Leavenworth/Peshastin/Chumstick - FIRST OFFROAD RIDE IN MY LIFE. The bad and the great -

Been mountain biking and showboarding for awhile now, many thousands of miles on bicycles, so let's try motorcycles. Heh

Getting ready to go - trail from Pashastin, FIRST OFFROAD MOTORCYCLE RIDE IN MY LIFE. Sean and his DRZ400, Craig and his KTM 530.


Coming down from Pashastin, I made a nasty mistake. Just stupid, run-out-of-talent...mistake. Downhill wide rutted hardpack dirt road, into a corner, reach for front brake and ...rolled on the throttle. Bike pulls forward, WTF I say...pull in clutch, well of course engine revs up, WHoA that isn't good --- let out clutch, proceed forward once again AaaGhh...offroad and crash. Massive hematoma below right knee, red section is knee, right below it should be a LOT smaller as I don't have honkin' huge legs:


Felt like a nest of hornets going at it on that area. Even 2 weeks later it is as big as 1/2 baseball.


Erred on the side of caution and went to hospital in Leavenworth. X-Ray showed nothing cracked or broken, going to have to wait this one out to heal.



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2nd Day: Why not, let's go ride, came all the way up here and I'm not bailing out now. Felt fine on the bike. Slapped a knee pad over the bump.


On of the things we do as a family is Geocahcing - these caches are EVERYWHERE. Including tops of ridges, mountain ranges, etc:
Ammo box with log and geocache swag is right at the top area:
http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=633012df-7ec9-436c-88f1-cde88f8fa39d

Map:
http://www.geocaching.com/map/beta/default.aspx?lat=47.650614&lng=-120.451258

Day 2 went up to the Chumstick lokout area, 5810 feet, man, what a view. Saw not one other cycle until we were close to the lookout area, was not aware of the lookout until ZooM, hey an old Honda 250 2 cylinder rips past at a trail junction and whales up a STEEP hill to take a look. He came back down and chatted with us then POOF another bike shows up, a guy with a 450EXC, which is roughly similar to mine. Honda guy says hey you have to go up this trail over here...the view is spectacular. Mmmm. that trail looks really rocky/steep and rutted. Friend goes up to check it out and I say WTF go up, not too bad. Came back down and all 4 of us headed up.

On the way up:


Here we are - 5810 feet, used to be a lookout up here, has been gone many years


Geo marker at 5810 - pretty cool:


The four of us - the Honda guy knew every landmark and peak, we sure as hell didn't:


Cluster of black dots dead center is Waterville - my family stayed there a month ago


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More pics coming - went through a canyon allll the way to Rocky Reach dam. Geezus it was hot!
Some suspicious characters in small 4 door sedans were on this 'road'...don't know how they made it. "Immigration"...


All in all, learned a TON about the bike, a really sweet machine that likes less revs on the trail than I thought - throttle is a bit too jumpy for a beginner.
By mid 2nd day (2nd day .... ever off road...) I was really comfortable on the bike and could keep up with the guy on the KTM 450 when three of us went to Rocky Reach.
Bike demands a light 1 or 2 finger touch on the front brakes, and the ride coordination really improved.

Really had a fun time. I am HOOKED.

Great pics, good to see you were able to walk it off eh

Welcome to the sport!

AAHH, the best thing about this valley is all of the great ridding from easy to hard ! Glad to see you had a good time and came out alive. Did you make it to Sugarloaf look out ? great views up there. Chumstick mountain is a hot spot to stop. Was the wind blowing when you were there? Everytime I go up there it is huricane force winds !