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I know, I know------- give me a little more notice next time. Well here is the story. I'm heading out to see 70 or so OKIE buddies at their annual ride at Clayton Ok. The only dual sporting I will do is down a 1/4 mile dirt road to the camp site. I will be on the V Strom 1000 and any road bike wood fit the bill to join in . I could meet up with you damn near anywhere South of Lawrence. You are welcome to join me. I will leave Lawrence at 9am or so tomorrow ( Sat oct 17). Chat and eat dinner with them, then head for home Sunday morning, and be back early Sunday afternoon. Long ride for a meal, but I it is feel worth it. I like to ride long days, how bout you.

David H ********* 785 331 5779

Dave wasn't this the place where you had your real adventure in getting stranded and having to spend the night with only the gear on your back?

Yea wasnt there lots of mud and a burned out clutch involved??

Hayden

Hell no, That was Big Bend Texas. That was quite a memory, and is better left in the past. This ride is all Tarmac, what the heck could go wrong? Don't answer that or you might talk me out of going~!

David H

Dave, I gave this some serious thought for about 20 minutes, but have decided to stay closer to home this weekend. Enjoy the ride!

David still shivers when he sees a spoon.

MacWildcat wrote:David still shivers when he sees a spoon.

Until you have been in a similar situation (or the realization that you are very close), the meaning just aint the same. Back in March Brian, Tracy, and I were doing a 182 mile one-day loop out south of Moab: Moab - Lockhart Basin - Needles Outpost for some gas - Needles - Elephant Hill - Bobby's Hole [didn't know what to expect, but it aint a mudpit, but rather a part of Bobby's anatomy]- Beef Basin - Newspaper Rock - Pavement back to Moab. Our tires were nearly shot, but we figured we would wear them out with this long day and long return on pavement.

Well.... coming up out of Beef Basin we gained quite a bit of altitude, a bit over 2000' to a hi of 8200'. We hit some muddy roads (all else had been dry) and turned down a forest service road I had mapped out. The mud got worse (we were going downhill, so going back was going to suck) and worse until we turned a corner and found 2 feet of snow covering the road for several hundred yards. We pushed our bikes through with them running and in gear ... more mud, more snow, more mud, more snow ... Brian turns to me (I have the maps and GPS) and says "Please tell me we go down soon ... " Probably about 2 miles of this, but it seemed like eternity ... about this time my cell phone alarm goes off. That means two things: 1) I forgot to turn off my cell in the morning and the battery is now probably nearly dead and 2) it is 5pm. Neither is good news. Remember, this is March. 5pm is late. And this is one time I might actually need my cell phone. At this point Tracy is muttering about the conditions "being bad". Not good.

Later we all admitted that we figured we might be spending the night. Considering the temps and conditions, spooning wasn't looking so bad!

Dang, I like adventures!

Boy oh boy was that a trip and a half that day. Lots of fun and a good long day for an adventure but the ending was a little nerve racking. First time in my life I actually thought I was going to have to spend the night out in the woods with nothing as far as camping gear. I started to wonder if the gear Im wearing was going to be enough to keep me warm over night. Lots of things run through your head. Did I bring enough water, Power bars, etc. We have lights on the bikes, do we just keep going through the night? Man Im worn out, how much of this can really be left to go through? Is there mountain lions out here? If I look to see how much gas I have left one more time, im going to scream. I hope its enough to get back. Crap, and Im the one with the big tank. Man its been an hr and we have only gone half a mile? Boy a beer at the brewery sounds good. Im soooo kick mikes ass when I get out of here, who planned this route anyway?? HEY DRY GROUND WHOOO HOOO....... 40 yards later ..............CRAP another snow bank? How much gas do I have lef..........AAAAAAAGGGGHHHRRRRR. Crap Im going to have to do jumping jacks all dam night to keep from freezing to death. Dam I love this stuff.

Hayden

After all this talk I feel the need to repost some facts. If you are out below freezing without camping gear you do what you need to do to stay alive. Rodney, my spooning buddie and I did the reverse spoon method. For your info, that is cheek to cheek, as in butt to butt. Did I want to--- NO, but it was in the 20s and I do like to be alive.

Spooning is one thing, but If the other guy happens to say do you want to fork? GET THE HELL AWAY QUICK

David H

How was your ride, camp, food, & company, Dave? The Okies doing OK?

Sorry for the late response. I don't have anything to report cause I wussed out and didn't go. Reading their reports it was a good ride for them.

David

Sorry you couldn't make it Dave. I was off work starting on wednesday, but didn't head down until thursday morning. It rained on me all the way down there, arrived around noon and it finally quit about 5pm. Friday was cloudy and cold, but saturday was perfect!