Dirt Biking on the Honda Commercial Trail

After riding and racing motorcycles off road for forty-three years, today was unique. Oh, we rode around Duck Creek to Strawberry Point and the Honda commercial trail (it's such a cool trail, it's like riding in a Honda commercial). It rained last night so the soil felt tight and dust free, wonderful, and made for fast and free riding. Seven of us rode together, and part of that was unique. Wade rode with us and the last time he rode the Honda commercial trail, he crashed and lost two toes. That was within two weeks of his older brother Zack crashing. He ended up paralyzed from the waist down.

Zack rode with us today, driving a RZR (pronounced razor, a side by side, Rhino type of ATV) with hand controls. Both of them gave me pause. However, everyone met in good spirits and soon we jammed down trails, and since it's the day after the 4th, we encountered lots of traffic, from just fine people all the way to idiots, the winner a woman riding a quad with one hand, holding her stupid dog with the other. Please. Don't get me wrong, I think she should spend lots of quality time with her dog. So stay home with it. I wasn't wild about riding this day, too many people. I don't want to fly around a corner and find myself pasted against the front of a quad.

I rode in the middle of the group, ages 17 to... to... me. When you've got seven guys riding together, the testosterone runs high and it becomes a pretty fast ride. I discovered two surprises; I managed to keep up, even on my 2000 Honda XR400 (the Lazy Boy), and so did Zack in the RZR. We rode some rough sections and more often than not, Zack pulled up right behind us. I don't know what works for you, but dirt bike riding with a bunch of friends (and strangers) lights me up. Riding through green woods with viewpoints of red cliffs, crossing streams and zipping up trails and dirt roads gives me a feeling of freedom like nothing else.

We rode way out, wonderful, and soon traffic cleared and we could ride even more freely. Woo hoo! Soon we checked our fuels and the two stroke Honda looked low, so we headed back, into more dust and traffic. We finished with no crashes, no falls, no incidents.

And I forgive Roger for flying past me at a puddle and showering me with muddy water. Oh, I forgive him. But I remember and will give him an opportunity to forgive me.