Now I have to wait until after New Years day to order a new slide for my wee green beastie, so it was off to the high desert valley with the TE 450. Not my first choice in singletrack weaponry, but fun just the same. It wore me out faster than the little bike would have, but it was a fine jaunt with no throttle sticking involved. The morning started off cold and sunny. But the sky became more and more overcast as the hours progressed. I was waiting for the weekday rushhour traffic to subside before hopping onto the freeway to head out. It was a cloudy drive out till I got to my offramp. Then the sun was shining again. I pulled into the staging area, offloaded Trajan and geared up. I was surprised to find a few people out there this time. I guess that more people had the week off between Christmas and New Years than the week before Christmas day. No worries though. They never seem to end up where I go. "Hmmm, clouds to the west....should I throw on the rainsuit? Maybe not. Oh, I don't know, guess I'll toss on the jacket part. It might sprinkle a little." And so I headed out for some trail riding. It hadn't rained for a few days and the sand was sort of dry, but at least there was no dust. I kept my eye on that dark sky as it tried to tippy toe up on me out on the trail. Finally it started to sprinkle a tiny bit. And the rain increased slightly. Now the tires are just starting to pick up mud. Now my glasses are starting to get difficult to see out of and my not-so-rain-pants are feeling a might clammy. The hills were gently shrouded in a heavy yet fine mist. I usually carry a Kodak C613 with me on all my rides. It's a cheap little thing, but withstands dirt, water, getting dropped and even being run over. But today, I had a little fancy-shmanchier version with a bigger lens and twice the pixel file size....and wouldn't you know it, the darn thing just won't tolerate getting wet. The little camera pouch it was in got soaked by the time I reached Big Rock and the Kodak was wigging out, shutting itself off, making it's focal length go wild and generally refusing to take any more shots. I ran up against the sheltering wall of Big Rock and stuffed the camera into my jacket, blotting the water off of it with my fleece anorak. I stood huddled there for a few minutes hugging the camera in the warm folds of the fuzzy garment. "Please, don't conk out on me now. Just a couple more shots and then you can short out or blow up or whatever you want to do." I pressed the power button and the lens peeked out at me. I got my shots at Big Rock and then didn't take any more pictures for the rest of the ride. By now it had rained enough to get the tires good and muddy. After Big Rock, I meandered around the trails for a bit and finally was cold and wet enough to head home. Nothing quite like high desert singletrack in the winter in the rain. And it smells good, too.
Bravo, girl!! So, that's called Big Rock, eh? Gee...whoever named that place must have had a really vivid imagination That stuff looks soooo tasty! I'd really like to come ride that stuff with you sometime. I might have to invite myself down there at some point WoodsChick
You're invited to invite yourself down for a ride anytime. Best times for McCain are during rainy weather in the winter and spring. Summer is about 100/110 degrees. It's a small area, but has lots of fun stuff to keep busy on, especially if you have a plated bike. That can stretch things out a bit.
How the heck did this one squeak by. Must have been busy over the holidays. DD that's a great look'n backyard you have. The S/T looks tight enough that just a bike will fit and not quads or bigger. Do you ever run a GPS or just ride by the "seat of your pants". I noticed you odometer read 94 was that miles or km? The best I got out of my IMS tank I believe was about a 140km-160km. All S/T stuff, but I always carry extra fuel and put it in the tank ASAP. So it's hard to say. Anyways nice little write up sorry I missed it back then.
It is reading in miles, but that says 9.4, not 94. The main OHV area is a small one and if you ride it from one end to the other and back, and all the trails that criss-cross it, you might be able to do about 30 miles. If you ride some other areas that take a little bit of road riding to get to, you could get 50 or 60 miles on total. There were originally only big trails that both bikes and quads could both go on but over the years singletrack trails have magically been popping up.
