I just typed all this to my buddy, Steve, who has a KLX and a Husky. Like me.

I met him on Thumper Talk fishing for a guy that would like me ride his Husky.
Found him!!

Anyway, we were suppose to meet at Cajon Pass and Ride around SilverWood Lake.

We played phone tag, but the short story is we never met. I was completely to blame... Damn it... Oh well, he rode with "the gang" and I rode solo.

I had a fun (yet challenging) ride. Without a scratch to me and only a small scratch to the bike.
See map below for references in the story

OK started at the West end of the Lake (Red Circle). Called you and got a voice mail, No biggie... Maybe I'll see ya, maybe not???
Doh!, no ramp... Hmm on the freeway somewhere.. yikes
Back to curb and unload.. Worst case I have to ask for help on the re-load... whatever.
Headed south and enjoyed the ride (~1mile of pavement)
Then exited and a little dog leg west to get to the trail
Life is good, the day was beautiful
Just an a hair past noon and feeling good.
Popped back out on 138 and in a couple miles I am at Miller Canyon.
Called ya, chatted, and back on the bike for just a little more riding (continue on Red Pathway)
Stopped a few times to drink water and take pics of the Fog rolling in off the mountains.. beautiful....
Venture onward
Having fun throttling over the woops and trying to improve the timing to catch just the smallest amount of front wheel lift
Up to the dam
Thought about zipping pavement back to the jeep but.... naaaaa the day is too young
and flipped a "U"y and headed back (now we are backtracking on the Blue Line.
Then the Red line and Blue line start to diverge.
That first hill (right at the diverging vertex) looked kinda gnarly but not tooo bad.
No problemo... I am the "Dirt Bike Man!"
Then a down hill... ok I did that too
Then an up hill.. hmmm that one was worse.... But I am ok...
Then another up hill... wow I am gaining so serious altitude...
Then a down hill... Hmmm not tooooo bad
Up...
Damn that one looks REALLY GNARLY.. But I don't want to back track at this point... cuz, well, I can't decide which is worse...
Onward... Up again...OMG.... WTF was I thinking.. stay on the throttle, I'll make it... 30 more feet to go... nope.
Stall... Fall over... mini crash (see Crash here on map - it is very approximate)
Sorry no photo.. damn.. I was in survival mode - not so much in the touristy photo op mode
It's 2:20 now and the angle is steep and a bit slippery.... "Dirt Bike Man" title, removed.
So my technique was dig out the rear tire and walk beside the bike trying to get the last 30 of what was about 100 feet of hill.
There were about a half a dozen more little mini crashes (all of these without injury... just very physically demanding on an out of shape 40 something old guy)
Victory!.. Now it is 3pm...
Hmm not sure what that is in mph... damn .008mph.. .. 9 inches per minutes... There we go... 9 ipm
Wow, glad that 40 minute workout is over.... Hope there is not another in my near future
Ok,,, now I keep going... I sure hope it does not get worse than that... I am not good enough to turn around...
Hmm A little cause for worry here... visions of being helicopter'd out... Not due to injury, but more the "Cat Stuck in the Tree" type of issue
There were a couple more challenging hills and after the first up then down...
I see the Fire Road.. I'm close
I re-invoke the title "Dirt Bike Man!!!" Woo whooo...
Yikes...
Spoke too soon
One more gnarly one before the nice easy fire road....
There is really know choice here, I can make a new life here on the trail, build a small home and hunt for food... or continue on and go home...
A little scare on that one, but I did it.
Ahhh Fire Road, at last...
There where some little places on the Fire Road that would have given me pause an hour ago but now this is all childs play.
Pavement on the 138
Hurray!! the jeep.
Oh yea... my ramp fell off on the way here... Doh!
I backed to the curb again and while "off" is much easier that "on",
"Pop" and I'm on.
Loaded and headed home....

That was fun!

Later man. Next time we'll ride... together

 

You should have called me, I would have gone with!
Ha ha
Great story! I got a great picture of your ride just from your words. Great details and comedic comments. Glad you made it back alive. Looks like a fun area to ride in.
Good to see you back around on the KF board.
Dan

 

Great prose. Made me laugh "Dirt Bike Man!" Good stuff.

 

"like a cat stuck in a tree"... good one. I'm sure everyone here has pushed it a few times and got in a little over their head and had that feeling.

 

Wow I got winded just reading that story! Good stuff man!

 

Thanks all... I had fun writting it
I got an email back from Steve...

Made me laugh and I feel it would be fun so share his parallel adventure just a few miles away...

Met around 9 at the tracks. I got there first because PD and Scott were slacking (the person who writes the report gets to revise history, as needed, in what becomes the official record of the ride).

By the time we stopped, we had ridden a marathon of miles, almost to the foot…then we packed up and came home early, for us.

In between:

- took a wrong turn at the beginning and found a new way to the other side of the mtn. came back to the beginning, then went the right way, all the way to the bottom of MOAS – the Mother Of All Sandhills. Dismounted and enjoying a rare period of sunshine, we watched people go up and down MOAS, which featured epic post-rain traction. Most made it, some did not, but there were no cartwheels or yard sales, so Scott went for it…up it…then down it…then up it, big courageous ***** dragging behind him all the way. PD and I were subjected to calls of “chicken” complete with clucking sounds, but that didn’t work, so then we were called roast beef curtains, “vag”, and what not – really, some quite disturbing stuff. But that is just Scott’s nature and it was not enough to coerce us up that hill, which seems bigger and badder every time I see it. When Scott was on his way back down, he was moving really really…really…slowly, so I had to be that voice of help and encouragement inside his head, over the radio: “Use your vag to clench your seat!” I yelled. All I heard after that was, “F--- you!” (the mouth on this kid!). I was just trying to help.



- somewhere on the way back to the tracks, I was following PD, when for some reason he came to a complete stop in the slick muck just to the right side of a big puddle. As I pulled to within a foot of his back tire, I’m thinkin, why’s he stopping, is something wrong? Then I heard the gas! Huh? What the…? MFer was gunning it! Just as I watched his back tire begin to break traction, it hit me WTF he was gonna do!, which would have resulted in me being one mud-spattered chump! I had just laid on my throttle in what would have been a futile attempt to escape the inevitable, when, totally unexpectedly and with no warning whatsoever, Scott saves the day!!!! Literally microseconds before my terrible mud bath, Scott comes FLYIN’ through the middle of the big puddle itself, three feet to our left. What I witnessed was a beautiful thing – a wall of muddy water rose up and consumed PD and his bike! Get this. Not only did the wall miss me entirely, while giving me the best seat in the house, it also instantly doused PD AND his unprovoked attack, right in their tracks! The timing was phenomenal. This was all followed by great loud laughter coming from Scott, as PD sat dripping from everywhere, assessing the damage and taking in WTF had just happened. Considering his own mal-intent, PD could say nothing but “I guess I had it comin.” True that, PD!


- other than that we enjoyed the nicely groomed blue single track most of the way to MOAS and back, with clouds/mist blowing over the peak right next to us, for an occasionally surreal ride.


- we missed SlapDrum who had hoped to find us at Miller Cyn, and called from there after our bikes were already locked ‘n re-loaded


These guys are a blast.
Everyone is fun, I'd like to ride with everyone on the forums.

Let's ride.
Cheers!

 

what?...no pics?...come on...u know the saying.....