Before flatfest becomes a distant memory... Great time guys.
I did no work on my pilot since last ride, forgot half of what was wrong. After a quick cleaning then looking, it all comes back, wasted lower a arm, intermittent spark that seems to change when i wiggle the spark plug wire, I throw another coil on and it seems to fix it, swap out wheels, a few other odd and ends, fuel up load up, then i noticed the nut missing from the long bolt on the rear bearing carrier, lucky catch, a new to me nut and were done.
Early meet time of 8am at the parking spot went well. We missed Mikey, Mass, Travis this ride for variuos reasons, but P-Nut, Cafercr, NJ rider, and myself (Hare) all in Pilots, were ready for abuse.
It was painfully dry for weeks before this ride,looked like a dust fest right to the end but praise the lord He dumped buckets of rain all night long the night before the ride, this makes for the best conditions, no dust, great traction, and a general smoothing out everything, but save a few puddles, perfect.
Right from the get go we roll, basically a not stop bake fest from the truck to the main road crossing, a good hour of solid full on hammering of every turn, straight away, sweeper, uphill, downhill, you name it. full throttle doing 50 mph on a trail as wide as the tires is thrilling to say the least. Killer stuff, no girls or notes on the trail this day. At main turns in the trail everybody is right there, no need to stop and regroup, this no dust stuff rules. Everybody was heavy on it when we hit the Euc road for the high speed contest, i know i was scared, not sure if it was fear of pain or fear of toasting a
motor ((
Internal Combustion Engine ? )).
Get to the main road crossing and on the other side is a pretty nasty hill but nasty only because of large loose rocks scattered on the trail, most in the way.
I give it a shot but end up losing momentum and spin out sideways on the hill, since going forward stopped working and backing up where i was meant sure death, thanks to a little help from my friends we got it spun around pointed in the right direction. I contemplated attempting it again but dismiss it quickly and left for the easy way around. Unbeknownst to me P-Nut gives it a shot and makes it right up!!! We make our way around to the top of the hill (the little girls way) and meet P-Nut who went the man's way. He had slight tire and rim damage, well 3 to be exact, but nothing a few plugs and a BF Rock can't fix, P-Nut is the master rock beater, after the wacking, off we go.
Next stop is a quicky by some big trucks then cross the other road and get into the next section. Some more tight fast stuff then hit a bit of open before hitting the coal slag dust play pit, this is about the closest you will get to sand in these parts, it rides like sand but is heavy so it doesnt smooth out with the wind, 4 guys non stop powersliding 5 or 10 minutes didn't help none either. Don't really stop at the play pit either just keep rolling, next through a real wet section made fun cause you have to constantly S back and forth to avoid water, then S again with high banks on a steep downhill, gas it down the hill for the high banked turn at the bottom, glued to the seat.
Cut down the road for a 1/4 mile, cross a little creek and back into the black sand, the rains have screwed this area up a bit, we just cut thru since the hillclimbs and stuff are messed up from the storms they have earlier this year, this used to be one of our favorites, super steep blind hillclimbs on a few terraces.
Soon we end up split up we turn around and head back a little when my pilot just quits and dies. It has run good up until now, then nothing, go for spark plug first, swap out with new plug NJ rider had, no change. Start wiggling wires again, get close to the 3 way plug for the yellow wires and it starts, play around some more eventually trace it back to the yellow wire near wear it goes into the Engine itself, about 4" or 5" from the case the yellow wire looked like it had worn thru and only had a few strands left not allowing a good connection. respliced and taped up, thanks again Cafercr. Lucky for us the other two were only right around the corner plugging another (or the same ) tire and pumping it up. Pretty far out there, reserve light come on for some so we decide to hit one more play pit then start heading back to fuel up for round two. this is the best playland left although its getting beat up quick. Lots of good hills, can treat them like dunes come up to the edge and sweep the ass end around on the edge. Cafecr sets his pilot on its side, no damage done. NJ Rider starts down a hillclimb until he see a couple trees too close to fit. P- Nut does the same downhill and gets pinned by two trees then with sheer determination he violently shakes the tree until it broke, I was amazed. More fast open stuff, big wide sweeper back and forth on a nice gravely road, cross back over the road, we take the shortcut to the waterfalls some had dumped a bunch of remodeling trash right at the end of the trail, it had nails in boards and such so we got out and tossed it off to the side of the trail. Waterfalls flowing good, a couple of quad guys and a group of 6 or 8 youngins. On the road again, more flats, more pumping. Get to top of Wal mart hill and more P-Nut pumping, down the hill to the other side and now Cafercr blew a bead, More pumping, I get to end of trail and have a flat after loosing the plugs that were in my tire, more pumping, we are out of plugs i try a stick to fill the hole no luck, so we take the easy way back to the truck, flat tire isn't too bad at speed.
I swap my front wheels, P-Nut beats his wheels back into submission, we all re-plug, gas up and head to the 901 for sustenance, feeling weak and tried we decide to op for the short trip, instead of making it to the other waterfalls, this might of been a mistake. Water damage had done a number on the worse part of this trail, a real rocky uphil climb with huge boulders but with wheel swallowing holes scattered about. I sat there for a minute and couldn't see a line to save my life, but it was there. Linking the rocks together with a little momentum, hanging hard left I zipped right up it. Unbelievably everybody made it up mostly in one piece, more tire repair at top of hill, Cafecr's questionable rim had no questions anymore, it was done for, metal had been so beat and fatigued that there was no way to get the bead not to leak. From there a quick detour donw a wrong trail and then up to the old old railroad grade called the hole in the wall. Take too long to explain, but its cool. Cafecr wheel is some how holding air now so even though we are right near the truck we go for one more fast tight section. The Next hour is spent full on pro rally with everybody hammering the fastest pace of the day. Being in the lead I had trouble reacting to the trail in time resulting in a missed turn or two and powerslide that came all the way around. Thankfully the guys behind me were on their game and didn't slam into me or even miss a beat. A blast of a time, ok more rides, now damn it! I wanna ride I wanna ride I wanna ride.