Frozen North Piute Foothill Ride

This past weekend I was treated with an invite to the shamrock north hide away & a great ride was had in the piute foothills near southlake, mount mesa, & weldon. Snow & frozen trail above 6500 ft kept us on lower elevation single track both days with the conditions cool & a little wet. A dozen riders were supposed to show with six actually making the trip. (due to some wetness in the L.A. area, however 2 travelled from sacto gentlemen.) ) Hospitality & comradeship was great as always with these guys, thanks Ken, & all of us were well fed with a great round of stuffed porkchops sat night, Thanks Abe! 3 of us had a good ride sat afternoon on the enduro training loop ( 5 miles per lap) with a big hill climb at the top end of the route, actually 3 big mountain sides in a row make up this climb that gets steeper with each section containing many boulders as the top of each section is reached. I got way upside down in the rocks on sat, gave it a few more tries then called it a day. Sunday
AM we all hit the trail & went back up to that climb to warm up. I had my way with the hill I was humbled on, but not without a great deal of effort, 2 retries & 4 restarts on the middle section, not clean by any means but I was able to rest in the snow at the top while enjoying the view of the south sierras, the greenhorns & a very empty lake isabella, with all the weather system moving thru. Our ride then progressed up the long canyon switch-back trail in & out of several good size drainages then on up to some deepening snow between 6000-7000ft. At this point in our ride, the grip heaters I had installed the night previous had paid for themselves, steaming hands in freezing weather is a good problem. A unanimous decision was reached by all in our group that it was approaching lunch time & beer-30, so a 180 was navigated & more great single track was taken in back to the ranch, P-CHOPS so called mental reset button had been pressed & set for the next week or two, life is good! :ride: :) :ride: :cool:

Hey foxforks-ruler, OK I know, by your standards the weather was warm, the temp was +38 f,........... at the ranch (elevation, 4000 ft.) with periodic freezing rain/snow squalls intermitantly blowing thru. The traction was perfect in most places,too much in some places due to lack of nitrous boost system on bike, (what I mean is power robbing, too much water in decomposed granite makes it either too sloppy or loamy).
Some places the dirt was like wet concrete, great to power thru but it makes rocks & boulders greasy slick, easy to deflect or bounce off of, compromising various amounts of control here or there. At one series of rock steps I stalled ,went to step of on a large inclined surface of a boulder, slipped off my foot, getting it hooked in the rear wheel well. My foot was the only thing stopping me from rolling off about a 6-7 foot drop into a bush below, there I was trying to get my foot unstuck & not having much luck with it when my good pal ken pulled up to here me requesting some help. He kindly leaned my bike to the left a bit & wham! Off the rock I went into the bush below, but landed feet first, thank you Ken & god! No injuries to me or the bike, infact the bike never even fell over during all this nonsense. I hiked back up to the crf450x, thru a leg over it & we continued our way back to his ranch, sorry about the envy, I can't help out with your weather, you will have to bring Tesla back to life for that one. Tesla had devised methods of influencing the jet stream using huge high powered plasma arrays that produced an arc 1-2 miles high whilst introducing various elemental concoctions into the arc, go figure? I'm a So. Cal native
so that makes me absolutely clueless about the winters you must deal with on a day to day basis. You guys in the east have my full respect regarding winter survival. Our weather is good most of the year, which spoils us. In '05 we took a drive in Jan. to Cour D' Lane, Idaho to check the place out in the dead of winter, it was & is an awesome town, but gets too cold for too long year in & year out. Imagine that.........
3100 miles of driving, visiting friends & family at 4 locations, our boys sledding adventure of a life time, great sight seeing, 28 days away total, only to figure out why we put up with all the non-sense & live in the south west...............
GOOD WEATHER MOST OF THE YEAR ! ( but what do I know?) ;)
Best Regards, Porkchop

Bike physical size Vs. Your ergonomics

justalonewolf007 said:

Porkchop...man I wish I could have weather like that, and the inseam to ride a bike that size.

We've already had a full share of -35 windchill days a short while ago.

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Top of the morning 007, I understand the problem of reaching the ground with your toes, all to well. Of all the bikes I have had over the years, the only bikes that I could touch the ground on were, 1968 honda mini-trail 50, 1971 Dt 175 enduro, 1972 380 CZ, all the rest of em to my current rides, no touchie the ground with both toes at the same time. Keep feet on pegs when riding, provides the most control. No mater what bike you ride or race, have the suspension lowered to fit you, then have it valved to work for you. One of the best riders in the wrecking crew is a woman,
she's about your size & rides a highly modified ktm 250 exc. Her bike is lowered, & has been stroked & bored so it is now a 350, She is way fast on that thing& the bike is light & an electric start to boot. I'm not telling you to get a larger displacement ride due to your experience level, that's a decision you will make when you're ready to. What I am saying is if your ride is to tall for you have it lowered & adjusted to work for you. ( Lowered bikes corner better, & have less weight transfer whilst excellorating or braking.) Good luck & stay warm.
Best Regards, Porkchop.... :blah: :ride: ;)