2strk hadn’t been back there in years, perhaps a decade? so he wanted to be showed around. And showed him around I done did.
We beat the rangers to the early-morning opening, and had the parking lot to ourselves. It was a bit chilly, but we though it would be a warm day and suited up accordingly.
The soil was back to its pre-winter storm conditions: hard pack with a loose topping, making for some interesting twitchiness. You really had to be reserved in throttle application, especially coming out of corners – and those of you who know the place, can you guess how many turns there are on a typical trail leg? But for the most part I had to crank it to the stop often as 2strk was always there when I looked back – he’s awfully good on that KTM.
We stopped at the MX track to view from a distance, but it appeared to be a small turnout for the day. The water truck made two passes on the kid’s track, and the driver was nice enough to stop and suggest we come in to watch, although we’d have to park our bikes near the entrance and hike in to the track. Thanks, but we’d be on our way.
The big Placelast loop was pretty much uneventful (nonetheless fun) other than having to click it up a gear to give 2strk his money’s worth. Some of the trails he’d been on before, and he said it looked quite different than when he was there last. One was Backbone Trail – it looked paved and had “blue groove” written on it! I mixed it up with some spurs between the scrub oaks and manzanitas for excitement.
Back at the trucks we snacked and decided to do a second loop in the forest at higher elevations. The parking lot was now full. We swapped bikes because I wanted him to get a feel for my off-idle jetting glitch.
His 250 e/xc is certainly an enduro mount par excellent: mighty fine torque-wise, and I take back everything I ever said or thought about ‘zokes and WP shocks. Well, at least until I did a nose landing off of a jump (dumb a$$ move), and then I went and did this hillclimb – once I crested, I failed to make a quick RH turn to the top, laid it over. WARNING: do not swap bikes with Placelast! I figured I had better give it back to its owner before any more humiliating situations occur…
The gates to the national forest trails were locked, with signs stating they were closed to the public. With that, we did some twisties on the west side of the valley. And a visit on the west side is not complete without passing by the portal of doom, leading to The Place. Funny – well, better yet: erie, how when we pulled nearby there was this hush in the air. Spooky. Then out of nowhere came the winds. Wooooshhhhhh, woooooosssshshhhh – trees leaning one way, then another. I glanced at 2strk, he at me and without saying a word we knew it was time to leave this place. Like now…and whilst I write, me trembles at the thought!
We did even more of the twisties on the west, then it was back to camp to call it a day. But not without me bumming his “feel” for jetting. He even turned most of the wrenches. Whattaguy. I ended up going down one size on the pilot; him thinking perhaps two would do eventually. I offered to wash his bike on the spot, as mine was awaiting, but he kindly refused, and upon loading up, another fine day of riding came to a close.
We beat the rangers to the early-morning opening, and had the parking lot to ourselves. It was a bit chilly, but we though it would be a warm day and suited up accordingly.
The soil was back to its pre-winter storm conditions: hard pack with a loose topping, making for some interesting twitchiness. You really had to be reserved in throttle application, especially coming out of corners – and those of you who know the place, can you guess how many turns there are on a typical trail leg? But for the most part I had to crank it to the stop often as 2strk was always there when I looked back – he’s awfully good on that KTM.
We stopped at the MX track to view from a distance, but it appeared to be a small turnout for the day. The water truck made two passes on the kid’s track, and the driver was nice enough to stop and suggest we come in to watch, although we’d have to park our bikes near the entrance and hike in to the track. Thanks, but we’d be on our way.
The big Placelast loop was pretty much uneventful (nonetheless fun) other than having to click it up a gear to give 2strk his money’s worth. Some of the trails he’d been on before, and he said it looked quite different than when he was there last. One was Backbone Trail – it looked paved and had “blue groove” written on it! I mixed it up with some spurs between the scrub oaks and manzanitas for excitement.
Back at the trucks we snacked and decided to do a second loop in the forest at higher elevations. The parking lot was now full. We swapped bikes because I wanted him to get a feel for my off-idle jetting glitch.
His 250 e/xc is certainly an enduro mount par excellent: mighty fine torque-wise, and I take back everything I ever said or thought about ‘zokes and WP shocks. Well, at least until I did a nose landing off of a jump (dumb a$$ move), and then I went and did this hillclimb – once I crested, I failed to make a quick RH turn to the top, laid it over. WARNING: do not swap bikes with Placelast! I figured I had better give it back to its owner before any more humiliating situations occur…
The gates to the national forest trails were locked, with signs stating they were closed to the public. With that, we did some twisties on the west side of the valley. And a visit on the west side is not complete without passing by the portal of doom, leading to The Place. Funny – well, better yet: erie, how when we pulled nearby there was this hush in the air. Spooky. Then out of nowhere came the winds. Wooooshhhhhh, woooooosssshshhhh – trees leaning one way, then another. I glanced at 2strk, he at me and without saying a word we knew it was time to leave this place. Like now…and whilst I write, me trembles at the thought!
We did even more of the twisties on the west, then it was back to camp to call it a day. But not without me bumming his “feel” for jetting. He even turned most of the wrenches. Whattaguy. I ended up going down one size on the pilot; him thinking perhaps two would do eventually. I offered to wash his bike on the spot, as mine was awaiting, but he kindly refused, and upon loading up, another fine day of riding came to a close.
