Baaaabaaaa!! That was the sound for the day. Wooohooo!!! I soooo missed riding - it was great to get on a bike again. A motorized one. You know, the kind I prefer.
We met Jim at his shop at 10am and got outfitted for our ride. In case you don't know, I've been riding street bikes since I was 18 years old. I've ridden a lot of bikes: cruisers, sport bikes, sport-tourers, even a Goldwing trike. I've ridden 3 wheelers, 4 wheelers, jet skis - I've even driven a ginormous fork lift and a Bobcat, but never in my 16+ years of riding have I ridden a dirt bike. Not for lack of desire, just for lack of opportunity. I've ridden "off-road", but always on a street bike. I've even done a couple of stream crossings on the FJ - stupid, but I did it.
But...having never been on a dirt bike, I was apprehensive about a bike with a 36.4" seat height so Jim kindly lowered it about an inch which was just enough for me to tip toe it.
After the shock adjustment, he started handing out our gear. He smiled as he handed me his "special" helmet. I took it out of the bag and said "you've got to be kidding me." Not knowing me, he has no idea of my distaste for pink motorcycle gear - but I of course promptly told him. ;) It was all he had that would fit my teeny head, so I was stuck wearing a pink and black checkered helmet with bright yellow goggles. Awesome.
He snapped a few pics for us before we took off...
...and went to the MIC to pee and get some trail maps.
We headed north out of town and turned onto Potash Road. After a few miles of pavement, it turns into a gravel road.
After a mile or two of gravel, things begin to get ugly. Rocks, boulders, slickrock and sand were the ingredients for the day. Uhhh....I've been on a dirtbike for 15 minutes...are you kidding me? Again, we were told this was a beginner route. I need to meet some of these "beginners" - but I think I might be afraid of them. I picture a Rambo/Schwarzenegger combo - you know buff and stupid. YO! Adrienne!
We continued our ride and I continued to wonder how I was going to make it through the day without wrecking. The pick a direction, twist the throttle, and hold on method seemed to work out pretty well. There were several occasions when I just squeezed the saddle with my legs, gave it more throttle and hoped for the best.
We took Potash to Shaffer Trail which enters Canyonlands NP. It was a beautiful place to be. Since the bikes were street legal, we were free to ride the trails here. Take that NPS!
NPS responded with "Take THIS you sissy beginner dirt rider!"...
We climbed a lot of hairy, rocky, plummet-to-your-death-if-you-screw-this-up switchbacks - no guardrails on this road folks - and made it to the rim without any major issues. I wish we had stopped to snap some photos of these switchbacks, but stopping to take photos was not on my priority list and not really an option while riding this stretch of trail. At one point, when I selected a less gnarly path closer to the edge, my rear end kicked out and I got a little squirrely. Uh...that was so not cool. From that point forward, I always chose the path farthest from the cliff regardless of how rough it was. See...I'm a quick study. ;P
We pulled in behind some "veteran" dirt bike riders at the entrance to Shaffer Trail. One guy was a local, the other was from Oregon. Mr. Local said the Potash, Shaffer and Gemini Bridges trails were all easy "boring beginner" trails. REEEALLLYY? Whatever dude. He made me feel like a total girlie girl. The dude from Oregon helped my ego a bit with a "if this is your first day on a dirt bike and you're riding these roads, you should be really proud of yourself." Thanks. Finally, someone sane. They offered to lead us down Gemini but A) we needed to stop at the trailer to check on the Boys and to grab some lunch and B) I wasn't inclined to take my novice butt along on their ride.
I like the looks of this A LOT... :)
After lunch, we took Gemini Bridges road to 129 and stopped to get gas. In retrospect, I wish we would have ridden with the old local geezer. I wish I had thought to ask him at the time why a veteran rider all decked out and looking like a KTM advertisement would be riding such "boring beginner" rides. Grrrr...I'm just not quite quick enough sometimes.
At the gas station, we were accosted by other KTM riders who were here for the rally. They zipped up and asked if we were coming or going. Uh...both. We chatted for a few. Nice guys. They were from Ohio and understood how insane it was that I was riding a freaking 450EXC on Moab trails for my first dirt ride.
After gassing up, we planned on doing another loop off of Potash and up to the state park before calling it a day. Unfortunately, the sun was falling low in the sky and as we turned into the Jughandle Arch trailhead it was getting too late to complete the route before dark. We did a few miles on the trail before turning around and heading back to Moab. I was really tired. My butt was KILLING me. Sitting on one of those wretched saddles is like straddling a 2x4 for 6 hours. My Corbin saddle butt is not appreciative of this treatment. I was even wearing my bike shorts under my jeans for some added cushioning. Yikes. I don't even want to know what it would have felt like without the extra padding.
We filled up the bikes and dropped them off at Jim's shop. He wasn't there - he just told us to park the bikes and put the keys in his dropbox. He keeps a fake rubber snake in it. Lucky for me, I'm not afraid of snakes. Had he had a fake hairy spider in there however, all bets would be off. :)
I pulled off my goggles and helmet and Bill started laughing. My face was covered in red Moab dirt and I was in serious need of a loofah. Yea Baby. Now that's hot. Eeewww.
Nothing a little spit and a napkin wouldn't temporarily take care of. :)
We jumped in the truck and stopped by the KTM rally/demo area to see if we could find Jim and say thanks in person. We were unsuccessful in locating him so we headed back to the trailer and chatted nonstop about our day.
It was a GREAT day. Definitely makes one of the top ten for the trip. It was a very costly day...short term and long term (how much will 2 bikes with full gear cost me?), but an awesome day nonetheless. :P
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