High Lord Gomer
Poked with Sticks
- Sep 26, 1999
- 11,790
- 34
With all of the rain and traffic, lately the trails at TNT have been taking a beating.
In an uncharacteristic display of intelligent maneuvering, Bruce McCrary managed to talk us into a workday on the trails that he never planned to attend. Rumor has it that he is planning to get us all over to paint his house while he’s on vacation next month.
J/K…it was his idea, but his recent display of insufficient sense to come in out of the rain brought on sufficient illness that we didn’t want him around.
Anyway, TheHondaPilot, Flynbryan, and his FFIL (Future Father-In-Law) Dave came out (along with our oldest, Danny, and I) to work on the trails and do a little riding. What was really cool was that neither Bryan nor Dave had ever even been there, but they still offered to help.
We worked until 2:00, mainly cutting breaks in the berms to allow water to escape rather than puddle and create mud bogs. We managed to do most of the short loop despite needing a few extra shovels. During this time it was painfully obvious that Lee is much better at grading land than I and everyone else was in better shape than me. I think we made some great progress, now we just need to haul in / move around some dirt to fill in the places where large ruts had formed.
Once we put away the shovels, I talked Lee into taking the CRF for a few laps. He came back and offered to trade the CRF for his KX, his F350, his clean change of clothes, and whatever change he could find in the ashtray. He and Danny then hit the big track while Bryan, Dave, and I hit the woods.
We first did a lap on both the intermediate and big tracks just so they could see them before heading to the trails. Bryan lived up to his reckless name by jumping a few of the smaller doubles on his first lap there ever…even after I had warned them that some of the jumps had steep downsides to them.
Once we got into the woods, it didn’t take long for me to realize that I liked the way the CRF handles in the woods. I don’t have barkbusters, but you don’t need them for most of the trails there. A lot of the ruts that have been dug by four wheelers ended up creating berms in the turns that you could rail on a bike. I think I only rode about 15 miles with them, but it was at my limit for almost the whole time.
Twice we came up on slower riders that didn’t know to get out of the way. The first group was 4 wheelers that finally got out of the way after we revved up the bikes and yelled for a while. The second was a beginner that didn’t know any better. When he finally stopped, dave made it by, but then the kid fell over into Bryan as he tried to pass. The older guy that was with him was explaining trail etiquette to him as I went by.
I used the excuse that I had to let Tommy ride some laps to get out of trying to keep up with Bryan and Dave anymore. Tommy rode for almost an hour and didn’t crash once.
Between the shovel and the CRF, Lee got tired and didn’t stay too late. Next time we’ll get out on the track before our tongues are hanging out.
Bryan and Dave are going to be a good addition to the fast group of woods riders in our future outings. Bryan looked as dangerous on his CRF as I am and Dave really impressed me with how he manhandled that XR650 at speed. Some time soon we need to get them together with BscottR, Stumpy, Ivan, Wrench, et al. Since I can only hang with you guys for a little while, I think I’ll stay back on the kiddie track with the slow group while you guys scare the trees.
In an uncharacteristic display of intelligent maneuvering, Bruce McCrary managed to talk us into a workday on the trails that he never planned to attend. Rumor has it that he is planning to get us all over to paint his house while he’s on vacation next month.
J/K…it was his idea, but his recent display of insufficient sense to come in out of the rain brought on sufficient illness that we didn’t want him around.
Anyway, TheHondaPilot, Flynbryan, and his FFIL (Future Father-In-Law) Dave came out (along with our oldest, Danny, and I) to work on the trails and do a little riding. What was really cool was that neither Bryan nor Dave had ever even been there, but they still offered to help.
We worked until 2:00, mainly cutting breaks in the berms to allow water to escape rather than puddle and create mud bogs. We managed to do most of the short loop despite needing a few extra shovels. During this time it was painfully obvious that Lee is much better at grading land than I and everyone else was in better shape than me. I think we made some great progress, now we just need to haul in / move around some dirt to fill in the places where large ruts had formed.
Once we put away the shovels, I talked Lee into taking the CRF for a few laps. He came back and offered to trade the CRF for his KX, his F350, his clean change of clothes, and whatever change he could find in the ashtray. He and Danny then hit the big track while Bryan, Dave, and I hit the woods.
We first did a lap on both the intermediate and big tracks just so they could see them before heading to the trails. Bryan lived up to his reckless name by jumping a few of the smaller doubles on his first lap there ever…even after I had warned them that some of the jumps had steep downsides to them.
Once we got into the woods, it didn’t take long for me to realize that I liked the way the CRF handles in the woods. I don’t have barkbusters, but you don’t need them for most of the trails there. A lot of the ruts that have been dug by four wheelers ended up creating berms in the turns that you could rail on a bike. I think I only rode about 15 miles with them, but it was at my limit for almost the whole time.
Twice we came up on slower riders that didn’t know to get out of the way. The first group was 4 wheelers that finally got out of the way after we revved up the bikes and yelled for a while. The second was a beginner that didn’t know any better. When he finally stopped, dave made it by, but then the kid fell over into Bryan as he tried to pass. The older guy that was with him was explaining trail etiquette to him as I went by.
I used the excuse that I had to let Tommy ride some laps to get out of trying to keep up with Bryan and Dave anymore. Tommy rode for almost an hour and didn’t crash once.
Between the shovel and the CRF, Lee got tired and didn’t stay too late. Next time we’ll get out on the track before our tongues are hanging out.
Bryan and Dave are going to be a good addition to the fast group of woods riders in our future outings. Bryan looked as dangerous on his CRF as I am and Dave really impressed me with how he manhandled that XR650 at speed. Some time soon we need to get them together with BscottR, Stumpy, Ivan, Wrench, et al. Since I can only hang with you guys for a little while, I think I’ll stay back on the kiddie track with the slow group while you guys scare the trees.
