desert_racer
LIFETIME SPONSOR
- Feb 2, 2000
- 538
- 0
Where do I start?
The misses, jr., and I left Murrieta on Tuesday morning around 9am. After scores of feeding stops (jr. is only 9 months old) we pulled into Fish Creek around 3:30 or so.
After talking to Kiwi the night before we decided to take the first two spots (Tee followed us up) as you pull into fish creek. Kiwi told me that the first spots were the largest so we figured we better grab them before someone else did.
By the time we got camp set up and figured out a plan we saw the HUGE motor home towing a trailer full of bikes pull in. We figured it might be one of our fellow DRN brethren so we went down and said hello. Turned out to be Tree and his family. We helped Tree get backed into a spot and started to help unhook the trailer when the crank broke on the trailer tongue. It was quite a site to see Tee and Tree’s two kids standing on the back of the trailer while Tree lifted the tongue and I put boulders under it so that he could pull the motor home out of the way. Thus the beginning of the adventure.
That evening and throughout the weekend a barrage of DRN’s showed up. Before the weekend was over Scar Tissue and his family, Thumbs, Firelily and Buddy, oldandslo, Kiwi and his crew, Dirt Junkie and his friend Tom, The Eel, CptJack, Boodac, Bill Beard, placelast and son, and holeshot had joined us for a weekend of fun. There may have been more but I brain dead from the dust and lack of oxygen due to the high altitude.
Tee, Tree and I did our first ride on Wednesday morning. We took the Fish and Troy connector to Beach Ridge Trail up to the Blackrock information station to get fire permits. Of course the information center is closed on Tuesday’s and Wednesday’s.
Tee was having some major jetting issues so we headed back to camp to work on that.
Wednesday afternoon, Tee and I hooked up with Buddy and Firelily and did a similar ride but took Beach Ridge Trail all the way up to where it dead ends into Albanita.
Thursday morning we worked on Tee’s jetting some more. (God I love my KTM 4-smoker) We finally got it to at least run so Thursday afternoon we hooked up with Scar Tissue and rode up Jackass to Albanita and came down Beach Ridge Trail to the Fish and Troy connector back to camp.
Thursday night while sitting around the campfire I mentioned something about an early morning ride. Everyone except for Buddy and Firelily said that they would see us when we got back. Something about riding at 6am was against the laws of nature or something.
Well we did not quite make it out at 6 but somehow around 7:30 am Tee and I took off and went up Jackass Creek and Jackass Peak trails to the Manache Meadows. We crossed the Kern River and did some exploring.
On the way back while coming across the Kern I had this momentary lapse of common sense and decided I would wheelie through the river. Due to lack of traction or something the front wheel did not come off the ground and I ended up soaked. Apparently Tee had the same momentary lapse of sense and decided to fly through the river crossing at mach 7 and almost ended up swimming.
Now normally getting soaked during a ride in SoCal is quite refreshing but it was 9am, the water was probably 60 degrees and it was about 70 degrees outside. I think I stopped breathing for about 30 seconds when that wall of water hit me. :scream:
Needless to say Tee and I stopped, took off our jerseys, proceeded to wring them out and laid them in the sun to dry while we had a snack and took in the scenery. Some camper near by said they thought it odd that we would ride all the way out here to do our laundry. We all laughed. :moon:
Friday afternoon placelast mentioned doing a multi stage ride on Saturday morning. He suggested that we load the bikes into the trucks and stage in key areas that way we could ride all of the good trails without having to worry about gas. We were going to start with the northern trails in the morning and hit the southern trails in the afternoon.
So Saturday morning around 8am, Tee, Scar Tissue, placelast and his son and I took off to our first stop. We parked on a dirt road close to where Beach Ridge and Albanita intersect. We took Albanita to Beach Trail and all was going good until placelast’s son sheered the right foot peg off of his zooki. So being the gracious father that he is placelast gave his son his bike and took the broken bike back to camp. So Tee, placelast jr., Scar Tissue and I took off again.
We took Beach trail up to Blackrock Mountain Trail and were having a great time. I was leading the pack and came to a junction so I decided to stop and wait for the rest of the boys when I looked down and discovered that my fanny pack with my wife’s expensive digital camera in it had come unzipped and was now empty. Talk about panic. I had some damn good pictures on that thing. I turned around and started scanning the trail for the camera and then it dawned on me that I hadn’t seen the boys in a while. Now I’m a pretty good rider but I ain’t that good. I finally meet up with placelast jr. and Tee.
Well the good news was that jr. saw my wifes camera on the trail and picked it up. The bad news was that Scar Tissue deciede to wrap his foot around a rock and couldn’t shift so he rode back to camp on the paved road. :whiner:
And then there were three… We continued up Blackrock Mountain Trail to a Jeep road that took us up into the Manache Meadow. We played around up there for a while and then decided to head back. We took Jackass Peak and Albanita back to the truck, loaded up and headed for camp.
I decided to call it a day and actually a weekend for riding. I was so tired I could barely stay on my bike during that last ride so I enjoyed the rest of the weekend hanging out with the family. Everyone except for Tee and I left on Sunday so it was really quiet in Fish Creek on Sunday night. We cooked up some big old T-Bones and enjoyed nature’s wonders.
Damn I hated to come home……
The misses, jr., and I left Murrieta on Tuesday morning around 9am. After scores of feeding stops (jr. is only 9 months old) we pulled into Fish Creek around 3:30 or so.
After talking to Kiwi the night before we decided to take the first two spots (Tee followed us up) as you pull into fish creek. Kiwi told me that the first spots were the largest so we figured we better grab them before someone else did.
By the time we got camp set up and figured out a plan we saw the HUGE motor home towing a trailer full of bikes pull in. We figured it might be one of our fellow DRN brethren so we went down and said hello. Turned out to be Tree and his family. We helped Tree get backed into a spot and started to help unhook the trailer when the crank broke on the trailer tongue. It was quite a site to see Tee and Tree’s two kids standing on the back of the trailer while Tree lifted the tongue and I put boulders under it so that he could pull the motor home out of the way. Thus the beginning of the adventure.
That evening and throughout the weekend a barrage of DRN’s showed up. Before the weekend was over Scar Tissue and his family, Thumbs, Firelily and Buddy, oldandslo, Kiwi and his crew, Dirt Junkie and his friend Tom, The Eel, CptJack, Boodac, Bill Beard, placelast and son, and holeshot had joined us for a weekend of fun. There may have been more but I brain dead from the dust and lack of oxygen due to the high altitude.
Tee, Tree and I did our first ride on Wednesday morning. We took the Fish and Troy connector to Beach Ridge Trail up to the Blackrock information station to get fire permits. Of course the information center is closed on Tuesday’s and Wednesday’s.
Tee was having some major jetting issues so we headed back to camp to work on that.
Wednesday afternoon, Tee and I hooked up with Buddy and Firelily and did a similar ride but took Beach Ridge Trail all the way up to where it dead ends into Albanita.
Thursday morning we worked on Tee’s jetting some more. (God I love my KTM 4-smoker) We finally got it to at least run so Thursday afternoon we hooked up with Scar Tissue and rode up Jackass to Albanita and came down Beach Ridge Trail to the Fish and Troy connector back to camp.
Thursday night while sitting around the campfire I mentioned something about an early morning ride. Everyone except for Buddy and Firelily said that they would see us when we got back. Something about riding at 6am was against the laws of nature or something.
Well we did not quite make it out at 6 but somehow around 7:30 am Tee and I took off and went up Jackass Creek and Jackass Peak trails to the Manache Meadows. We crossed the Kern River and did some exploring.
On the way back while coming across the Kern I had this momentary lapse of common sense and decided I would wheelie through the river. Due to lack of traction or something the front wheel did not come off the ground and I ended up soaked. Apparently Tee had the same momentary lapse of sense and decided to fly through the river crossing at mach 7 and almost ended up swimming.
Now normally getting soaked during a ride in SoCal is quite refreshing but it was 9am, the water was probably 60 degrees and it was about 70 degrees outside. I think I stopped breathing for about 30 seconds when that wall of water hit me. :scream:
Needless to say Tee and I stopped, took off our jerseys, proceeded to wring them out and laid them in the sun to dry while we had a snack and took in the scenery. Some camper near by said they thought it odd that we would ride all the way out here to do our laundry. We all laughed. :moon:
Friday afternoon placelast mentioned doing a multi stage ride on Saturday morning. He suggested that we load the bikes into the trucks and stage in key areas that way we could ride all of the good trails without having to worry about gas. We were going to start with the northern trails in the morning and hit the southern trails in the afternoon.
So Saturday morning around 8am, Tee, Scar Tissue, placelast and his son and I took off to our first stop. We parked on a dirt road close to where Beach Ridge and Albanita intersect. We took Albanita to Beach Trail and all was going good until placelast’s son sheered the right foot peg off of his zooki. So being the gracious father that he is placelast gave his son his bike and took the broken bike back to camp. So Tee, placelast jr., Scar Tissue and I took off again.
We took Beach trail up to Blackrock Mountain Trail and were having a great time. I was leading the pack and came to a junction so I decided to stop and wait for the rest of the boys when I looked down and discovered that my fanny pack with my wife’s expensive digital camera in it had come unzipped and was now empty. Talk about panic. I had some damn good pictures on that thing. I turned around and started scanning the trail for the camera and then it dawned on me that I hadn’t seen the boys in a while. Now I’m a pretty good rider but I ain’t that good. I finally meet up with placelast jr. and Tee.
Well the good news was that jr. saw my wifes camera on the trail and picked it up. The bad news was that Scar Tissue deciede to wrap his foot around a rock and couldn’t shift so he rode back to camp on the paved road. :whiner:
And then there were three… We continued up Blackrock Mountain Trail to a Jeep road that took us up into the Manache Meadow. We played around up there for a while and then decided to head back. We took Jackass Peak and Albanita back to the truck, loaded up and headed for camp.
I decided to call it a day and actually a weekend for riding. I was so tired I could barely stay on my bike during that last ride so I enjoyed the rest of the weekend hanging out with the family. Everyone except for Tee and I left on Sunday so it was really quiet in Fish Creek on Sunday night. We cooked up some big old T-Bones and enjoyed nature’s wonders.
Damn I hated to come home……
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