ride and camp report

 So Tim and Scott Harrell flew down from Washington State to ride with
Tami, Eric, Myself and anyone else that was invited.  We ended up
riding at Stonyford, camped in the Mill Valley camp ground.  As I was
finishing the prep on my 300s, I noticed that my right footpeg mount
was cracked on my '05 and the '00 may have also had a small crack
started and I wasn't gonna let anyone ride like that.  I called my
friendly NASA welder and  he told me to bring the bikes over and he
would fix me up for the long weekend of riding.  If you read this
Skip, you're a awesome guy!  This slowed down the prep and loading
process and I started the trip without much sleep.  

I made my way up to Oakland on Thursday morning, arriving about 5:30
AM.  I had to load another bike on the trailer once I got there.  We
took 7 bikes for 4 people.  Great odds for a good weekend.  

We made our way to Stonyford, stopping for breakfast and fuel.  We
arrived to find the choice camping spots taken.  They were vacated
after we set up and then taken again before the remainder of our
riding group arrived.  

After setting up, we took off on set-up ride so that Tim and Scott
could acclimate and adjust to their borrowed bikes.  Tim on my '00
300, Scott on Tami's '97 CR125, Eric on his GG250, Tami on her KTM450
and me on my '05 GG300.  We also wanted to see where the snow level
was, and we managed to find it and it was too deep in many high areas
for uphill travel.  It was also dusty, even though a week earlier,
T&E, said lot's of the places we covered with snow.

I'm going to say what most everyone that has been to an Idaho
Spodefest already knows.  Scott Harrell is a talented young man on a
motorcycle.  He showed the 125 who was boss and did quite well on
Eric's GG250.  I think I can still take him as long as he is on a
borrowed bike and on unfamilure trails.  Otherwise, I might have to
ride over my head, but the boy ride.

OK, let's get into the campground trouble.  On Friday night, we all
were around the campfire until ~midnight.  We called it a night and
everyone headed for bed.  For Tim, Scott and I, that was my big 3 room
tent.  Our neighbors in the 2 end choice camping spots decided to to
stay up and listen to music.  So, I got up in the 27 degree night air
and walked over and asked for them to turn the music down.  They were
very polite, appoligized and turned the music down.  I was happy and
made my way back to applause from Tim and Scott.  However, the other
campers decided that it was still party time and turned on their
music.  Once again, I get up and walk over asking for the music to be
turned down, but not before simply yelling at them to "Please turn the
music down" a few times.  They pretty much ignored me until I told
them that they probably wouldn't like us to be really loud in the
morning considering the hangovers they would probably have.  I was
then called lovely names and I followed it up with a FU.  The music
was then turned up and they started cutting wood around 2 AM.  I was
super pissed, tired and with no weapon, I was just tuff shit out of
luck.  

I woke the next morning to the same campers music after very little
sleep.  Our group seemed to all be stiring, so I enacted what little
revenge I could.  I unhooked my trailer, and drove my truck over to a
small parking spot across from the loud campers and locked it up and
walked back to my camp.  I then depressed the panic alarm and smiled
to myself.  I didn't know it shut off so soon on it's own, so I hit it
again a few more times.  I know it wasn't smart, but I sure felt
better.  I was so tired, that I didn't really want to ride, but I did
anyway.  Once we returned from the ride, they had even more people and
we all decided to leave, rather than deal with these out-of-control
campers.  They were shooting guns in camp, riding their quad and bikes
up and down the hills behind their camp and apparently cutting down at
least 1 live oak tree.  The first of out group to leave was Glen, and
he flagged down a ranger and told him what was going on.  The ranger
came right away and made the loud campers rake the hills, pay for
their camping, ticketed them for cutting the live tree and hung out in
the camp until we were packed and leaving.  He was pretty cool.  The
best part of all this was that we ended up in Williams, CA soaking in
a motel hot tub.  

There is so much I left out, but others can fill in the holes.

Mike Baxter

 
Nice touch with the panic button :) I read that one out loud...


Let me take a wild guess--none of the morons even ventured to ride or
drive more than 100 yards from their camp. It was all about
"look-at-me" stuff, accomplished with as little skill or effort as
possible.

How discouraging.

--
Charles
'99 YZ250

 
You shoulda been there, Charles.
And I mean that literally. Sorry we missed you.


Pretty much.


Pretty much.

The Forest Service LEO was pretty cool, though, and sure sounded like
he was on our side as far as keeping the area open for ORV use. That
was one of the more encouraging parts of the whole fiasco.

Tim H

 Oh yeah, I gotta thank Tami and Eric for feeding me and Glen for
allowing us to eat in his toybox hauler.  The food was good, but
unless you eat like Eric, she may dish up a little much.  

Mike Baxter

 In article
 tntharrell@msn.com wrote:


Well thanks, Tim. I was sorry to miss you and Scott, and I haven't
seen Tami'n'Eric n Mike for way too long.

The closest to 2 wheels I came was seeing a KTM road-race transporter
and a WORCS team heading north on I-5, while we were heading south on
Thursday afternoon.

Oh, and we spent the weekend back in the hometown of both me, my wife,
and Scott's Performance Products (the steering damper company).

--
Charles
'99 YZ250