My first TRUE dual sport ride in the Richlands

The grueling part about being trailer queens is loading up and getting ready.  This is even worse in the rain.  I’m not sure how I managed but Jason has the tiniest peg leg in that first photo.

 

We meet up with Brendan and Todd the next morning and gas up the trucks and bikes.

After a few hours in the cage, we arrive at the Collettsville ball parking lot which had surprisingly clean restrooms.  It’s time to unload.

Do I look like:
A. runner with strange leather gloves?
B. dual sporter in my under layers?
C. a mime?

The bikes are finally unloaded.

Jason takes pity on my poor chain and gives it a blast of WD-40.

Greg and Mike K arrive.  We go through the hand shaking and hugging ritual.

 

Mike officially checks my air pressure and it registers a big fat ZERO.  He promptly tells me that means the tire is flat.  Uh oh.  I’ve been riding on flat tires for quite some time now.  Ooopsie!  Mike kindly uses his compressor to fix the situation.

Jason is getting dressed and it’s the calm before the storm.

I’m usually the one with a bike that won’t start so it was emphasized that I check my XT would start the night before.  Unfortunately, I must have passed my bad luck along to Jason because the DR 350 was dead.  After several bump start attempts with Greg and Brendan pushing along the flat surface, Jason admits defeat and jumps it off the truck.  The look of disgust on his face is a priceless moment caught in a photo. 

As always, I’m completely engrossed in getting photos of me and my bike, an XT 225.

Meet the rest of the cast of today’s show: Brendan on the little WR 250 that could… that could some more… that could kick everyone else tail!

Todd riding Moby Dick, the KTM 620

Greg on the biggest baddest dirt bike of all – the KTM Super Enduro 950.  According to Greg, where else can you get two bikes for the price of three? 

Mike K dusted off the trusty KLX 650.

After it’s revival, Jason is ready to roll on his DR 350.

Of course as everyone is lined up and ready to roll, I’m standing off in the corner taking a photo of everyone being ready.  Note the XT is behaving badly and lining up with the rest.

We pull over after my first stretch of “dirt road.”  We had tight twisties on dirt terrain along the mountain.

This is our crew for the day sans helmets: me, Mike K, Greg, Brendan, Todd (well, he messed up the sans helmet part) and Jason is kneeling.

We hang out for a bit and I do my ta-da! pose.

Greg says, “Never ride without your Pepcid Complete.”  This is a very wise man.

 

Brendan and Mike are discussing routes and the rest of us gather round.  Mike had an “oh poo” moment as I followed him up the mountain.  He was literally inches from dropping off the edge.  Somehow he gave it gas, turned the bars sharply, and rode himself away from the drop off.  That’s an experienced rider at his best!

We finish up my first real long dirt road, Maple Grove Church Rd (AKA Maple Sally).

 

Brendan catches a few action shots as he waits for the rest (mostly me slow poking around).

 

Look at that ray of light beaming down on my XT.  J flashes his gang sign in an otherwise nice photo.

We pull over to enjoy the waterfall on Waterfall Rd.  Hmm… creativity at work.

Jason and Todd decide to take a closer look.

Todd takes an even closer look and we wonder how he’s going to get back down.

J and I enjoy the scenery.  I capture the light pouring down onto the road.

The thing about always being the photographer is not being in the photos.  Thanks to Brendan for contributing pics and video to the blog.

As we prepare to leave, Jason discovers that his battery is dead again.  Mike magically whips out a Leatherman and starts poking at the battery. 

The diagnosis is not good and another bump start is in order.  Mike yells great words of advice, “Gas on!  Third gear!” 

I’m facing the biggest and scariest creek crossing I’ve seen to date at the start of the Richlands (abandoned roads that aren’t even clear for four wheeling cages).  I get about 80% of the way across and hit a snag.  The bike stays up and I’m standing deep in the water and trying to heed all of the advice coming at me.  Todd stands as my target and the words of encouragement get me across the rest of the creek.  Todd feared this would be a very long day.

I actually held up okay until I picked a bad line and bonk goes the bike.  I did a nice highside over the handlebars and landed flat on my bike with a good hit to the back of the helmet.  Fortunately all is well and the bike fares okay except for rotated handlebars.

The rocks never look as bad in the photos as they do in real life.  I couldn’t stop and take photos where the rocks were really big because without momentum, I’d never make it through.

Below is Kevin’s (knybanjo) photo of the biggest creek crossing I’ve ever done.  You have to travel along the creek for a short distance and then bank up to the right.  It looks so much better with the bikes in the pic : )

We stop for a break at a landing. 

Brendan goes for a little adventure up the hill.

I have my last and final wreck of the day but I go out with a bang.  I managed to fall right into a big pointy rock that shatters my headlight cover but somehow spares my bulb.

We have some stills of me and J sharing the creek crossing.

Brendan catches Mike and Greg on video.  They make it look so easy on the big bikes!

We’re faced with another creek crossing.  Brendan catches me and Jason on video this time.  I didn’t even hesitate which is very rare for me.

We make it to the Richlands playground.  The boys run off and I enjoy some shade and rest. 

 

Jason takes the little XT out for a spin but his spill doesn’t count towards my wreck count.  For the record, his fall also results in long “ah-weeee” sounds from the throttle cable pulling when the bars are turned over.  See!  It’s not just me!

The hardest part (Richlands) is behind us as we transition over the pavement.

  

  

Here’s our group with the bikes.

 

Jason and I brought the beater bikes so that the nice new ones wouldn’t have to be the sacrificial lambs.

After riding 56 miles of dirt roads, off road with rocks and creek crossings, and a little pavement, I still only had to put one gallon in the XT.  I’m going green sans the $100K+ hybrid price tag.

  

It’s time for some tasty eats at the Glidewells restaurant in Blowing Rock.

These two crack me up!  They have on the same black fleece pullover, same undershirt, and same Klim overpants.  The hat on Brendan is how you know who’s going to ride pillion.  Hmm…

Brendan decides to be adventurous and orders the Conch Fritters which appear to be big hushpuppies with some salad. The rest of us go with the house specialty, a cuban sandwich with sweet potato fries that was quite tasty.

Brendan rotates my bars back up the 30 degrees or so and they finally feel like normal again.

We prepare for our last big fire road of the day.  It was supposed to be fairly mild although it did transition back to some rocks towards the end.  I need to adjust my rear brake as the travel was so long, I just gently squeezed the front coming down slight hills. 

  

Brendan grabbed a beautiful view of the water.

I’m not sure where Brendan rode but he is covered in mud including his visor. 

 

We all make it back to load up. 

Jason plays with the tiny tire.  Brendan does yet another GPS check.

Thanks to Brendan and Mike for leading.  We rode several unmarked roads and these two were great navigators.  Credit for the route creation goes to Kevin AKA knybanjo.  Although he couldn’t join the ride, his donated skid plate was quite the workhorse on my XT!  

Greg and Mike departed early so here’s the rest of the crew.  Don’t we look tough with our arms crossed and  in our pastel colored shirt scheme?

 

So the fellas weren’t kidding when they said they go to Jack in the Box.  We all got shakes and I’m two fisting with my Pumpkin Pie shake (tasty!) and water.  I also brought home a souvenir Boo Bucket.  Good stuff.  The best part was the side splitting story about abandoned trash and gagging.

It was just like the old days of coming home and washing off the bikes except it wasn’t 40 degrees and we didn’t keep our gear on just to stay warm.  My big score was seeing that the carcass had a headlight cover.  Simple pleasures for sure! 

 

For the record, my personal wreck count was two and thanks to Todd for the list of bike casualties:

1 rear brake pad (fell out??) – KLX650
1 battery (we hope that’s all) – DR350
1 headlight – XT225
1 fork seal – 620 RXC (maybe I’ll get lucky and it’s just dirt in the seal)

Overall, my first TRUE dual sport ride was a blast!  I navigated through all kinds of new terrain.  I battled and conquered creek crossings and rocks that terrified me before.  The teacher is proud of his student and I am equally proud of myself for getting back in the saddle after my off roading accident.  Life is about learning from our mistakes and moving on, not dwelling on the past.  Sometimes life comes full circle but only we have the power to choose what happens when we go back through that circle for round two.