- Feb 9, 2000
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Rooster & Sarge made it to our place Thursday night and we had a good evening reminiscing and getting everything packed and ready for an early departure. It was probably about 2 hours into the drive when I realized my Camelbak bladder was still in the cooler that I decided not to bring since Rooster brought his! Less than an hour later a fine KY state trooper was informing me that the speed limit was indeed 65 and was kind enough to give me a piece of official looking paper providing the proof. He spent a LOT of time at Sarge's pickup and somehow he didn't end up with a nice piece of paper?? We met up with CAL, Darby, Yamahauler, SuperDave5, WaltCMoto & sons Eric & Bob, Lonnie, KelvinKDX & PN & friend Tim, MikeB and Paddy. Paddy and PN also were in the 'forgot the camelbak bladder' group. Linton turned out to be a wee bit wet :laugh: The first 1-2 hours were spent in a marshy swamp zigging, zagging, backtracking, roosting mud, falling over spectacle. Several folks decided to get it out of their system right away and found themselves down in the mud within the first 5 minutes. It was easy to tell that this place was 4-wheeler heaven and I think everyone spent considerable time with their wheels in different 4-wheeler ruts going sideways, spewing mud on everyone in the immediate vicinity. I saw more crashes in the 4-5 hours we were there than I've ever seen in an entire weekend of riding. To give you an idea of the fine conditions, I believe the most any of the ODO bikes had was right at 20 miles and most of that came on higher ground past the swamp. Sarge showed me how to drop your front tire 2 feet straight down into 2 feet of muck going about 7 miles an hour. He went over the bars and landed quite softly in the mud. I walked partway out to see if I could help and the ooze came very near the tops of my boots when I decided I'd head back to semi firm ground to see if he REALLY needed my assistance. Someone should be posting a pic of his inner thigh bruise shortly. OUCH. Once on higher ground we were actually cruising nicely for awhile. MikeB let a tree across the trail (a bit shorter than head high) separate him and his katoom and we somehow lost SuperDave. Turned out Dave messed his knee up and also had bent his radiator up enough that the cap didn't want to be put back on. By the time we realized Dave wasn't coming we motored on thinking that there were a couple others back there with him. After meeting a couple fellas on big KTM's they informed us that he was hurt but walking and they joined in our group for some fun. I guess they had the impression that someone in our group knew their way around but at times it didn't appear that way. Close to an hour after losing Dave we made it back through the swamp to the trucks only to find he hadn't made it back yet. All of the locals and the great guys on KTM's headed out in two search parties. It was decided the rest of us wouldnt be much help as we would be helplessly lost in the first 5 minutes and the place wasn't that big. The first group came back probably an hour later and still no sign of Dave. We were close to having to gather all the bikes with lights when Yamahauler and the two KTM's came out of the woods with Dave and his CRF in the middle of them. Many congratulations befell our new friends and we visited for a bit about how and why (www.dirtrider.net) all of us from varied home towns and states came to be together riding in KY. Paddy (I think) yanked and twisted on Daves knee for a bit and we all proclaimed it to not be emergency room material.
All in all it was a lot of fun and many soft mud crashes with a few near bike drownings thrown in.
I'll let someone else start with Day 2 over at Turkey Bay.
FYI I am missing a new blue/white jersey and a brand new (very muddy now) pair of riding gloves.....Please tell me they are in your gearbag someone.
All in all it was a lot of fun and many soft mud crashes with a few near bike drownings thrown in.
I'll let someone else start with Day 2 over at Turkey Bay.
FYI I am missing a new blue/white jersey and a brand new (very muddy now) pair of riding gloves.....Please tell me they are in your gearbag someone.