Foresthill Goodness On Trail 6

Eric and I headed up to Foresthill last Saturday to break in his new Husky WR250. This was also my first real ride with the magic carb/needle/powervalve set-up Walt so graciously sent me. I figured this ride would be a good test of whether this motor was really going to do what I wanted it to do when I wanted it to do it. We were joined by our good friends Glenn (Husaberg) and Dan (riding his YZ250F til his new `11 TE310 gets here.)


I like the look of the fraternal twins...



We got to the China Wall staging area and were in kind of a hurry to get on the trails til this guy showed up...



We'd all heard him coming from a mile away...what a sweet sound! And this is why...

(Get a load of that aluminum frame made by Alcoa Aluminum)


We had a good time ooh'ing and aah'ing over the sweet machine...



Why is it big ol' "all business" brakes excite me? I swear that's why I went with the SM instead of the TE...



Anyway, Trail 6 was on the menu today. In my opinion it's the best trail at Foresthill. It goes up and down ridges, crosses some pretty creeks, has lots of exposure, switchbacks and high-consequence areas...it's just a blast!


















The outside of one of the many switchbacks. Don't know if you can tell or not, but it's a loooong way down...



Heading down towards Lower Bridge...



What it looked like from Dan's persspective...



It was really beautiful down here...











More to come...




WoodsChick

Nice. Looks like a great area. 7.5 hour / 440 miles for me, not to bad. I'm guessing closed for snow soon or no?

We goofed around on the bridge, semi-planning to come back on a bike-camping trip in the future...













Then headed up the trail. The rubber strip you see would be a harbinger of things to come...



Gaah...what a mess...torn up rubber strips, and the cables they were once woven onto for traction/erosion control, are now scattered all over the place...



The usual disclaimers apply here: steeper than it looks, slick rocks, etc. It took Glenn a few tries...



And Dan kept getting the rubber and cables stuck in his wheels on his attempts...



This is the beginning of my attempt (take note: that's "attempt" as in singular)



The key was to get up on what was left of the chickenwired rocks and stay out of the rip-rap on the edges, but there was a decently slick lip
there...






Victory is mine...



Here is Eric's attempt...
















Now, I'm not the type to gloat over personal victories, but they don't come along too often with this crowd I ride with so I took a few moments to bask in the glow of my stunning victory and to wallow in the glory their collective defeat We then continued on and they continued to kick my butt...as usual. Now, to be fair, Eric was on his first ride on a new bike with no suspension set up, running rich, crappy tires, couldn't rev it like he wanted to, etc. He is a much better rider than I am...that's why I had to take advantage of the situation.




WoodsChick



More to come...

Yeah, it'll get hammered pretty soon. We'd like to make another trip up there before that happens. There was a tiny bit of snow remaining from the dump the previous Sunday but it's probably all gone today.




WoodsChick

These switchbacks reminded me of the ones I rode up at Gifford Pinchot NF in WA summer before last, except these were golden orange instead of green...





Breaktime...















The dirt was like delicious hot cocoa...



One of the few wide flat spots on this trail...



Upper Bridge...





More to come...




WoodsChick

Quite nice, as usual. I don't have any recent dirt adventures with Husqvarnas in them, or I'd post up a bit. Might have one later this week though.


I see your favorite thing in the whole world there....a rock outcropping on a cliffside trail.

Oh yes, it was a joy to ride around Actually, that spot wasn't bad at all. I need to wear a helmet cam (but then there will be too much proof of what a spode I am) because there was some stuff on this trail that gave me some serious pause but I wasn't in the mood to whip out the camera in those spots.




WoodsChick

Right after the bridge comes some more switchbacks...


Can't wait til Eric gets his bike dialed in


Eric going so fast he's blurry


Was Dan waiting for me to cross the little tree in the trail?


Done! Too bad he didn't catch my pretty wheelie...




Heading into another set of switchbacks, this one had a log pounded into the ground with rebar, presumably to keep riders from cutting the switchback. The rebar was sticking out from 3 to 8 inches in about 6 places. A piece can be seen right behind the wheel on the left. Not a good thing to fall over onto, so Glenn took it upon himself to pound them down with a big rock...





There was a tiny bit of snow left over from last Sunday's dump...


We headed back to China Wall, where we sat around and shot the breeze while Eric tried to run out his first tank of gas. We watched the sun go down...





Then loaded up and headed home...




These guys followed us all the way home...



We had a great time riding great bikes on a great trail with great friends. It doesn't get any better than that

For sure

Oh, believe you me...I totally dug that action Make no mistake, though, all 3 of those guys are very technically proficient, more so than I am I'm sure, I just had a trials tire and the benefit of watching 2 others go before me, as in "Ooh...I don't wanna take that line!" "Mmm...nope...not going that way, either!"

Well, thanks to Walt it is He sent me a box of magic and I couldn't be happier. I'm still looking for a little more snap when I want it, though. We haven't done anything to it since dropping the carb and ground power valves in it, though. I'd like it to spin up a little bit faster when I'm ready to rock n' roll, but for the nasty it's exactly what I hoped for It's still a tad tall for me, and it shows when the going gets rough, but I'm digging the ground clearance.




WoodsChick

Not to dis your urban ride, but I like your Forest hill ride better than your Forest lawn one.

Me, too!




WoodsChick

Nice. Hope the others did not take it personally that you made it up that hill.

Heh...I hope they don't take it personally that I made fun of them for it in a public forum

Nah, we're all good friends and we all give and take an inordinate amount of ribbing and trash-talking no matter the transgression. It's almost expected...isn't it? Besides, they all know they can kick my butt clear into next week so I'm sure they don't mind me gloating over my tiny bit of hard-won trail glory



WoodsChick

Hardy-har-har Guess that's why it keeps veering towards the right

Yeah, we didn't touch it at all. It seems to be running a little rich but it is clean everywhere, no stumbles or hiccups or anything.

So, RPMguy is working on the power valves, eh? Does that mean I don't have to send yours back to you? I can't anyway cuz, um, ...I lost your address! Yeah, that's it! I lost your address so I guess I'll have to keep `em now. Sorry!




WoodsChick