hey- I never got the pm....

 

BG: IF you're still going out tonight, I'm in. Can be there 6:30-7:00. Let me know.

 

sure! 7:00 sounds good- bring your girl if you want...

 

See you at 7.

 

rain or shine- I'm riding

 

Great night ride wilson! 40 miles in 4 hours (7pm - 11pm)- It was a little muddier then I thought it would be- I saw my bike in the morning and you'd never had known it was yellah but at least there was no dust!

I was digging mud out of my ears even after my shower!

can't wait to do it again- I'll have to figure out how to reach 146- there has to be a way around that swamp!

 

Hey Mike. How is it, to ride at night? Do you think you can handle unknown trail at night, or it is good if you know an area? Would you ride an unknown trail? At night?

 

Forgot how much fun it was to ride at night. Good time. 39.2 Miles.

BG: I emailed you the GPS map on Google Earth of the trip East of your house. I zoomed in on the area where we had to turn around so you can see how close we got to the highway. That was a really cool area, especially on the newly graveled paths.

Otto: Every trail at night feels like an unknown trail. Just take it slow and its a whole new experience. There were a couple time when we got turned around on trails that should have been very familiar. Good times!

 

I like night riding more then day riding personally-
Even very familiar trails look strange at night- probably because your focusing just on what the head lights illuminate instead of everything like when it's day light. You tend to notice things you didn't before on the trail, and it throws you off. Even wilson (AKA- "google maps") took a wrong turn but if I'm going to be fair, I asked him every 20 minutes "where the hell are we?"

I'll even go as far as to say (at the risk of sounding like a fruit) night riding makes you feel like "one" with your machine (my sexy little yellow outty ) - by virtue of, if you break down during the day, no problem- you walk out of the trail feeling safe and everything looks familiar, but at night if you break down, it's pretty creepy being in the middle of the forest many miles away from anyone in total darkness... so at night it's a whole new feeling of dependability and helplessness with your atv.

Plus, riding 10 mph at night feels like riding 20 mph at day- so you tend to ride a bit slower.

The perfect ride to me... early / mid autum, 10pm, 75* night, leaves falling just after a rain storm.... ahhhhh, that's heaven.

 

oh- and to answer the rest of your question...

no, I probably wouldn't do a night ride on a trail I haven't been on before unless I'm following someone who is familiar with it or unless it's a very well marked and often used dedicated atv trail. Or unless I have a spare fuel tank, food, water and a direct line to wilson

Night time is not a good time to learn a new trail, imho-