Riding at my sisters place - Ride Report

OK, so I have a secret little riding spot. Not too secret if you know me.
My sister and her husband have 40-some-odd acres about 15 minutes from my
house. Christmas tree farm, horses, woods, old barn and farm house.

My cousin and I took our kids (cousin Steve with the ATK 406 - he bought a
brand new KX250F, but keeping the ATK for now), and headed out for a little
warm up ride for the kids. I brought the XR200 just because I wanted to
make sure Bailey could hear me over the bike - the YZ is a little loud for
coaching while riding. Steve also recently bought a new KLX110 for his
kids, and they are still learning to ride with the throttle limiter on in
first gear.

The trails we ride are mostly all natural terrain, with a couple of small
bumps in the right places for a little air, and some uphill twisties through
the big doug fir trees. We usually have to let down a hot wire at the
bridge over the creek that otherwise keeps the bovine types locked up. They
usually stay out of the way, so we can ride for several hours without having
to put it up again until we're done.

We went looping around the trails to survey the area since it had been last
fall since I was there last. A lot of branches down on the trails from the
bad ice storm we had this last winter, and a couple of sizeable trees. Back
up to the house I went for Bill's Mule and chain saw to do some clearing.

After that was out of the way, we really got to do some fairly serious
riding. This was only Steve's second outing on the KX - the first was race
night at PIR the day he bought it!! He always has been a show-n-go kind of
guy. Bailey on the XR70 was padding along fairly slowly at first, as this
place for her was a little scary last time we were here. But she really got
her groove on Sunday, and was absolutlely flying down this sweeping right
hand hill where it's smooth and somewhat slick. I had coached her before
telling her to keep it in first for awhile going down this hill to help keep
the bike at a speed that she was comfortable with. This time I was at the
bottom and watched as she just whizzed down in second, without any real
compression braking benefit. She pulled up with a great big grin, and was
really having a blast.

Steve's kids had not shown any interest in riding the hilly trails yet.
They just stayed up at the house playing with the dogs. Then Steve showed
up with his daughter riding in fron of him on the KX. So I plopped Bailey
on with me and off we went to chase them through the trees. Of course the
speed was contained, but the excitement was not. They had a ball. By the
time Bailey and I went back to her XR, the cows had taken an interest, and
were standing all around it (5 of them) most of them licking it. Cows is
mostly stupid you know.

Steve went back up to the house and returned with another kid, and around
the loop they went.

He and I had some good chase loops by ourselves, one where I decided last
minute to make a turn down hill at an optional trail, and nearly took myself
out on a tree. Drum brakes just not as effective on the older XR200. I
only missed nailing the left handlebar end by about 3 inches at the most.
Tucked the elbow and knee in, and thought, "Hell, I can still save it".
Barely. Laughed all the way back around. Because the main loop is pretty
tight, I was able to keep up with the KX for the most part. Steve is really
loving that bike. He is really impressed with the smooth power delivery.

There's a pond at the bottom of one of the hills, that's inside on the
corner. So if you're not careful on how you come off of the hill, you could
get wet. Then there's the cow pies. That always makes for interesting
chasing. If you don't like how close the guy behind you is, you sling him a
little bovine soup.

My brother in law is not too keen yet on manufactured jumps, but I think I
can coax him into something where we can get some bigger air, without having
to add a pile of dirt just by modifying where the trail loop goes. They
ride horseys through there occasionally too, and some additional trail might
benefit all. He also enjoys taking his grand kids on the Mule through the
woods as well to 'see 'em cows'.

Next time I'm bringing the YZ. Too many places where you are having to turn
a tight uphill where I was not happy with either of my gear choices on the
'200. I'm also bringing the chainsaw, bow saw, loppers, 2-4D for the
berries, and a shovel.

I forgot how much fun that place can be. And we didn't ride everything
available, mostly due to the overgrowth or wind fallen trees.

So back up at the house, Steve's kids were a little more interested this
time in the KLX. So we put them in the soft dirt pony arena and let them
'horse' the bike around. It's tough to learn how to ride a bike in dirt
that deep and soft, but it's also maybe the best way. If it falls over,
you're not going to get hurt, and you can't hardly get going fast enough.
It also makes you really fight to keep it going through a turn, and when
you're done in it, anything else seems easy. So they all did a few laps,
and got more comfortable on it. Smiles all around.

May have to go back next weekend.

Tom

On Mon, 19 Apr 2004 19:58:56 -0700, "Other Tom" <thomasp_ DeleteThis @hevanet.com> wrote:

 >OK, so I have a secret little riding spot. Not too secret if you know me.
 >My sister and her husband have 40-some-odd acres about 15 minutes from my
 >house. Christmas tree farm, horses, woods, old barn and farm house.

If I had a sister who had a 16+ hectare of farm just 15 minutes from my house, I bet she would see
me more than who lives in the same house as me!!!!

 >Tom
 >

--
Tiago Rocha
Recife - Brasil
<a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www.diariodastrilhas.cjb.net" target="_blank">www.diariodastrilhas.cjb.net</a><!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->