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This year, I brought up the new 950 Adventure, I love riding that bike. I actually show up to work with a smile on my face, even though it is only a 7 mile, 15mph average, with a bunch of lights and what not.
We took off at about 8 on Thursday and made it to Durango for lunch. In Durango, Sean and I unloaded the Adventures and Johnny O got out his Kawasaki something, its a bad ass road bike of some sort. Anyway, the trucks headed out and we followed on the bikes for the 60 miles or so of awesome scenery and roads. Sean had surgery on his back a few weeks earlier and was not too sure how well he was going to be able handle the ride but he was doing all right. We actually were sitting up on the road just above Silverton and Sean was asking me if I knew how to ride the dirt roads from Silverton to Ouray. I do know several ways to get there, but I figured that if we did do this, Kellie would kill me...I mean really kill me. So we finished off on the highway.
Later that afternoon we did a short ride just up and around the east and souteast of Ouray. We went up towards Engineer Pass, we weren't supposed to go up to the top for the view, but I did anyway, it is just too good. We then headed over towards Animas Forks and up California gulch and then back to the highway to Ouray. I won't bore everyone with all the GPS coordinates and road numbers, so I will tell the only adventurous story of the day.
That would be Alan. He borrowed Sean's 950 and unlike me, I was riding mine but very gingerly because I didn't want to dump it, and actually ripped it up all over the place. He was flying through all the rocks and just throwing it into some really dry and slick turns. I was actually getting a bit scared riding behind him for a ways. We were going down this pretty steep hill, really slick with lots of rolling rocks and stuff. I was following Alan and this turn was coming up and I felt like we would never stop sliding, Alan just let go of the brakes, laid the bike over and gassed it. I had no choice but to do the same or end up in the ditch, but after that I just really gave up with the going fast thing on that bike, scared me too bad.
The second day was another just great day, the sun was out, you could see forever. Unlike the year before where we started in the rain, rode in the rain, ate in the rain, and ended in the rain. There was definitely a few stories on the day, that's what you get when you have 12 people and 100 some odd miles of riding. Only one flat, and it was only a slow leak and Ed fixed that at the second lunch break. I got to see a pretty simple crash play out in front of me, but it turned out to be a pretty significant in the long run. Russ wasn't wearing any knee guards and he hit the inside of it really hard. We caught up with the rest of the crew just a hundred yards down the trail at a gnarly creek crossing where Angie had played submarine with her YZ125. Good thing it was a two stroke, because it had sucked in a hell a lot of water. It took about thirty minutes of draining float bowls, turning it upside down, drying filters and changing spark plugs. About the time all that got done, Russ's knee was really looking bad and I took him back to where Gordy was waiting with gas and more importantly a truck to get the injured dude back to Ouray, where beer and advil would hopefully decrease the swelling. Russ unfortunately had to head home the next day, he was pretty banged up, but I will say he was pretty damned tough as we rode those twenty miles or so back to the truck.
Then it was Johnny O's turn to have some adventure. I wasn't there for any of this so it is all word of mouth. The story goes that he got stuck once and everyone just zipped right on by, I guess it was Alan who finally stopped and helped muscle the bike out of the muck. Then, John was riding in the back of the pack, just off to the side of the trail and got swallowed in an old mine hole. He was pinned upside down and I think backwards. It took all his might to get the bike off of him and pulled out of the hole. It shook him up a bit needless to say.
The third day I was back on the Adventure. It sure is weird to go from the YZ to the Adventure, they take two distinct types of riding styles. Well there is not a whole lot of grand stories to tell about the third day. We head up Red Mountain and take the Black Bear pass road over to Telluride. From Telluride it is up over Imogene pass and back into Ouray. I thought that this was going to be pretty easy and wasn't too worried about having any hard parts on the Adventure. I was wrong. I chickened out on the steep rocky, and slick steps that end with a drop of 80 feet or so if you screw up on the road below. Alan came hiking back up the trail to take pictures of me going down it, or rather going down, I think he was expecting a crash or two. But rather than ride it, I recruited Alan to help me muscle it down. It was only maybe 100meters or so, but it wrecked me, I was soaking wet with sweat, but that is what its all about. The second hard part came on the backside of Imogene. Johnny'O was actually a little worried for me on the loose shale on the way up, but that wasn't the hard part, it was on the back side where it was really steep and really slick. I worked awfully hard to keep that beast under control, but what's cool is that on the YZ it would have been a cake walk and not even a challenge, but the Adventure brings on a whole new world of challenges.
So I am looking forward to next year. Here's a few pics to entice any of you all out there that haven't come to join us next year!!
Laters all.
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