A Beary Good Ride!
Thursday, July 24, 2014 at 2:28PM The Rehab Tour Rolls Along!
The rehab tour has been interesting so far. I have been on some awesome rides with some interesting people. Howard (The Mayor), Barry (the Janitor), Darren (Doo Rag) and Rodney (Bonk) Johnson. On some excellent rides like The Big Dipper, The Butt Rock trail, and Doo Rags favorite, The Helmet Rock trail that caused him to say, ‘I’m not riding my bike up that!’ when we came to a cobby granite outcropping of rocks.
But the most interesting thing so far was the dual sport on the KLR 650 with Cheryl. It started out as an excellent sightseeing tour to a place we were told about called the ‘High Lakes’. A really cool ride with incredible vistas and remote roads that allowed us to ride for hours and never see anyone. 
Right up to the moment a HUGE cinnamon colored Bear blasted out of the bushes about 50 feet in front of us. We were stopped at the time wondering how much further we should go because we were kinda lost and weren’t sure how much worse the road/trail in front of us was going to deteriorate. So far it had gotten very rough and rocky, especially considering we were on the KLR 650.
As we sat in a trough worn into the road in-between bushes lining both sides, the bike was running when the bear charges out of the bushes directly in front of us and thankfully turned and ran the opposite direction. As I sat there frozen, not believing what I was seeing, I realized if he had turned toward us there was nowhere to go and not enough room to turn around in that corridor of bushes with two of us on the bike. I would have had no choice but to pop a wheelie and dump Cheryl off the back as bait until I could get my .45 Officers model out of my pocket!
Thankfully I never had to and we just waited until he was well out of sight and continued on down the road. We stopped a few hundred yards down the road to take a photo and Cheryl was reluctant to stay around too long. She asked me if I thought he was gone and I said, ‘Sure, he was more scared of us than we were of him. He is probably still running’. I kept one eye on the surrounding area and the bike running while she took the picture!
We found our way out of there and made it back to civilization just in time to have an early dinner and head back to the mobile ghetto (our Weekend Warrior).
I can’t wait for our next outing, maybe we will see a mountain lion. I am keeping my fingers crossed.
#33
“An attitude is contagious, is yours worth catching?”
Reader Comments (2)
Neat story but I what to see the video
Eric, great post. I had that happen to me twice (bear on the trail while riding) and both times it was up in NorCal near Lake Almanor. Unfortunately, both times I was riding out ahead or far behind the other riders so no one was there to see it with me. Oh well, it makes for a good bench-riding story now. Glad to hear that you are rehabbing well. I have about two-years left before I get out of this circus. I will have to get a few pointers from you on life after the badge:)
Say hello to Chreyl and I hope you make it out to an FPMX National again one of these days. May 2015 would be a great one since it will be a warm up for the AMA Nationals; Glen Helen, 2-day event, Fri-Sat, 5-motos for all FPMX racers, 2-30 minute Pro motos on the prepped National track.
Take Brother,
-Mark Davenport