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Coolhand
0
- Joined
- Feb 1, 2007
- Messages
- 2,269
- Reaction score
- 65
- Location
- Ten Sleep, WY
- First Name
- Justin
- Last Name
- Smith
So I'm really struggling with this crappy old Pentax Optio after losing my Canon G9 in DIA. But what the heck... I'll post a few anyway.
Tonight a few other guys and I snuck out of work 15 minutes early and headed south on Highway 97 towards Lava Butte 10 miles out of town. They met in the work parking lot and got sorted with their dirt bikes in their trucks while I ran home and donned my dirt gear for the ride to the trail head. The weather has been insane here, 20 - 25 degrees below average, another 36 degree commute for me this morning. Maybe 52 degrees in the parking lot but it wasn't raining, first time in many days. Time to rock.
I grabbed my premium non-ethanol gas (hey, they let moto-riders pump their own gas here!) and headed out. I didn't have anybody's cell numbers so I was a bit concerned about finding the trail head but managed OK.
It's much easier to just ride there
Holy MACKEREL those two smokers SMOKE when they're cold.
The participants for the evening include Brian on the above 250 Yamaha 2-stroke, Bob on a CRF 450, Severin on a WR 450, and me on the orange bike.
This was the northern part of our play area for the evening. The little cone you see on the upper left side by the bend in Hwy 97 is Lava Butte. The cool black stuff you see in the forest green is lava. The straight white line that tries to go through it is a powerline with a road under it... Pretty crazy landscape...
It's much cooler from ground level, this is what you see on the approach, with Severin starting up the grade..
This is what is looks like from inside. Absolutely cool. Great road, lots of lofting the front wheel over whoops or rocks, and drifting the corners if you don't mind the surrounding cheese grater rocks.
Super fast on the powerline trail, and then we turned left and got into the good stuff. On the way in there's another hillclimb up a cinder cone, intimidated the heck out of me the first time I saw it a few weeks ago.
Brian after his first attempt on his 2-stroke. He's a hill-climbing crazy man...
Bob tried it next on the CRF. Both of those guys are way beyond what I can do on this hill... The climb is steep and deep, relatively narrow with a steep drop on the left and the occasional root or branch across to throw a wrench in the works. The view from up on it (I can't say from the top, I've never made it even close) is incredible. You can get an idea of the height by listening to this CRF.
I tried it for the first time tonight, twice actually, and didn't come close to the other guys. It's a balancing act... weight on the back for traction and you wheelie, weight forward to keep the wheel down and you spin.
Moving on from the hill climb we get into the real fun stuff, another steep climb on an open cinder hill side and then into an insanely fun loop that we hit a bunch of times. This terrain doesn't hold moisture and gets really dusty, but it was perfect tonight after weeks of rain.
Crappy picture of the usual discussion... "That was awesome, where next?" You can get an idea of the surroundings. Quite often you'll break out on top of a hill and you can see the snow capped mountains very close by.
We do a long single and quad-track climb, twisting up through the trees, to get to the loop and then dive in. The loops is just stupid fun, starting with another steep, rutty climb up through the trees, a little time on top of the ridge followed by a steep sidehill trail back down through the trees. Penalty for a high side could be bad if you hit a tree or like landing on a mattress if you ended up in the 6" of pine needles.
At the bottom you crank it up on a forest service road and then jump into the real singletrack, winding, wheeling, and lofting along for a few miles, finishing with another climb back to the beginning.
After our second one, Severin and I are happy campers.
But, the sun is getting low and it's time to point the bikes home. Temp must be in the upper 40s and I've been playing the layer game, trying to stay warm but not to sweat. I can see my breath billowing out of the helmet.
I'm not the only happy camper.
So we beat feet back to the powerline trail. These guys are super fast to this Texas guy, even the dude on the WR with blown suspension eats my lunch.
Of course I don't have pictures of the good stuff. We were having too much fun and it's too hard for me to handle this little camera quickly. (Not to mention I was off the back most of the time
) On the way back through the lava field I did manage to grab a quick video. The guys slowed down thinking I was having a problem, so no big wheelie shots
Getting back to the trail head, I shucked my wet base layer, replaced it with a dry one, put on my rain pants for wind protection and then ran for home before the deer came out
(I've already had one "close enough" deer encounter the last time I rode home from this trail...)
Made it home, cats are fed, warm shower brought up the core temp, beer is drank.
KTM is tucked in.
That's it for today, time for bed. Darned good riding, I feel lucky to have hooked up with these guys.
Tonight a few other guys and I snuck out of work 15 minutes early and headed south on Highway 97 towards Lava Butte 10 miles out of town. They met in the work parking lot and got sorted with their dirt bikes in their trucks while I ran home and donned my dirt gear for the ride to the trail head. The weather has been insane here, 20 - 25 degrees below average, another 36 degree commute for me this morning. Maybe 52 degrees in the parking lot but it wasn't raining, first time in many days. Time to rock.
I grabbed my premium non-ethanol gas (hey, they let moto-riders pump their own gas here!) and headed out. I didn't have anybody's cell numbers so I was a bit concerned about finding the trail head but managed OK.
It's much easier to just ride there
Holy MACKEREL those two smokers SMOKE when they're cold.
The participants for the evening include Brian on the above 250 Yamaha 2-stroke, Bob on a CRF 450, Severin on a WR 450, and me on the orange bike.
This was the northern part of our play area for the evening. The little cone you see on the upper left side by the bend in Hwy 97 is Lava Butte. The cool black stuff you see in the forest green is lava. The straight white line that tries to go through it is a powerline with a road under it... Pretty crazy landscape...
It's much cooler from ground level, this is what you see on the approach, with Severin starting up the grade..
This is what is looks like from inside. Absolutely cool. Great road, lots of lofting the front wheel over whoops or rocks, and drifting the corners if you don't mind the surrounding cheese grater rocks.
Super fast on the powerline trail, and then we turned left and got into the good stuff. On the way in there's another hillclimb up a cinder cone, intimidated the heck out of me the first time I saw it a few weeks ago.
Brian after his first attempt on his 2-stroke. He's a hill-climbing crazy man...
Bob tried it next on the CRF. Both of those guys are way beyond what I can do on this hill... The climb is steep and deep, relatively narrow with a steep drop on the left and the occasional root or branch across to throw a wrench in the works. The view from up on it (I can't say from the top, I've never made it even close) is incredible. You can get an idea of the height by listening to this CRF
. I tried it for the first time tonight, twice actually, and didn't come close to the other guys. It's a balancing act... weight on the back for traction and you wheelie, weight forward to keep the wheel down and you spin.
Moving on from the hill climb we get into the real fun stuff, another steep climb on an open cinder hill side and then into an insanely fun loop that we hit a bunch of times. This terrain doesn't hold moisture and gets really dusty, but it was perfect tonight after weeks of rain.
Crappy picture of the usual discussion... "That was awesome, where next?" You can get an idea of the surroundings. Quite often you'll break out on top of a hill and you can see the snow capped mountains very close by.
We do a long single and quad-track climb, twisting up through the trees, to get to the loop and then dive in. The loops is just stupid fun, starting with another steep, rutty climb up through the trees, a little time on top of the ridge followed by a steep sidehill trail back down through the trees. Penalty for a high side could be bad if you hit a tree or like landing on a mattress if you ended up in the 6" of pine needles.
At the bottom you crank it up on a forest service road and then jump into the real singletrack, winding, wheeling, and lofting along for a few miles, finishing with another climb back to the beginning.
After our second one, Severin and I are happy campers.
But, the sun is getting low and it's time to point the bikes home. Temp must be in the upper 40s and I've been playing the layer game, trying to stay warm but not to sweat. I can see my breath billowing out of the helmet.
I'm not the only happy camper.
So we beat feet back to the powerline trail. These guys are super fast to this Texas guy, even the dude on the WR with blown suspension eats my lunch.
Of course I don't have pictures of the good stuff. We were having too much fun and it's too hard for me to handle this little camera quickly. (Not to mention I was off the back most of the time
) On the way back through the lava field I did manage to grab a quick video. The guys slowed down thinking I was having a problem, so no big wheelie shots Getting back to the trail head, I shucked my wet base layer, replaced it with a dry one, put on my rain pants for wind protection and then ran for home before the deer came out
(I've already had one "close enough" deer encounter the last time I rode home from this trail...)Made it home, cats are fed, warm shower brought up the core temp, beer is drank.
KTM is tucked in.
That's it for today, time for bed. Darned good riding, I feel lucky to have hooked up with these guys.
Last edited:
(crummy apartment neighbors excepted)
There is a local KTM dealer here in town but they're pretty poorly regarded.
