So... Memorial day was 2 days after i had my staples removed from a 2 week prior appendix removal. I spent almost 2 weeks laying on the couch munching perc's and vic's and not moving. The day i had the staples removed i was up and off. Joe and i hooked up for a ride Memorial day and we decided to check out an area that i had previously discovered trails at. This particular area to our delight contained an enormous variety of terrain covering the sides/top of a large mountain that had a set of pole lines running parallel straight across the length of the mountain. Not only was their pole lines, but the the pole lines were imtermittenly crossed with sheer cliffs. This forced the trails to cross into and out of the woods to circumvent the cliffs. Anyone that has spent time riding pole lines can attest to how boring they can get basically ridin dirt roads. These trails were far from boring!



9am.. Time to wake the bike up. She wasnt happy at bein woke this early. But after a promise of a beautiful day of riding I convinced her. The ride to Joe's house was chilly. Still 50F at this point though by noon it was close to 70F.


Our first stop was a quick one. Their was an area Joe hadn't been yet that i wanted to hit quick on the way back to the area we wanted to explore for the day. While im not giving the location of these areas up, I will say they are all accessible via Route 6. Some of you may recognize them. Here is the entrance road to the first stop. It's a serious grade climbin straight up to the top.


From the top lookin down.


What you see at the top. Joe was jokin as i was takin pictures that we would be spotted and grabbed by someone for suspected terrorists with all the pics we took.




Here's where the fun begins... This is the entrance to the trail system (amongst MANY others). If you look closely at the pic you can see one of the motorcyclist's worst trail riding enemies. Almost out of eyesight is a nice little hillclimb.


Here's a couple of clips of the hill. Please forgive the quality, I had kidnapped my daughters cam for the day, but while it took nice pics, the video quality left alot to be desired.
Joe: http://s301.photobucket.com/albums/n...yhillclimb.flv
Me: http://s301.photobucket.com/albums/n...yhillclimb.flv

Here's a nice representation of what alot of the terrain was like within the woods.


Some pics on the pole lines.










Ok, now here's something that looks interesting. We spotted this right at the bottom of a steep hill right off the trail. I was amazed at the build quality of what im guessing was a gocart. This thing was basically a car but in half scale. It appeared to have everything from hubs to a rearend pumpkin differential. I doubt you would be able to find anything built as solid as this these days anywhere. I have no idea of how old it is but i would guess 50 years old if i was pressed.


Here's where i get my age guesstimation. Note the tree and the axle.


Couple of pics from the tops of some of the cliffs.






More general poleline shots.








I found this area interesting as we came over the top of a hill and heres this run of beautiful grass on the poleline in the middle of nowhere. It looked almost like someone's lawn.


Here was an area that we had found that was the most challenging/fun when we stumbled on it Memorial day. The problem was, that day we had gone through it from the other direction. This turned out to be my downfall. Here's a few pics of the trail section. I hate the way that pictures always seem to fail in capturing the steepness or difficulty in certain types of terrain.








The following clips are from the section in the previous pictures. I prefer to call my wipeout a "graceful dismount". All i have to say is if you dont have a solid set of barkbusters etc on your machine, get them asap.
Also, thanks to Joe for the narration [8D]
Rock crawl me:
http://s301.photobucket.com/albums/n...ent=jerry1.flv
http://s301.photobucket.com/albums/n...ent=jerry2.flv
http://s301.photobucket.com/albums/n...ent=jerry3.flv

Rock crawl Joe:
http://s301.photobucket.com/albums/n...rrent=joe1.flv
http://s301.photobucket.com/albums/n...rrent=joe2.flv
http://s301.photobucket.com/albums/n...rrent=joe3.flv

A pic of Joe whinin about his back after havin to help me get my bike up and out of the rock shelf where i dumped it.


After we had hit the rock crawl section we decided to head over to North American Warhorse so that i could order a gasket (clutch cover has a small gasket leak on my bike). On the way we hit a small development or a mine or a .... something. I have no clue what it was but it did offer something other than pavement.




I have to admit, there's something satisfying about not being the only person to wipe on any given ride. Here's Joe just after he got his bike back up. He's checkin for damage and wipin the dust off.


Finally, arrived at the toy store.










So after we walked around droolin for a bit I got my gasket ordered and we trudged home beat. We had an awesome day of riding. Hope you guys enjoy the pics. On a sidenote.. if anyone ever goes to North American Warhorse for service, make sure you see my bud Art. He's the service manager. Just tell him I sent ya and he'll take care of you.

 

wow man that was right up there with some of the all time ride reports. Loved the short videos, looked like you guys had a great riding day. I was also impressed at how clean the power lines were, brushed out and looking good. Thanks man, oh and you're an animal riding two weeks after having your appendix out. 12 years ago when I had mine out, I was whining like a baby and milking it for all it was worth. Thanks again man, awesome.........simply awesome.

 

tbh deej, the only reason this area is so pristine is it is nearly inaccessible due to how gnarly the terrain and distance from pavement is and its relative obscurity (main reason why i dont talk about its location). We have more than our fair share of scumbag dumpers up here.

 

good job on the story jsac ! you know times like that are priceless

 

Great pics jsac, I liked the vids too. You can tell so much more about the terrain from a vid than a pic, IMO, but even vids tend to flatten out the terrain and slow down the action. Great stuff.

Scumbag dumpers everywhere. I went geocaching a few weekends ago to what seemed like a pretty nice area, but once you start walking around and taking notice, it's real distressing to see all the crap people just dump. To rub salt in the wound, there are several "no questions asked" debris drop locations in our county - just drive up with that old washing machine, old tires, mattresses, whatever, and they take them - no questions asked. So there's absolutely no excuse for people dumping their crap, but they do anyway. Humans! Go figure.

 

Nice indeed!!! That powerline looks awesome. The powerlines around my parts have trails too, but they are usually rough and have some mudholes on them. Love the rocks and grass stuff!

 

excellent post J. is that first black bike a hyabusa? someone put a lot of time and money onto it. i like it

 

Great ride report. These types of posts are what make this forumfun anddistinguishes it from the typical 'how do I fix this' forum. Power lines are a great resource if you can utilize them. Unfortunately in my area most power lines come equipped with signs that threaten to incarcerate trespassers with a sentance to Guantanamo Bay if caught.

Mike

 

Looks like fun and great pics and vids. I see you have the "gas it when in doubt" routine down by looking at the vid with the get-off.

 

here is a better pic of the section in video entering the rock shelf. src="http://i182.photobucket.com/albums/x...2/102_6089.jpg" border="0" alt="polelines"></a>