Exploring with #33
Tuesday, January 5, 2021 at 11:17AM 2021 has started out well so far. As of this writing no “RONA” (covid-19) in our riding group. Maybe it is the facemask (helmets) or the social distancing (1 rider per bike) we practiced! We tended to stay away from others too by looking for new trail options, that means boonie crashing and burning in new routes!
We set out on a Monday Taco ride with only Mark (#64) and Recon (#133) making it this week. So with a group of only 3 and all in the Expert category we had no limits for exploring. It could be the Best Day Ever! It started out well on a fresh new trail we had spotted a couple of weeks ago and came back to check it out further. We ran that one out and decided it needed an additional loop through some steep and unridden sections in order to attempt to make it a loop that would head the direction we wanted it to go. A few times I was wondering if we had gotten a little too big for our britches. That is about the time Mark parks his bike and starts walking down hills to see if we can get out because if we drop in we probably can’t get back out! It took me a bit to figure out just what #64 was really doing. It was a little trail scouting and a little game trail scouting. That fool was walking down to see where the game goes and where they bed down! Mark is a hunter and is always looking at game tracks while we ride. It takes me a minute, but I catch on!
So Mark walks down one that looks intimidating and yells up, “Eric! I think we can do it!” Ok, I guess we are going. I think to myself, we have three guys and a couple of tow straps so we should be fine. Lol. It turns out that Mark was right it was not as bad as it looked but it definitely makes you pucker when you head down something fairly steep, you can’t stop and there are No tracks ahead. Well except Marks, he went first since he gave it the thumbs up!
We wrapped up our exploration and were a bit behind schedule due to our hiking session. But we got our roll on and headed for an established loop that is in the upper levels of difficulty. We usually reserve this section for the upper level of riders, I’ve learned people tend to over rate themselves when I tell them the section is difficult and they insist they can ride anything. “It can’t be harder than Baja” I remember hearing once. After that ride I never saw that guy again. But then again, he was old, he was our age! Lol.
We log some miles on established trails and get to our New rest stop to meet up with MJ (Montana John) and Lin since they are on an easier loop and ahead of us. Those two have a few more miles on their odometers than we do and MJ is recovering from a neck surgery about 8 months ago. They have been there and gone, leaving us a message that they will be at the Loves fuel station since there is food and gas there. We had just settled into a short break with a beverage and a snack when my phone rings and it is Lin who is riding with MJ and he says MJ is not doing very well. Seems MJ had something to eat during their rest and just about passed out with cold sweats and dizziness. So we suited up and headed out to their location to help if we could. Ended up having to recover MJ’s truck and come pick him and his bike up to transport him home. With MJ on his way home by car, we headed back out on our return route and got news that Lin dropped MJ off at the hospital and would not know anything for a few hours. The hospital staff told Lin to go home, again covid-19 concerns and they would call with news. That was my last update as of this writing. I hope to get good news today that it was nothing serious. Keeping my fingers crossed.
#33
‘Bad is never good, until worse happens’
Reader Comments (1)
love the pics and reading about your adventures... I hope your friend is ok, hopefully when things to back to normal with work I can make it out your way to do a ride, and btw I certainly dont tend to overate my level of abilities.. just sayin !!! lol :)