Wow, what a great trip. I'd like to thank the guides and folks who help setup this ride. Jim Cook, Stewart Hall, Brian Jahelka, Tim Birtsch, Eric Bruer, Jeff Neathery to name a few. These trips would not be half the fun if it wasn't for the work these guys put in. Thanks folks!!!
Here's a link to my Wudi V picture page:
http://pws.chartermi.net/~jejb2/Wudi5_ridepics.html
Laura and I left about Noon on Thursday for the trip down. Sunny and 30 in SE MN when we left. We ran into clouds in Southern Iowa and it started snowing about 50 miles north of KC. Weatherband on the RV radio said there was a winter weather advisory for that area so we didn't think we'd drive through at that point. Got through KC at rush hour okay and it stopped snowing about 45 minutes south. Cool. No big deal at all so far. Then we got into drizzle/freezing drizzle north of Joplin and that stayed with us to Fayetteville but never became a problem, really. Got lost in Fayetteville a bit. We completed the drive in the fog to camp. I put up arrows off 16 at Mill Creek Rd and going into camp.
Sorry about those directions, BTW. When we left WRM last year from Wudi 4, we took 16 all the way to the interstate so I "assumed" it would be labled 16 going the other way, too. Not.
We got into camp about 11pm Thursday night and were the only ones there. We just pulled in a parked for the night and re-parked (several times, RV games) Friday morning. No snow at camp at all and none since hitting Fayetteville. Folks started showing up Friday late morning. Marple crew, Neatherys, Dave Smith and the Halls were amongst the early arrivals. I got the first cookies of the ride from Christine. Damn good as usual.
It didn't take too long for the Jeff Neathery and Tim to get a group going. We did a fun loop with Ev, Keith, Stewart, Dave Smith and one or two others. Went across 23 and saw a cool waterfall that Tim said an ATV had gone off of last year. Deep hole below the falls, too. Must have been some good ol' redneck fun getting that out of there!
We ran on to guy on a logging road flagging us down. We could see his PU truck up the road a bit and off to the side. He was stuck. 2wd, bald tires out on a muddy logging road in the middle of friggen nowhere. We tried to push him but it only got worse as he was already off the road a bit. He had a young wife and 3 year old boy with him, too.
We finally did a 2 up deal with them for about 7 miles (!) out to Saint Paul. We didn't want to leave them out there as it was getting late in the day. If it had just been the guy, we'd have probably been okay with his efforts to join the Darwin club but not when he's taking the wife and kid with him. I had the 3yo with me between my arms. He had no hat or gloves. Dad didn't want to give him his hat (grrrr) and he didn't want to wear my spare gloves so I had him grab the grips and I put my hands over his. He seemed to like my grip heaters. :)
We rode about 8 miles of tar and gravel back to camp after dropping them off. It was kind of a chilly ride but I was letting the bike go a bit. That 6 speed in my 03 KTM 450EXC wasn't even trying at 60mph. I love those grip heaters, too. :)
More folks had arrived so Laura and I went around introducing ourselves and getting the Cook Pool built up. Brian was fun to meet and gets the tough guy award for both being the last reprobate at the campfire and for being the only one tenting it. The campfire was great. Someone had run and got us a nice load of slab wood and Tim cut it up with his chainsaw. Good beers (Brian's Wheat was great as was my Leiny's Amber Light, Big Butt Dopple and HoneyWeiss) and good company.
Friday, Brian took the gas cans out for a ride to the gas stop before the ride so it gave us more time to visit the new arrivals. Ted and Bob, more of the Neathery clan (although on ATV's, still nice folks :) ), Eric Bruer, John Arnett and Sue, etc. John had quite a story of their drive in. They blew past the camp in the fog late at night and took their travel trailer for quite a little ride up the mountain. I'll let him relate it, though. We'd met John at Rideaho '02 so it was great to see him again. Very, very nice guy with a constant smile and great attitude. Folks like him piss me off. Can't fool the wife into thinking I'm nice guy after she meets folks like him. :)
We got a lateish start because of waiting for Brian but it turned out great since the group was small. Just Brian, Stewart, Ev, Keith and myself. Going for the BIG loop! Whoo Hoo! We had a great ride through some nice single track, up work hill (where I slid out a bit but didn't go down), into some more tight single track. There was a little snow at the top of work hill but it was melting fast and not a problem at all. Probably only .5% of the riding we did, if that, was there any snow even visible.
Anyway, up some fun hills, down some fun hills, single track, fast but fun ATV trails, etc. The group was staying together well. I was in behind Brian for the most part and holding Stewart up, no doubt. After gas, we ran into a neat tight pines section. Kind of loamy soil without many rocks so more like home, for me. Brian hit a tree root/rocky step-up between a couple of big pines and did a chest slam, superman manuver but did stay on the bike. He busted his GPS mount, though. I don't think he really needed it, personally. He knows the trials very well and is great fun to follow.
Not long after that, Stewart's bike stalled so I stopped to make sure it got re-lit okay. Those Yamaha 4 strokes can be funny at times. Turns out his cam chain had jumped and we didn't have the tools to make a trailside repair. I had one of those Buddy Tow straps so we decided I'd pull him out to the road while Brian, Ev and Keith made the run to camp and come back with a truck.
We didn't pull down the trail very far before we dropped down the side to a logging road which was much easier pulling. A bulldozer had pushed up a big dirt berm where the logging road met the main road to keep folks out. I decided to go over it while pulling Stewart but I hit it off to the side where it was a bit lower. I made it over and was surprised to see a big water hole, which I was just skirting on the left side but was now in mud. Once Steawart hit the berm, all forward progress stopped. Since I had the strap on the right side of my frame, it jerked the bike to the right. The bank fell away so there was no stopping things with a foot. Over I went into what turned out to be a 2'+ deep puddle. Damn water was COLD! I managed to keep my upper half about half dry but my boots were full. My goretex pants did a pretty good job of keeping me dry above the boots.
We towed a little further and then cut Stewart loose for the downhill run on the forest road to where we were to meet Brian. We set about building a fire. Nice to have 2 freshly filled tanks of fire-starter to draw from. We soon had a good fire going and I took my jerseys off to hang over it. I had my MSR pack jak in my Mule packback and that was dry so I wore that while steaming my jerseys. One was getting pretty dry when Eric Bruer and his group came by. They weren't there long when Brian pulled up so I rode with Eric's group back to camp. We did 2 mile hill and some single track back.
Back at camp, Jim and Deb Cook had arrived. It's always great to see them. Another one of those constantly smiling, ever helpful folks. Jim gave me a calendar he'd picked up at the Indy dealer show. It's one of those "garage" calendars signed to me by one of the models. Thanks Jim!
Brian took Keith and I out for a nice evening jaunt above camp. We put on some fun miles up there and got back to camp a little before 6. A great day of riding made better because Stewart had his bike all fixed up by the time we got back from the evening run.
Sunday morning we did the door prize giveaway. We just had folks throw their names in a hat. We had a lot of nice stuff from Tucker Rocky (they even gave us 2 very nice MSR helmets!), Cycle Zone KTM, Dennis Kirk and Ballistic Products, Inc. Jim gave out hats and I got a nice Camo mesh Smackover one. Laura and I forgot to put our names in the hat so we didn't come away with anything but lots of happy folks did. Many thanks to all the sponsors!
I decided to hook up with Tim and Jeff's group. They were going to do a more scenic ride with some forest roads involved. I wanted to see more of WRM so that sounded good to me. We had 10 riders total so a pretty good sized group. Tim and I swapped bikes since he wanted to try a 450EXC. I was happy to try his 99 250EXC since I owned one for 2 years. Man, I was like a fish out of water. I guess I've become a full on 4 stroke guy. I was happy to climb back on my bike.
We did some ATV trials, some forest service roads, some exploring, etc. It was a fun day on some neat trails. There were little waterfalls, some great hill climbs, a nice overlook of a pretty lake, etc. We got back to camp fairly early and I decided to pack it in. We wanted to get up to Chadwick yet that day and we had a lot to do. Dump, fill the propane, stop at a laundramat and car wash in Branson, etc.
We said our goodbyes to most everyone and thanked the guides. Jim, Brian, Eric and others were going to stay at WRM and ride on Monday, too. Apparently, Eric bailed so Brian came up to Chadwick. John Arnett and John Wade made the trip up, too. We got into camp a bit after 10pm. John Arnett and Sue had beat us there but not without some more adventures trying to find the right camping spot. We had a couple of beers with them and headed off to bed.
I flipped my tire around in the morning to have fresh edges for climbing the rocks at Chadwick. I was surprised to see Brian drive in with John but it was a most welcome surprise. He's a great rider and fun guy. There were 6 guys there from MN, too. They were suppose to be at WRM but the RV they'd rented for the trip blew a sparkplug/coil out on the trip down. The rental company brought them an Izusu Trooper on a flat bed and took the RV back but this put them way behind, over a day. So they decided to just ride Chadwick and wait for us to get up there.
Stewart took us for a nice loop on Monday but a couple of the guys from MN were struggling on some of the hills. We covered the "pinkie trail" single track loop. This is were I broke my pinkie the year before. Stewart said he knew of 2 or 3 other guys who'd done the same on that loop. I don't really understand why it happens, though. It's not that tight. Oh well, it is a fun trail.
At the bottom of a long downhill on 104, we somehow got seperated from 3 of the guys. Stewart's cam chain had jumped again so they effected repairs while waiting. One of Stewart's buddies, Gary, happened by and helped since he's the service manager at Surdyke Yamaha. We finally decided that they had to be back at camp by now since we waited over an hour and went looking for them twice. They were indeed there when we got back.
After lunch, Stewart, John Wade, John Arnett, Brian and I took off for a technical loop. We were having a great time until Stewart's chain jumped again. Since it was only about 5 miles since the last time, he decided it wasn't worth riding anymore. He directed us on to some single track that was way fun. He was at all the intersections to keep us on the trail and we were back at camp all too soon. Laura had taken a walk with our German Shepard Melanie and the dog was just a mess. She didn't seem to mind, though. :)
Pretty much everyone bailed Monday afternoon. John Wade was coming back for more and I told Stewart he could use my spare bike on Tuesday, if he wanted to. It's a 96 KDX200. He decided to give it a go. Laura and I tried hard to get the Arnett's to stay one more day but, even after wasting several beers in the effort, he decided to take off anyway. :) It was fun to listen to his stories of his days as a police officer. What folks won't do to try to weasel out of ticket.
Tuesday's was also Christine and Stewart's son Ryan's 11th birthday so he got to play hooky and come out to the riding area for the day. He's a great kid and it was nice to see him again. He's getting tall!!
John, Stewart and I took off for a loop. We are all close in speed or at least we were always together. I think some of us were faster in some conditions than others. Still, no big gaps anywhere so we were putting on the miles. The KDX didn't slow Stewart down, darn it, so he was still setting a good pace. John is a very good rider and nice guy, as well.
I snapped off my shifter on a little root coming over a stream bank. I moved my foot off the peg and felt it catch the bike but kept on riding for about 1/4 mile before I realized I couldn't shift anymore. John helped me get the bike into 2nd from 3rd. We went back to get the shifter because it was relatively new and I wanted the knurled part. I had a used spare in the trailer so off to camp we went to get that and some lunch.
The 2nd loop was just as fun. We went over to Dairy Queen hill since John had never been to Chadwick. Stewart and I were both surprised at how tame it was to go down. He said he thought someone had been working on the ledges to knock them down.
I was starting to make mistakes. Not that I hadn't been making them all trip but they were coming faster and costing me a lot of energy. We got back to camp in one piece and I called it a trip. I felt bad because Stewart's friend had finally showed up and didn't get to ride with us but I didn't think another ride was a good idea. The bike and I were both relatively un-scathed at this point, which is almost unheard of for me in the rocks, and I didn't want to risk it. I was just a pup on the porch.
We loaded everything up, had a beer or two and said our good-byes. John was driving back to Mississippi and we were off to Lambert's for dinner and Bass Pro for the night. They allow RV overnight parking there. Finally found the wife a shotgun there, too. It's a Baretta 20 gauge overunder. It's cut down with a nice recoil pad and lots of engraving, which she likes.
We had the week off so we went over to Carthage, MO on Wednesday to see the Precious Moments chapel. Then we doubled back and headed for St. Louis to do the Arch and Bud brewery. We made stops along the way at any place that looked interesting. Laura spotted a KTM store along the way and they were having a huge sale. Lot's of very nice stuff at 50% or more! We cleaned up and got some huge deals.
We did the Bud tour first in St. Louis on Thursday. That was fun to do and the free beers at the end were okay, too. :) We then went over the Arch, drove through some ugly construction zones (we're in a 35' Class A with a 20' enclosed trailer behind, remember), drove all the way around the arch to find that the RV/Bus parking area was packed with construction equipment and closed to the public. Nothing on the website or any or the signs. Not a happy camper. We ended up not being able to find a place to park so left without going inside.
We took the scenic river road up the Mississippi towards home. Some nice views but we got into some tight spots with the rig we were driving a couple of times. We got home just after dark on Friday. Saturday night and last night were both below zero so I'm sure missing those warm temps from down south already.
It was great meeting/re-meeting folks on the trip. Sorry the weather held the numbers down somewhat but we'll do it again. We're about due some great weather for next years ride. As usual, there was just not enough time to visit as much as I'd have liked to with everyone. Time just flys.