Ride Friday, August 7. Shade Mtn.

[thetable]

Well, we made it out alive and with all bones in tact.

That's halfway to a good ride? All bikes still running?

[juddspaintballs]

There may have been a bike rescue compounded by the fact that the road is closed exactly past the parking area and the detour around to get up to the gravel road was 35 miles, half of which is gravel. Kirk's bike started acting funny after the 2nd portion of "experienced riders only" trail like it needed a new plug, so he started swapping out several used plugs he had with him to no avail. While he waited on Ted and I to bring the rescue vehicle to him, I think he self diagnosed a plugged main jet but couldn't get it running with the fouled plugs he had with him.

I had a good time riding. I definitely need to get a cooling fan for the radiators since I keep overheating and I've already ensured it's not a lean condition. I'm just slow and the rads aren't getting airflow. The first "experienced" section was rocks and rocks and rocks with some logs and low trees thrown in. Tough, tiring, but doable. We attempted to opt out of the 2nd "experienced section but missed our turn off, got a little mixed up, and wound up doing it. It wasn't a rock garden, just some really tight single track and a bunch of loose hills with baseball sized rocks littered all over them. Not nearly as tough as the first experienced section. Once we got our bearings, Kirk's bike started acting up so Ted and I hightailed it back to camp on one of the "easy" trails. Park people were doing maintenance on it in the form of practically dozing about 1/3 of the trail and making dirt mounds all through the section with deep troughs right before the mounds. Some sort of runoff water control feature. Fun going down, royal PITA to get back up. The rest of that trail was pretty fun with some mud, bridges, uphill consecutive log crossings, etc. I got to run that trail three times ferrying more plugs back to Kirk and then finally going for the vehicles. I fell a couple times, but nothing bad, just silly mistakes. It's rockier than I remember, but it has some really tight single track that you don't see many other places. I'd go back again, but with the long drive, it might be a while.

[Boom Boom]

Short clip from one of the guys riding Shade this Sunday.
Yes lots of rocks but also some fast flowing stuff.

[Marylander]

Yeah, bike ran fine to start but began sputtering after a bit. While waiting for rescue I pulled the carb and could barely see through the pilot jet. Time to strip the bike down and freshen it up. Thanks to Jed and his buddy for the patience and help. I hate screwing up someone's day. Sorry about that.