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...
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| 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...
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