Zubb

Thanks Jim. You introduced me to a lot of these trails when I was just an ADV noob. The gift that keeps on giving.

Nice!

Thank you. We all get our turn for sadness. Hopefully we all gain meaningful perspective. My takeaway from this last year is to ride more, eat less and exercise daily. The grim reaper waits for no one.

I don't know. When we arrived we already in help mode. All the firemen told us in the end was "get those bikes outa the way!" No time to chat 8-)

Well it's been a heck-of-a-busy 6 weeks or so and I was REALLY missing my bike. I hadn't ridden it since the 3 HP's in the Desert ride due to a family death, getting dad moved back up to Idaho, and various other sundry obligations. So Friday I was remembering the good ol days when I would ride almost every weekend and was overcome with a sudden urge to turn the key, crank the volume and just live in my helmet for a day. So Friday afternoon I blew the horn and 4 volunteers answered the call for Saturday duty. @Bub_Hannah must have wanted to sleep in a bit so agreed to meet us in Ramona at Packards. Which is no longer Packards (Bugger!) But I digress. We left our secret meeting spot (San Diego BMW Motorcycles) at 9 sharp, and headed for Wildcat Canyon. It wasn't raining. But there was some hit or miss misting going on throughout much of the morning which made for perfect riding conditions actually. Going up Wildcat an oncoming rider was giving us the SLOW DOWN signal, and then the two or three cars behind him did the same. So we knew something was up. As I came around a blind left handed corner, traffic was stopped with an ambulance blocking the road, lights on. Now the car in front of me wasn't paying attention and upon seeing the stopped cars, slammed on the brakes, skidded straight toward the hairpin and disappeared over the edge. I watched as the explorer rolled 1, 2, 3, 4 times coming to rest on it's roof. David and I looked at each other and then he split up to the front to alert the fire/ambulance crew. Justin and Ricardo ran back a hundred feet or so to stop traffic from coming around and creaming us. I slid down the slope on my arse to see what the results were. Poor girl was crawling out the crushed window as I arrived. Are you alone? check. Are you ok? check. No visible signs of injury or shock. A quick sweep of the rig -- nope, no one else in there. Man, this was her day. I watched a guy die about 17 years ago in a single roll over. This gal did a quad loop and got out without a scratch! Pretty handy having Fire and Ambulance right there, so within 10 minutes we were back in the saddle and rolling north. We picked up Pete (Bub) at the coffee shop formally known as Packards and took Magnolia north to Black Canyon. Of course we stopped at Forest Rte 12S07 and reminisced about the good ol days when we used to have 2fer Tuesdays rides. Pete encouraged me to abandon the purple line on my Garmin and check it out, so we did. I'd forgotten how fun this road is. Just steep, rutted and rocky enough to make you grin, pick a line and air out a bunch of those water bars. Good stuff! David encouraged us to also take the hairpin right up Black Mtn TT, and being easily influenced . . . we did. And again, love this type of trail. But ...higher up it started getting wet enough to soak the dirt and the higher we went the wetter that clay/dirt got. It finally got "legit" and I crab walked the bike up a long greasy pitch to a flat spot. I/we had no traction. Everyones front tire was packed and did nothing but slide around (down) whichever way the slope and camber was. So we called it good and slip slided down the greasy track until it dried out a little and the tires were able to clear. More whooping it up as we proceeded back to Black canyon. Waved at a skinny bike or two on our way out. We rolled up toward washtub falls and two spanky new Nordens rolled past us coming down. Turns out it was Alex. Last time I saw him he was on an '09 GS. Apparently he recently snuck out and bought the latest hot/sexy ADV ticket. Well played sir. Stopped at the usual for pics and a candy bar. I just installed the Mosko BC 25's. I've been a huge R80 fan because of how it rides. But I find myself in and out of my bags several times a day, and the R80 is a mess for that. I think these will be a perfect compromise. Putting racks back on and carrying "wide" luggage is definitely felt on the trail. The bags are brilliant. But there is a bit of tradeoff. Was going to sell my R80, but may keep it for those faster more technical riding trips. Well our little side trip cost us about an hour so we lopped Wynola road off the agenda and went directly to Eagle creek. This is a great hard gravel road, but commonly has traffic. You DEFINATELY want to stay right on those left handers. But there's just enough crown in the road to make them all slightly off camber. So you gotta go a little slower than you really want to. Regardless, it's a super fun road to drift the rear on. At the bottom ... Cedar creek. We repeated the rules. Momentum, pick your line and keep a little space between each other in case of surprises, and off we go. Of course, 2 riders on skinny bikes came down and met us at the worst possible spot, but no equipment was harmed and no dabs were taken to my knowledge. I stopped above a particularly "fun" climb to regroup and heard that one of a kind growl that @Bub_Hannah's Triumph 900 makes. Certainly one of the best sounding bikes in the world. On par with Guzzi if you ask me. A hard left at 3 sisters onto Boulder creek, then Engineers out to Cuyamaca and a well earned lunch stop at the new Pub there on the lake. If you haven't eaten there ... you're missing out. Best-dam food in the Julian area. Get the Tri Tip sandwich, it's truly special! Well after a HUGE lunch on the deck by the lake, and an hour of grins and gratitude for the day, the bikes, friends and the weather (no dust), etc etc, we turned toward home and let our horses have their heads. Laws were broken as the beasts cut loose in a race to the barn. Rolled in about 4pm good and tired. Grinning in my helmet. Happy to have escaped once again for a day of pure joy.

Nooooooooooo! Say it aint so Tom! You haven't even rode it around the world once yet.

Well, so far I can wheelie the 12fiddy GS further than I can the trials bike. And the trials bike likes to spit me off and that usually hurts. 15 miles on the thing will definitely cramp my core muscles and probably require one refueling. But if you'll provide a plate, we can duct tape it on the fender along with some yard sale broken turn signals and make a go of it. Maybe easier to buy a tuxedo but where's the fun in that.

Well worth the wait. I've organized two groups to do this. Both classes had 7 - 9 months waiting list. Just get on the list and wait patiently. It's a ton of fun and worth the time.

I dig this bike,

Is an old trials bike weird enough? Montessa 315R. No plate though. I s'pose ya gotta have a plate.

Funny stuff. 8-) I really loved the video link. Made me feel like I was riding some of my favorite trails.

True, although I haven't been stopped personally. Baja Bound told me a few months ago that insurance claims were still getting paid, even without an FMM. But I almost always get one anyway. Especially of course for the 5 day trips.

Great Pic Goofy. I've never been able to do the kkug ride due to schedule. I'll be waiting like a kid on Christmas eve for the the release of the date for the next one - - - hoping I can make it. No pressure kkug. But let's get cracken' on this!

Will do my best.

LOL! That's the best video I've seen in a long time. AWESOME!