Black Dog Ride 2011 - Sunday Ride

So after the first day of dirt road and highway riding I was thinking that this gig wasn't for me.  Sunday morning it became clear who the real men were here (and a few hardy women)...half the camp was gone and the population at the rider's meeting had been nuked in half.  Though we were a little haggard, we were the riders that were here for the long haul...
 After picking up the roll chart, the moods had lifted a bit.  Comments like "sweet!  Only 57 miles and it looks like all single-track!" were flying and I was stoked to get going.  I was one of two 2-stroke bikes there and it was finally starting to look like I brought the right bike.  Here's the track showing the Sunday ride (shown in blue):

After riding on damn dirt road again for about 5 miles and eating dust of all the bozos that just HAD to get past us, we stopped for a trash-picking and flower-smelling stop.
  Side-note...we were picking trash up to help the ride look good to the forest service, who would like to see nothing more than to have us banned from doing this gig.  It felt good to clean up the area, and we were amazed to find the things we did...I found a full 40 oz. miller chilling on the road the first day...

Mmmm..pretty...now let's ride!  To be honest, I didn't get a lot of pictures between this point and these next pictures, which were taken about 1/3 through the ride.  I was just having too much fun on the trails and I just plain forgot to take em!  I'll sum it up though...one REALLY rocky section called 'The Rubicon Trail'...like rocks the size of babies, man!  Many of the bozos that HAD to pass us on the dirt road got all snotted up in this section and I never did see them come in...must have punted and turned around.  My trusty 200 was perfect, and I was having the time of my life...
  After the Rubicon, we stopped a bit at this cool lake and picked some more trash...I found a snake hiding under a can and decided that was enough trash for the day!  I HATE SNAKES!

 

  After the rocky section, it turned into great non-rocky forest single-track and 4-wheeler trails..

   These were the kind of Oregon trails I was jonesin' to see and ride.  This was the reason I wanted to ride in Oregon...it was gorgeous, loamy soil with a few roots here and there surrounded by lush green forest.  I've never ridden in anything like this before, and the loamy soil sent me bushwackin' off the trail a few times when I tried to use the front brake in the corners...turns out you have to brake BEFORE the corners - weird!  Of course if I was riding a 4-stroke like everyone else it would have been just a chop of the throttle into the corner, roll on out...but I just had to be little different...
  After this section, we rode a TON of single-track that was an absolute BLAST!  There was a section that they had the riders to go through three small loops of single track in an ORV park, which is where I saw this awesome brand-new KTM 300

  Turns out it belonged to the rider that planned all the single-track riding for the day.  We don't know what his name is, and I didn't get a picture of him (he's a bit shy), but we dubbed him 'Fancy-Pants' because he was decked out in white KTM riding gear that was as spotless as his bike was...
  After the ORV park area, we got into some rockier and rooted single-track and 4-wheeler trails.  This is a shot of Mount Hood from a burned section of the forest trail...

 After a bit of the rocky crap, there was this really great outlook area...

Mount St. Helens on the left, Mount Baker on the right

Mount Baker on the left, Mount Adams on the right

Mount Hood, baby!

  ...so right after this vista was a section of mountain bike trails with some sick jumps on them.  We were told to stay off...most looked pretty modest and I could see doing on a mountain bike, but there were a couple that looked pretty sick and no way would I dare it on any vehicle.  Pretty cool mountain-biking area...
  About this time we were about 5 miles from the end and I realized after almost bushwacking off the trail a few times that I was BEAT!  I was out of water, hungry, and the trails were rocky, rooted, and dusty.  My arms and hands were tired from constant clutching, braking, and standing up, and and my monkey-butt from the day before was starting to grow again.  Around every corner was more nasty rocky single-track...I kept thinking "Great!  More rocks and roots!  Awsome!  Oh how I wish there were more rocks!".  What kept me going was thinking what our cookie (Kymn) back at camp was whipping up for tonight's dinner...   
  We all made it back, and I've never been so hot and tired after a ride!  It was a real challenge!  After stripping off all my gear except my pants, I realized I hadn't checked in after the ride!  So all the gear went back on to ride the last challenge - bike-balance.  Basically stay in a 8'x20' rectangle for as long as you can without touching your feet to the ground.  Every second you do this, a point was earned...
  About an hour later, they had the awards ceremony for the riders that did all three days: Friday night ride, Saturday ride, and the Sunday ride.  They handed out some great prizes and trophys for the top point-earners...the top in points in our group went to Jackson - ninth place overall!
  I surprised to get the 'Smallest Vehicle Award'...turns out I was the only one that did all three days on a 2-stroke, and it was still the smallest-cc bike there including the 4-strokes!  Quite a few people were amazed at this...which makes me kind wonder what I'm missing out on with the 4-stroke bikes???  I guess I'll never know...
  It stayed nice all weekend...until that night.  Then I witnessed a for-real Oregon thunderstorm.  A couple strikes and thunder booms had me jumping out of my skin...

   I also have to say something about my trusted steed...a 2004 KTM 200 EXC...this bike continues to amaze me with it's ability to go ANYWHERE.  With an oversized gas tank I out-lasted many of the 4-strokes in our group and it's agility was orgasmic in the single-track.  KTM makes amazing bikes!

  Special Thanks to:
 Kymn (cookie) - Thanks for the great meals and hauling my bike across two states!
 Russ - Thanks for letting me crash in the trailer.
 Jason - for inviting me to this shindig


 
 

Black Dog Ride 2011 - Saturday Ride

  This year I was invited to go to an annual ride near Odell, Oregon which is located between mount Hood and mount Adams.  I had never ridden in Oregon, but I had heard stories of great trails and it sounded like a great way to see some country that I'd never seen before.  The wifey has friends in Portland, so she dropped me off on the way...

 The camp gnomes...Herman, and...can't remember the other one...nor do I know what he/she/it is holding...it's a bit of a mystery but we've got many theories that really shouldn't be listed here...

There were a few side cars rolling in too...this guy had a sidecar on a 600 Suzuki bandit!  His passenger is a black rottweiler sportin' the 'gogs...look real close...

  This was the view of mount Adams from the camper...great view to wake up to...
So this is the track taken by my GPS showing the Saturday ride...

Saturday Ride

Here I am trying to figure out how to install the roll chart...turns our there's a science to putting the things in.  I had great coaches though!  For you that don't know, roll charts carry a long (8' or so) strip of cashier paper that have directions printed on it.  As you hit checkpoints, you roll it along to see the next one...

Let's get it on!!!!!!!!

This ride consisted of probably 15 miles of trail and 155 miles of dirt roads and highway.  Not exactly what I was expecting, and I was on a KTM 200 EXC 2-stroke.  But there were some great views...

Full stable o'steeds parked for lunch...but there wasn't any left.  They ran out 3 minutes before we got there : (  Poop on that! 

This is what the majority of the ride after lunch looked like...that's mount Hood in the background.  Dusty as hell and constantly getting peppered by pea-sized gravel kicked up by every KTM Adventure that passed.  Granted, my top speed is 50 mpg, but really!? 

This is about mile 135...after 20 miles of highway at 50 mph trying to keep the bike off the pipe, my I felt like I'd ridden a bumblebee for a week!  My hands were numb from vibrations, and I was wishing my butt was numb so I wouldn't feel the monkey-butt growing on my ever-tender fanny.  You know those funny Prep-H commercials where the cactus is growing out of the seat on an airplane?  Well, they're not so funny anymore...moving on!

 We did get a little more trail at the end of the day...that's Mount Adams and Mount St. Helens in the background...

 At the end of the day, all the riders did the 'spank the monkey'...basically an obstical course.  This is Kurt going over the log triangle on the 'advanced' course.  It also consisted of a teeter-totter and a ramp that you had to clear the 8' with on the jump.  Kurt got high-centered on the log pile and blow the top log off, so I had to do the 'b' course which was a slalom course made of 2"x12" boards.  The more you rode on the boards the better you did.  At the end of the courses, you had to 'spank' a stuffed monkey hanging from a string.  Pretty funny crap...The better you did on this and other challenges the more points you could rack up.  At the end of the weekend they had prizes for the top point-winners.

And yes...I went down.  It was a rocky, dusty road and I didn't see the rock...or the other rock...and...well...it happens!  Road rash rocks!  It kinda kept my mind off my butt for a while anyway, so that was cool...

next up...the Sunday ride!  Coming soon...

Deck Refinish Project

When I bought my house, it included one of those 10'x10' useless decks without stairs down to the back yard.  This really got on my nerves, so two years ago I decided (with some help from my wife) that I should build stairs.  So I poured a concrete pad at the base of the future-staircase, as well as a pad outside the man-door (which should have come with the house, but I digress...).  So I got to work modeling the stairs (nerdy, I know - but they needed to be right, dammit!).  After building them (the right way I might add), I went to ACE to get some stain so the wifey could get to work protecting my masterpiece of elevated wood planks...
  Stupid me, I trusted the woman that sold me the stain...or should I say PAINT!  I told her I didn't want PAINT and it will NOT have any latex in it whatsoever.  I wanted STAIN.  Well, low and behold the wifey got to work staining the next day and come to find out...it was PAINT!  Latex stain to be more specific - it's still paint to me!  Well, the stairs got done but we stopped at that thinking the paint wouldn't last a year and it would be easier to strip the paint.  No dice...after two years it was KINDA starting to look faded...really nice paint.  If y'all are looking for a paint that lasts, I can recommend a stupendous one for you...
   I finally accepted the dirty truth that I was going to have to un-do all the work I did...remove the spindles and steps, sand all the crap off, and stain it the way it should have been done in the first place.  Here's what it looked like at the beginning of the project:

See how some of the spindles are 'stained' and the rest are painted?  How embarrassing!  I'm sure the neighbors were like 'who's the white-trash mofo with the zebra-deck!?'.  Nobody ever asked me, but I had a great answer ready for them...

 Pretty fugly, huh?  Not me, the deck!
  What's more, this has been a really wet spring, so I've been trying to work between storm systems.  It's really difficult to plan work when the weatherman (or woman - trying to be P.C.) doesn't even know what's up!  Updated photos to follow soon...

Alrighty, then!  Check this out!

Mui  Bueno!  The wifey is happy about it, so that must mean I did it right...