- Mar 28, 2003
- 2,561
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We arrived at Red Ridge Lake campground Friday afternoon after a soggy drive through crappy traffic in Connecticut – second only to RM Guy, who was so thrilled that he arrived first he actually had to tell the guy at the front desk. We were only 45 minutes later than we expected!!
Soon camp is set up and we begin to change the oil in our bikes, as we didn’t have time to do it before we left because we just moved into a new apartment. Rooster soon realizes that he doesn’t have his Billy Who Man Funnel. A couple minutes and some creativity later he concocts two imitation Man Funnels out of a paper plate! YAY Now we won’t get oil all over the frames of our bikes!
With camp set up and bikes taken care of we begin to settle into the evening with a few beers and some Chicken Speedies and Hello Dolly’s that RM Guy’s wife made for him to share with all of us, and boy were they delicious!
Later on a big blue Dodge pulls in the parking lot with 3 Hondas in it. Do we know them? We don’t know – so RM Guy goes to greet the newcomers. They’re Mike, Sebastian, and Ben, all newbies to the sport as of this spring, but great people nonetheless. They’ve heard of DRN but aren’t members – yet. They set up camp (serious camp – complete with an Eddie Bauer screen room and a killer stove/grill type thing…) and we then find out that the three guys are friends with Raymond, aka brpray, who Rooster and I have supposedly met before, but I couldn’t remember until we met him again.
Soon after that, Treejumper shows up, complete with his own bike maintenance that he has to perform! He gets his bark busters installed – and a few miscellaneous other things (I think…) and he’s good to go.
Not too long after dark brpray (Raymond) and his buddy Phil arrive, which is a good thing because they had the beer and Mike, Sebastian, and Ben were quickly running out! We all settle in front of the fire to enjoy some bench racing. Eventually it begins lightning off in the distance and we all sit around and watch the show, while the skies remain clear above us. Rooster and I decide it’s time to go to bed, while we’re still dry, only to be awakened around 1:30 a.m. by more lightning and thunder. And apparently it rained while we were sleeping, but we’re still dry so it’s all good! Soon enough it starts pouring and the thunder and lightning keep getting closer and closer, along with winds. I thought for sure either our tent was going to cave in on top of us due to the rain, or we were going to blow away! And like that I was asleep again!
Now it’s morning…it’s a drizzly, cloudy day, and it’s very wet out from last night’s rain, but we didn’t drive 6 hours from Rhode Island to camp out one night and go home – so we quickly eat breakfast and it’s off to Paragon we go! Rooster hollers “Last one to Paragon sucks Maico exhaust” and that gets the troops rollin’! RM Guy and Treejumper are right on our tail!
We arrive at Paragon, get checked in, get geared up and we’re ready to go! The group heads down to the play area for a bit while we wait for JasonJ and CRF Guy to get checked in and join the rest of us. Rooster climbs a few hills and realizes that one of his tires is low. So back to the parking area for us – he puts some air in his tire and back to the play area we go to meet back with the rest of the group.
After that we split into two groups – the fast group consists of RM Guy, brpray, CRF Guy, and JasonJ and the slow(er) group consists of me, Rooster, Treejumper, Mike, Sebastian, Ben, Phil, and NRB (Nate).
We saw the fast group once during the entire morning – I don’t know where they were hiding, but it wasn’t anywhere we went! We rode and rode and rode Saturday morning – putting on 28 miles, I believe, before lunch! While I was riding I realized that my confidence level was really quite high that day, even with the wet rocks, slippery mud, and loads of puddles! I found myself going down hills I used to stop at the top of and stare down with the thought of “I don’t like the looks of this…” running through my head. I was climbing hills faster than I had before, and really managing to keep with the group! It felt great! Nothing too thrilling, exciting, or amusing really happened during the morning run. Right before we decided to break for lunch we came out at the intersection of Swamp Donkey (what is the REAL name of that trail? I can’t find it on the map…) and an “easier” trail. Chucke, Rooster, and I decided to torture ourselves through Swamp Donkey while the rest of the group took the “easier” trail. Well, I had a run in with a rock, or maybe it was two rocks, and got caught up for a while but finally managed to get free and maneuver my way through the rest of the trail. Then we proceeded back to the staging area for lunch.
Lunch time rolls around and all CRF Guy can talk about is his broken computer and his steering stabilizer :yell: We get it, you have a brand new pretty KTM blah blah blah ;)
After lunch we broke up into the same groups, but RM Guy decided to join the “slower” group as he was getting tired and he kept being blinded by the rain that was constantly covering his glasses. The afternoon ride proved to be a bit more interesting than the morning ride as we were all beginning to tire from the first 28 miles we put on. We did manage another 20 or so miles that afternoon though! Most of the trails we hit were repeats of the morning ride but seemed to be more of a challenge to us, the weary riders. First, Sebastian decided he wanted to get a free mud bath, as it’s much cheaper than paying the spa to do it. I was right behind him when it happened, he was riding along and the next thing I saw was a wall of muddy water come up from the ground, then Sebastian was up and riding again in no time. Then Mike, not to be outdone, decided it was his turn for a mud bath. I didn’t actually see his impersonation of Sebastian’s mud bath, but boy did he look good after that. We had to stop for a little bit while he got cleaned up, he looked like he had war paint on!!!
Then I decided to invent a new trick called the “Superman Handlebar Grab.” I was cruising down the trail at a pretty good clip (for me…) when suddenly there’s a hole in front of my front tire. It’s too late to stop, it’s too muddy to turn (I would’ve ended up under the bike for sure!), so what do I do?! I try to slow down and hope for the best. Ooooh it’s too late, I’m in the hole, I hit, my legs flew out from under me and ended up behind me a :yikes: and somehow I managed to keep a hold of the bike and end up back on the seat and keep going. I still don’t know how I did it! I think I scared Rooster, he didn’t know what was going on!
My final adventure for the day happened within the last 5 (if that) miles of the ride. Me, Rooster, RM Guy, Treejumper, and Nate separated from the group for “one last bit of torture” (Nate’s words) before heading back to the staging area for the day. We find a trail that goes down hill, over a water crossing, and straight back up another hill. I managed to keep the upper half of my body relatively dry throughout the day, until then. I hit that water crossing with enough speed to send a wall of water up over my bike and my body and it just soaked me to the bone. If this had happened during the June ride I would’ve been ecstatic – but it couldn’t have been more than 65 degrees out. Lucky for me it was the end of the day.
All in all it was a great weekend and I can’t wait until we do it again!
Soon camp is set up and we begin to change the oil in our bikes, as we didn’t have time to do it before we left because we just moved into a new apartment. Rooster soon realizes that he doesn’t have his Billy Who Man Funnel. A couple minutes and some creativity later he concocts two imitation Man Funnels out of a paper plate! YAY Now we won’t get oil all over the frames of our bikes!
With camp set up and bikes taken care of we begin to settle into the evening with a few beers and some Chicken Speedies and Hello Dolly’s that RM Guy’s wife made for him to share with all of us, and boy were they delicious!
Later on a big blue Dodge pulls in the parking lot with 3 Hondas in it. Do we know them? We don’t know – so RM Guy goes to greet the newcomers. They’re Mike, Sebastian, and Ben, all newbies to the sport as of this spring, but great people nonetheless. They’ve heard of DRN but aren’t members – yet. They set up camp (serious camp – complete with an Eddie Bauer screen room and a killer stove/grill type thing…) and we then find out that the three guys are friends with Raymond, aka brpray, who Rooster and I have supposedly met before, but I couldn’t remember until we met him again.
Soon after that, Treejumper shows up, complete with his own bike maintenance that he has to perform! He gets his bark busters installed – and a few miscellaneous other things (I think…) and he’s good to go.
Not too long after dark brpray (Raymond) and his buddy Phil arrive, which is a good thing because they had the beer and Mike, Sebastian, and Ben were quickly running out! We all settle in front of the fire to enjoy some bench racing. Eventually it begins lightning off in the distance and we all sit around and watch the show, while the skies remain clear above us. Rooster and I decide it’s time to go to bed, while we’re still dry, only to be awakened around 1:30 a.m. by more lightning and thunder. And apparently it rained while we were sleeping, but we’re still dry so it’s all good! Soon enough it starts pouring and the thunder and lightning keep getting closer and closer, along with winds. I thought for sure either our tent was going to cave in on top of us due to the rain, or we were going to blow away! And like that I was asleep again!
Now it’s morning…it’s a drizzly, cloudy day, and it’s very wet out from last night’s rain, but we didn’t drive 6 hours from Rhode Island to camp out one night and go home – so we quickly eat breakfast and it’s off to Paragon we go! Rooster hollers “Last one to Paragon sucks Maico exhaust” and that gets the troops rollin’! RM Guy and Treejumper are right on our tail!
We arrive at Paragon, get checked in, get geared up and we’re ready to go! The group heads down to the play area for a bit while we wait for JasonJ and CRF Guy to get checked in and join the rest of us. Rooster climbs a few hills and realizes that one of his tires is low. So back to the parking area for us – he puts some air in his tire and back to the play area we go to meet back with the rest of the group.
After that we split into two groups – the fast group consists of RM Guy, brpray, CRF Guy, and JasonJ and the slow(er) group consists of me, Rooster, Treejumper, Mike, Sebastian, Ben, Phil, and NRB (Nate).
We saw the fast group once during the entire morning – I don’t know where they were hiding, but it wasn’t anywhere we went! We rode and rode and rode Saturday morning – putting on 28 miles, I believe, before lunch! While I was riding I realized that my confidence level was really quite high that day, even with the wet rocks, slippery mud, and loads of puddles! I found myself going down hills I used to stop at the top of and stare down with the thought of “I don’t like the looks of this…” running through my head. I was climbing hills faster than I had before, and really managing to keep with the group! It felt great! Nothing too thrilling, exciting, or amusing really happened during the morning run. Right before we decided to break for lunch we came out at the intersection of Swamp Donkey (what is the REAL name of that trail? I can’t find it on the map…) and an “easier” trail. Chucke, Rooster, and I decided to torture ourselves through Swamp Donkey while the rest of the group took the “easier” trail. Well, I had a run in with a rock, or maybe it was two rocks, and got caught up for a while but finally managed to get free and maneuver my way through the rest of the trail. Then we proceeded back to the staging area for lunch.
Lunch time rolls around and all CRF Guy can talk about is his broken computer and his steering stabilizer :yell: We get it, you have a brand new pretty KTM blah blah blah ;)
After lunch we broke up into the same groups, but RM Guy decided to join the “slower” group as he was getting tired and he kept being blinded by the rain that was constantly covering his glasses. The afternoon ride proved to be a bit more interesting than the morning ride as we were all beginning to tire from the first 28 miles we put on. We did manage another 20 or so miles that afternoon though! Most of the trails we hit were repeats of the morning ride but seemed to be more of a challenge to us, the weary riders. First, Sebastian decided he wanted to get a free mud bath, as it’s much cheaper than paying the spa to do it. I was right behind him when it happened, he was riding along and the next thing I saw was a wall of muddy water come up from the ground, then Sebastian was up and riding again in no time. Then Mike, not to be outdone, decided it was his turn for a mud bath. I didn’t actually see his impersonation of Sebastian’s mud bath, but boy did he look good after that. We had to stop for a little bit while he got cleaned up, he looked like he had war paint on!!!
Then I decided to invent a new trick called the “Superman Handlebar Grab.” I was cruising down the trail at a pretty good clip (for me…) when suddenly there’s a hole in front of my front tire. It’s too late to stop, it’s too muddy to turn (I would’ve ended up under the bike for sure!), so what do I do?! I try to slow down and hope for the best. Ooooh it’s too late, I’m in the hole, I hit, my legs flew out from under me and ended up behind me a :yikes: and somehow I managed to keep a hold of the bike and end up back on the seat and keep going. I still don’t know how I did it! I think I scared Rooster, he didn’t know what was going on!
My final adventure for the day happened within the last 5 (if that) miles of the ride. Me, Rooster, RM Guy, Treejumper, and Nate separated from the group for “one last bit of torture” (Nate’s words) before heading back to the staging area for the day. We find a trail that goes down hill, over a water crossing, and straight back up another hill. I managed to keep the upper half of my body relatively dry throughout the day, until then. I hit that water crossing with enough speed to send a wall of water up over my bike and my body and it just soaked me to the bone. If this had happened during the June ride I would’ve been ecstatic – but it couldn’t have been more than 65 degrees out. Lucky for me it was the end of the day.
All in all it was a great weekend and I can’t wait until we do it again!