clutchcover
~SPONSOR~
- Feb 21, 2002
- 367
- 0
Well, I've never posted a ride report, so I thought I'd give it a shot. That and I'm at work bored out of my mind. So here goes.
My brother got a call from one of his friends early in the morning to go for a ride last Saturday. He turned him down at first, but on his second call, told him we would go. A quick trip to get oil and gas, and we were off. We were supposed to meet them at the campground/parking lot at the bottom of the canyon, but no one was there. We waited around for quite a while, but no one showed. We decided to go off riding and see if perhaps they were already up there.
It started out a nice casual ride up the smooth gravel road. We were cruising along pretty fast and enjoying the pines and grass just starting to grow from under the recently melted snow. We had probably gone 5-8 miles. Then my brother on his kx500 shoots off a corner going way to fast and slides off the ege of the road. It's straight dropoff about 200 feet down. Both he and the bike stay near the top. We spent probably 30 minutes getting the bike back up onto the road. Lucky for us he didn't drop off any farther than he did or we would still be struggling with that bike.
We ride up the road, till we hit the trail we wanted to ride. It's a knarly rocky trail that runs a loop of probably 100+ miles all the way around the mountain. It also runs right underneath Pebble Creek Ski Area, which if anyone loves to snowboard or ski, is the place to try your skills. It is rocky and pretty steep, it was rated in the top 20 hardest snowboard hills in the world. Back to the biking. The trail we took takes you to a place called Inkom Pebble pass. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 8500-9000 feet.
We start up the trail, and notice right away that it is going to get hairy in places. The snow that is left on the mountain is running of directly down the majority of the trail, making a small creek all the way down the rocky sections. We fight the rocks the whole way up, slipping around a lot in the water. My brother struggles a lot with slow technicaltrails. He is a smaller guy, probably 150 and the kx500 is a little big for him. The kx500 also doesn't like to chug as much as my kdx, so is more prone to stalling. He is either on the throttle getting beat to death, or he is using the clutch constantly.
We make probably 10 miles of steep rocks and mud till we make itto the top. We watch some guys down the hill at the actual pass trying to make it up through the sage brush. We couldn't figure out for the life of us why they didn't just atke the trail. We look down the whole valley. You can see for hundreds of miles from there. We head down to the pass where the intersecting trail is. Once we get to the bottom, there is some spots with snow in them, and a huge 150' wide drift covering the trail. It is about 50' long and probably 10' deep. The two guys that had been going up the trail were still there. We talked with them for a minute, and the decided to take off. I thought about going around in the same manner that the other riders had, but my brother and his big bad k5 had a different plan. He took a run at the drift and went right over the top of it, making no problem. I also decided to try. The snow was hard as ice, and gave great traction. I had had previous experience with my bike stopping in the snow drifts without me, leaving me a mouth full of snow and a bruised ego. But not this time.
We took off once again on the rocky downhill descent. There was still a lot of water running down the trail in spots, and this turned up a lot of the loose rocks. The little kdx chugged right along, my brother is a little slower rider, so I ended up waiting for him a lot. He struggled in the downhill rocky portions of the trail (almost all of it) and I didn't want to leave him too far behind. Good thing too, he dumped his bike three times on the way down. The first time left a nice dent in his pipe. This is also where I left my bike on it's kick stand only to have it fall over in the middle of a huge pile of rocks. :debil: No damage, no harm done. :worship: A few more spills and we made our way down.
There were alot of people on bikes out. Most were friendly, and most took time to wave. Not one moron on a 125. My bother and I pulled off the road to let him pass. He screamed by, almost clipping me with his bars and then roosted gravel on his way past. I somehow managed not to scream up there and strangle him. :|
After some of the funnest most technical riding in the area, we made it back to the truck. It was smooth sailing from the bottom of the trail all the way back and 90% was on smooth gravel road, about 20 miles. This was a great ride. I had lots of fun. Anyone that ever makes their way here should give it a try.
My brother got a call from one of his friends early in the morning to go for a ride last Saturday. He turned him down at first, but on his second call, told him we would go. A quick trip to get oil and gas, and we were off. We were supposed to meet them at the campground/parking lot at the bottom of the canyon, but no one was there. We waited around for quite a while, but no one showed. We decided to go off riding and see if perhaps they were already up there.
It started out a nice casual ride up the smooth gravel road. We were cruising along pretty fast and enjoying the pines and grass just starting to grow from under the recently melted snow. We had probably gone 5-8 miles. Then my brother on his kx500 shoots off a corner going way to fast and slides off the ege of the road. It's straight dropoff about 200 feet down. Both he and the bike stay near the top. We spent probably 30 minutes getting the bike back up onto the road. Lucky for us he didn't drop off any farther than he did or we would still be struggling with that bike.
We ride up the road, till we hit the trail we wanted to ride. It's a knarly rocky trail that runs a loop of probably 100+ miles all the way around the mountain. It also runs right underneath Pebble Creek Ski Area, which if anyone loves to snowboard or ski, is the place to try your skills. It is rocky and pretty steep, it was rated in the top 20 hardest snowboard hills in the world. Back to the biking. The trail we took takes you to a place called Inkom Pebble pass. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 8500-9000 feet.
We start up the trail, and notice right away that it is going to get hairy in places. The snow that is left on the mountain is running of directly down the majority of the trail, making a small creek all the way down the rocky sections. We fight the rocks the whole way up, slipping around a lot in the water. My brother struggles a lot with slow technicaltrails. He is a smaller guy, probably 150 and the kx500 is a little big for him. The kx500 also doesn't like to chug as much as my kdx, so is more prone to stalling. He is either on the throttle getting beat to death, or he is using the clutch constantly.
We make probably 10 miles of steep rocks and mud till we make itto the top. We watch some guys down the hill at the actual pass trying to make it up through the sage brush. We couldn't figure out for the life of us why they didn't just atke the trail. We look down the whole valley. You can see for hundreds of miles from there. We head down to the pass where the intersecting trail is. Once we get to the bottom, there is some spots with snow in them, and a huge 150' wide drift covering the trail. It is about 50' long and probably 10' deep. The two guys that had been going up the trail were still there. We talked with them for a minute, and the decided to take off. I thought about going around in the same manner that the other riders had, but my brother and his big bad k5 had a different plan. He took a run at the drift and went right over the top of it, making no problem. I also decided to try. The snow was hard as ice, and gave great traction. I had had previous experience with my bike stopping in the snow drifts without me, leaving me a mouth full of snow and a bruised ego. But not this time.
We took off once again on the rocky downhill descent. There was still a lot of water running down the trail in spots, and this turned up a lot of the loose rocks. The little kdx chugged right along, my brother is a little slower rider, so I ended up waiting for him a lot. He struggled in the downhill rocky portions of the trail (almost all of it) and I didn't want to leave him too far behind. Good thing too, he dumped his bike three times on the way down. The first time left a nice dent in his pipe. This is also where I left my bike on it's kick stand only to have it fall over in the middle of a huge pile of rocks. :debil: No damage, no harm done. :worship: A few more spills and we made our way down.
There were alot of people on bikes out. Most were friendly, and most took time to wave. Not one moron on a 125. My bother and I pulled off the road to let him pass. He screamed by, almost clipping me with his bars and then roosted gravel on his way past. I somehow managed not to scream up there and strangle him. :|
After some of the funnest most technical riding in the area, we made it back to the truck. It was smooth sailing from the bottom of the trail all the way back and 90% was on smooth gravel road, about 20 miles. This was a great ride. I had lots of fun. Anyone that ever makes their way here should give it a try.
