RUTS North DS Ride
- Thread starter CDA
- Start date
maybe I'll try and finish it tonight depending on what time I get home. Still have a few good pics and stories left.Thanks. I figured you might have something to contribute. Maybe to the stories.Nice write up Dave!
I agree with @530ktm it has been way too long since a nice ride report has been on DBA.
Yeah I was looking at the ride reports and it has been awhile for a good one. I wish I had more time to ride so I can create more.
OK, let's see if I can finish this ride report off. Surprised with the comments. In the past, ride reports had all kinds of play on here. Maybe this is not a riding site...
Anyways, After I had an awesome night sleep rolled up in the corner on the floor (thought about spooning with Rack, but........nah) we got up and hit the Carson Casino for breakfast. The game plan was to get a breakfast in us and get out early. We were hitting all the hard ways today and heard the trails could have some wash outs from the big rains they had days before leading up to this event. Plus we wanted to just check in at the lunch stop, grab a quick drink, refuel and get back out. We figured we had about 160 or so miles to cover on day two as well and wanted to get back to the trucks at a decent hour.
First thing we needed to do was top off the scooters and drop our overnight bags at the chase truck.
I have no idea what Rack is trying to perform here. Maybe his morning stretches....
We drop the bags off and head out. We hit some sweet desert and the first hard way was a awesome single track winding its way around the desert floor. Went up a couple small hills and then we started to climb up the mountain. I finally made a stop to take a pic. (note to self, need to replace the camera bag as the zipper is jacked up and too hard to pull camera in and out for quick pics).
Here is a view looking back over the desert floor we rode. We kind of started to the left of the picture out by the far mountains you see in the distance. If any one has ridden the lower desert of Bean Canyon, the terrain was like that....
Here comes Rack making his way up. You can see the trail in the background coming down the hill.
Just another shot.....Read below and I have a funny story about the burnt bushes, over the bars, honking the horn and getting wrestle pinned.
So you see that this area had a fire run through here a while back. Well if you didn't know, the burnt branches are like jousting but without you having a joust (another story). So i mentioned that there was good rains in the area, well a lot of the trails themselves were washed away and you to run in the bushes off to the side of trail as the ruts were too deep to ride. I was running sweep and I somehow hit a low burnt bush with my front tire and it grabbed my front wheel and stopped the bike dead in its tracks. I went up and over the bars, but as I was going over, some how, the left handled bar went down inside my boot. This cause the bike to completely flip over and follow me to the ground and bounce off my back. As I was going over my boot or leg somehow found the horn button and started honking. As I hit the ground, I was pinned to the ground with the bike on me. I had know idea that my leg was stuck to the bike because of the handlebars. I could not move. The only thing I could do was left my chest barely off the ground and wave my arm. Well since my horn went off, Gary turned around and saw me on the ground pinned and waving my arms as I was stuck. He came back and de-pinned me and off we went again. I could only imagine how long I would be laying there if the horn did not go off and they kept on riding along....
Stay tuned...
Anyways, After I had an awesome night sleep rolled up in the corner on the floor (thought about spooning with Rack, but........nah) we got up and hit the Carson Casino for breakfast. The game plan was to get a breakfast in us and get out early. We were hitting all the hard ways today and heard the trails could have some wash outs from the big rains they had days before leading up to this event. Plus we wanted to just check in at the lunch stop, grab a quick drink, refuel and get back out. We figured we had about 160 or so miles to cover on day two as well and wanted to get back to the trucks at a decent hour.
First thing we needed to do was top off the scooters and drop our overnight bags at the chase truck.
I have no idea what Rack is trying to perform here. Maybe his morning stretches....
We drop the bags off and head out. We hit some sweet desert and the first hard way was a awesome single track winding its way around the desert floor. Went up a couple small hills and then we started to climb up the mountain. I finally made a stop to take a pic. (note to self, need to replace the camera bag as the zipper is jacked up and too hard to pull camera in and out for quick pics).
Here is a view looking back over the desert floor we rode. We kind of started to the left of the picture out by the far mountains you see in the distance. If any one has ridden the lower desert of Bean Canyon, the terrain was like that....
Here comes Rack making his way up. You can see the trail in the background coming down the hill.
Just another shot.....Read below and I have a funny story about the burnt bushes, over the bars, honking the horn and getting wrestle pinned.
So you see that this area had a fire run through here a while back. Well if you didn't know, the burnt branches are like jousting but without you having a joust (another story). So i mentioned that there was good rains in the area, well a lot of the trails themselves were washed away and you to run in the bushes off to the side of trail as the ruts were too deep to ride. I was running sweep and I somehow hit a low burnt bush with my front tire and it grabbed my front wheel and stopped the bike dead in its tracks. I went up and over the bars, but as I was going over, some how, the left handled bar went down inside my boot. This cause the bike to completely flip over and follow me to the ground and bounce off my back. As I was going over my boot or leg somehow found the horn button and started honking. As I hit the ground, I was pinned to the ground with the bike on me. I had know idea that my leg was stuck to the bike because of the handlebars. I could not move. The only thing I could do was left my chest barely off the ground and wave my arm. Well since my horn went off, Gary turned around and saw me on the ground pinned and waving my arms as I was stuck. He came back and de-pinned me and off we went again. I could only imagine how long I would be laying there if the horn did not go off and they kept on riding along....
Stay tuned...
So we kept on climbing up the mountain. On the roll chart it mentioned 5 crosses. I saw a video of this place when I was researching the ride, but as we climbed up and they appeared, it was pretty awesome.
Here we are...
A little tribute to our fallen riding brethren out there...
Hey, let's get a group shot.....
I'll hold the phone, Gary you push the button and Rack, you look like a tool....
Let's try this again....
Aw, forget it....Let's ride....
Here is look out over the desert again from where we came. The roll chart said go straight and descend 1700 feet to the bottom.
I guess we are going straight.....
Stay tuned..
Here we are...
A little tribute to our fallen riding brethren out there...
Hey, let's get a group shot.....
I'll hold the phone, Gary you push the button and Rack, you look like a tool.... Let's try this again....
Aw, forget it....Let's ride....
Here is look out over the desert again from where we came. The roll chart said go straight and descend 1700 feet to the bottom.
I guess we are going straight.....
Stay tuned..
Full wraps suck....seen guys break wrists, don't like the looks, etc, etc....Freak deal that happened, and if I had full wraps, you would not get to enjoy that story....
So we dropped off the side of the mountain and made are way down. It started out as a loose rocky jeep trail and slowly turned into the mini grand canyon. we had to jump out and ride the side of the hill to get out. Then we ended up on the wrong side and needed to jump across.
Here is Rack doing is sumo stance. Not sure how he does it, but it is a common theme.
Here is Rack picking the scooter up after we got Gary a crossed...
Gary on the other side.
Rack making his way too...
And we are all having a great time still.......
Stay tuned....
Here is Rack doing is sumo stance. Not sure how he does it, but it is a common theme.
Here is Rack picking the scooter up after we got Gary a crossed...
Gary on the other side.
Rack making his way too...
And we are all having a great time still.......
Stay tuned....
So after we dropped off this mountain, we made are way through a canyon and then climbed back up and out to another. The views were sweet.
We took that trail off to the right and dropped in just to the left of those brown hills and rode out through the neighborhood and over to the far side of the lake. That is Topaz Lake for some of you Google maps searchers. We fueled up there and headed over those mountains to the right and to visit the mud people....
Here is Gary doing his yoga exercises or meditating...not sure which one or maybe both...
Stay Tuned...
We took that trail off to the right and dropped in just to the left of those brown hills and rode out through the neighborhood and over to the far side of the lake. That is Topaz Lake for some of you Google maps searchers. We fueled up there and headed over those mountains to the right and to visit the mud people....
Here is Gary doing his yoga exercises or meditating...not sure which one or maybe both...
Stay Tuned...
Again, I sure wish I took more pictures...
So we head back out from the Lake store after getting gas, water, snicker bars and energy gummys and hit the trail. We ride this rocky ride road up and then drop in to the right down a single track trail that got tighter and tighter. It ran along this muddy stream and it was supper tight going through there. It was Awesome!!! We popped out on this road and read the roll chart, "Hard way 3 miles up to the left take 22 river crossing" The RUTS guy back at the gas stop said it is a must ride, so off we go...
Here is the turn out that drops in.
Down the right is where we are heading.....He is a look down.
I look back at the crew and say. "you ready for this? We are crossing the river 22 times." Let's go...
Stay tuned....
So we head back out from the Lake store after getting gas, water, snicker bars and energy gummys and hit the trail. We ride this rocky ride road up and then drop in to the right down a single track trail that got tighter and tighter. It ran along this muddy stream and it was supper tight going through there. It was Awesome!!! We popped out on this road and read the roll chart, "Hard way 3 miles up to the left take 22 river crossing" The RUTS guy back at the gas stop said it is a must ride, so off we go...Here is the turn out that drops in.
Down the right is where we are heading.....He is a look down.
I look back at the crew and say. "you ready for this? We are crossing the river 22 times." Let's go...
Stay tuned....
We drop in and start crossing the river. It was an awesome run down this canyon. Here are the boys at one of the sections.
Off they go....
As I was sitting there taking pictures a couple groups passed me up. These were the same guys we were dicing with all day. Most of the day, we were the lead group doing the hard ways as mentioned before, the trails got slim and there was no tracks ahead of us....
I put the camera away and worked on catching the guys.....
Stay Tuned...
Off they go....
As I was sitting there taking pictures a couple groups passed me up. These were the same guys we were dicing with all day. Most of the day, we were the lead group doing the hard ways as mentioned before, the trails got slim and there was no tracks ahead of us....
I put the camera away and worked on catching the guys.....
Stay Tuned...
So I am riding along crossing the river back and forth and then I drop into the trees and river and bam! Traffic jam....
What the heck is going on and where is everybody? I walk around a few bikes and there they are standing around....
If you look over the top of Rack's bald head (), you can see a pretty good pool of water...Also look farther and you can see a rider standing way up there to the right a little in the bushes...He is standing on a beaver dam....Uh Yeah, a beaver dam. Water was too deep to ride through and when the started breaking up the damn to allow water to go down, they saw another down farther....I guess the club did not pre-ride this section before the event to see this. Some of the guys that are there are locals and said there is no way to get through. We are only about 1 mile from the end of this section and we rode 15 miles in already. They said the only way out is back the way we came....
So we all turn our scooters around and off to cross the stream again and out....It was cool though doing this section again...
Stay turned...
What the heck is going on and where is everybody? I walk around a few bikes and there they are standing around....
If you look over the top of Rack's bald head (
), you can see a pretty good pool of water...Also look farther and you can see a rider standing way up there to the right a little in the bushes...He is standing on a beaver dam....Uh Yeah, a beaver dam. Water was too deep to ride through and when the started breaking up the damn to allow water to go down, they saw another down farther....I guess the club did not pre-ride this section before the event to see this. Some of the guys that are there are locals and said there is no way to get through. We are only about 1 mile from the end of this section and we rode 15 miles in already. They said the only way out is back the way we came.... So we all turn our scooters around and off to cross the stream again and out....It was cool though doing this section again...
Stay turned...
OK, so no more pictures, but I will tell how it ends.....
We back track out and find the easy route and follow it around....we got diverted by some locals and crossed this wide river crossing with slippery rocks only to have to turn around and go back...We get back on course and all is looking good. Then Rack does a gnarly tank slapper going up this rocky trial and gets bucked off. Lucky for him, he clears this gnarly boulder or he could have been jacked....but the bike didn't far well, our first flat...Rack pinched the tube when he hit the rock. He keeps riding on the flat until we get to the top. Pull over, throw the bike on top of a rock ( and no he was not afraid of scratching his skid plate..
) and start the swap process....While we are doing this 3 riders pull up and they are the sweep crew. They did not do the 22 river crossing and we tell them there is no way out. Then we say wait a minute, how can you be the sweep crew, we are way out front. We look at the time and it is 4pm and we have not even made it to the lunch stop yet...How did this happen? Well with all the hard ways being blown out and taken more time to get through them, it put us way back and the delay on the 22 river crossing with the flat, we are hosed....
We get the flat fixed and head out. We get out of the hills and back into town. Rack's front tire is not holding air and looks to have a slow leak...we hit a gas station, gas the bikes, get some more water and make the decision on what we want to do. It is now 5:30 and we are still 60+ miles out. The decision is made to jump on hwy 88 and head for the trucks. Rack reprograms the GPS for the trucks and off down the hwy we go....As I am pulling out of town, I look over and see two Moron Missionaries walking down the street, so as a brethren to them, I loft up the front wheel and wheelie by waving and pointing at the CTR sticker on my bike....They flash back big grins and a wave and I grab gears and head on down the hwy.....
Rack and Gary got a jump on me as we decided to not change the front tire, but to watch it as we head out. I catch Rack as his 350 is not really geared to friendly for hwy use as #5jr is. I ride next to him and watch the tire....We get pretty far along and notice it is getting a little low, so we pull over to juice it up with some CO2 bottles. What do we see.....No valve stem, it got sucked into the wheel...The tire is not totally flat, so Rack say, screw it and rides on. 60+ miles of pavement later and we are back at the trucks. We passed a couple of the other guys that were with us earlier as they were in their trucks already heading home. We are the last ones to check in and since we did not check in at lunch, they were a little concerned but the 3 guys that stopped earlier while we were changing our flat let them know we were still good to go. Found out while loading the bikes that all the guys that did the hard route skipped the last section and rode the pavement as everyone was way behind.
We were loaded up and out of there about 7:30pm and I made it home about 10:30pm and Rack/Gary about 11:30pm sunday night. All in all it was an awesome ride and is on the calendar for next time. With what we learned from this one, we will be better off on the next ride....You do need to keep a pretty decent pace to cover that many miles each day. I logged 350 miles in two days. We saw some awesome scenery and sweet trails...
Hope you enjoyed.....
We back track out and find the easy route and follow it around....we got diverted by some locals and crossed this wide river crossing with slippery rocks only to have to turn around and go back...We get back on course and all is looking good. Then Rack does a gnarly tank slapper going up this rocky trial and gets bucked off. Lucky for him, he clears this gnarly boulder or he could have been jacked....but the bike didn't far well, our first flat...Rack pinched the tube when he hit the rock. He keeps riding on the flat until we get to the top. Pull over, throw the bike on top of a rock ( and no he was not afraid of scratching his skid plate..
) and start the swap process....While we are doing this 3 riders pull up and they are the sweep crew. They did not do the 22 river crossing and we tell them there is no way out. Then we say wait a minute, how can you be the sweep crew, we are way out front. We look at the time and it is 4pm and we have not even made it to the lunch stop yet...How did this happen? Well with all the hard ways being blown out and taken more time to get through them, it put us way back and the delay on the 22 river crossing with the flat, we are hosed....We get the flat fixed and head out. We get out of the hills and back into town. Rack's front tire is not holding air and looks to have a slow leak...we hit a gas station, gas the bikes, get some more water and make the decision on what we want to do. It is now 5:30 and we are still 60+ miles out. The decision is made to jump on hwy 88 and head for the trucks. Rack reprograms the GPS for the trucks and off down the hwy we go....As I am pulling out of town, I look over and see two Moron Missionaries walking down the street, so as a brethren to them, I loft up the front wheel and wheelie by waving and pointing at the CTR sticker on my bike....They flash back big grins and a wave and I grab gears and head on down the hwy.....
Rack and Gary got a jump on me as we decided to not change the front tire, but to watch it as we head out. I catch Rack as his 350 is not really geared to friendly for hwy use as #5jr is. I ride next to him and watch the tire....We get pretty far along and notice it is getting a little low, so we pull over to juice it up with some CO2 bottles. What do we see.....No valve stem, it got sucked into the wheel...The tire is not totally flat, so Rack say, screw it and rides on. 60+ miles of pavement later and we are back at the trucks. We passed a couple of the other guys that were with us earlier as they were in their trucks already heading home. We are the last ones to check in and since we did not check in at lunch, they were a little concerned but the 3 guys that stopped earlier while we were changing our flat let them know we were still good to go. Found out while loading the bikes that all the guys that did the hard route skipped the last section and rode the pavement as everyone was way behind.
We were loaded up and out of there about 7:30pm and I made it home about 10:30pm and Rack/Gary about 11:30pm sunday night. All in all it was an awesome ride and is on the calendar for next time. With what we learned from this one, we will be better off on the next ride....You do need to keep a pretty decent pace to cover that many miles each day. I logged 350 miles in two days. We saw some awesome scenery and sweet trails...
Hope you enjoyed.....
