| Date: | Sunday, February 8th, 2009 |
| Bike: | 2004 Honda CRF250X |
| Location: | Shotgun Creek |
| Miles: | 29.1 |
| Riders: | Dave – TE450 Brandon – YZ250 |
| Ride Map: | Google Maps location GPX File KML File See images below |
To celebrate the anniversary of a friend of mine surviving and recovering from a paralyzing neurological disease, Dave took Brandon and me on his annual "sick day" ride. Dave picked Shotgun Creek in the Cascades, SE of Albany, which was a bit of a drive, but well worth it to ride some new trails that I'd never been on before. I was pretty tired and sore from my crash the previous day at Giles' track, but I couldn't pass up Dave's ride. It was 34 degrees when we got out of the truck and very humid from a lot of recent rain in the area. Still, we bundled up and headed off with Dave as our guide.
Dave rides a Husky TE450, which is technically a dual-sport, but you'd never know that from the way he rides it. Some of the trails were mildly tacky and other trails were downright brownies soaked in chocolate pudding. Hillclimbs were a challenge, but so were steep downhills. It's hard for me to give a good, honest read on the trails since they were so slippery and rutted. I think the place would be a blast in the summer and early fall when it's much drier. Still, it was a great day of riding. We saw some beautiful scenery, including an amazing view from a trail along a cliff. It really walked the line between "wow, this is beautiful" and "holy crap, this is scary".
Toward the end of the day, my bike died on a small hill. At first, I thought I just didn't get enough of a run at it and failed with the clutch, but then the rear end wouldn't roll at all. I dragged the bike the short distance back to the main road (the hill was right off the road) to try to figure out what was wrong with it. With the bike in neutral, I tried to spin the rear wheel, but the chain was locked hard. I could see that the chain was bulging away from it's normal position on the countershaft sprocket. Brandon came back to check on me shortly and he had some tools with him. He pulled my case saver, which gave the chain room to move and I spun the wheel dislodging the rock or stick that was under the chain. The chain had raised up enough that it bit into my case saver and just locked in place. Thanks to Brandon for having tools with him and helping me out!
Throughout the day, we staged some great photos. Dave is an amazing photographer and it was a blast to have him out there with us. (Dave Schelske Photography) You can see some of his photos below the slide show of my pics from the day. At one point, we staged a great photo, but I tipped over right after the awesome shot (see below) and Dave caught me rolling on the ground laughing. It looks like I'm in agony after hitting the tree, but I'm really just laughing at how silly it was to tip over after an awesome shot.
I wore my Leatt Brace all day and fell pretty comfortable with it. I had to adjust the back piece so that I could stand and look far enough up the trail, but that was pretty minor and I needed to do it anyway. I'm still really happy with my Leatt and I definitely feel safer. This was also my first time riding with my new Garmin 60CSX GPS unit and as soon as I figure out how to export the routes, I'll post our morning and afternoon rides here.
It was muddy, slippery, grueling, tiring, and we only went 29 miles in 6 hours…but it was a great day of riding. Thanks, Dave.










