I cut out of work a tad early, jetted home, loaded up my Suzuki and gear and was on the slow parade of I5 Friday traffic heading south by 4pm. Second gear for almost five miles sucks! Fortunately I had my MP3 player chock full of songs and some of my favorite radio shows from Coast-To-Coast AM. After one full bag of sunflower seeds, and four hours of interviews with UFO abductees, I made good time and pulled into the Diamond Lake Campground around 9pm. What added to the abductee stories was driving through about five miles of controlled burn on the Crater Lake boundary in the dark – eerie! Our campground was easy to find since Frank, Walt and Danno all had those cool, bright tubular camp lights and I almost had to don my sunglasses upon entry. The campfire was burning warm and the cocktails were flowing cold as I hung with Walt Koch, Frank Noe, Dan Hatcher, Tom Young and Gunny & Laura Claypoole. Can you tell who’s been living in the desert too long?
After throwing a few logs on the fire, we finally hit the hay and the next morning came bright, early and beautiful, with Dawn taking pictures of me taking pictures of her - Dawn at dawn.
I headed down for signup and got there just in time for Jeff Moffett to say, “Thanks everyone for showing up and have a fun ride!” Good timing, Tom. I signed up and it was great to see familiar MRA crew like Jeff, George, Troy, Cheryl, Tyrell, etc. Doc Loomis was full of smiles in anticipation of the ride.
I got my rollchart and ensured my GPS was loaded and went back to the camper after talking to Stefano about riding together. We would meet up around 9ish at the start area and then jet. I finished donning my gear and getting everything ready, waited for Danno, Walt, Frunk and Tom, but that was taking a bit, so I headed towards the start area. I stopped and talked to a few people and they said that Stefano had already left, so I decided to beat feet and try to catch him. I figured riding with him would be better than riding in the possible dust situation of a group. So I started out riding by myself trying to catch Stefano. Turns out he had, in fact, not left yet, so I was blazing the course in front of him – doh! Anyway, the Saturday course was exactly the same as last year’s, except backwards, which presented an entirely new experience. Starting out riding at daybreak is just play awesome.
I made my way around the Lake and got on the first two track. Good stuff, but VERY dusty, so I soldiered on, eventually making my way to the top of a mountain section to the first A-trail option. I remembered it from last year and started hoofing it through there. My Suzuki was performing excellent and I caught myself giggling every so often – hey, I’m a single-track junky! I came upon some guys and the dust was brutal, then they pulled over, and took off again, where I tucked in behind the front guy on a KTM. I eventually got around him and was complimenting myself on getting to the front with no dust, when I heard a voice yelling, “Hey Tom!” What the ???? I stopped and it was that darned MRA rapscallion, Joe Stagg, so we stopped and got caught up on things. He was clearly having a good time also – good to see ya again, Joey!
After that I continued onward on the course, where it again caught more trail, although it was wider, having been maintained with a Sweco machine to quad width. I remembered riding this same section on last year’s ISDE, where it had turned silty, then bottle necked, then rained causing massive chaos. As I started up, a guy on a new KLR was coming at me (scared the crap outa me!), stopped beside me and said, “There’s no way I can make it up that section. It’s too tough for a B section - do you know a way around it?” I peered at my GPS and gave him my best guess on a road reroute and wished him luck. Knowing the gnarly switchback sections were coming up, I started to pick up speed, and that’s about the time I came around a corner and found Gordon stuck in the middle of the first hill on his XR250L. I made it around him, stopped at the top and came back to help him.
I got him through that silty mess, patted him on the back and informed him that was the worst part. I took off and about a quarter mile later was another nasty spot – doh! Forgot about that section, sorry Gordon! The trails continued on taking us by two massive rocks called Rabbit Ears, after which I came around a corner and found Ray Carpenter picking up his Husky after taking a soil sample. A little while later was his cohort Dan Meneley (pronounce “Meneley”!).
I sauntered into the first checkpoint by a huge culvert and failed miserably when the nice lady asked me about some blowup doll alongside the road before the checkpoint. I can’t believe I missed her! About that time, old Tom Young showed up and wanted to ride with me. Evidently he had been on the gas trying to catch up with me all morning, so we took off and rode the rest of the day side-by-side together and had a ball. As always, he was on the gas and his Beta worked much better in the dirt than my heavy Suzuki, but we made the best of it.
There was one addition to this year’s course over last year’s – trip up to Hershberger Lookout and back, although the rollchart didn’t tell us it was two-way traffic UNTIL we got to the top – doh! After a couple close calls, we realized what was up.
We eventually made our way to the Lookout and it was spectacular! One poor sap was fixing the rear flat on his XT, which actually was a good spot, since there was plenty of help! One guy showed up on his KTM with a failed headlight bulb, where it had fallen out of the socket, but still working!
Tom and I roosted our way on back down the mountains and eventually slid into the lunch stop. Of course they had a game, which was a slow test where you also had to cross a board section. In all the preceding years, I’ve driven off this damn board, so that was my main goal this year, of which I made it – woohoo! Lunch was awesome, as the MRA crews were barbequing some chicken, along with ‘tater salad and cold fluids. Of course the benchracing and lies commenced from within the picnic shelter!
Just as we were getting ready to leave, along came Stefano. Evidently, he had waited for me, and I had received bogus info from someone – sorry Stefano! You probably had a better ride going by yourself anyway, due to the immense dust! From the lunch stop, Tom and I motored up the most excellent trail section that paralleled Hwy 62, which was also a special test section from last year’s ISDE, however this year it was dusty. We then came to Paul’s checkpoint where we had to throw some sandbags into a hole on some wood. I did pretty good, but Danno showed up and sucked so bad, that he didn’t even hit the board with all four sandbags! (Sorry Danno, but reality bytes!). Here’s proof:
Tom and I took off from there and a gent from Idaho, (John Kirk – on a yellow Suzuki also), joined up with us and ate our dust for miles! Plus, he wasn’t wearing goggles, but glasses – gasp!
The culmination of the ride, IMHO, was the most awesome Minihaha Trail towards the end. This trail was a great coupe’ de grace for the day’s ride!
At the finish, the usual suspects were recording everything and there were plenty of dusty smiles and stories.
Then it was back to the campground to get freshened up and hang with the homeys.
The MRA had changed things up, in that the Saturday ride was for points, and the Sunday ride was just for fun and an easy tour of the area. With this, they had awards and prizes at a dinner hoopla inside the Lodge. Our group hit the bar, of course, then segued into the dinner room later when the festivities commenced. Woohoo, everyone had a great time and the rounds were being bought left and right!
After dinner and all the drinks were swilled, we all headed back to the campground to continue the night’s craziness. Walt cranked up some Stevie Ray Vaughn, Frunk cranked up the disco lights and the madness ensued, with Walt even doing a fire dance! Even Crazy Lee Riddle showed up later on with practically no lights, almost running into my pickup, and joined the party. Frunk even pulled out the marshmallows for smores!
On the way home, I fortunately did NOT have the same, sorry story I had last year, when my Honda car’s alternator took a dump, but for some reason I kept passing Tom Young multiple times on the drive home.
Thanks MRA for another good time! You can see all my pix by going here:
http://tawmn.smugmug.com/gallery/3532552
-Tom
