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DYDR '06 Spring Ride
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[QUOTE="Papakeith, post: 1071846, member: 19688"] DYDR spring ride 06 We arrived at the campground late Friday night. We had been delayed by a blown camper tire and lack of a lug wrench (tire iron for squeaky). DRock, Unplugged, and I were greeted by the usual crew: Sick_96 (what the heck is your friends name again?), CO, Rooster, Squeaky, JasonJ, and RM_guy. I think there may have been one or two others, but I was busy setting up camp and popping the top on a daddy-pop. Once I was settled around the fire Squeaky came over and handed me a card. “I have to give this to you now. Happy Father's Day!” I opened up the envelope and read the card. I was happy that she had though enough of me to even get me a card. But, when I opened it up there was a wad of cash staring up at me. Oddly enough, it was enough cash to pay for my riding fees for the weekend :yeehaw: Tell me. . . How fricken cool is that?!!! Sammy and Roo, Thank you! (Sappy moment. Scroll down a bit if you don’t wanna read it) Thankfully it was dark and the rest of the crew couldn’t see the tears welling up in my eyes (yes, I’m sappy like that). Then I got a nice hug from her and we went back to the merriment of the evening. Seeing the woman that Sam has become makes me prouder than any man has a right to be. On to Saturday. The RI contingent was a bit rusty since it’s been raining up our way since mmmmm February? If I had to guess, I’d say that not one of us had thrown a leg over our bikes in almost two months. It only took a few bobbles and we mostly shook off the rust and were back into some sort of decent riding form. The shining moment of the morning ride was watching squeaks attack a downhill without hesitation. No, that’s not right. That was a bright spot for sure, but the crowning achievement was watching her ride into a rock garden with authority. She picked her line and rode straight at the two foot tall rock in front of her. That was just the beginning. That rock was followed by three more pointed rocks spaced far enough apart to swallow her front tire if she let off the gas. Well, she stayed on the gas and just rode from point to point until the rocks gave up and let her get back down to the dirt :aj: . I have never, I mean never seen her ride with that level of confidence. It was pretty sweet to see. After our morning ride and lunch break, we headed out for some more adventures. We made it as far as the play area before Dave (DRock) laid his bike down and started grabbing his wrist. He was cramping up. His arm was all locked up and his fingers were either splayed out or pulled tight. He should have ended his day right there. But, Dave is not a quitter. After trying to reason with him for 15 or 20 minutes we gave in and continued the ride. Sick_96 and his buddy showed up and decided to join us for a romp. Our mission: To ride down the mountain and hang out at the mine shaft to cool off. We decided to take nice easy trails and wind our way down. Great plan, right? You all know the saying; the best laid plans of mice and men. . . Mistake # 1 Continuing with DRock knowing that he was probably dehydrated or suffering from heat exhaustion; Most likely a combination of both. Mistake#2 Not consulting a map as much as we probably should This mistake got us to the top of a large downhill. This downhill has a drop off in the center of it and is strewn with large rock its entire length. We got there by accident. Dave and I both stopped at the top of the hill looking down. We were at the entrance to what we affectionately call Sleepy Hollow. Both Dave and I knew what lay ahead if we went down this path. I knew that Dave was in no condition to take this trail on. Here’s how the conversation went. I said, “Dave, we are NOT doing this trail today. We’ll hit it tomorrow when you’re fresh!” Dave said, “What? You want me to go down first? OK.” And down he went. This brings us to: Mistake #3 Following Dave (there must be something about the name) Rob (Unplugged) and me dutifully followed Dave down the hill. Once at the bottom we wave to Shawn (sick_96) and friend. Sick’s friend was ready to go down the hill. Sick_96, being the only smart one in the group, thought better of the decent. He and his friend let us know that they would head off on their own. And with that, we were three. Sleep Hollow is mellower than it used to be. That’s not to say that there aren’t some potential show stoppers, but once the jeep/quad crowd found this area they moved many of the large rocks out of the way to make it easier for them. As hot as I was I wasn’t complaining. Mistake #4 (a follow up to mistake #2) We had a choice. There was a fork in the road. To the left was a docile rock garden that was presently occupied by Jeeps. To the right was a path I didn’t quite remember that was jeepless. We went right. It wasn’t until I started to enter the path that I noticed the blue three sign at the entrance. Blue three is a whisker shy of Black in trail lingo. We should have gone left. But we continued. Hey, I never claimed we were the brightest riders on the planet! This trail was rock garden hell. The trail head consisted of three turns right left right, and then the dirt was replaced by approximately 200 yards of baby head and larger rocks. Gardens like this will stall you out quicker than you can say “LINE!” The only way through is to get your front wheel light, stay on the throttle, and pray. I did just that. I pretty much just held on and went for it. 200 + yards later I found myself back on dirt, amazed that I had just made it through. Dave followed in short order. He was not well. He stopped, put his head down on the bars and said, “I have no idea how I got through that.” He was a bright shade of red. I was starting to regret letting him continue with this ride. Damn the me. Rob made it through as well. Rob tends to just hang in the background. He makes it through without any fanfare or fuss. He just keeps going. He’s really become a pretty good rider since I met him. Anyway, back to the ride. We were getting close to the promised coolness of the mine shaft. The remainder of this trail isn’t too bad, just more generic roots, rocks, mud, and puddles. We even had a river crossing. Mistake #5 Not finding out at the outset what is going on in the park. The trail dumped us out on the bottom of Turtle Trail. Turtle trail is a stones throw away from the mine shaft! We’d made it! And then we saw the yellow caution tape and the man with a radio. “Sorry guys, the mine shaft is closed today. We’re having a dedication ceremony for our new water filtration plant.” “WHAT?” I said. “We just rode through all of that and we can’t go sit in there?.” “Nope, you have to go that way. And keep it slow, there are pedestrians around here.” “GGGGAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!” Here we are near exhaustion, a stones throw from the natural air conditioner and we were being turned away. Damn the man! We had no choice but to carry on. Since we were in no condition to take actual trails, we rode the perimeter roads back to the truck and called it a day. I’m happy to report that Dave, once re-hydrated and cooled, would make a full recovery by later that evening. My bike took a real beating this weekend. Beaten or not, it never left me stranded. The rear wheel bearings are shot, my tires have many shredded or missing knobs, and my shock sprung a leak. Note: Dave and Lori were certainly missed. It just didn’t feel the same without them there. Still fun, but different. Before the ride, Lori had posted on the damn Yankee forum telling me to take over the job of leader of the death rides. I think I did OK for my first attempt, even if it was unintentional. [/QUOTE]
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DYDR '06 Spring Ride
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