Riding W. Friends, Duck Creek

Once again my friends pulled through, called and invited me to ride dirt bikes with them. And here I thought I was isolated in the mountains. Vegas people love coming up here to escape the heat.
Mark, Bob, Dean and I rode together and Dean knew a lot of cool trails. He thought like us, hating the roads and avoiding the torn up rocky areas. He delivered.
We rode through town (always fun on a dirt bike), then hit some trails, short ones but after recent rains, tacky and low dust, oh yes. We rode onward and mixed it up a bit, ATV type of trails and roads. Soon we were out and away from traffic. The testosterone kicked in and the ride got faster. We zipped up through the woods, the dust getting thicker. We hit a steep downhill, full of loose rocks, the kind that makes it easy to slide the rear wheel. It wound down, hugging the side of the hill. We found ourselves in a grassy meadow, Mr. Sun a welcome friend there. Mark stopped to fix his rear rake as he had slid sideways into a downed tree. After getting it repaired he asked, "Do you think we could hit that berm and jump the road?" Well, we'd just have to try it. Mark and Bob cleared it while the old XR and I fell short. But everyone agreed, it was apparent that one could see light underneath my tires.
Dean knew of a cool trail in the forest fire section. It had burned last year. We struggled with a big washout, then got to the trail, a winding thing along an edge, too fast and down you would go. But beautiful, and so much fun. Afterward he said we'd have to go the 'boring road,' as he was getting low on fuel. Boring? It was smooth and fast, so why not mix it up? I decided we could race to each turn, bar to bar and side by side, like flat trackers. No more boring road! We headed back and soon Dean put his gas on reserve. We better head straight back. No sweat, we got to Dean's cabin and except for Mark's little brake issue, no problems.
We changed and hung out on Dean's deck, watched the deer in his yard and bench raced. We have a lot of stories abbout racing together. However, Bob told his Unicorn story, how he raced and hit a shrub fifteen minutes into the race, and at the end, took off his goggles to talk to another racer. "Dude, you need to see a medic, right now." Yes, he had a stick stuck in his forehead, deep enough that it required minor surgery to remove it. Mark thought he should have left it, a great place to hang your keys. But most importantly, Bob finished the race. You da man! I loaded up the bike and headed home, tired but happy. Just a fun day in the dirt.

2 comments:

Mel said...

Sorry you and the old XR fell short, but at least you didn't, um... fell!

Unknown said...

The old thing still has a fun factor!
KP