Before I get started in this EPIC ADVENTURE there are a couple things that need clarification. First of all – the amount of time it took me to get the photo’s from the developer is totally explainable – notice the first pic on this page and this should explain it all – they couldn’t get a good development because of the (reason circled) :rotfl: Can you imagine that – the Film got HOT or HUMID!! How about DESERT heat and then dunked in a river bed – ohhhh man, you had to have been there – surely KIWI and MrLucky will appreciate that little notation that came with my pics!! Also on this first page is a shot of the Two WINNERS that made this trip something that I will NEVER FORGET!! YOU GUYS ARE THE BEST OF THE BEST!! THANKS KIWI FOR EVERYTHING and THANKS ED FOR GOING ALONG WITH US!!
An Epic Adventure Of Kiwibird Proportion - A Woodsy Trail Report!
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In my relatively short lifetime I have developed a few personal “rules” that I live/ride by. One of these simple rules is to always take a couple extra minutes to say “howdy” to the fellow(s) on the scoot next to you – you never know who is under that other helmet!!
Not to long ago I made application of that very rule and discovered that the person under the other helmet was actually a neighbor/friend of mine out enjoying an afternoon on his quad..
After laughing about some old times together Bruce (the guy under the helmet) disclosed to me that he had given my name to a “new person” in the area as a prospect for employment as a truck driver. It seems that this individual that Bruce had just met was looking for a professional driver to drive out to LA to haul some personal items back to Michigan for him.. I ended up with the job J
After completing the first haul for Stephen I was offered a second run – one involving flying back out to LA and driving home an empty 1971 Ford Straight Axle that, although it had been prepared for the trip, ended up being a HUGE challenge/adventure in and of itself – those of you that know me KNOW that I am always looking for adventure!!
I asked the person I was driving for about just paying me for the flight ticket and applying the money toward a “bike trip” out to LA – the intent being to load my scoot up in the truck after riding it out and driving the truck home with it in it. Stephen liked that idea (said “you are very creative aren’t you?”) and said go for it!! I tried to get several people to go along but couldn’t convince anyone of the sanity of such a thing (riding a TTR225 across America for 3 or 4 thousand miles doesn’t appeal to everyone I guess). Mentioning the “trip” on DRN did result in something else though.. A person out in the Los Angeles area – screen named “KIWIBIRD” - responded to my post with an offer for “lunch” or even possibly a ride while I was out there.
Of course I grabbed right on to the opportunity to meet a fellow dirtbiker out in California – a person can NEVER have to many buddies you know!!
A pre-trip introductory phone conversation with KIWI went something like this:
KIWI answering phone: Gooday mate
Me: Hi its Woodsy – how you doing?
Kiwi: alls well – have you got boots?
Me: Yea, I got boots but I was gonna just leave them home (I was thinking that because of all the nonsense that I had heard about Californian’s not having any place left to actually DIRT RIDE that KIWI’s offer was going to be a “dual sport” thingy around LA or something)
Kiwi: well, I have an extra set of 10’s you can squeeze into (glad I didn’t take you up on that offer KIWI!! Can you imagine going thru what we went thru with the wrong size boots on?)
Me: you don’t have to do that KIWI – I will just wear my tennis shoes.
Kiwi: Nahh Mate, you don’t wanna do that!
Kiwi: have you got a Camelback?
Me: I haven’t found need of one – I usually just carry a bottle of water with me (having long ago worn out my “mustard” water bottle).
Kiwi: that’s ok too, I have an extra one you can use.
Me (after getting the picture that this guy may very well be talking about more then a 15 minute dual sport ride): I know, I will just throw my gear bag on the plane! I really appreciate you doing this KIWI – even if I just ride an XR100 for a bit I would be thrilled!
Kiwi: I am putting you on my Gas Gas 300 mate.
Me (very excited cause I have ALWAYS wanted to ride a Gas Gas): Sounds like fun!
Kiwi: See you soon mate!!
As far as riding the bike out alone my wife and common sense won out and I waved goodbye as I climbed on the jet, gear bagged checked and away I went!
A friend named Tony picked me up at Burbank airport. I had met Tony on my last trip to LA and we had really hit it off. Back when he was 14 Tony had migrated to our country, worked VERY hard and was now a VERY successful businessman! He has a gorgeous home that he pretty much has built with his own two hands. He lives with his precious family in the LA area and runs a Custom Woodworking Business.
Tony asked if I was hungry as I climbed into his truck after a 14 hour day of flying. I responded to his question with “only if we can go to a TRULY Mexican food place! My good friend treated me to a FANTASTIC Mexican dinner complete with REAL Mexican’s playing REAL Mexican music and these same Mexican’s wearing REAL Mexican musician clothing and hats! It was UNFORGETTABLE!!
The next day, just before I headed down to KIWI’s house, Tony presented me with a very cool Mexican “rope” belt that just happened to fit me PERFECTLY!! I will ALWAYS treasure the gift and never forget how special my friend Tony is!!
Driving a 1971 Studio Truck through LA turned out to be pretty exciting. I ground a few gears, tried to remember if I had reattatched the lever that held down the tilt cab after I checked the oil just before I left Tony’s ands pulled into the store parking lot where KIWI said he would meet me.
After talking to the store owner about leaving the truck parked in his lot for few hours KIWI picked me up and took me to his “pad”. A virtual paridise for the single man!! This guy lives not to far from Thousand Oaks (according to my internal compass) and WOW what a place!!
Shortly after I pulled in MrLucky (DRN screen name) came in. We chatted about tomorrows ride. I slowly put it together that these guys had MUCH more then a flip around the LA area planned for ol Woodsy. By examining KIWI’s machines and the seriousness of his really cool work shop I surmised that I was in wayyyyyyy deep!! Of course I remembered the many, many times that I had created havoc with unsuspecting riders back in Michigan and figured that anything that Kiwi did to me the next day I probably somehow deserved so I just acted normal, got all geeky and DRUELED over the Gas Gas that Kiwi was crazy enough to let me get my little bike craving hands on J))
We unloaded Eds bike from his truck in preparation for loading it into Kiwi’s truck. About then is when Jonathen shows up – he is a professional drummer and had some exotic musical instrument (something from somewhere that you cant get to from Michigan). He proceeded to pound out some REALLY cool tunes.. One bottle led to another and before long we had forgotten all about cleaning air filters and decided to check out Jon’s new Porshe instead.. MAN WHAT A CAR!!!! I think I should have stuck with my drumming lessons when I was a kid!!!
Along around 6ish it dawned on me that the “Mojave” that Kiwi had been talking about riding the next day was “on the other side of the mountains” from LA. I explained to the guys that it might not be a bad idea for me to meet them in Mojave the next morning and to drive out there tonight.. I mean, could you imagine trying to drive thru the A.M. L.A. traffic in a 1971 Studio Truck with a top speed of 50 mph?? The fellas agreed and gave me some directions and away I went..
Let me see if I can remember some of those directions..
Get to I-5 and go thru a tunnel – OPPSSSS, I missed that and had to take a detour – never did find the tunnel but did finally get onto 14 going toward Mojave.
Watch for the “Aqua Duct” while driving thru – didn’t see no duct but I did see a HUGE river with a cement bottom – fasinating!
Keep and eye out for Avenue S which stands for “sysmic activity” cause that’s where the “fault” runs thru – WOOOOO baby – talk about whoop teeee dooooosss!!! I drove around that little valley for a while just checking out the landscape! We got nothing like this in Michigan for sure!!
Past Windmill city – couldn’t miss those if I wanted too!
Yep, there is the Edwards airbase where they land the space shuttle and here comes the little town of Mojave with a little mountain range wayyyyyy off in the distance.. Quaint little town with a touch of the ol west still in its blood! My kinda place!
I drove to the end of town and found the restaurant we were suppose to meet after the next moon setting (I have been in the west long enough that my Indian heritage is starting to take over). I rounded the corner near the restaurant and noticed a fine little Motel 6 directly across the street from the eatery.. I pulled into the “6” – got a room, chatted with a fellow trucker for a while.. Guys name was “Halverson” and come to find out he rode the Baja and the FAMOUS Vegas to Barstow back it the old days.. He was telling me stories about Malcomb and the gang – not sure whether they were real or not but hey, I told him about riding with Steve Mcqueen so we’re even – I LOVE bench racing!!
Anyway, I meandered (that’s what REAL Indians do) over to “Primos” (the restaurant) to see if they were as good as KIWI had stated they were. Yeppers, seems like KIWI not only knows his way around bikes but also knows where the good food is – anyone getting into Mojave needs to give these folks a shot – man I was STUFFED!!!
Hit the sack making a mental note to call KIWI at 7 am. Woke up 4 or 5 times during the night totally geeked about what was about to happen!! The sky finally got bright and I called KIWI. He said something on the phone that sounded like this “Hello”. I said, “lets ride”. He said something like “its 6 here mate”. I said, “oh, sorry about that, lets ride anyway”. He said “OK, see ya soon”. I chuckled not realizing that waking up a New Zeelander before your suppose to could be setting yourself up for a vengefully hair raising adventure during the next 24 hours!!
KIWI and Ed met me right on time, loaded my gear and we had a SUPER breakfast at Primos. Headed attaway (Indian talk for “man I hope someone knows where we are going”). After we passed the GENUINE Honda Testing Grounds the Mountians in the distance starting getting closer and closer – and bigger and BIGGER!! Pretty soon I realized that my old worn out Michigan backside was FINALLY going to get to actually do some REAL mountain motorcycle riding and that this was NOT a DREAM!!
We pulled into the ranger station at Jawbone (gotta LOVE that name folks), picked up a OHV sticker (yep guys – they got them out there too) and headed out.. We passed several “fishing holes” that looked pretty good to me but KIWI had other accommodations in mind. Seems that this Bird knows his way around these parts and wants to cut out a bunch of “simple stuff” that would only get in the way of the more serious minded dirtrider.
We ended up somewhere in the Piute Mountains somewhere between Mojave and Oregon, unloaded the bikes, took a couple of quick pics, got dressed and started to start the bikes.. Then I decided that adding gas to the bikes probably wouldn’t be a bad idea – come on Woodsy – get over the GEEKS will ya!! Take at look at the first pic and tell me you cant see TRUE total GEEKNESS in those eyes!!! :laugh:
Heading up into the mountains felt a lot like heading onto the trail here in Michigan – some pretty good sized whoops, some small up hills and then some more whoops and then a few boulders here and there and then some erosion that I tried to climb out of and then a front end washing out because the sides of the erosion are not Michigan sand but more like Asphalt with Silicon Sand lightly sprinkled on top to make a VERY slippery surface.. I remember looking up and seeing this clittery stuff all over in the air and thinking to myself – “we’re not in Michiagn anymore Doe-Doe”. About 3 miles ahead and we were going up this HUGE uphill (they doent have uphills – they have mountains so when I say huge uphill its really a small mountain). I rev up the Gas Gas and learn that even a 300 Gas Gas will hookup and toss you side ways if you give it a chance.. Now it didn’t bite like my KX500 would and crush me on its way down but it did set me sideways enough that I was taught a lesson in RESPECT for the Gas Gas that I needed to learn..
After about an hour of ripping around in fairly easy terrain I began to lose the arm pump and started getting comfortable on this really cool bike.. I started getting beyond the geekness of being dirtriding in a foreign land with foreigners (eay mate) and started focusing on the ride.. I found the Gaser to be VERY user friendly, an EXCELLENT lenier powerband and very nimble – not to distant to a KDX that I had spent MANY hours on in years past. The motor had an EXTREMELY solid pull right off the bottom and just kept on pulling right to the top! NO “normal” 2 stroke “hit” that you had to stay on the edge off to be ready to wheelie over an obstacle – just twist and lift a little in the higher gears and it would grunt its way up and over! WAYYYYYY COOOOOLLL scoot there KIWI – a true PLEASURE to ride!!
We cruised around riding the (cough cough) “easy stuff” for a couple hours. Some AWESOME up and down mountain sweepers and down right sinister boulder climbing. KIWI took us to a really cool old cabin up in the mountains. We got snooping around a little and you will NEVER guess what I found outside of the cabin.. Go ahead – take your best shot and then check out the attached pic and see if you can figure out why the heck anybody would want those things in up in the mountains which are located out in the Desert…
Not to long ago I made application of that very rule and discovered that the person under the other helmet was actually a neighbor/friend of mine out enjoying an afternoon on his quad..
After laughing about some old times together Bruce (the guy under the helmet) disclosed to me that he had given my name to a “new person” in the area as a prospect for employment as a truck driver. It seems that this individual that Bruce had just met was looking for a professional driver to drive out to LA to haul some personal items back to Michigan for him.. I ended up with the job J
After completing the first haul for Stephen I was offered a second run – one involving flying back out to LA and driving home an empty 1971 Ford Straight Axle that, although it had been prepared for the trip, ended up being a HUGE challenge/adventure in and of itself – those of you that know me KNOW that I am always looking for adventure!!
I asked the person I was driving for about just paying me for the flight ticket and applying the money toward a “bike trip” out to LA – the intent being to load my scoot up in the truck after riding it out and driving the truck home with it in it. Stephen liked that idea (said “you are very creative aren’t you?”) and said go for it!! I tried to get several people to go along but couldn’t convince anyone of the sanity of such a thing (riding a TTR225 across America for 3 or 4 thousand miles doesn’t appeal to everyone I guess). Mentioning the “trip” on DRN did result in something else though.. A person out in the Los Angeles area – screen named “KIWIBIRD” - responded to my post with an offer for “lunch” or even possibly a ride while I was out there.
Of course I grabbed right on to the opportunity to meet a fellow dirtbiker out in California – a person can NEVER have to many buddies you know!!
A pre-trip introductory phone conversation with KIWI went something like this:
KIWI answering phone: Gooday mate
Me: Hi its Woodsy – how you doing?
Kiwi: alls well – have you got boots?
Me: Yea, I got boots but I was gonna just leave them home (I was thinking that because of all the nonsense that I had heard about Californian’s not having any place left to actually DIRT RIDE that KIWI’s offer was going to be a “dual sport” thingy around LA or something)
Kiwi: well, I have an extra set of 10’s you can squeeze into (glad I didn’t take you up on that offer KIWI!! Can you imagine going thru what we went thru with the wrong size boots on?)
Me: you don’t have to do that KIWI – I will just wear my tennis shoes.
Kiwi: Nahh Mate, you don’t wanna do that!
Kiwi: have you got a Camelback?
Me: I haven’t found need of one – I usually just carry a bottle of water with me (having long ago worn out my “mustard” water bottle).
Kiwi: that’s ok too, I have an extra one you can use.
Me (after getting the picture that this guy may very well be talking about more then a 15 minute dual sport ride): I know, I will just throw my gear bag on the plane! I really appreciate you doing this KIWI – even if I just ride an XR100 for a bit I would be thrilled!
Kiwi: I am putting you on my Gas Gas 300 mate.
Me (very excited cause I have ALWAYS wanted to ride a Gas Gas): Sounds like fun!
Kiwi: See you soon mate!!
As far as riding the bike out alone my wife and common sense won out and I waved goodbye as I climbed on the jet, gear bagged checked and away I went!
A friend named Tony picked me up at Burbank airport. I had met Tony on my last trip to LA and we had really hit it off. Back when he was 14 Tony had migrated to our country, worked VERY hard and was now a VERY successful businessman! He has a gorgeous home that he pretty much has built with his own two hands. He lives with his precious family in the LA area and runs a Custom Woodworking Business.
Tony asked if I was hungry as I climbed into his truck after a 14 hour day of flying. I responded to his question with “only if we can go to a TRULY Mexican food place! My good friend treated me to a FANTASTIC Mexican dinner complete with REAL Mexican’s playing REAL Mexican music and these same Mexican’s wearing REAL Mexican musician clothing and hats! It was UNFORGETTABLE!!
The next day, just before I headed down to KIWI’s house, Tony presented me with a very cool Mexican “rope” belt that just happened to fit me PERFECTLY!! I will ALWAYS treasure the gift and never forget how special my friend Tony is!!
Driving a 1971 Studio Truck through LA turned out to be pretty exciting. I ground a few gears, tried to remember if I had reattatched the lever that held down the tilt cab after I checked the oil just before I left Tony’s ands pulled into the store parking lot where KIWI said he would meet me.
After talking to the store owner about leaving the truck parked in his lot for few hours KIWI picked me up and took me to his “pad”. A virtual paridise for the single man!! This guy lives not to far from Thousand Oaks (according to my internal compass) and WOW what a place!!
Shortly after I pulled in MrLucky (DRN screen name) came in. We chatted about tomorrows ride. I slowly put it together that these guys had MUCH more then a flip around the LA area planned for ol Woodsy. By examining KIWI’s machines and the seriousness of his really cool work shop I surmised that I was in wayyyyyyy deep!! Of course I remembered the many, many times that I had created havoc with unsuspecting riders back in Michigan and figured that anything that Kiwi did to me the next day I probably somehow deserved so I just acted normal, got all geeky and DRUELED over the Gas Gas that Kiwi was crazy enough to let me get my little bike craving hands on J))
We unloaded Eds bike from his truck in preparation for loading it into Kiwi’s truck. About then is when Jonathen shows up – he is a professional drummer and had some exotic musical instrument (something from somewhere that you cant get to from Michigan). He proceeded to pound out some REALLY cool tunes.. One bottle led to another and before long we had forgotten all about cleaning air filters and decided to check out Jon’s new Porshe instead.. MAN WHAT A CAR!!!! I think I should have stuck with my drumming lessons when I was a kid!!!
Along around 6ish it dawned on me that the “Mojave” that Kiwi had been talking about riding the next day was “on the other side of the mountains” from LA. I explained to the guys that it might not be a bad idea for me to meet them in Mojave the next morning and to drive out there tonight.. I mean, could you imagine trying to drive thru the A.M. L.A. traffic in a 1971 Studio Truck with a top speed of 50 mph?? The fellas agreed and gave me some directions and away I went..
Let me see if I can remember some of those directions..
Get to I-5 and go thru a tunnel – OPPSSSS, I missed that and had to take a detour – never did find the tunnel but did finally get onto 14 going toward Mojave.
Watch for the “Aqua Duct” while driving thru – didn’t see no duct but I did see a HUGE river with a cement bottom – fasinating!
Keep and eye out for Avenue S which stands for “sysmic activity” cause that’s where the “fault” runs thru – WOOOOO baby – talk about whoop teeee dooooosss!!! I drove around that little valley for a while just checking out the landscape! We got nothing like this in Michigan for sure!!
Past Windmill city – couldn’t miss those if I wanted too!
Yep, there is the Edwards airbase where they land the space shuttle and here comes the little town of Mojave with a little mountain range wayyyyyy off in the distance.. Quaint little town with a touch of the ol west still in its blood! My kinda place!
I drove to the end of town and found the restaurant we were suppose to meet after the next moon setting (I have been in the west long enough that my Indian heritage is starting to take over). I rounded the corner near the restaurant and noticed a fine little Motel 6 directly across the street from the eatery.. I pulled into the “6” – got a room, chatted with a fellow trucker for a while.. Guys name was “Halverson” and come to find out he rode the Baja and the FAMOUS Vegas to Barstow back it the old days.. He was telling me stories about Malcomb and the gang – not sure whether they were real or not but hey, I told him about riding with Steve Mcqueen so we’re even – I LOVE bench racing!!
Anyway, I meandered (that’s what REAL Indians do) over to “Primos” (the restaurant) to see if they were as good as KIWI had stated they were. Yeppers, seems like KIWI not only knows his way around bikes but also knows where the good food is – anyone getting into Mojave needs to give these folks a shot – man I was STUFFED!!!
Hit the sack making a mental note to call KIWI at 7 am. Woke up 4 or 5 times during the night totally geeked about what was about to happen!! The sky finally got bright and I called KIWI. He said something on the phone that sounded like this “Hello”. I said, “lets ride”. He said something like “its 6 here mate”. I said, “oh, sorry about that, lets ride anyway”. He said “OK, see ya soon”. I chuckled not realizing that waking up a New Zeelander before your suppose to could be setting yourself up for a vengefully hair raising adventure during the next 24 hours!!
KIWI and Ed met me right on time, loaded my gear and we had a SUPER breakfast at Primos. Headed attaway (Indian talk for “man I hope someone knows where we are going”). After we passed the GENUINE Honda Testing Grounds the Mountians in the distance starting getting closer and closer – and bigger and BIGGER!! Pretty soon I realized that my old worn out Michigan backside was FINALLY going to get to actually do some REAL mountain motorcycle riding and that this was NOT a DREAM!!
We pulled into the ranger station at Jawbone (gotta LOVE that name folks), picked up a OHV sticker (yep guys – they got them out there too) and headed out.. We passed several “fishing holes” that looked pretty good to me but KIWI had other accommodations in mind. Seems that this Bird knows his way around these parts and wants to cut out a bunch of “simple stuff” that would only get in the way of the more serious minded dirtrider.
We ended up somewhere in the Piute Mountains somewhere between Mojave and Oregon, unloaded the bikes, took a couple of quick pics, got dressed and started to start the bikes.. Then I decided that adding gas to the bikes probably wouldn’t be a bad idea – come on Woodsy – get over the GEEKS will ya!! Take at look at the first pic and tell me you cant see TRUE total GEEKNESS in those eyes!!! :laugh:
Heading up into the mountains felt a lot like heading onto the trail here in Michigan – some pretty good sized whoops, some small up hills and then some more whoops and then a few boulders here and there and then some erosion that I tried to climb out of and then a front end washing out because the sides of the erosion are not Michigan sand but more like Asphalt with Silicon Sand lightly sprinkled on top to make a VERY slippery surface.. I remember looking up and seeing this clittery stuff all over in the air and thinking to myself – “we’re not in Michiagn anymore Doe-Doe”. About 3 miles ahead and we were going up this HUGE uphill (they doent have uphills – they have mountains so when I say huge uphill its really a small mountain). I rev up the Gas Gas and learn that even a 300 Gas Gas will hookup and toss you side ways if you give it a chance.. Now it didn’t bite like my KX500 would and crush me on its way down but it did set me sideways enough that I was taught a lesson in RESPECT for the Gas Gas that I needed to learn..
After about an hour of ripping around in fairly easy terrain I began to lose the arm pump and started getting comfortable on this really cool bike.. I started getting beyond the geekness of being dirtriding in a foreign land with foreigners (eay mate) and started focusing on the ride.. I found the Gaser to be VERY user friendly, an EXCELLENT lenier powerband and very nimble – not to distant to a KDX that I had spent MANY hours on in years past. The motor had an EXTREMELY solid pull right off the bottom and just kept on pulling right to the top! NO “normal” 2 stroke “hit” that you had to stay on the edge off to be ready to wheelie over an obstacle – just twist and lift a little in the higher gears and it would grunt its way up and over! WAYYYYYY COOOOOLLL scoot there KIWI – a true PLEASURE to ride!!
We cruised around riding the (cough cough) “easy stuff” for a couple hours. Some AWESOME up and down mountain sweepers and down right sinister boulder climbing. KIWI took us to a really cool old cabin up in the mountains. We got snooping around a little and you will NEVER guess what I found outside of the cabin.. Go ahead – take your best shot and then check out the attached pic and see if you can figure out why the heck anybody would want those things in up in the mountains which are located out in the Desert…
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After the Cabin showing we did a little more climbing and our guide took me over and showed me the PERFECT place to bring some friends to camp for a week while riding the area.. I could NEVER find it again but it sure was pretty – it had a HUGE fire ring, picnic table and even some fresh mountain water near by!
Sometime not to long after the campground ride KIWI announced that he was taking us into an area that was a little more difficult – I distinctly remember him saying that “there is a harder way – keep that in mind”.. We went thru some pretty technical stuff, some fast paced stuff and an area that reminded me a lot of home – kinda piney with some roots and black soil – REAL FUN on the Gas Gas!! After that little rip is when the fun began! The first pic is of some of the technical boulder stuff that KIWI led us thru to get into the area that you are about to read about. Also the second is a shot of the stuff we went thru to get into to area of the beginning shot on this page - notice how the terrain is changing in not only BOULDERS but also steepness!
I all of a sudden found myself going down into an UNBELIEVABLE Canyon area that was second to nothing I had ever seen in beauty. Its shear ruggedness was like NOTHING I had ever seen before, much less ridden! We were decending at a VERY rapid rate, LOTS of vertical drops, climbing over huge boulders and fighting off bushes with 1 ½ in thorns sticking out of them that could EASILY go thru a boot or a tire!! Then the switchbacks started!! NOTHING like the fun switchbacks that I LOVE to rip thru here in Michigan – here in my home state it is a RIOT to see who can rip thru those bar twisters the fastest and not get tangled in the Pine Trees doing it..
I come to the first one of these switchbacks on the decent and found my front tire about 10 inches from a vertical drop of 40 feet or so!!! The switchback was so tight that the bike would NO WAY corner around it without lifting the back of the bike up and placing in line with the trail on the other side of the switchback.. Further more, unlike Michigan where TREES are the pivot point by which most switchbacks are formed – on the side of that mountain BOULDERS and CACTUS and bushes with SPRING LOADED tentacles that had HUGE stingers on the end of them were what formed the pivot point of most switchbacks. Of course ANY idiot would rather have a boot full of cactus then fall off a cliff so – as KIWI likes to commonly say, you just DEAL WITH IT!!!
Throughout this particular part of my epic adventure I discovered something very profound that I have NEVER faced before in all my years of riding! I have always been an “OK” rider and usually am quite able to at least keep most of the “pack” within hearing distance. As a matter of fact, back in my days of competing in Harescrambles and MX I won a lot of trophys. Being “fast” or at least on the same page as some of the fast guys always meant something special to me.. Well, I can honestly say that ALL that “pride” and self confidence was CHALLENGED by those California Mountains!! It honestly all went right out the window and was replaced with “RIDING TO STAY ALIVE!!”.
I used every trick in my book on that mountain side! I fought unbelievable odds (in the form of natures most rugged terrain) to STAY ALIVE WHILE RIDING A MOTORCYCLE – WHAT A THRILL – THANKS KIWI!!!!!
After we had been fighting our way down into the oblivion of this HUGE mountain range we came to this particular switchback. I recall my front tire hanging over the edge and looking down a 60 foot drop at all the pretty thorns just waiting to scour my body as I plummeted downward. Ed came up behind me on his KTM and I told him to try another path as the one I was on looked almost unpassable. Ed managed to squeeze around the inside of the bush that was forcing me off the cliff, planted a foot to make the switchback and the plant he had stepped on let go!!
Ed’s bike was instantly vertical with himself trying to catch himself from falling. I was stranded at the time with a life threatening situation so I was of no help. Somehow he managed to upright himself and then his bike and he was able to get by me and continue down the mountain. I finally got the Gas Gas realigned and squeezed by the switchback. Within about 20 minutes I was at the bottom of the mountain and met KIWI and MrLucky there in the “meadows”. WOW what a ride!!!!!! I bet I said WOW a million times on the way down – it was that AWESOME!!
About the time I shut the bike off I over heard Ed mention that his bike didn’t sound right. I looked down at his motor and notice an aweful lot of oil on the it. I asked what it sounded like and Ed started it for me to hear.. Oh yea, noisy as all get out in the top end – it was rattling pretty badly! We decided to keep going (you had to have been there – there was NOTHING else to do BUT keep going – and try to get out of these Canyons and to the other side of the mountain range.
Shortly after we passed thru the meadow area at the mountain foothills we turned and proceeded up a canyon. The pathway was basically a creekbed with what appeared to be a bike trail running back and forth thru the creek. As we proceeded up the creek we were gaining elevation and it seemed that the Canyon walls were getting steeper.. The brush was real thick from the water source which at time made the creekbed the only pathway to ride on. The creek was about 20 inches wide and MANY time we were pushing brush with the bars to get thru it.. Keep in mind that we had been riding all day at this point so we were a little tired (hahahah), low on water and questioning our gas supply also (thank goodness the creekbed was cool). We came to this spot that had a 2 foot log fallen down across the creek. The log was also about 2 feet off the ground which created a little teamwork opportunity to get the bikes over. We all pitched in and, after getting KIWI’s KTM stuck on the footpeg, managed to get all the bikes over the impass – whew, I was beginning to see a REAL Woodsy type adventure in the makings – the kind where you have to get the burnt squirrel out and spend the night!!!
We continued up the canyon – slowly but surely making our way upstream on the little creek. All of a sudden we were faced with a WATERFALL!!! It was massive (like Niagra) but it was definitely a good 5 foot of TOTALLY vertical rock! On the right side of the falls there was a little pathway that appeared to be a trail. Ed climbed the path and thought he found a spot about 40 feet up that if we could get the bikes to we may be able to continue. KIWI tried the climb but was unable to get up it.. I could tell that he was thinking about lifting the bikes up the falls next so I thought I would climb them first and see what was over the top.. What I found SHOCKED me!!
I climbed over – walked about 50 yards and found a half eaten prickly pear with some teeth marks about a half inch in diameter – I also found BEAR crap all over the place!!! A little further down the trail I found a CAT track that measured a little over 3 ½ inches!!! Oh yea, it was FRESH – very well defined!!!
I got a little inquisitive about the pathway that Ed had followed up the canyon wall and decided to climb all the way up and see what that trail looked like up there.. I did and found nothing but animal tracks on the path – with lots more BEAR crap!!!!
I went back down and made the announcement to the guys that we were defintily not on a bike trail. I also made a pretty good presentation on the fact that this particular canyon was probably not where we would want to spend the night if we had to camp out.. The decision was agreed upon – turn around and see if we could find the bike trail!!
KIWI headed out, Ed told me that he had refilled his Camelback with creek water just in case. I thought that was an excellent idea so I headed to the waterfall to refill my empty water bottles that I was packing out.. About the time I bent over to begin filling the bottles (watching over my shoulders as I did so – if a mountain lion was going to eat me I was going to be looking him right in the eyes) I heard an AWEFUL sound come from Eds bike down around the corner of the trail. I thought it was just a slide against a boulder or something but I was to soon find out it was WAYYYYYYY more then that!!
After I geared up and started the bike I rode about 100 yards and found Ed looking at his bike – he was putting something shiny in his back pack. I rode up and said whats up. He pointed down at his engine and said look.. I immediately noticed a fracture in the front of the casing of epic proportion! It looked as though the counter balance shaft had sheared and split thru the case halves (that is IF a KTM400SX has a counterbalance shaft in it – I have never rebuilt one). At any rate, Mr.Lucky’s bike was defintily out of LUCK!!
Sometime not to long after the campground ride KIWI announced that he was taking us into an area that was a little more difficult – I distinctly remember him saying that “there is a harder way – keep that in mind”.. We went thru some pretty technical stuff, some fast paced stuff and an area that reminded me a lot of home – kinda piney with some roots and black soil – REAL FUN on the Gas Gas!! After that little rip is when the fun began! The first pic is of some of the technical boulder stuff that KIWI led us thru to get into the area that you are about to read about. Also the second is a shot of the stuff we went thru to get into to area of the beginning shot on this page - notice how the terrain is changing in not only BOULDERS but also steepness!
I all of a sudden found myself going down into an UNBELIEVABLE Canyon area that was second to nothing I had ever seen in beauty. Its shear ruggedness was like NOTHING I had ever seen before, much less ridden! We were decending at a VERY rapid rate, LOTS of vertical drops, climbing over huge boulders and fighting off bushes with 1 ½ in thorns sticking out of them that could EASILY go thru a boot or a tire!! Then the switchbacks started!! NOTHING like the fun switchbacks that I LOVE to rip thru here in Michigan – here in my home state it is a RIOT to see who can rip thru those bar twisters the fastest and not get tangled in the Pine Trees doing it..
I come to the first one of these switchbacks on the decent and found my front tire about 10 inches from a vertical drop of 40 feet or so!!! The switchback was so tight that the bike would NO WAY corner around it without lifting the back of the bike up and placing in line with the trail on the other side of the switchback.. Further more, unlike Michigan where TREES are the pivot point by which most switchbacks are formed – on the side of that mountain BOULDERS and CACTUS and bushes with SPRING LOADED tentacles that had HUGE stingers on the end of them were what formed the pivot point of most switchbacks. Of course ANY idiot would rather have a boot full of cactus then fall off a cliff so – as KIWI likes to commonly say, you just DEAL WITH IT!!!
Throughout this particular part of my epic adventure I discovered something very profound that I have NEVER faced before in all my years of riding! I have always been an “OK” rider and usually am quite able to at least keep most of the “pack” within hearing distance. As a matter of fact, back in my days of competing in Harescrambles and MX I won a lot of trophys. Being “fast” or at least on the same page as some of the fast guys always meant something special to me.. Well, I can honestly say that ALL that “pride” and self confidence was CHALLENGED by those California Mountains!! It honestly all went right out the window and was replaced with “RIDING TO STAY ALIVE!!”.
I used every trick in my book on that mountain side! I fought unbelievable odds (in the form of natures most rugged terrain) to STAY ALIVE WHILE RIDING A MOTORCYCLE – WHAT A THRILL – THANKS KIWI!!!!!
After we had been fighting our way down into the oblivion of this HUGE mountain range we came to this particular switchback. I recall my front tire hanging over the edge and looking down a 60 foot drop at all the pretty thorns just waiting to scour my body as I plummeted downward. Ed came up behind me on his KTM and I told him to try another path as the one I was on looked almost unpassable. Ed managed to squeeze around the inside of the bush that was forcing me off the cliff, planted a foot to make the switchback and the plant he had stepped on let go!!
Ed’s bike was instantly vertical with himself trying to catch himself from falling. I was stranded at the time with a life threatening situation so I was of no help. Somehow he managed to upright himself and then his bike and he was able to get by me and continue down the mountain. I finally got the Gas Gas realigned and squeezed by the switchback. Within about 20 minutes I was at the bottom of the mountain and met KIWI and MrLucky there in the “meadows”. WOW what a ride!!!!!! I bet I said WOW a million times on the way down – it was that AWESOME!!
About the time I shut the bike off I over heard Ed mention that his bike didn’t sound right. I looked down at his motor and notice an aweful lot of oil on the it. I asked what it sounded like and Ed started it for me to hear.. Oh yea, noisy as all get out in the top end – it was rattling pretty badly! We decided to keep going (you had to have been there – there was NOTHING else to do BUT keep going – and try to get out of these Canyons and to the other side of the mountain range.
Shortly after we passed thru the meadow area at the mountain foothills we turned and proceeded up a canyon. The pathway was basically a creekbed with what appeared to be a bike trail running back and forth thru the creek. As we proceeded up the creek we were gaining elevation and it seemed that the Canyon walls were getting steeper.. The brush was real thick from the water source which at time made the creekbed the only pathway to ride on. The creek was about 20 inches wide and MANY time we were pushing brush with the bars to get thru it.. Keep in mind that we had been riding all day at this point so we were a little tired (hahahah), low on water and questioning our gas supply also (thank goodness the creekbed was cool). We came to this spot that had a 2 foot log fallen down across the creek. The log was also about 2 feet off the ground which created a little teamwork opportunity to get the bikes over. We all pitched in and, after getting KIWI’s KTM stuck on the footpeg, managed to get all the bikes over the impass – whew, I was beginning to see a REAL Woodsy type adventure in the makings – the kind where you have to get the burnt squirrel out and spend the night!!!
We continued up the canyon – slowly but surely making our way upstream on the little creek. All of a sudden we were faced with a WATERFALL!!! It was massive (like Niagra) but it was definitely a good 5 foot of TOTALLY vertical rock! On the right side of the falls there was a little pathway that appeared to be a trail. Ed climbed the path and thought he found a spot about 40 feet up that if we could get the bikes to we may be able to continue. KIWI tried the climb but was unable to get up it.. I could tell that he was thinking about lifting the bikes up the falls next so I thought I would climb them first and see what was over the top.. What I found SHOCKED me!!
I climbed over – walked about 50 yards and found a half eaten prickly pear with some teeth marks about a half inch in diameter – I also found BEAR crap all over the place!!! A little further down the trail I found a CAT track that measured a little over 3 ½ inches!!! Oh yea, it was FRESH – very well defined!!!
I got a little inquisitive about the pathway that Ed had followed up the canyon wall and decided to climb all the way up and see what that trail looked like up there.. I did and found nothing but animal tracks on the path – with lots more BEAR crap!!!!
I went back down and made the announcement to the guys that we were defintily not on a bike trail. I also made a pretty good presentation on the fact that this particular canyon was probably not where we would want to spend the night if we had to camp out.. The decision was agreed upon – turn around and see if we could find the bike trail!!
KIWI headed out, Ed told me that he had refilled his Camelback with creek water just in case. I thought that was an excellent idea so I headed to the waterfall to refill my empty water bottles that I was packing out.. About the time I bent over to begin filling the bottles (watching over my shoulders as I did so – if a mountain lion was going to eat me I was going to be looking him right in the eyes) I heard an AWEFUL sound come from Eds bike down around the corner of the trail. I thought it was just a slide against a boulder or something but I was to soon find out it was WAYYYYYYY more then that!!
After I geared up and started the bike I rode about 100 yards and found Ed looking at his bike – he was putting something shiny in his back pack. I rode up and said whats up. He pointed down at his engine and said look.. I immediately noticed a fracture in the front of the casing of epic proportion! It looked as though the counter balance shaft had sheared and split thru the case halves (that is IF a KTM400SX has a counterbalance shaft in it – I have never rebuilt one). At any rate, Mr.Lucky’s bike was defintily out of LUCK!!
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- Thread starter
- #4
That concludes this portion of my Ride Report being posted on the S. Cal site.. In the spirit of KIWI's "crossing over" to the Michigan Trail Riders site (located in the Eastern Chapters here on DRN) I am going to continue my article there.. PLEASE come over and fiinish the report and introduce yourself over there - NOTHING WRONG WITH MEETING NEW FRIENDS RIGHT KIWI?
THANKS FOR READING!!
THANKS FOR READING!!
I think ==> THIS<== is were the rest of the story is located (or is going to be located)
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- Thread starter
- #9
Ol'89r said:
I wish you could have been there too 89'r, misery loves company but PANIC thrives on it
Acutally (I think I can speak for Ed and KIWI on this) the 3 of us would have loved to had someone along with a spare bike in their tool bag - matter of fact, even a spare KTM motor wuold have been a welcome sight!!
THANKS FOR THE COMPLIMENTS ON THE REPORT FOLKS! :cool:
Woodsy
- Dec 1, 2004
- 1,091
- 0
I'm confused (which happens alot!).
Is the report finished? :ohmy: If not will it be finished here, or in the MI thread?
:think:
Is the report finished? :ohmy: If not will it be finished here, or in the MI thread?
:think:
- Thread starter
- #11
ChopperDave said:
Certainly not finished yet!! I have just been really busy the few days with work (ok, and some play too) but will continue with part 3 on this site soon!! I will make it absoulutely clear when the story is over so dont give up checking up on it!! Gotta LOVE you guys sharing in the excitement - THANKS FOR READING and not being critical about hte length of text!!
MAN WHAT A RIDE!!
Woodsy :ride:
- Dec 1, 2004
- 1,091
- 0
BTW, Woodsy, what was it you found at the cabin? I couldn't make it out in the picture!?! :think:
- Dec 1, 2004
- 1,091
- 0
Swim fins? Middle of the desert? :think:
Thats kinky right there, I don't care who you are!
Thats kinky right there, I don't care who you are!
- Thread starter
- #16
ChopperDave said:
EXACTLY DAVE - MY THOUGHT EXACTLY!! Kind of stuff "Epic Adventures" should include though wouldnt you say??
By the way Dave, Are you into old school chops?? I have one I am just finishing you should see if you are.. Let me know and I will post a pic for you! I am on my way over to MTR to post part 4 of the Adventure right now!! Keep reading - its all good stuff!!
