got laid off today... fawk it, going on a xc ds trip

[shift]

going back down the valley i spy a less traveled road crossing 2 creeks and going toward the opposing mountain range. so why not, lets hit it! even though we are not able to do the planned ride, i'm still having a blast and tooling around. the first creek was shallow and an easy pass for us both. the second, well, uh....

i stop and get off the bike to look at the second crossing. basically, it's a narrow creek about 4 or 5 foot wide, but fairly deep (knee to waist deep), but the current is moving really strong and fast. i decide to go for it, which is my usual decision. (unless i think it's DAMN near impossible. and even then, i reconsider. heh heh...) going through, the current was pushing the bike and there were large rocks making it hard to maintain momentum, but i sogged it through.

leon took a look and i gave him the advice i use -- keep your momentum and if it gets hairy, gas it! so leon gives it a go. i tried to get my camera out for the crossing, but i was too slow. leon hits the deep spot and drops the bike on it's right side. my eyes get big and all i can see of his bike is the left grip and clutch lever. (fuuuuuuuuuck meeeeeeee) he looks at me clueless, as i yell at him -- PICK IT UP! PICK IT UUUUP FAST! but, it's too late. here's the aftermath of the event:





i guess i should have known better than to let leon try to hit this crossing. he had no idea of what hydrolock was, and i had no idea i had left my spark plug tool back at camp. now there's a recipe for disaster... so, not wanting to face reality, we tried to push start the bike down a hill bumping it into second. yeah, no dice, no chance in hell... here i am after giving it a go, realizing i had to go find someone with a plug tool or venture about an hour back to camp in buena vista.





leon walked across the creek to take a video of me crossing it with his phone...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iw2pw_XX1Mc



what a nice looking picture, yet it holds a dark story... lol





i'm now balling down the fire road stopping to ask anyone i see if they happen to have a spark plug socket. as you might expect, most do not. i was having lots of fun, cruising at about 50-55, hitting waterbars and catching a little air, and screwing off. i was slowing down coming up to corners in case a truck or something was coming toward me, so as to avoid an accident. after about several miles, i came to a place we crossed a few hours back. water was crossing the road, but it was only ankle deep or so. i found some folks standing around watching the water so i stopped to ask for a plug tool. one jeeper guy had one and we talked for a few minutes. we worked out that if i didn't see him once we fixed leon's bike, i'd bring his tool back to his KOA site at some point. he then told me about the rising water from melting snow and that it was beginning to wash the road out, so i should hurry up. off i went!



as i get back to leon, he catches my 3rd creek crossing on video. the creek is definitely getting deeper and faster as the snow melts!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ov1pvL_c2U4

[Bucho]

Thats a pretty tough creek crossing. I've never crossed anything w/ a current like that!

[shift]

yeah, it was tough. looking back, i can't believe i went through it 4 times.

had there not been all those thick little trees lining the creek, i would have laid a small log next to the creek and used it as a jump to clear the creek. now that would make for a good video clip.

[zamobro9]

so....leon is the latest golden snorkel awardee.....the list is growing

[Louge]

DAMN shame it was too early in the year to cross the Hancock / Tomichi / Tincup Passes on the Alpine Loop. Alpine Tunnel is a perfectly maintained railroad station just below the Continental Divide. It took 10,000 men over 2 1/2 years to blast the tunnel under great hardship. Although the tunnel has a significant turn in it and considerable elevation change they missed a perfect intersection by a mere 1". A phenominal achievement for 1880s surveying!

The origins of the modern snowblower were born on that mountain. There was a competition to make a machine to keep the rail lines open during the harsh winters. One machine was identical to a modern two stage snowblower built into a steam engine with several more pushers engines. Like the modern snowblowers the first stage auger repeatedly got jammed. The second machine was of a circular design like found on some of the largest snow removal trucks. It also had several pusher engines, never jammed and won the competition.

I was at Alpine Tunnel on the way to the Arctic Circle when it started hailing golfballs. The GPS slowly lost altitude while the storm went by. Ten minutes later the sun was back out ...

[OTTO]

That area around Tincup and The Taylor Res area is so nice to bad it's not passable.. I spent some time out there 2 years ago. I rented a 4 wheeler and had a blast. All I had was my road gear because I was traveling on the goldwing. It looks like you're having a great ride


Next time I'm going to ride it on a bike!!


If I ever get laid off, I'm going to use your advise of going for a ride!

Cheers, Paul

[JaxObsessed]

Great ride report Shift! I hope your clutch woes are incidental.

[shift]

louge: interesting stuff man. thanks!

psmcn: nice pics! a shame indeed! but, i gives me a reason to return -- ha ha...

jax: glad you are enjoying man. hope that foot is recovering well for you!




continuing on....


so i get my ktm started but it will only idle. any gas and it stalls out. so i let it idle to burn off any moisture while we work on leon's bike. within moments, i realize that the plug tool we borrowed is a 3/8" drive and all my tools are 1/4" drive and i didn't have any adapters with me. FML.... (they were back at camp with my plug tools and everything else we needed to do the job) so this time, due to the water getting deeper and my last close call crossing the creek, i walked my bike across the creek while feathering the clutch. i figured the uncompressed suspension would help keep water from getting in and i could go at a slower, more controlled pace across. it took both of us to push leon's dead drz through the rushing water.

once across, i told leon to push his bike in neutral over to the main fire road we came in on and start heading down hill towards st. elmo. when speed was good -- pop it in second and try to keep it running. i took off going as fast as possible to get the correct tools to fix leon's bike. knowing the water was rising in all the creeks, i wanted to get to st. elmo and borrow a 3/8" ratchet and extension and get back to leon asap. we didn't have much time. leon took a parting picture to remember the moment:




and one more to be sure he captured it. lol





going down this fire road, i'm moving at about 50 to sometimes 65 mph. catching air off water bars and having a blast. miles down the fire road, still enjoying the speed and the moment, i round a slight corner, slowing to about 50 at the entrance, only to find the road that had some running water across it earlier is now almost gone! i grabbed a handful of brake and quickly dropped 2 gears and dropped the clutch, but i couldn't stop! the left side of the road was completely washed out with a 10 foot drop, leaving me appx 2.5 feet of road to try to make it across with. with about 20 mph of momentum, i gassed it and hoped for the best since there was no other option. there were people on the other side watching the road wash away and when they saw me come ripping around the corner, i don't know who was scared more, me or them. everyone but one fella was out of my way. the one guy standing on the other side realized with a quickness that i wasn't stopping and he began to run! hitting the water, i threw a big 15 foot splash all over everyone as i made it to the other side. i stopped as quick as i could and came over to apologize to 4 guys for getting them wet and scaring the heebie jeebies out of the one poor guy. they were all really cool and just happy i didn't freak and fall into the collapsed part of the road. that would have been really serious.

here's what i just rode over moments after scaring the pants off of 4 guys nearby, myself and a handful of others who witnessed my crossing from the condemned bridge above us.






here's the bridge that crosses the creek washing out the road below. maybe you can see the handful of people on the left side waiting for the sheriff to come and open the condemned bridge so they could get their trucks out.




i found some of the forest safety 'rangers' and let them know 2 i saw 2 people hiking miles further up in the valley who are probably oblivious to what is happening down here. they assembled a rescue team with 4 or 5 atv's to go look for the hikers. things seemed to be getting really serious very quickly.

i continued off to st. elmo with a quickness. i found a nice fella named chuck who owned a bed and breakfast in st. elmo and after explaining the seriousness of our situation, he helped me get the tools i needed to fix leon up. he also told me a back way over an atv bridge that crosses the raging creek to get back to leon since the safety crew would not let me cross the condemned bridge or the washing out road again to get to my friend. chuck also told me if i could get leon across the creek, but not his bike, that he would set us up in his bed and breakfast for the night - no charge. man, this guy was a life saver!

now rolling up the "private" atv path headed toward leon, i spied a few great abandoned buildings much closer than i was earlier from across the valley. so i stopped for 20 seconds to take 2 quick pictures. in this first one, at the very top of the picture, we were stopped on the fire road there taking pictures of structures down this way. i believe i posted them earlier in this thread.






a little further up the private road, i found the atv bridge crossing the creek seen 2 pics above. the trail after that that headed up to the fire road was lots of fun. very loose rocks, steep at times and very technical. it made me wonder if we had to take it back out if leon would be able to manage it.

once i popped out on the fire road, leon was only a few hundred yards up the trail. i was really glad to see he made it all the way this far down the fire road without the engine running. while we tore his bike down once again, atv's with rescue teams headed up the road in search of the hikers i told them of. some stopped to ask me where i last saw the hikers and reported back to their base the info i had given them.




then off they went in a hurry. the sun was setting behind the mountain and daylight would soon be getting short.




within a few minutes, we had leon's 400 stripped down and ready to pull the plug. leon was so irritated with the situation, he wanted to push the bike over the hill and just leave it at this point. (his words to me)




once the plug was out and we did some cranking, we shoved what we could of a rag in the plug hole to absorb what it could. it didn't seem like we did much, but it was time to put it all together, say a quick prayer and give it a go....

[JaxObsessed]

HEY NOT FAIR!! Fuckin hell.

I can't believe you rode across that washed out road!!

[Louge]

Great read ... is the mannikin still hanging from a noose at the St. Elmo General Store?