Sewanee RR:This was the first picture I took yesterday.....thought it was funny, but maybe it was foreshdowing??
We met WP and JEV and McD.
JEV was there on his 950 and was going to ride to the ride! It was about 40 degrees. I thought either that dude is crazy.....or he is crazyThese dudes passed us on the way down. A BMW 800 and a KLR. We never saw them again though:
We started with 5 miles of flat farmland but soon entered the twisties as we made our way up the mountain. It looked like a chilly start but it was warming up quickly. By mid day we would all be sweating:
Green's View overlook was cool. The air was crisp and clear.
As we left the overview we saw some cops over at a golf course. We went to our next location dirt road but there was a sign that said enter by permission only. SS and I talked about it and said.....if those cops saw us, they are probably going to be looking for us. Four dirt bikers in Sewanee at 10am on a Sunday morning can only mean trouble. SO we turned around.....GOOD CALL....it wasn't a minute till we met them head on. The old timer was a Constable (CDQ) and he was pretty cool. He told us about some state land where it was OK to go offraod. SO we said thanks and decided we would find that place later in the day.
We headed to the old Mountain Goat rail line. it was a super cool run down the mountain. Smooth and fast for the most part:
We hit the tunnel :
Ya'll saw the clips. There was a train passing when we pulled up. These dudes on four wheelers pulled up. After a little coaxing they loosened up and told us about the :tunnel to Sherwood" trail we were looking for. I had been on that trail 25?? years ago as a kid. They were cool, said we would have to cross thier uncle's property but they would be down there and to find them and they would help with the rest of the directions.
So we ran into cowan to get some gas
Cool old gas station
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SS's new nickname...."the crooked one"
We ran back up the tracks and started heading towards Sherwood on the old mountain road. Hoping to find those 4 wheeler dudes.
IHF DRZ on top of the tunnel. blow hole to right, train off in the distance...COOL
Helloooooooooo down there
Hey DeBandiiiii.....I got something for youuuuu
It was a cool ROCKY ride. We kept descending...rocks, big, small, round, shelfs, stuck, loose.....you name it.
JEV getting ready for the first 950 creek crossing. I was excited to see that big dude in action. I have never ridden with a 950 before and I was nervous about getting JEV and the bike too deep in trouble. But I'll hand it to the dude....he rode that stud all day and never blinked an eye. Even rode through crossings where us short dudes walked it.
By this time we were pretty deep in the woods. The tracks were never very far to our left, but we were getting deeper and deeper. Many creek crossings....each one worse than the one before
They kept on coming:
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SS trips me out....half the time he rolls up the the creek, take about 3 seconds to find his line....and GOES
It was funny. At every creek crossing there was never a good line. So everyone took what they thought was best. Which usually was 4 seperate lines
So we finally ran into our 4 wheeler friends. They were at a small cabin they had just built. A deer hunting cabin. They said someone had burned down thier other cabin bot far down the trail. We saw thier burned cabin. What a shame.
They gave us directions to Sherwood and we were off. Thanks dudes!!
SLick times ahead:
I was first to go across. I was about 90% of the way before I dropped it. I sure hope WP has video of the moovin and groovin I was doing try to stay on my feet. It didn't work.....I was the first to get wet
That was ok though....b/c my buddy was dropping his right behind me
This was a really cool crossing
COOL PICTURE:
There were rocks like this all over the place:
RF...we needed you there to tell us what kind of rocks they were and how they were formed.
This place could be a state park
IHF and SS had both gone down. I was wondering if we would be the only ones.......
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Heh heh heh ......sorry JEV....gotta do it
Hats off though....there is NO WAY I could ride that big dude like he did
We were a long ways in when the trail ended up doing this to us:
I guess time had forgotten that folks come riding through here. The trail was GONE! We sat around trying to talk ourselves into going forward but reasoning got the better of us. Although we didn't want to turn around b/c we had just come down a steep rutted hill with hardly no turn around at the bottom.
We thought we would just have to go all the way back to the tunnel but WP has printed some maps and they showed an old road a ways back. SO we decided to backtrack and try and find the road.
About 20 minutes later....BAM...WP had us back on track. Seems we had missed a turn but we were about home free. We took a few more REALLY rocky descents and finally ended up back on that tracks...whew!! Was I glad to be back on the ballast!
A few minutes later we hit pavement. We sat around and gleemed and how cool of a ride we had just done. What a beautiful cool day!
We headed back up to Sewanee and decided to celebrate with sandwhichs and a beer
We pigged out while talking all the cool stuff we had done/seen today.
On the way back down to the truck is when SS had his slider.
I was first and he was right behind me. We both hit a corner too hot. I guess I'm VERY lucky that my tires managed to stay connected. I never knew that he went down.....25 feet behind me!!When we got to the highway I waited for him for a while and knew I needed to go get the truck. I got back, got his voicemail and thought OH CRAP!
I finally came up on him about half way up the mountain. He was on the right shoulder laying down, head downhill. I was nervous....I said are you alright....SS said yea, I'm OK, but my ankle is toast....CRAP!!
WP was right behind me in his truck. When WP got there we loaded SS up. His bike was in a spot too steep to try and pull it up. So we broke a bunch of branches, rode it about 20 yards thru the woods and climbed back out. Loaded it up and got the hell out of there before a cop showed up.
SS I sure hope the breaks are clean and heal fast. Please let any of us know if you need some help with whatever. I really hate you had to end such a killer day that way. I will always remember the lesson I learned riding with you on that stretch. And save some pain pills for your "welcome back party" this spring. We can all get loaded up on pills and beers and have a stoppie contest on the R2L's 800
