- Oct 13, 1999
- 2,812
- 0
Well dirtybkr and I finally got on the road towards Paragon around 2:00 p.m. on Friday. After a couple of stops along the way we arrived at the campground at 6:30. After setting up camp we headed into town and picked up groceries, and drove around until we found a place that sells beer (Note to self, bring beer from NY next time). Unfortunately they didn’t carry NA beer so dirty had to settle for ice tea. We got back to camp and BRush had arrived and was sitting in the dark. A few minutes later knobbiethrower pulled in. The next few hours we sat around, had a few cold adult beverages, except for dirty, ate dinner then crawled off to bed around 12:30 in the morning.
I woke up last Saturday morning and after bacon and eggs we got everything ready and headed over to Paragon. After signing in we jumped into our gear, fired up the bikes and headed out. Saturday’s trail guide ended up being knobbie, by default, since he’d been there before. There were a few highlights to this days ride. We went up and down Turtle Trail a few times, but that was boring compared to the other stuff we found.
The first to into the rocks, literally, on trail 10 was our fearless leader, knobbie. I followed and bulldogged my way up a slightly easier line the lost the trail. BRush followed me up then disappeared. I realized my mistake turned around and caught dirty making an almost perfect climb up the rocks. After picking the smoothest line over, around and between giant boulders I came to a spot where BRush was standing at the top of a hill. It was short, steep and off-camber with a nice sized stump right in the middle. BRush yelled something down to me, but in a moment of clear-headed thinking I saw the line going up through more boulders on the left. I took the line to the left, met up with BRush and schemed on how to suck knobbie into climbing that hill. Our first victim was dirty who looked up at us standing at the top and, in a moment of testosterone/stupidity, gunned it for the top. He made it a good five feet before crashing. After a good chuckle I pointed out the easier line through the rocks on his left. A short string of expletives followed. When knobbie arrived at the hill we waved him on up, which he proceeded to do. In all honesty I thought he would make it until I noticed he was focused on the stump and that’s all the further he made it. BRush and I had a good laugh and I overheard some expletives coming from knobbie, but eventually he bulldogged it up the rocks.
Later in the morning knobbie led us into another field of boulders. This one was absolutely huge and he started off bulldogging his XC300 through the field. BRush, dirty and myself searched out a smoother line, which took us across a large boulder and back into the trail. It was this section where dirty lost part of his brake pedal. After this little section we decided to head back and grab some lunch and make repairs. For the record a tie-down J-hook, hose clamps and duct tape make an excellent pedal repair.
After lunch we head out to explore some more stuff and try to find some single-track. Going through a rocky section, dirty dumped his bike. After getting through I waited for him and when I turned around BRush and knobbie were gone. For a couple hours dirty and I explored some different trails until we found the ultimate hill climb. At the bottom it starts out as a jeep trail that disappears into the trees. Once in the trees it becomes a quad trail, but continues going up. This hill was long, fairly steep and covered with loose dirt and rocks. The biggest factor was keeping up the momentum. At the very top the trail dead ends, but some scouting around picked up another quad trail. Judging by the number of deer stands around, these were just access trails. We linked the two trails then turned around and rode backwards and back down the hill. Once at the bottom, dirty and I turned around and headed back up again. At the top of the hill I shut off my bike and immediately heard a string of expletives followed by revving of an engine, and more expletives. I hiked down the hill to find dirty stuck against a tree. After a few minutes he I was rolling on the ground laughing at this point and absolutely useless in helping him. He did manage to free himself and make it to the top of the hill. Once there we took off our helmets and took a break. Suddenly we heard the sound of two screaming 2-strokes. I look over at dirty and he said “I bet that’s knobbie and Brush.” Sure enough they popped up into the clearing. After a few words of encouragement we continued down the trail.
Blasting down a high-speed road I had my first an only crash of the trip. As usual, when I do something, I do it BIG and this was no exception. I was bringing up the rear at this point, behind BRush. First a rock kicked up from BRush nailed me right in the goggles. Then he went through a puddle and splashed mud up. At this point that testosterone/stupidity thing kicked in and I decided to pass BRush. I swung to his right and grabbed a handful just as he changed his line to avoid a rock. Instead of getting stuffed into the bushes I ducked behind BRush, into his old line and hit the rock he moved to avoid. I’m not exactly sure what happened, but the bike augered in on it’s left bar. I was slammed to the ground then rag-dolled for 20 to 30 feet. I saw sky, ground, bike and weeds over and over in slow motion. When I came to a rest I took inventory and after a few minutes, staggered to my feet, picked up my bike and took off my helmet and sat down. BRush came back to check on me. About this time jmics and his buddy rode by. Then Cruiser (from the Smackover Motorsports forum) rode up. I looked over my bike and the left bark buster was bent beyond belief and the forks were tweaked in the triple clamps. Down the trail, dirty was attempting to fix a flat front tire. I got my bike down there and we attempted repairs, which included breaking the bark buster. However I did find a nice sized tree to straighten the forks out. Unfortunately dirty was having all kinds of problems with his front tire, so using some industrial strength zip-ties, that Cruiser carried, he zip-tied his front tire to the rim and we decided to head back to the parking area. This of course included a blast up the rocky Turtle Trail.
Once back at the parking area we decided to call it a day. We loaded up and headed back to the campground. After a shower, steak dinner and a couple adult beverages by the fire we headed off to bed.
To be continued
I woke up last Saturday morning and after bacon and eggs we got everything ready and headed over to Paragon. After signing in we jumped into our gear, fired up the bikes and headed out. Saturday’s trail guide ended up being knobbie, by default, since he’d been there before. There were a few highlights to this days ride. We went up and down Turtle Trail a few times, but that was boring compared to the other stuff we found.
The first to into the rocks, literally, on trail 10 was our fearless leader, knobbie. I followed and bulldogged my way up a slightly easier line the lost the trail. BRush followed me up then disappeared. I realized my mistake turned around and caught dirty making an almost perfect climb up the rocks. After picking the smoothest line over, around and between giant boulders I came to a spot where BRush was standing at the top of a hill. It was short, steep and off-camber with a nice sized stump right in the middle. BRush yelled something down to me, but in a moment of clear-headed thinking I saw the line going up through more boulders on the left. I took the line to the left, met up with BRush and schemed on how to suck knobbie into climbing that hill. Our first victim was dirty who looked up at us standing at the top and, in a moment of testosterone/stupidity, gunned it for the top. He made it a good five feet before crashing. After a good chuckle I pointed out the easier line through the rocks on his left. A short string of expletives followed. When knobbie arrived at the hill we waved him on up, which he proceeded to do. In all honesty I thought he would make it until I noticed he was focused on the stump and that’s all the further he made it. BRush and I had a good laugh and I overheard some expletives coming from knobbie, but eventually he bulldogged it up the rocks.
Later in the morning knobbie led us into another field of boulders. This one was absolutely huge and he started off bulldogging his XC300 through the field. BRush, dirty and myself searched out a smoother line, which took us across a large boulder and back into the trail. It was this section where dirty lost part of his brake pedal. After this little section we decided to head back and grab some lunch and make repairs. For the record a tie-down J-hook, hose clamps and duct tape make an excellent pedal repair.
After lunch we head out to explore some more stuff and try to find some single-track. Going through a rocky section, dirty dumped his bike. After getting through I waited for him and when I turned around BRush and knobbie were gone. For a couple hours dirty and I explored some different trails until we found the ultimate hill climb. At the bottom it starts out as a jeep trail that disappears into the trees. Once in the trees it becomes a quad trail, but continues going up. This hill was long, fairly steep and covered with loose dirt and rocks. The biggest factor was keeping up the momentum. At the very top the trail dead ends, but some scouting around picked up another quad trail. Judging by the number of deer stands around, these were just access trails. We linked the two trails then turned around and rode backwards and back down the hill. Once at the bottom, dirty and I turned around and headed back up again. At the top of the hill I shut off my bike and immediately heard a string of expletives followed by revving of an engine, and more expletives. I hiked down the hill to find dirty stuck against a tree. After a few minutes he I was rolling on the ground laughing at this point and absolutely useless in helping him. He did manage to free himself and make it to the top of the hill. Once there we took off our helmets and took a break. Suddenly we heard the sound of two screaming 2-strokes. I look over at dirty and he said “I bet that’s knobbie and Brush.” Sure enough they popped up into the clearing. After a few words of encouragement we continued down the trail.
Blasting down a high-speed road I had my first an only crash of the trip. As usual, when I do something, I do it BIG and this was no exception. I was bringing up the rear at this point, behind BRush. First a rock kicked up from BRush nailed me right in the goggles. Then he went through a puddle and splashed mud up. At this point that testosterone/stupidity thing kicked in and I decided to pass BRush. I swung to his right and grabbed a handful just as he changed his line to avoid a rock. Instead of getting stuffed into the bushes I ducked behind BRush, into his old line and hit the rock he moved to avoid. I’m not exactly sure what happened, but the bike augered in on it’s left bar. I was slammed to the ground then rag-dolled for 20 to 30 feet. I saw sky, ground, bike and weeds over and over in slow motion. When I came to a rest I took inventory and after a few minutes, staggered to my feet, picked up my bike and took off my helmet and sat down. BRush came back to check on me. About this time jmics and his buddy rode by. Then Cruiser (from the Smackover Motorsports forum) rode up. I looked over my bike and the left bark buster was bent beyond belief and the forks were tweaked in the triple clamps. Down the trail, dirty was attempting to fix a flat front tire. I got my bike down there and we attempted repairs, which included breaking the bark buster. However I did find a nice sized tree to straighten the forks out. Unfortunately dirty was having all kinds of problems with his front tire, so using some industrial strength zip-ties, that Cruiser carried, he zip-tied his front tire to the rim and we decided to head back to the parking area. This of course included a blast up the rocky Turtle Trail.
Once back at the parking area we decided to call it a day. We loaded up and headed back to the campground. After a shower, steak dinner and a couple adult beverages by the fire we headed off to bed.
To be continued
