woodsy

~SPONSOR~
Mi. Trail Riders
Jan 16, 2002
2,933
1
PART 5:
Riding with Ed two up on a Gas Gas 300 thru the Piute Mountains in California was not much different then riding two up with Larry at Cedar Creek back home :) . Only back home it was my VOR that we had left in the woods and Larry was driving, this time it was myself who was doing the steering.. As Ed and I approached our first set of trail boulders that marked the possible beginning of another foot hike Ed yelled – “let me off, I have leg cramps”!! I stopped and asked if he would like to let me ride.. He said “lets try it”.. I found the same thing that Ed had found: Keeping ones feet off the ground while balancing on the back of a dirtbike after mountain climbing and dirtriding all day produced MAJOR cramping in my thighs! Then it started in lower legs and soon even my toes began to ache! After about 15 minutes of that nonsense I yelled at Ed to stop cause now I was in PAIN..
Our new found buddy and friend Greg had mentioned earlier that we may find that having the person on the rear place his feet on the pegs and then having the driver ride with his feet on top of the rearward riders feet may be found to be somewhat comfortable. We decided to try this method and, after 5 or 6 REAL close calls with some nasty bushes we perfected the technique! I found out that the Gaser would pull like a MULE in second gear even with 2 grown men on her back and that I didn’t have to downshift even at a crawl – THAT BIKE WAS AMAZING!!
IT seemed that as soon as we had mastered our 2 up technique and the riding began to get somewhat accomplishable the 2 up ride was over – we had crossed the Mountains summit and began our desent and the terrain had changed back to type “A” personality.., Hopefully our decent was in the right direction – one that was leading toward KIWI, Greg and a rally point at some KOA campground that we had discussed..
As I started my first turn at hiking I slid down a 3 foot vertical drop and found a narly looking hunk of root staring at me from the center of the trail. I picked the dried out piece of Cactus root up and it appeared to have the face of an old Indian in it.. It made me think of the Piute Indians and all the tough times they had to have had living in days passed. The woods NARLYNESS also made me think of the rugged – tough – unforgiving terrain that Kiwi, Ed and I had ventured through and that Ed and I were hiking thru at that moment. I crammed the 4 inch root into my ruck sack and brought it home with me as a momento of the now infamous KIWI RIDE – 1st pic on this page is of that root section..
As I climbed my way down to the parked bike at my first ride after the 2 up ride time the sun had long since disappeared over the mountain. The sky was clear and the lights of the town wayyyyyy off in the distance seemed to just stay that way.. Like I said in chapter four, it was very slow going – especially on foot.
I came to the parked bike, took a deep breath of fresh mountain air, flipped on my hat and started riding. Soon I passed Ed, stopped to see if all was well – rode on into some very more extremely bouldery downhill stuff. The kind of trail that was obviously made for some very skinny goats or mules – tight stuff with no room for falling – LITERALLY.. At one point, while doing an off camber downhill between such tight canyon walls, I put the bike side ways on loose boulder of about 18 inches in diameter (like riding over a big bowling ball – sideways). I fell into the canyon wall, the fall wasn’t really a fall though – it was more of a lean. I sat there with my shoulder resting against the rock wall and the bike leaning against me and started laughing. The thought went thru my mind that the very rock walls that could KILL you in one situation would save your hide in another..
I went out about another ten minutes or so and parked the biked for Ed. Having had a “bike rest” had invigorated yours truly I watched as the sky darkened even more and the most beautiful of stars possible began to appear..
As Ed started to passed me by I stopped him and told him that I had noticed that darkness was right on our tail! I said that I also noticed that we were not getting any moon so soon it was going to be REAL dark. I suggested that we put more distance between us so each one of us had at least a little light to walk by – all this with the hopes of getting the Gas Gas with a headlight in between us and, if necessary, I would ride upon him waiting in the trail and we would walk down by the light of the bike.
Ed agreed and he left on the bike to put some distance between us. Soon the bikes noise was completely gone and all that could be heard was air movement thru the mountains and an occasional bird coming to roost in the mountain brush – sounds serene doesn’t it?
If you think so – think again!! Think about walking all alone in the darkness with NO WHERE TO RUN because the ONLY possible travelable trail is the very trail you are walking on and know that there are meat eating animals in the area!! Now, about every other step you take something is in the bushes beside you rattling leaves and crunching the ground – SERENE IT WAS NOT!!
I, personally found that my helmet became my WEAPON!! I clutched the chin guard on my helmet with such fury that it probably still has finger holes inside of it. The intent being that if something jumped out I was going to club it like it had never been clubbed before.. Kind of like fighting a bunch of bullies back in Middle School – you may get beat up (or eaten in this case) but someone else was at least going to get a bloody nose to go home with (or back to the den). I found out later on the way back to the motel that Ed actually probably had the better idea of protection.. He also noticed the noises in the bushes and said he put his helmet on his head and strapped it on!! Figuring that the helmet would at least keep his head and face protected – KIWI said that in the event of a bear attack that the best plan is to bend over and kiss it goodbye cause Bears are BAD NEWS!! Glad we didn’t have to find out just how bad they really are!!
As total darkness set in and I was stumbling along thru the blindness I felt my way to the edge of a cliff. I could feel the cool air coming upward off its sheer edge and knew that I was as close to the edge as I wanted to get even though I couldn’t actually see it. I found myself experiencing something else totally new to me – BEING BLIND IN A VERY DANGEROUS PLACE!! Walking along in total darkness on a bike trail that is covered with rocks of all sizes with DEATH waiting one step away = the ULTIMATE mountain climb!! I crawled a little ways (yes – ON ALL FOUR) between some boulders and stopped to think for a second.. I couldn’t remember whether RATTLESNAKES liked to come out a night and cool off or if they liked to come out in the day time and warm up.. I still am not sure of the answer to that but after that thought went thru my mind I kept my hands and body as upright as possible and fiqured my boots would help if I stepped on one!!
After a longggg walk I fell over the Gas Gas blocking the trail in the darkness.. It kind of startled me but it was great to start it and actually see the terrain I had been stumbling in. I climbed aboard the scoot and started my vacation.. As I came to a particularly tight spot in the trail that included a very ominous switchback I almost followed a “fake trail” off the side of the mountain!!! I literally came to a “Y” in the trail – one direction went along the canyon edge and the other went OFF the edge!! I caught my breath, thought “now who in their right mind would ride off the edge of a cliff??” and rode on.. Soon enough I came to another one of these choices… This time I watched very closely for Knobby tracks hoping that KIWI was in front of me and that he had came thru in the daylight and chosen the correct trail.. Man that was a WEIRD feeling – the thought of almost driving off a cliff into TOTAL darkness is forever burned into my mind!!
As I approached 30 minutes or so on the bike I seen a very dim light shining on the trail in front of me.. Of course that peeked my curiousity to no end.. I rode up to it and it was Ed.. Seems MR Luckys luck had returned and that he had remembered to pack a tiny flashlight into his tool pouch “just in case”.. WAY TO GO ED!!!
I rode on and soon came to KIWI waiting for us in the darkness at the bottom of the mountain. KIWI said he was if this was a little more of an adventure then I had hoped for.. I said “NO WAY KIWI – the ONLY thing I am sorry about at all was Ed’s bike and that I had had the adventure of a life time!!” (and I meant it KIWI!!!).
Ed walked out of the willies like Patton at the Battle of the Bulge!!! WE DID IT!!!!!!! A little discussion about which way on the two track to go and we were off! I noticed right away that even the areas animal life was glad to see us – small “kangaroo mice” were everywhere on the roads!! We stopped for a second on one of the towns roads – got direction from a friendly and headed out to the main highway.
We got to the main highway and made a wrong turn (in Michigan known as a “woodsy turn”) – got about 1 mile away from the spot that we had made the turn and KIWI’s bike went on reserve.. Went about 2 miles, turned around and the Gas Gas went on reserve!! We had ridden all day long on these bikes, one tank of gas and they were just now running out?? Maybe it was the mountain air that gave them distance or the fact that most of the riding had been accomplished at much slower – albeit, much more technical, then the stuff I ride in Michigan but all the same.. ALL DAY ON A TANK OF GAS!!!!!
When we finally got to the rally point (KOA) it was real late.. I didn’t see any sign of Greg but was non the less VERY thankful for his directions!! About that time here came Greg walking out of the store/bar area of the KOA.. He walked over and announced that he was buying all of us something to drink! I went into the restroom – washed my face and almost drownded in the sink – drank a few gallons of water and went inside and had an ICE COLD 7 UP!!
Greg announced that he had brought back his truck to give all of us a ride back to our truck. KIWI announced that he was going to go ahead and ride his bike in, I wanted to but we had no oil for the Gas Gas so we loaded up the Gaser and headed back to the parking area..
Greg, Ed and I talked about the “open” areas that are rideable in California. I told those guys that I was nothing short of SHOCKED to find the AWESOME riding that KIWI had shown me that day. I was under the impression that California was basically closed up tighter then an mud clogged drain and that all this Green sticker/Red sticker stuff was a major issue.. Greg told me that he is part of a group that is fighting the greenies to keep these areas open for our use and that he also does a lot of trail maintenance – like putting in water bars… It was then that it all hit me!!
Those “trails” that I had almost followed off the edge of the mountain in the darkness were actually “waterbars” – placed there to keep the mountain trails from becoming nothing more then unrideable ditches from water run off!! Who says you cant teach old dogs new tricks?? This ol Dog sure learned something from all that!!!
We got back to the truck, loaded up the bikes into KIWI’s truck, said our goodbyes and THANKYOUS to Greg and headed toward Mojave/Motel 6.
The ride back was quiet at first.. All of us thinking about the day and the night!! We started chatting about how to get Eds bike out.. I suggested getting on here and asking how people in the past had done it.. I know that Kiwi, Ed and others finally did go back, got permission to cross some private land to access the area and were able to get Eds bike home (THANKFULLY) but I still would like to know how others have successfully gotten an injured bike out of the mountains like that?? Anybody??? I told KIWI that I am sure it had had to have happened before – MOTORS BLOW UP!!!! Just because your riding in a remote area that only has ONE WAY in and out doesn’t mean that motors don’t blow up!!
I, of course was still geeked all the way back about the day of riding. KIWI offered to unload the bike and go with me to burn the rest of the gas out of the Gaser on a short night ride! TO that I replied – “Some other time Kiwi – some other time!!!”..
BUT WAIT!! There is more.. On the way home from Califorinia I managed to:
1. Get the NON-AIRCONDITIONED truck up to 55 MPH on a huge down hill coming thru Arizona!
2. Lose clutch hydraulic pressure at the pedal in Gallop New Mexico.
3. Stall the truck on an exit ramp in Oklahoma City after I missed the turnpike exit – I was trying tro stay on the highway as much as possible because I was shifting the truck with NO CLUCTH!!
4. Sat on this exit ramp – uphill, foot on air brake and operating the throttle with the same foot, PUMPING THE DAYLIGHTS out of the clutch pedal trying to get a little clutch and trying to start the truck whiel 5 minutes of Oklahoma traffic backup behind me!
5. Another truck driver walked up to my window and said “I am going to back my rig up so you can coast down the ramp and get that thing out of the way – you have traffic all plugged up (he had cars all around him – I guess he was going to run them over!!) I said “OK” and shook my head (would have rolled up my window but it was 103 outside and I had no air – oh yea, pretty humid too)!!
6. As soon as truck driver left my truck it sputtered to life and I crammed it into creeper and crawled up the exit ramp – went across the bridge, parked the truck , tilted the cab forward and pulled the “BRAND NEW CAP” that the prep mechanic had installed with the “BRAND NEW POINTS” and found that the mechanic who did the install had apparently never worked on one of these “historical type trucks” because he had forgotten to put that little dab of grease on the distributor cam lobs and the lobs had fried the bakeolite off the points arm and the pieces of fragmented bakeolite had found their way in between the points - argggggggggg.. I cleaned the points with a dollar bill – stole a dab of grease form the front end – greased the lobs and headed North!!
7. While going north in Misery (think its actually spelled Missouri or something – help me here Ed) I passed by an OLD CHIMNY setting right next to the highway and thought “I gotta have a pic of that. Pulled off at the next exit and the truck died again – this time I was all alone, not blocking anyone.. Got out, tilted the cab forward, checked the points (old habits) and found them not opening at all – thought to myself that I was lucky they opened in the first place after losing all that bakeolite.. Reset the points to 20 thou with a business card (old trick) and the truck ran better then it did the whole trip!!!!
8. Went back and took a pic of the ol chimney – second pic on this page!! REALLY cool – picture shows that the chimney is right on the highway fence line so it has to be way older then the highway itself.. I picture it being there during the “Trail Of Tears” and maybe even earlier!
9. Ran OUT OF GAS (hey – don’t laugh – the old truck had NO Speedo, NO tach, NO dash lights, a gas gauge that worked just enough to keep you guessing) just after going around St. Louis. Coasted into a run down little motel and the motel owner sent me on a wild goose chase of a walk (about and extra 3 miles of walking OUT OF THE WAY) to get gas!! Thankfully some young lady pcicked me up at the station and gave me a ride back!!
10. HAD A SUPERB BREAKFAST WITH YOUNG TED AND CONNIE IN CHICAGO!!!!

Well, there you have it folks! The end of a great adventure – KIWI STYLE :boss: !! If you ever get a chance to ride with the likes of KIWI or Mr.Lucky you would do yourself a HUGE disservice (like my Michigan friends who whimped on me did) if you declined – just take an extra bike with you in your fanny pack and you’ll be fine!!!
Woodsy :ride:
Sorry, cant get the pics to upload but WILL very soon!!
 

2strok4fun

Member
Apr 6, 2002
1,085
1
Excellent read Woodsy!

Tho I have ridden with Kiwi, I managed to escape a "Epic Adventure". OK by me. I am still debating whether or not to let my wife read this story, I may be banned from future Kiwi rides? :O
 

JPIVEY

Sponsoring Member<br>Club Moderator
LIFETIME SPONSOR
Mar 9, 2001
3,180
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That was a fantastic story, and I think I'll stay away from Kiwi's wild rides.

I'd be doing a lot of this--------------------> :yikes:
 

KiwiBird

LIFETIME SPONSOR
Jan 30, 2000
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The ride was fine - it was the Death March ending that was so memorable.
 

woodsy

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Mi. Trail Riders
Jan 16, 2002
2,933
1
KiwiBird said:
The ride was fine - it was the Death March ending that was so memorable.

KIWI is just being VERY modest here folks!! The RIDE was UNBELIEVABLE, the beauty/tranquility/danger/ and sheer ruggedness of the mountains became alive/vivid thru the "death march" - tough YES but do-able and EXTREMELY positively challenging.. If you want to talk about "memorable" KIWI - it was YOU that made the whole adventure a truely FANTASTIC MEMORY that I will NEVER forget!! KIWI, do you remember that fallen log and how we busted over the top of it into the bush while going into KTM Canyon? Do you remember attempting that hill beside the water fall that you attempted to climb and, after finding it impassable announcing that we were going to have to go up the falls (you da MAN bro!!)? Do you remember how you VOLUNTAIRLY took Ed and I into areas of the Piutes that many people in our country will NEVER see because of its sheer ruggendness - and did it with the BIGGEST coolest grin on your face cause we were LOVING it just as much as you were??
To you KIWI I owe the biggest thank you known to man!! Epic Adventures do not happen everyday and for some folks they NEVER do happen! Because of you mate I had the MOST fantastic time of my life!! Would I do it all over again - EVERY part - including the infamous "death march" - except I would have walked the whole thing for Ed to save his motor!!
I CANNOT WAIT to get back out there and take another shot at it with you guys!! :aj:
THANKS TO ALL THE READERS FOR THE GREAT COMPLIMENTS ON THE ARTICLE!! If you folks didnt read it I wouldnt have a reason to write ;)

Here are the two pics that I referred to in the last chapter.. 1st one is the "narly wood". Look closely and see if you see the face - also notice how purely RUGGED this thing is - PIUTE MOUNTAINS IN ITS GRAIN!!
The second one is of the fence found in Missouri along the highway (I think it was 44 or 40..) Anyone know anything about this?? Ed??
 

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woodsy

~SPONSOR~
Mi. Trail Riders
Jan 16, 2002
2,933
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There are a couple more pics on the MTR page if anyone is interested!!
Here is the final shot for this page! The grin on my face is STILL there KIWI and my finger points at the most awesome PIUTE mountain guide known to man - BAR NON!! You do a great "thats not a knife" mimic too mate!
For the ten millionth time - WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 

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