Yeah, we took off late in the day for the “500”. We had some bike maintenance to do and I had to work a few hours on Sunday morning. Here is my ride report…
On the spur of the moment we decided to go to the “500” by Stillwater this past Sunday (09/15/02). This Stillwater Park is only about 4 miles from Cooperland (this site of this years DW’02) as the crow flies. We were going to go ride below the dam at Keystone Lake due to all rain we had on Saturday, but we changed our minds and took off to the “500”. Before we made the decision to go to the “500”, I had left my cell number with bswift (who lives close to Keystone Lake) and a message to call me if he could get away from the DW’02 shower construction project he was working on this past Sunday to ride below the dam. Well, we were about 5 miles out of Drumright on Highway 33 heading towards the “500” when I received a phone call from bswift. I had already pulled over to the side because my tail pipe section had just broke lose (it did this before about 6 months ago, the guy at the muffler shop must have not welded it properly or somthin’). I was in the process of taking off the tail pipe when bswift rang in. As it turns out, he did want to go riding below the dam, but we had already made our decision to go the “500”. He was telling us that it would be sloppy on the trails at the “500”. But we were determined. He said to have fun and that he would see us at the next round of the Thunder Series at Ascot park.
As it turns out, bswift was right in that there was plenty of water on the trail in the “whoop holes”. You could get around the water easily enough for about half of the holes, the other half was a “wheelie-and-hope-it-wasn’t-too-deep” maneuver. There were about 7 other riders on the red trail when we were taking a loop. They would stop and watch us go by, then we would stop and watch them go by. The second time they stopped was right before a big section of water holes (as wide as the trail which was about 12 feet in this particular section and about 300 feet long). We surmised that they stopped to watch us. We disappointed them I think because neither of us took a dive! HAHAHA! We took our time and rode around the holes.
Yes, the trails at the “500” were sloppy, but the dirt between the holes was AWESOME! No dust at all, great traction and perfect temperatures! We rode one red loop and then played on the MX tracks by the parking area. The trails were rutted out from the OCCRA race that was held a few weeks past. All in all, it was a good riding day. On the way home we washed our bikes at a carwash in Cushing. This carwash had the most pressure I have ever seen! It is in the middle of town and is built with brick veneer and is on the North side of Highway 33.