Family Dirtbike, ATV, Campout in Willis - 06/28/14

Thanks to all that made the event. Sterling Ranch is a great place to ride especially with the young ones. I will defiantly ride there again, and soon. Maybe the next one should be held were it hasn't rained in years. LOL

Re: Family Dirtbike, ATV, Campout in Willis

Ralph said:

Thanks to all that made the event. Sterling Ranch is a great place to ride especially with the young ones. I will defiantly ride there again, and soon. Maybe the next one should be held were it hasn't rained in years. LOL

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You might be able to sell your rain services to the folks around Lake Travis.

Re: Family Dirtbike, ATV, Campout in Willis

I found this to be a great experience for me and, as far as I could tell, everyone else I saw riding...young, not so young, beginners, veterans all. Even the rain Saturday afternoon only stopped the riding for a short time.

I had a blast and got schooled expertly on how to get my bike back up in a variety of situations. You know who you are and rest assured my appreciation is genuine LOL

Thanks y'all for putting this on!

Re: Family Dirtbike, ATV, Campout in Willis

We had a great time as well. My daughter enjoyed riding on the kids loop and it was good meeting you guys.

Re: Family Dirtbike, ATV, Campout in Willis

This is Reagan and it is the
BEST place EVER

Re: Family Dirtbike, ATV, Campout in Willis

We are back home and very tired, but all had a fantastic time! Made some great new friends as did my son, Jesse, who had a great time riding with kids his own age. Even my girls, who were somewhat dubious about the trip had lots of fun. Thanks to Brad, the owner, and Ralph and the CMA for hosting the event, and thanks to all the great folks that showed up!

Re: Family Dirtbike, ATV, Campout in Willis

greenhornet said:

We are back home and very tired, but all had a fantastic time! Made some great new friends as did my son, Jesse, who had a great time riding with kids his own age. Even my girls, who were somewhat dubious about the trip had lots of fun. Thanks to Brad, the owner, and Ralph and the CMA for hosting the event, and thanks to all the great folks that showed up!

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Also, I got to ride a KTM 525 EXC, it was awesome! A very special thanks to the owner of that bike. My wife doesn't like you. LOL!

Re: Family Dirtbike, ATV, Campout in Willis

Wish MY6 and I could be there this weekend. Look forward to pictures and comments posted after. Have fun!

Re: Family Dirtbike, ATV, Campout in Willis

It was a lot of fun! We thought we were going to campout for the night but the first day we got a Polaris stuck and in the extraction process got mud all over. So it was decided to head back same day for a hot shower and nice bed to sleep in!
Here's the first part of video riding the trails and single track.

Re: Family Dirtbike, ATV, Campout in Willis

As promised, here's the extraction activity...

We had so much fun at the last event over at the Blue Bonnet MX track in March that I definitely wanted to make it to this event. It is MUCH closer to home and the price was right! It is 29 miles from our house. From Hwy 150 on the East side of New Waverly it is 1.8 miles South down FM 1097. It is on the left and easy to miss if you are not looking. Coming from Willis it is 8.6 miles from I-45 up FM 1097 and is on the right.

We camped back in March. Given the amount of rain we've been getting lately and the "warmer" temps, I had no desire to camp this time. So I loaded up the bikes Friday night and we set out Saturday morning around 8:30am, arriving at the park just after 9:00am, right on schedule. Then as I started to unload the bikes, I realized I had left ALL the bike keys hanging on their hooks at the house... It would not have been so annoying except for the fact that I thought to myself the night before that I should probably put the keys in the truck so I don't forget them in the morning But I was already in the house, my shoes off, sitting on the couch... You get the picture... Sooooo... I disconnected the trailer and cruised back to Huntsville to get the keys.

As fate would have it, this turned out to be a good thing. Back in New Waverly I ran into Wildernessrider at the Shell station on 1374 and US 75. He made a generous donation to the forum right there on the spot. Then Beth called and reminded me to bring the TWT T-shirts back with me because there were people wanting to buy some. And, when we returned, we found Daniel already suited up and riding Emily's new CRF-110 The round trip was right at an hour, but already by 10:30am it was getting warm and sticky...

I quickly got the bikes ready to roll and it was time to play!

The big open area for the small kids to ride around.


The CMA folks hosted the day and provided drinks and lunch


Marcus "Greenhornet" and his daughters, whose names I don't think I ever heard...


Not sure who these go with, but I think they left shortly after we got there


The pit/camping area, across the road from the main house


Gary "Bwdmax" and Justin "Jqueen" with his daughter Sarah


Ralph, our organizer, hiding behind the pole...


JohnnyL (I think) from Victoria, came up with Gary and his family


Jesse heading into the woods via the road over the lake dam (Marcus's son)


Chased by Daniel (my son)


I never got a chance to get over and meet these folks


Jesse coming back from the woods... minus Daniel...


Gary


Gary's daughter Emily on her new CRF-110. She rode Sarah's new CRF-110 at the Blue Bonnet event in March and like it. She seemed to really like her new bike and looked very comfortable on it!


Jqueen's KLR and Sarah's XR70.


Looking from the kid track back over to the pit/camping area


The blue tent had a mister set up in it. It was a big hit with the kids and dogs. I don't know if it cooled them down at all, but it got them wet.


No clue who these bikes belong to


Sarah


Justin and Sarah


Emily and big brother, Colton, on his CRF150


Happy rider on a new bike!!


I did quite a few laps riding our XR-80 and on Sarah's CRF-110. Rachel did some laps around the kiddie track on her CRF-50 and decided it was to bumpy. Sarah rode around the track for a while and decided she was too hot. So that was it for both of them. I could barely keep track of Daniel. One moment he was in the pit area and the next he was running off with another group to go explore the trails. He came back from one such run and told me he had found a great jump!! So of course I grabbed the camera and followed him. He stopped to let me go ahead and get set up to take pics.

His first run


and the vid,
http://www.twtex.com/linkfiles/062814-SterlingRanch/MVI_9707_x264.mp4

Another run,


http://www.twtex.com/linkfiles/062814-SterlingRanch/MVI_9710_x264.mp4

Emily, Gary, Jesse, Sarah and Justin watching while Daniel does his thing


Marcus's older daughter. It was her first time riding dirt. I followed them around on some trails and she did great. I had no idea it was her first time!! She even did well in the loose sand and some nasty mud.


Overall, the park is nice. It is not developed in terms of facilities like older parks that have been around a while. The trails are in good shape and not torn up from ATVs and heavy bike use. They are a nice mix of sand and dirt, some wide, some narrow. There aren't really many serious elevation changes anywhere in the park (at least not that I saw). Daniel rode pretty much every trail he could find on his TTR 50 and had a blast.

Around 2:30pm or so, the rains came and came hard! After one really close and loud thunderclap, we were wondering how long it would take for Daniel to show up in the pit. We barely had time to turn around before he came ripping across the field and parked under the tent with us before he breathlessly exclaimed, "DID YOU HEAR THAT!?!" The rain eventually let up and we decided to call it a day, as did some of the other folks. I am sure the trails were still fun even after the rain because they are mostly sand and the water soaks in or runs off pretty quick. There are some muddy spots, but those looked like they could be avoided (unless you were in a big Polaris ).

The kids all said they had a great time and they want to know when we can go back. I'm thinking October... when it is not so hot So far, we are 0-2 for the rain with these events. But that is okay because we still had a lot of fun. It was great seeing so many kids come out, especially with all the ladies representing! I think there were six girls riding? In fact, I think there were more girls than boys! Anyway, it was fun seeing everyone. Apparently, there were folks from the forum there that I did not get a chance to meet. With trying to ride and keep track of kids, I had my hands full. So maybe next time

Thanks to Ralph and CMA for putting on anther great family ride. We came up to Willis Friday night and setup camp. Brad that owns Sterling Ranch was super nice and gave us a quick tour of some of the trails. The trails are great for this type of ride and there was some more technical stuff that was not flagged, but Brad was glad to show us these trails also.

I had a great time riding with my family and friends, both new and old. The rain on Saturday slowed us down for a bit, but the trails were still good with only a little mud. My wife was not wild about sleeping in a damp tent, so we agreed to head home Saturday evening.

Wet dirty camping gear, wet dirty riding gear, dirty motor cycles, dirty trailer, and dirty truck…..yeah I’ll do it again first chance I get!

Thanks Scott for the pics as we took not one the whole time.

Greenhornet sorry that you drank the orange kool-aid without knowing all the side effects.

Tourmeister said:

Not sure who these go with, but I think they left shortly after we got there

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Those are mine. We got there pretty early cause I knew my daughter would be wanting to leave once it got hot. We had a great time and she already wants to go back.

Drumboy said:

Those are mine. We got there pretty early cause I knew my daughter would be wanting to leave once it got hot. We had a great time and she already wants to go back.

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Sorry I missed you! I am sure we will be heading back down there. I will try to remember to post up ahead of time when we go. But I doubt it will be a camp out trip until later in the fall when it cools back down.

Looks like a great time was had by one and all. I love seeing those small bikes teaching the riders of tomorrow and those smiles peeking out of the helmets. Very well done Moms and Dads.



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