We made it riding Sunday, 1101 and myself. Met at Denny's in Leominster at 6:30. I rode my bike and put it on his trailer. Got to Wrentham State Forest by 8:30. On trail by 9:00. My bike kept stalling. Rode back to parking. Took off seat and tank...planned to remove bowl and clean jets. Noticed my idle screw (completely external) was turned way out. I had been turning it the wrong way! Chalk it up to early season stupidity.
Back to riding. 1101 led the way. Trails were rocky and challenging, more rocky than anything we have around here, but not intimidating. Found drainage tubes under 495 that we had both been thru during enduros. Rode thru. Found some famous rock climbs from the enduro. I went down going up one of them and 1101 helped extract my bike from between two trees. We went back thru tunnels. I started horsing around and going up and down sides of tunnel. Now you got to understand, this is a drainage tube. Maybe 48" diameter. So I am going up and down sides and my helmet is scraping the ceiling. But it was fun. The front tire kinda slides back down the wall to the bottom. So I exit one tube and enter the next, and #1101 is at the exit with his camera. I decide to start going up and down sides again. Well, this tube must be a little smaller diameter, cause it just don't work the same. I go up the first wall, then fall into the other wall, wedging to a stop, grinding my helmet into the ceiling/side I am wedged up against. Tube is too small to fall over, I am just wedged against the side. What an idiot. Hopefully, #1101 didn't get a pic of that. My helmet is seriously scarred!
So we take a short lunch break at the parking lot, then go to the other side of the street, across from the parking lot. Someone had told us these trails were harder, but they were sweet! Rocky, but awesome! Nice enduro trails. Very rocky, but again, not intimidating. Some nice, rocky, technical hills. But nothing you can't make it up. #1101 said that while it was rocky, the rocks weren't relentless like Freetown. We did two laps around this awesome, arrowed 7 mile loop. I tried pushing the pace for the first this season, and it felt pretty good, even on these tight, single track rocky trails. We get back to the drop sight after a good day's ride. Load up the trailer and get ready to head out....1101 notices his GPS is missing from his handlebars. So we unload and each do a lap in first gear in opposite directions. Unfortunately, we didn't spot the GPS.
So aside from the GPS, and me bending my foot peg on a rock so now the kick starter binds at the bottom of the stroke, we had a great ride. About 38 technical miles. I was quite sore the next day.
Tip of the Day: If in the GPS market, buy a bright yellow unit, not camouflaged.
