we were off again. We hadn’t went 5 minutes and it was hot again. After several tries we surmised it was vapor locked…it wound up getting the hook and a free tug back to the trucks. We finished the ride with around 46 miles under our tires, a great Day!
1/2/2012 Pickett State Forest
Some days you’re the Hammer…Some days you’re the Nail…today I was the NAIL!!!
My day started just like any other ride day…up at 4:30 get a shower and get ready to ride. 1st blow from the hammer…after the shower I went to put my contacts in. Seems my wife had mistakenly set her contact case on my side of the sink, me in my early morning stupor had grabbed the wrong case and put her contacts in my eyes After I got them in I thought I had gone blind! I couldn’t see a flipping thing!
I met Dan, Captain Dan, Buck and Shelia at the Blackhouse mountain road parking area at 9 Eastern to do a little exploring, and Trail blazing. We hit the trails just after 9 headed for T100 I had a few trails I wanted to check out that I had made mental notes on. 1st up was an often overlooked trail just below the 1st rock crawl on T100. Turns out it went back to a new to us rockhouse, it wasn’t very big but would make a nice shelter in bad weather. From there I wanted to go down what use to be the rough section of T100 to the creek, it had been several years since I was on it. It was not as bad as it used to be, but still had a pucker spot or two.
2nd blow from the hammer…On our way across T2 I came to a large mud hole I have been through several times. For some reason I thought it would be best to skirt the edge rather than go straight through it. ½ way through my right side slide down into a deep rut under the water and the XP started to turn over. I quickly stuck my foot down to try and stop it from rolling only to slip and fall into the water up to my arm Pit on my right side…Instantly I felt the icy water ingulf my right side. My right boot filled up with water and I was soaked from the waist down, and the right side of my upper torso. I quickly got to my feet and got the wheeler out of the hole. Once on dry ground I thought my day was done, I was soaked. I stripped my coveralls off, along with my jacket. The right arm of my jacket was wet to the elbow, the bibs were soaked from the waist down. My shirts were amazingly dry, but my jeans and right foot were soaked! CD said he had a Wet Foot kit, so I quickly stripped my boot off and got the sock off and I put on the dry sock and stuck the bag over the sock and got my boot back on. I surmised that even with the wet bibs and jacket that I had a dry torso. The bibs would keep the wind off my legs and I thought I would be okay, turns out it worked pretty well. I was not hot, but I stayed reasonably warm the rest of the day.
3rd blow of the hammer…We started up the bad rutted section on T2, just past the 1st tuff spot I slipped off line. Unable to get back up on the bank I opted to try and throttle my way up the left bank. I guess a combo of not enough thumb and too much gravity I found myself rolling over to the right again down into the gully. Luckily I fell into a hole big enough for me but not the XP, which wound upside down on top of me. I was unhurt and got a big laugh out of it…I think Dan even got a Picture of me under that thing, and my GoPro was running so that should be some very interesting footage! WE finally managed to get it turned back onto its wheels, it was all we could do to upright that beast! It had lost some oil, upon further inspection it had lost almost a quart of oil. The filter was oil soaked and the air box was full of oil. Buck had a bottle of PoPo oil, we got the oil cleaned out of the box, put the filter back in, and topped the oil level off. It was down a bit on power due to the filter being wet with oil but did fine the rest of the day.
We finally made it over to Edwards Mountain and got to Trail blazing…we managed to put together a nice 10 mile loop with access to Hwy 167. By the time we got this accomplished it was getting late. The temp was dropping and the snow had begun to fall pretty steady now. We decided to head for the trucks via T2. At the T2/T1 I stopped waiting for the rest of the group to catch up so we could make our usual mad dash back to the trucks from there. As I was talking to Dan, Buck somehow managed slip behind me and gets a jump on me. Dan said there he goes…I said where? Too late he was already 75 yards ahead of me, I pinned it. I caught him in short order but in the 1st woop section the rear box lock and ride holders popped loose and it smacked me in the back, I had to stop and re-secure the stupid thing and was off again. Buck had to stop at the Yellow Doors trail to try and clean his windshield off. When you hit water at 30-40 MPH and its 20 Degrees out it freezes on the windshield instantly, he couldn’t see squat! While he was cleaning his windshield CD and Dan caught up to us, Dan was quite amused at me and Buck’s Mad dash…LOL We were off again, and again that stupid box would not stay put! You can bet it will be LOCKED to that back rack the next time!
We made it back to the trucks with 55miles behind us, and one of the best weekends of riding I have had in a long time! Thanks CD for the Wet Foot kit, there will be one in each of my rides the next time they leave my place, also thanks to Buck for the oil.
I will get the videos up as soon as I can…
