Camp Fire Stories

The way I see it, a flashlight that sold for $2 in Mexico, way back in the early 90's, that would have been better then my stock WR light now. :noidea:
 
Since there's no way I'm going to top a Baja 1000 in the dark story, how about I tell one that doesn't involve bikes. A few years ago, the group I used to ride with, went to Ocotillo Wells, for the long New Years weekend. It was one of the families, that the husband/dad drove the kids and stuff out early with the group, and his wife, and her mom came down later.
On their way down in the dark, they missed the turn off going back to OW, and kept going South. Once they realized they missed the turn, they turned around and then were trapped in the border patrol check. Thinking swiftly, they thought they could turn on the road they needed, instead of going straight through the immigration check.:thinking:
Well, all the officers saw was a car jumping out of line and trying to speed by. So they pulled their spike strips, taking out 3 tires. They ended up getting taken into custody, and after 3 or 4 hours, were given a phone call. The husband went right over, and got the Mother out, but his wife had the same last name as a wanted felon, so she was stripped, and inspected for tattoos. After a 10 hour ordeal, and 3 tires from a local shop, she was let go with only a warning.:prof:
 
Since there's no way I'm going to top a Baja 1000 in the dark story, how about I tell one that doesn't involve bikes. A few years ago, the group I used to ride with, went to Ocotillo Wells, for the long New Years weekend. It was one of the families, that the husband/dad drove the kids and stuff out early with the group, and his wife, and her mom came down later.
On their way down in the dark, they missed the turn off going back to OW, and kept going South. Once they realized they missed the turn, they turned around and then were trapped in the border patrol check. Thinking swiftly, they thought they could turn on the road they needed, instead of going straight through the immigration check.:thinking:
Well, all the officers saw was a car jumping out of line and trying to speed by. So they pulled their spike strips, taking out 3 tires. They ended up getting taken into custody, and after 3 or 4 hours, were given a phone call. The husband went right over, and got the Mother out, but his wife had the same last name as a wanted felon, so she was stripped, and inspected for tattoos. After a 10 hour ordeal, and 3 tires from a local shop, she was let go with only a warning.:prof:
:shocked: I think that tops the 1000 in the dark story any day.:prof:
 
Since there's no way I'm going to top a Baja 1000 in the dark story, how about I tell one that doesn't involve bikes. A few years ago, the group I used to ride with, went to Ocotillo Wells, for the long New Years weekend. It was one of the families, that the husband/dad drove the kids and stuff out early with the group, and his wife, and her mom came down later.
On their way down in the dark, they missed the turn off going back to OW, and kept going South. Once they realized they missed the turn, they turned around and then were trapped in the border patrol check. Thinking swiftly, they thought they could turn on the road they needed, instead of going straight through the immigration check.:thinking:
Well, all the officers saw was a car jumping out of line and trying to speed by. So they pulled their spike strips, taking out 3 tires. They ended up getting taken into custody, and after 3 or 4 hours, were given a phone call. The husband went right over, and got the Mother out, but his wife had the same last name as a wanted felon, so she was stripped, and inspected for tattoos. After a 10 hour ordeal, and 3 tires from a local shop, she was let go with only a warning.:prof:

:lol::lol:

Poor bastard!!!!!!!!
 
:shocked: I think that tops the 1000 in the dark story any day.:prof:

That next day, she started drinking and was fall down/puke drunk by about 8:00 that night. On that day, the Daughter went down, and got banged up pretty bad, and the Son(18) got popped with beer while riding on the back of a friends golf cart. I think it was shortly after that, he sold his motorhome and dirt toys, and bought a Harley.:lol:
 
If you ride at night you REALLY need two independent sources of light. Sudden darkness sucks big time. Guess how I know.

If you think sudden darkness sucks in the desert, try it on tight singletrack. When the light goes out you don't know if you will hurtle off the cliff or headon into a pine tree. I just lock up the brakes and hope for the best. One thing is for sure. You are going down.
 
Timo, maybe you remember this and can give more info. Last year, or the year before at Spangler when this couple got in a fight and the dude left with the truck and trailer, leaving the wife stranded. Does that ring a bell?
 
Timo, maybe you remember this and can give more info. Last year, or the year before at Spangler when this couple got in a fight and the dude left with the truck and trailer, leaving the wife stranded. Does that ring a bell?
:popcorn:
 
A short story...not as good as others. But I have time for a short one.

For some damn reason, I love my XR's. If you know them, you know the stock headlight is as good as a votive candle at night. I have since upgraded, but this night I was at my cabin and visiting a friend at his cabin a couple of miles away. The road between the two places is a big wooded hill on one side, and a big field on the other. Because the votive candle headlight sucked so bad, I was only going about 20 mph on the putt back to my place.

While going down the road, in a flash, a deer jumps directly in front of my bike, and in the next nano-second, I feel warm fur knocking me on my ass. I was only wearing shorts and a tee shirt, but I was wearing my helmet, unbuckled. I can't tell you what happened, it was so fast. I know my helmet came off, I had some good road rash. But the really weird thing was opening my eyes, and in the light of my still putting XR4, seeing a doe 10 feet in front of me, sitting like a dog in the road. It looked at me and I at it for 5 seconds, then it got up and ran off. My bike died, the light went away, and it was really quiet.
 
A short story...not as good as others. But I have time for a short one.

For some damn reason, I love my XR's. If you know them, you know the stock headlight is as good as a votive candle at night. I have since upgraded, but this night I was at my cabin and visiting a friend at his cabin a couple of miles away. The road between the two places is a big wooded hill on one side, and a big field on the other. Because the votive candle headlight sucked so bad, I was only going about 20 mph on the putt back to my place.

While going down the road, in a flash, a deer jumps directly in front of my bike, and in the next nano-second, I feel warm fur knocking me on my ass. I was only wearing shorts and a tee shirt, but I was wearing my helmet, unbuckled. I can't tell you what happened, it was so fast. I know my helmet came off, I had some good road rash. But the really weird thing was opening my eyes, and in the light of my still putting XR4, seeing a doe 10 feet in front of me, sitting like a dog in the road. It looked at me and I at it for 5 seconds, then it got up and ran off. My bike died, the light went away, and it was really quiet.
:thumb: great story Buck. Seems like I brought out all the night stories. :smirk:
 
OK, I'll cough one up.:wink: This is a story from the 1991 Baja 1000. I'll set it up a little for you. We were racing a pretty tricked out '92 KX250 with a 300 kit and WR Tranny and geared to the moon (16/42). Top speed on pavement - 106mph. Well the 1000 as some of you know will put you into the night so good lights are a must. I spent $1200 on the light setup and my buddy installed them and hand made a sweet bracket and dual switches to run the 2 lights we had. We were running out of time and I never had the chance to prerun a short section with the lights, since I would be the first one on the bike with the light setup. I did do a short run down the middle of town in Ensenada just to make sure they worked the night before the race. Everything checks out, so we pull the lights off and I try to sleep before my 6:27am start time.

So the next morning is race day and since I am the rider of record, I start the race. I do my 165 mile first section and hand off the bike to one of my 3 other partners and off he goes. No issues, bike is working great. I jump in the van with my dad and off we go to just south of Santo Tomas to where I will be getting the bike back at around 6pm we figured. As we are making the drive along the coast and I am telling my dad the cool stories of the day so far, I realize that I do not have a flashlight in my tool bag. "what if I foul a plug or need to do repairs in the dark?" So we stop at this little convenient store and I buy a plastic flashlight for $2 and add it to the bag.

So we get to the pit area after stopping for some roadside fish tacos and cokes, setup and wait, and wait and wait.....6pm rolls by, 7pm, 8pm....and then 11:00pm I see lights coming, could it be? Yes a bike pulls in and it is ours. I jump on the bike and my partner is yelling in my ear something about "Don't let it die!" slaps me on the back and I hammer the throttle....

I jump the highway and start heading for the coast. Lights are on, bike seems to be OK, I'm back in the saddle and I feel great...I get a couple miles in and the lights flicked off and then back on...Weird but OK we are still good. I get down to this tighter section of the course where there are a few switch backs and you need to get off the throttle a little, then it happens.............Lights die right when I am making a turn. Pitch black and I lose sight of the road and and next thing you know I am aiming straight up, clutching the crap out of the bike to get up this hill that I do not remember while pre-running. I see flashes from cameras going off all around me and Spanish being yelled and next thing you know I pull up to the top of this "Hill" and the bike stalls and I am in the middle of the crowd that was hanging out there. They are all yelling and cheering and drinking....Seems I missed my turn and went off the road there....No worries, I kick the bike back to life, but no lights..This is not good, so I turn off the bike and go for my $2 flashlight. I grab it and start the bike and head on down the road with flashlight in hand so i could get away from these guys. I pull over and need a way to fix the light to my helmet. Well since the lights are so bright, I used black electrical tape and taped the underside of my visor to block the glare. So I took all that off and used it to tape the flashlight to the top of my Visor.

So here I am 65 miles from the next pit in the dark with nothing but a cheap flashlight strapped to my visor. Off I go...To shorten this up (since there is a few more stories inside of this adventure), I make it to the pits which is the end of my section and I pull in and the Kawi guys go to work on the bike after I tell them what happened. Turns out that little cotter key that links the magneto to the flywheel was not installed right (did I mention my other partner installed this?) and it got shaved down and was not allowing the magneto to spin freely and not power up the lights. So we could not fix the lights and button it up and my partner made the decision to pull the plug :foul:. &*^$$((&*&^%$# Don't get me started on that one....Race over..........Needless to say, even though we did not get a finisher's pin, I did do and finish all the sections I was responsible for so I credit myself with a finish...Out of frustration, I loaded up my pre-run bike and drove all day out to LV and pulled off a 6th overall, 2nd 250 expert in a 120 mile Hare and Hound that Sunday...:banana:

Great story........How far from the finish were you?
 
Since there's no way I'm going to top a Baja 1000 in the dark story, how about I tell one that doesn't involve bikes. A few years ago, the group I used to ride with, went to Ocotillo Wells, for the long New Years weekend. It was one of the families, that the husband/dad drove the kids and stuff out early with the group, and his wife, and her mom came down later.
On their way down in the dark, they missed the turn off going back to OW, and kept going South. Once they realized they missed the turn, they turned around and then were trapped in the border patrol check. Thinking swiftly, they thought they could turn on the road they needed, instead of going straight through the immigration check.:thinking:
Well, all the officers saw was a car jumping out of line and trying to speed by. So they pulled their spike strips, taking out 3 tires. They ended up getting taken into custody, and after 3 or 4 hours, were given a phone call. The husband went right over, and got the Mother out, but his wife had the same last name as a wanted felon, so she was stripped, and inspected for tattoos. After a 10 hour ordeal, and 3 tires from a local shop, she was let go with only a warning.:prof:

I'm sure that made for a good story or stories that weekend.......:thumb: I have a boarder crossing story to tell. I'll add it a little later!
 
A short story...not as good as others. But I have time for a short one.

For some damn reason, I love my XR's. If you know them, you know the stock headlight is as good as a votive candle at night. I have since upgraded, but this night I was at my cabin and visiting a friend at his cabin a couple of miles away. The road between the two places is a big wooded hill on one side, and a big field on the other. Because the votive candle headlight sucked so bad, I was only going about 20 mph on the putt back to my place.

While going down the road, in a flash, a deer jumps directly in front of my bike, and in the next nano-second, I feel warm fur knocking me on my ass. I was only wearing shorts and a tee shirt, but I was wearing my helmet, unbuckled. I can't tell you what happened, it was so fast. I know my helmet came off, I had some good road rash. But the really weird thing was opening my eyes, and in the light of my still putting XR4, seeing a doe 10 feet in front of me, sitting like a dog in the road. It looked at me and I at it for 5 seconds, then it got up and ran off. My bike died, the light went away, and it was really quiet.

Dear in the "votive candle" light look doesn't sound quite the same........Bumps, bruises after that get together ?
 
Timo, maybe you remember this and can give more info. Last year, or the year before at Spangler when this couple got in a fight and the dude left with the truck and trailer, leaving the wife stranded. Does that ring a bell?

I've heard about it, but I wasn't there to witness it first hand.:noidea:
 
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