Woods riding, YEAH!!!

[The Anvil]

Okay, so I haven't been out in the woods in a long time. A buddy of mine has a couple of 4X4 quads, one is a 2010 Kawasaki Brute force 650 and the other is a 2004 Sizuki Twin Peaks 700. They're essentially the same bike, the newer Kawi has updated plastics and a displacement drop but is otherwise mechanically the same as the older Suzi. But he's been looking for someone to ride with for a while and I haven't been in the woods in years (not since I sold my RM250 in 2003) so I took him up on the offer, even though at the time I'd rather have been on two wheels. The last time I'd ridden a 4X4 quad was in the early 90's and I wasn't impressed but I figured it would still be better than being indoors on a rainy day.

Boy what a difference a decade makes. Even for really big, 4X4 machines these things HANDLE. I was going much faster than I could have on two wheels because the terrain where we ride is hilly, wet and very rocky as it's all powerlines and that's just what's underfoot in southern NH. Lots of granite, trees across trails, tree roots... it's nasty. I never EVER thought I'd say this but I might actually have to buy one of these things. Man, am I sore today though.

While way out in the middle of nowhere (or as close as you can get to it around here) we found what seemed to be an old road, not just a trail but a stone bedded road, at least that's what we suspected it was. Then at the end of it we came to this:

So sure enough it was a road at one time. We crossed the water just on the right of the downed bridge and on the other side we found a clearing. to the left of the clearing was a horse paddock, okay PP, can't go that way. Rode off to the right and damn if I didn't see a herd of dinosaurs walking through the woods. Then I realized they were ostriches.  Couldn't see the wire fence they were behind at first.

[FLAVALK]

I grew up riding dirt bikes in the woods and loved every second of it! Wish I could still do it. Sounds like ya'll had a blast!!

That's a rather old road bed. How wide is it?

[The Anvil]

I grew up riding dirt bikes in the woods and loved every second of it! Wish I could still do it. Sounds like ya'll had a blast!!

That's a rather old road bed. How wide is it?

Just wide enough for one modern car. That's also the only asphalt we saw, that little chunk right there. The rest was stone, a lot of which was deeply rutted. But the concrete slabs make me think that the bridge was at least updated in the 50's.

It's really wild the stuff you come across deep in the woods. Next time we're taking the guns and we're gonna do some shooting. We only had a 9mm pistol with us this time and plinking with that gets old after a while.

Here's Eddie (also a Valk owner) crossing a pretty deep "pond". I had already been across a couple times. (Might be some salty language)

http://s53.photobucket.com/albums/g58/TheeWreck/?action=view&current=Fording.mp4	powered by Aeva

[FLAVALK]

Fun stuff

[Black Dog]

When I was young, my Grandma had a mess of acres in Milford MI.  My brother and I, along with the kids from neighboring farms would spend hours and hours tearing up the fields, hills and valleys.  Yamaha 125's & 250's, and the odd honda, all dirt bikes.  Started when I was 8 years old, and have loved two wheels ever since.

Now that I have two boys of my own, we own 4 Wheelers (Honda 400EX for my oldest, Polaris 500 Predator, for my youngest, and a Honda 500 Rubicon for me).  The machines the boys ride are the 2WD 'Sport' style machines, and they just scream!  Mine is a 4X4, and weighs a ton, but still can get me close to 50mph!  We have quite a few areas within a couple of hours that offer some great trail riding, and some mud and sand, for just messin around.

My guys are 23 & 19 now, and we don't get out as much as we would like, but it is a great way to spend some time with them.  Good clean (not really) fun  

I know what you mean, about being sore    I feel better after 600 miles on the Valk, than I do after 75 miles bouncing around on the 4 Wheeler...  At 55 years old, my body just dosen't recover from getting banged around, like it used to.

Thanks for the write up, and the pic's  

Black Dog

[The Anvil]

Here's another vid of Ed crossing that stream next to the broken bridge...

http://s53.photobucket.com/albums/g58/TheeWreck/?action=view&current=Fording2.mp4	powered by Aeva

He's got vids and pics of me on his phone. I'll try to get a hold of some.