YZMAN400

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Dec 2, 2003
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A ride report huh?? Well I suppose I can ablige ya :cool:

I got up to the cabin around 7:00pm Friday night to find Rudy there already with a big batch of BBQ chicken on the grill...Yummy. After a feast of Chicken legs and Corona we settled down around the campfire for a bit before turning in around midnight.

Saturday morning saw is up around 7-7:30am. After sucking down a strong batch of camp coffie we geared up and got ready to head out. Rudy is a very prepaired person. I think he packed every tool gizme and gadget on his body and bike. he is constantly tinkering with his bike tweaking this adjusting that. Me I droped the Yz400 outta my truck, kicked it and was ready to ride :)

We made it over to Tyndal road were the Big O meets the Little O. This is were the 1st of out mishaps happened. I looked behind us as we aproaced the 2-track were the trail goes in. There was Mwiessen behind us in the truck. We all turned in and headed down the 2-track to the power lines were we would park and ride. Rudy and I get there to see a fella on a KDX200 unloading. Turns out to be 2BIG4AKDX I believe was his screen name. After chatting with him for a few minutes I realized that Mark wasn't coming up the 2-track. I rode back to the road and Mark was no were to be found. turns out that I should of listened to the little voice in the back of my head and stoped at the 2-track and talked to Mark. Turns out that he wasn't sure that we were us and the trail was the right one and he turned around and headed to the 32nd street staging area. Sorry Mark.

So back at the power lines we geared up with 2big and headed into the trail. Tall1 was a no show also. Maybe he had a few too many barly pops around the campfire the night before. Either way we were off.

Trail was pretty nice. We settled into a nice easy pace. The trail was still moist from the morning dew so the dust was nill. But that didn't last long and after a while the others were droping back to stay outa the dust. We made the 32nd staging without incident. We managed to talk 2big to at least ride into Baldwin for lunch with us. The offer of food finially won him over and he headed out with us. we stopped at a little Pizza sub shop next to wesco for the best sub and MT Dew I have had in a long time. Ok maybe I was just starving. Either way it was good. We filled the camelbacks with ice from the pop machine and then off to the gas station to top off. And we were back on the trail. We managed to talk our riding buddy on the KDX into riding a bit farther with the promise of being able to get him out and back to his truck if he wanted an out. Begining to sound like a woodsy adventure aint it.

Here is when the real adventure begins. When in the sub shop it started to drizzle a little. We were all pretty happy for that but it wasn't going ot be enough to keep the dust down. Well we headed west on 52nd street and blew right past the 1st trail on Acorn street I think it is. I think we stopped at Jenks road to look at the map. Determining that we lost the trail we headed south down Jenks till we found it again. Once on the trail again it started to rain.

We got back onto 56th street heading west and it was really raining. I was wearing safety glasses and they were fogged solid. I was riding with them slid down on the tip of my nose so I could see. The rain was coming down so hard that I had to ride one handed with the other covering my face to keep the rain from stinging so bad. Because of the limited visability I completely missed the trail again and blew right past it. Then suddenly I saw a shadow dive off the road to my left. Once a little closer I see that it is a trail. We dive in and right away I know that we missed something because we were heading east again. But who cares were were riding. Also that shadow I saw diving in the trail ahead of me. At 1st I thought it was a quad rider. I thought I seen a headlight ahead of me. We all put our heads down and tried to catch them but it was gone. The rain and thunder were absolutely amazing. I dont think I have ever rode in conditions like that. It was a little scarry actually. I pulled up to a trail crosing, looked to the left to see the top of a tree break off like 50 feet up and fall down on the road. This was like 50 feet down the road from us. I was like SHEETTT!!!!! Lets get out of here. back on the trail there were rivers of water running down the trail. The puddles were huge.

We follow the trail back to 56th street. Turns out this is were we were supposed to turn in origionaly. The rain was easing up a little. So we stayed there for a few minutes to get our wits about us. I looked across the street and there was a campground. I squint thru the rain and what do I see but a white RV towhauler, tan extended cab truck and a KTM450. Turns out that the shadow I seen diving into the trail was Mark. What are the odds.

I considered stopping at Marks as I saw he had the awning down on his RV and the thought of getting outta the rain was looking mighty apealing. But we soldered on. Taking the road west to Evergreen road we headed down there and dove into the trail. The trail here was a trench from all the watter draining down it. At the bottom was a pool of white foamy spooge. Some of these depressions in the trail were the water was collecting was an absolute quagmire. The harder I twisted the throttle on the 400 the more I would sink. The sand was so saturated with water that it was almost turning into quicksand. Very interesting. My 400 was getting so wet that it would hardly idle. Thoughts of conserving my bike started to go thru my head. Your bike as well as your body are consumable items out on the trail. There is only so much abuse they can take. And the YZ was reaching the limit of how much water it would consume so I had to start trying to skirt the puddles instead of blitzing thru the middle of them.

Once down to the turnoff for the Whitecloud trail the rain had finially started to ease up a little and I could almost see again thru my safety glasses. From here on out the riding was the absolute best I have ever seen. I hate to say this as others will flock to the Big O, but the trail was freshly groomed. Add to that all the rain and it was incredible. It was amazing how fast the pools of water soaked into the ground. Within 15 minutes of the rain stoping there was almost no standing water in the trail. We found ourselfs in dirtbiking nirvana. It was nice and cool from the rain (and maybe because we were soaked to the bone) and the trail was dust free. We settled into a rythm and started covering a lot of ground.

It is a good thing that I have ridden sections of this trail in the past as there is no way I could of found all of the turns and cuttoffs otherwise. The trail marking on the road sections was absolutely horrible. Rudy commented that there was no way he could of got around there on his own. The marking was that bad. The marks were there but a lot of them were overgrown by trees and not visable. There were no white arrows at all on the road sections. I dont know if they never existed or if locals have been taking them down. But either way it sucked. Thank goodness my fuzzy memory of the trail was in tact and we were able to get thru it without getting too lost.

We made it to the bottom of Whiskey Creek and headed in. For the most part we had been keeping pretty closly together and not pushing too much in the trail. On a 100 mile trail I cant just blitz the entire thing. I would be mush. I have to pace myself. I learned this riding with Woodsy and his Monday riders. But once in Whiskey creek that all went out the window. I quickly turned it up and was having a blast. I looked back and the others must of been sharing my feelings as the were right there with me. It was an amazing section of trail. Once at Hawley road I stopped and dumped in some gas that I had stashed in the woods Friday night and we were off once again. I was not looking forward to this last section of trail as its miles and miles of sand woops. But amazingly they wern't as bad as they had been in the past. We made one big push from Hawley road back to Landon road and the end of our trail.

We sat there for a little chatting with Our eastside rider on the KDX for a bit. I gave him directions back to his truck and we parted ways.

Going into this ride I was not really looking forward to this ride. I remember the miles and miles of woops from the ROS and was not looking forward to a repeat performance. But I am so glad I managed to pull it together and get a bike runing for this ride as it was the one of the best rides I have been on all summer :)
 
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MWEISSEN

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Don had a really nice report, but I thought I'd add my portion, since it ended up being two rides!

I had Marie truck me out to the drop-off site so I made sure I had enough gas to make the first portion of the loop. As we turned onto Tyndell, we pulled in right behind two dirt bike riders. I thought it was Don and his buddy (Rudy), but wasn't sure. We followed the bikes onto the area Don said to go, so I was sure it was them. I turned and followed them down the dirt road, but they quickly disappeared. I kept going until I got to where the Little O crossed, and I saw two tracks heading north, so I figured they took off up the trail to the next road. So we turned around, went to the next road, saw tracks again, went the the last one, and saw the tracks continuing, so I figured the kept on going when nobody was there. So I got the truck back to the road for Marie, unloaded and headed off.

The two tracks I saw, other than a groomer, were the only ones through the whole trail until I got to 32nd street. The trail was perfect traction!! It had most of the whooped knocked out, and it road like a highway. The KTM was dialed, and the humidity stayed down really nice. A PERFECT DAY was to be had, made only better if I had someone else to ride with. I rode at a pretty good clip, but like always when I ride alone I toned it down from my already lower pace.

I would suspect that the lower trail use was because most people were steering away from riding due to the reported high temps and humidity and the probability of dust since more city areas haven't had rain recently. That made it all the better for me (and Don, Rudy and TooBig)!

I saw a lot more wildlife out there this time than I've seen for awhile. A bunch of deer, woodcock (including one that just didn't get off the trail until I was a couple feet away), partridge, and fox. Very cool.

There's a spot where they're doing some controlled burning, with a sign warning of smoke and small flames

I don't know why because there's better trail, but I always like riding the Little "O".

I got back to our trailer at 12:30, ate lunch with Marie, gassed up and headed back out to tackle the Big "O". The Big "O" proved to be even better than the LIttle "O", absolutely NO other tracks, and mostly nice smooth whoop-free trail! Those that just ride this trail at the ROS can't appreciate this. It's like different trail.

I went down near Ruby Creek, then decided to high a bunch of dirt roads to give my cramping legs and hands a rest. I ended up on the MCCCT section that heads to White Cloud, went down a few miles, then turned around. Just as I was getting back onto the loop, I began hearing thunder, and could see darkening skies, especially to the east and north right where I was headed. I kept going anyway, and hit a wall of deluge when I got onto paved road heading north. I was immediately soaked all the way through. This was the hardest rain I've ridden in on my dirt bike. I got back on trail, and it was like ice, then like a river as it collected all of the run-off. It's amazing how much water runs down a downhill trail.

I got back in one piece and enjoyed a nice shower. I left the KTM in the rain, figuring the hard rain would clean all of the mud off - and it did.

In the evening after dinner, Don and Rudy swung through and chatted for awhile. We tried to figure out how we missed each other, but we all concluded that those that DIDN'T ride really missed out!
 

woodsy

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Jan 16, 2002
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Great reporting there guys!! Sounds like all in all you had a blast!! A couple of things I noticed:
FIrst of all - Don: I really appreciate your comment about you probably shoudnt have said how good the "O" really was cause now we would flock up there - I just talked to Larry on the phone and we both agreed to close up shop tommorrow and hit the "O"! THANKS :rotfl:
Mark: NO THANKS to you for your snippy little comment about those of us who missed the ride........ ROTTEN SUCKER BE YOU :fft:
2big: We still gotta get that ride in together buddy :aj:
 

YZMAN400

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Dec 2, 2003
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woodsy said:
I just talked to Larry on the phone and we both agreed to close up shop tommorrow and hit the "O"! THANKS :rotfl:

And had I known that earlier I might have been able to........"Cough cough sniffle....Hey boss...Weezzeee....not feelin so hot today...cough cough....Maybe I should just stay home so I dont get all of you sick cough hack weezeee.......!"

:nener:
 

MWEISSEN

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YZMAN400 said:
And had I known that earlier I might have been able to........"Cough cough sniffle....Hey boss...Weezzeee....not feelin so hot today...cough cough....Maybe I should just stay home so I dont get all of you sick cough hack weezeee.......!"

:nener:

Me too! Except the weather looks to be nasty for this afternoon.

Another thing to watch - there's a lot of deadfall in certain areas, be on the lookout.

Also, that wasn't intended to be a snippy comment at all! Must be that fence got you on edge a little there Woodsy. I have similar issues with the lazy neighbor in front of me. I can barely get my trailer through the driveway because his trees are hanging so low. Will he trim them, or will he let me do it? No! Why are neighbors such a pain?
 

2big4akdx

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Thanks to Don and Rudy for showing me a great ride and letting me hang w/them.
That storm was the worst I have ever rode through.The lightning had me more than a little concerned, I was downright scared.
I hope to get over to the west side again and see you all soon.
 

INCA

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Mark - If a limb is on your side if the property line, you can cut it off legally. If it is a fruit tree, you are entitled to that which is on your side. How the relation ends up is another story. I've gone through that with our neighbors in the reverse.

Young Ted
 

YZMAN400

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2big4akdx said:
Thanks to Don and Rudy for showing me a great ride and letting me hang w/them.
That storm was the worst I have ever rode through.The lightning had me more than a little concerned, I was downright scared.
I hope to get over to the west side again and see you all soon.

Im glad you could make it over and ride with us. I had a great time :cool:

That storm was a little more than I wanted to ride in. Slightly overwelming it was :nod: But seeing as no one else was backing down to the challange there was no way I was going to either. I wasn't about to let you OG's show me up ya know :nener:

Its not too often we get to ride on 50 miles of trackless, dustless, freshly watered trail. That was a treat :yeehaw:
 

MWEISSEN

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INCA said:
Mark - If a limb is on your side if the property line, you can cut it off legally. If it is a fruit tree, you are entitled to that which is on your side. How the relation ends up is another story. I've gone through that with our neighbors in the reverse.

Young Ted

I wish it were that easy. The problem is it's a driveway easement for me 100% on his property. I'll be dealing with this on the weekend...stay tuned!
 

tall1

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Nov 1, 2002
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YZMAN400 said:
Tall1 was a no show also.

Sorry I didn't show! After 79 miles of Tin Cup. I wasn't feeling well enough to ride 36 miles of woops. Now I find out that the trail wasn't in bad shape... :bang: o well !! I wanted to ride Little "o" really bad too. Maybe some other time.
 

MWEISSEN

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I just looked at the MCCCT web site, and they announced a temporary closing of a portion of the Big "O" trail due to trees down from a tornado.

Interesting in that I was caught on this section of trail during the storm mentioned on this thread. The way that the wind was blowing and the branches were coming down while I was riding this, I wouldn't be surprised if this may have happened at that time. There were trees down along Carrs road from this storm as well. Does anyone know when these trees went down for sure?
 

YZMAN400

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Dec 2, 2003
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2 weeks ago is when that Tornado went thru. We did the trail mainenantce on Lincoln Hills Last Saturday and were informed before we headed out there that it may be bad because of a Tornado that had been thru there on like the Wed Thursday before. That would put the tornado around the 8/3, 8/4 somewere around there.

Turns out that Lincoln Hills was in great shape. We had very little work that needed to be done.
 

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