Well this is the story:

Saturday, I went riding with a friend by the name of Joe. He invited me to come down to his camp and spend the day riding with him on his trail systems. We headed out about 1 p.m. and started our journey along the great old power lines. Most of you know, the power lines can be some of the most difficult riding that you could ever do. Lots of granite and marsh everywhere.

We were only about 20 minutes into the ride and came up on a small but steep hill. There was a fallen tree at the bottom that was sitting at a 45 degree angle to the hill. If you can imagine….we had to hit the hill at a slight angle and then turn sharply to go up. Well here is the problem. Joe went up the hill without a hitch. When it was my turn, I started up the hill thinking that it was a piece of cake. WRONG! As soon as I made the crest, the darn bike stalled. Not that the engine stopped, just that I was in High when I should have been in Low. Totally, my fault. Anyway, I squeezed the rear brake while I was still stabbing the throttle and reached up with my right and to try and squeeze the front brakes. The bad part is, that my thumb slipped off the gas. I started sliding backwards down this little (steep as heck) hill and the rear left tire caught the tree that was down.

Guess what….it flipped. Over I go, smacking a tree with my nogg’en. Thank god for the helmet. As I was laying there, the bike started to fall on me. For those of you that don’t know me, which is almost everyone..hehe…I have a prothesis on my right leg including a fake knee down. In a blink of an eye, I pulled my bad leg out of the way with my hand and caught the gas tank with my left foot. Let me tell ya…that darn bike is HEAVY! I was able to keep the bike off of me by leg pressing the griz with one leg! Here is the fun part…..Joe was ahead of me! He didn’t see it happen, so I had to WAIT for him to realize that I was in trouble….What seemed to last for hours was only a minute or two. He is not the biggest of guys but with both of us, we were able to get that griz back over on it’s paws. Joe hopped on the bike and pulled it up the hill for me, while I did the tri-pod hop up the hill. Not a bad start for a ride with a new friend! hehe, (thanks Joe).

Well anyways, down into the powerlines we went. Between the two of us, we were able to find the deepest, thickest muck there was. The winches, I would say, did most of the work through this area.

Coming out of the powerlines, we stopped for the normal (watering of the flowers) breather that we both needed. We headed out into a trail that was rough cut but passable. Lots of diving, turning, mud, muck, and the ever loving trees. We went about 2 miles and took a little break. Joe wanted to know if the pace was good for me. SURE, I said. Then had to make a smartass comment to him that “I thought you said that this was going to be really technical trails? hehe” To my surprise, Joe says “ oh, they only get worse from here”. Man, was he right!!!

We were going through a forest of some of the thickest trees and MUD that I have ever been on and in. At one point, I nosed my bike into what I thought was just a mud puddle, only to sink the bike down to the front rack. The hole was only 2ft x 3ft and in between to trees. There was no WAY that I thought it would be that DEEP! Back to the winches we went.

Coming out of the Technical trail, we came up to a trail system that was a little faster moving but still very challenging. Lots of duck’n and diving to avoid those darn branches that just bend over right when you go by! At one point, I bent over to miss some overhang, only to come back up and be smacked in the face with more! With all the smiling that I was doing….i wont have to visit the dentist for a cleaning. (thanks to the branches that scraped all those pearly whites [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img]

We came to a place in the trail that was kind of odd?? It was a small rolling hill that the trail went along the side of. The problem was, the water had swept all of the dead fall off the ground and made a natural damn right on the edge of the trail. It really didn’t look that deep but Joe knew there was a culvert somewhere in that water. So he headed into it first. We he found it. He nosed the bike into the deep water but caught himself in time, not to drown the bike. He hopped off the bike and figured he would try to guide it up on the dam and ride out….This is where it gets funny, yet scary. Joe gets the front wheels up on the dam and then “tries” to squeeze the front brakes…..well his had squeezes but squeezes the gas too!!! He launched the bike, and himself, straight into the woods down the hill. All I saw, was him flying through the air and bouncing off a tree out of site. At this point I am worried. I know for a fact that I couldn’t go back the way I came with out him and I didn’t know where the hell I was! Luckily, he stood up and was OK. We rode for several hours, up and down, through the thick&thin and had a blast. The only bad part of the hole trip was, we didn’t get to do the hole trail system. I guess that is the best part in a way….i will always wanna go back, not only to see the rest……but to do it all over again.

Jonathan

 

hey frogman,
that was a great story!!! i did not realize you were missing a kickstand! gotta tell ya though, your 1 leg has got to be pritty strong to hold up the grizzly, lol!
i only wish i had trails around me like that!!! it seems every time someone tells me there are some technical trails here, and i go there, it is a joke to get through. i really have never passed trails so bad, i relied on my wench to survive! i have had to use it, here and there, but never couse it was the only way, but becouse i found somewhere new to try to cross. it sounds to me like i am in need of a small trip to the u.p.
how far did you go that day? if i am on a pritty bad trail system, i can usually cover about 100 miles in a day. most of the time, i cover about 150 or so, couse there arent that many bad spots on the trails to get through.
thanks for the story!!!
oh, by the way, did the griz start right up after you stood it back up? was it huffing and puffing black smoke from the exhaust?


my pictures

 

hey frog,
just curious, what kind of quad does your friend have.

 

His friend has Grizz.660,just like Jonathan.

 

She didnt huff and puff at all. Infact, Colt is the one that i went riding with. We went i think only 37 mi. AND it took about 4-5 hours to do. That was the shortest trip that i have done in that amount of time. Today went 40+ and yesterday went about the same. Most of the time is spent looking at new fishing holes and trying to figure out where the heck we are...hehe...but THAT trip, it was WORK the whole way.

About everytime that you "thought" you were going to open it up, NOT! another mud hole. And that was on the good parts of the trails. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img] The rest was really nasty stuff.

Today, i went through what i thought was just a small creek, into a marshy area...it ended up being like riding on a waterbed! The trees (what there was of them) and the whole earth was WAVING like the ocean. I never saw anything like it before. I thought for sure that i was going to drown, but i kept the bike on top (about 6" above the pegs) and crrrrraaaawwwwwwweeeeddd through it. No one else would even atempt it, which i was glad. For sure, someone would have been in trouble. If i did have to winch out, i think the trees that were there would have just POP'd right out of the ground/water. It was fun [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img]

Colt77 (Joe) has mudrunners on his bike (griz) and between us, i would say that BOTH tires are really nice. The only POINT that i would make towards the DD's over the mudrunners is the side lugs. They seem to grab better to get out of the deep ruts that you get caught in. Joe's bike would only get the front tires out but the rear would stay in the ruts and he was sideways down the trail. The DD's would "pull" my right out of the ruts and i could ride the ridges. Other than that, both tires performed without a hitch. We both used our winches the same amount. I wouldnt say that his bike or mine would go somewhere the other couldnt.

Jonathan

 

Actually, first 25 miles took 5 hours and the rest 14 miles was off the trail on the county road, high speed, going back home.
It was my pleasure to spend a day riding with such a pleasant young man.
J.

 

Trust me Joe, it was my pleasure meeting a good friend. Thanks for inviting me, and lets do it again real soon. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

Jonathan

 

be thankful. I have a small trail in the forest, that I can get through in less than 5 minutes. I wish I had tight, technical trails, or any for that matter. Grizzlys are nice..

 

Everyday i am thankful...i am thankful that my wife "let" me move to this area...hehe

We lived in IL and there was NO where to ride, unless you paid to ride at a park.

The UP is a beautiful and awsome place...for me.

I welcome everyone and anyone to come and ride... FREE, cept da' travel expenses...hehe

Jonathan