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An Epic Adventure Of Kiwibird Proportion - A Woodsy Trail Report!
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[QUOTE="woodsy, post: 938207, member: 27856"] In my relatively short lifetime I have developed a few personal “rules” that I live/ride by. One of these simple rules is to always take a couple extra minutes to say “howdy” to the fellow(s) on the scoot next to you – you never know who is under that other helmet!! Not to long ago I made application of that very rule and discovered that the person under the other helmet was actually a neighbor/friend of mine out enjoying an afternoon on his quad.. After laughing about some old times together Bruce (the guy under the helmet) disclosed to me that he had given my name to a “new person” in the area as a prospect for employment as a truck driver. It seems that this individual that Bruce had just met was looking for a professional driver to drive out to LA to haul some personal items back to Michigan for him.. I ended up with the job J After completing the first haul for Stephen I was offered a second run – one involving flying back out to LA and driving home an empty 1971 Ford Straight Axle that, although it had been prepared for the trip, ended up being a HUGE challenge/adventure in and of itself – those of you that know me KNOW that I am always looking for adventure!! I asked the person I was driving for about just paying me for the flight ticket and applying the money toward a “bike trip” out to LA – the intent being to load my scoot up in the truck after riding it out and driving the truck home with it in it. Stephen liked that idea (said “you are very creative aren’t you?”) and said go for it!! I tried to get several people to go along but couldn’t convince anyone of the sanity of such a thing (riding a TTR225 across America for 3 or 4 thousand miles doesn’t appeal to everyone I guess). Mentioning the “trip” on DRN did result in something else though.. A person out in the Los Angeles area – screen named “KIWIBIRD” - responded to my post with an offer for “lunch” or even possibly a ride while I was out there. Of course I grabbed right on to the opportunity to meet a fellow dirtbiker out in California – a person can NEVER have to many buddies you know!! A pre-trip introductory phone conversation with KIWI went something like this: KIWI answering phone: Gooday mate Me: Hi its Woodsy – how you doing? Kiwi: alls well – have you got boots? Me: Yea, I got boots but I was gonna just leave them home (I was thinking that because of all the nonsense that I had heard about Californian’s not having any place left to actually DIRT RIDE that KIWI’s offer was going to be a “dual sport” thingy around LA or something) Kiwi: well, I have an extra set of 10’s you can squeeze into (glad I didn’t take you up on that offer KIWI!! Can you imagine going thru what we went thru with the wrong size boots on?) Me: you don’t have to do that KIWI – I will just wear my tennis shoes. Kiwi: Nahh Mate, you don’t wanna do that! Kiwi: have you got a Camelback? Me: I haven’t found need of one – I usually just carry a bottle of water with me (having long ago worn out my “mustard” water bottle). Kiwi: that’s ok too, I have an extra one you can use. Me (after getting the picture that this guy may very well be talking about more then a 15 minute dual sport ride): I know, I will just throw my gear bag on the plane! I really appreciate you doing this KIWI – even if I just ride an XR100 for a bit I would be thrilled! Kiwi: I am putting you on my Gas Gas 300 mate. Me (very excited cause I have ALWAYS wanted to ride a Gas Gas): Sounds like fun! Kiwi: See you soon mate!! As far as riding the bike out alone my wife and common sense won out and I waved goodbye as I climbed on the jet, gear bagged checked and away I went! A friend named Tony picked me up at Burbank airport. I had met Tony on my last trip to LA and we had really hit it off. Back when he was 14 Tony had migrated to our country, worked VERY hard and was now a VERY successful businessman! He has a gorgeous home that he pretty much has built with his own two hands. He lives with his precious family in the LA area and runs a Custom Woodworking Business. Tony asked if I was hungry as I climbed into his truck after a 14 hour day of flying. I responded to his question with “only if we can go to a TRULY Mexican food place! My good friend treated me to a FANTASTIC Mexican dinner complete with REAL Mexican’s playing REAL Mexican music and these same Mexican’s wearing REAL Mexican musician clothing and hats! It was UNFORGETTABLE!! The next day, just before I headed down to KIWI’s house, Tony presented me with a very cool Mexican “rope” belt that just happened to fit me PERFECTLY!! I will ALWAYS treasure the gift and never forget how special my friend Tony is!! Driving a 1971 Studio Truck through LA turned out to be pretty exciting. I ground a few gears, tried to remember if I had reattatched the lever that held down the tilt cab after I checked the oil just before I left Tony’s ands pulled into the store parking lot where KIWI said he would meet me. After talking to the store owner about leaving the truck parked in his lot for few hours KIWI picked me up and took me to his “pad”. A virtual paridise for the single man!! This guy lives not to far from Thousand Oaks (according to my internal compass) and WOW what a place!! Shortly after I pulled in MrLucky (DRN screen name) came in. We chatted about tomorrows ride. I slowly put it together that these guys had MUCH more then a flip around the LA area planned for ol Woodsy. By examining KIWI’s machines and the seriousness of his really cool work shop I surmised that I was in wayyyyyyy deep!! Of course I remembered the many, many times that I had created havoc with unsuspecting riders back in Michigan and figured that anything that Kiwi did to me the next day I probably somehow deserved so I just acted normal, got all geeky and DRUELED over the Gas Gas that Kiwi was crazy enough to let me get my little bike craving hands on J)) We unloaded Eds bike from his truck in preparation for loading it into Kiwi’s truck. About then is when Jonathen shows up – he is a professional drummer and had some exotic musical instrument (something from somewhere that you cant get to from Michigan). He proceeded to pound out some REALLY cool tunes.. One bottle led to another and before long we had forgotten all about cleaning air filters and decided to check out Jon’s new Porshe instead.. MAN WHAT A CAR!!!! I think I should have stuck with my drumming lessons when I was a kid!!! Along around 6ish it dawned on me that the “Mojave” that Kiwi had been talking about riding the next day was “on the other side of the mountains” from LA. I explained to the guys that it might not be a bad idea for me to meet them in Mojave the next morning and to drive out there tonight.. I mean, could you imagine trying to drive thru the A.M. L.A. traffic in a 1971 Studio Truck with a top speed of 50 mph?? The fellas agreed and gave me some directions and away I went.. Let me see if I can remember some of those directions.. Get to I-5 and go thru a tunnel – OPPSSSS, I missed that and had to take a detour – never did find the tunnel but did finally get onto 14 going toward Mojave. Watch for the “Aqua Duct” while driving thru – didn’t see no duct but I did see a HUGE river with a cement bottom – fasinating! Keep and eye out for Avenue S which stands for “sysmic activity” cause that’s where the “fault” runs thru – WOOOOO baby – talk about whoop teeee dooooosss!!! I drove around that little valley for a while just checking out the landscape! We got nothing like this in Michigan for sure!! Past Windmill city – couldn’t miss those if I wanted too! Yep, there is the Edwards airbase where they land the space shuttle and here comes the little town of Mojave with a little mountain range wayyyyyy off in the distance.. Quaint little town with a touch of the ol west still in its blood! My kinda place! I drove to the end of town and found the restaurant we were suppose to meet after the next moon setting (I have been in the west long enough that my Indian heritage is starting to take over). I rounded the corner near the restaurant and noticed a fine little Motel 6 directly across the street from the eatery.. I pulled into the “6” – got a room, chatted with a fellow trucker for a while.. Guys name was “Halverson” and come to find out he rode the Baja and the FAMOUS Vegas to Barstow back it the old days.. He was telling me stories about Malcomb and the gang – not sure whether they were real or not but hey, I told him about riding with Steve Mcqueen so we’re even – I LOVE bench racing!! Anyway, I meandered (that’s what REAL Indians do) over to “Primos” (the restaurant) to see if they were as good as KIWI had stated they were. Yeppers, seems like KIWI not only knows his way around bikes but also knows where the good food is – anyone getting into Mojave needs to give these folks a shot – man I was STUFFED!!! Hit the sack making a mental note to call KIWI at 7 am. Woke up 4 or 5 times during the night totally geeked about what was about to happen!! The sky finally got bright and I called KIWI. He said something on the phone that sounded like this “Hello”. I said, “lets ride”. He said something like “its 6 here mate”. I said, “oh, sorry about that, lets ride anyway”. He said “OK, see ya soon”. I chuckled not realizing that waking up a New Zeelander before your suppose to could be setting yourself up for a vengefully hair raising adventure during the next 24 hours!! KIWI and Ed met me right on time, loaded my gear and we had a SUPER breakfast at Primos. Headed attaway (Indian talk for “man I hope someone knows where we are going”). After we passed the GENUINE Honda Testing Grounds the Mountians in the distance starting getting closer and closer – and bigger and BIGGER!! Pretty soon I realized that my old worn out Michigan backside was FINALLY going to get to actually do some REAL mountain motorcycle riding and that this was NOT a DREAM!! We pulled into the ranger station at Jawbone (gotta LOVE that name folks), picked up a OHV sticker (yep guys – they got them out there too) and headed out.. We passed several “fishing holes” that looked pretty good to me but KIWI had other accommodations in mind. Seems that this Bird knows his way around these parts and wants to cut out a bunch of “simple stuff” that would only get in the way of the more serious minded dirtrider. We ended up somewhere in the Piute Mountains somewhere between Mojave and Oregon, unloaded the bikes, took a couple of quick pics, got dressed and started to start the bikes.. Then I decided that adding gas to the bikes probably wouldn’t be a bad idea – come on Woodsy – get over the GEEKS will ya!! Take at look at the first pic and tell me you cant see TRUE total GEEKNESS in those eyes!!! :laugh: Heading up into the mountains felt a lot like heading onto the trail here in Michigan – some pretty good sized whoops, some small up hills and then some more whoops and then a few boulders here and there and then some erosion that I tried to climb out of and then a front end washing out because the sides of the erosion are not Michigan sand but more like Asphalt with Silicon Sand lightly sprinkled on top to make a VERY slippery surface.. I remember looking up and seeing this clittery stuff all over in the air and thinking to myself – “we’re not in Michiagn anymore Doe-Doe”. About 3 miles ahead and we were going up this HUGE uphill (they doent have uphills – they have mountains so when I say huge uphill its really a small mountain). I rev up the Gas Gas and learn that even a 300 Gas Gas will hookup and toss you side ways if you give it a chance.. Now it didn’t bite like my KX500 would and crush me on its way down but it did set me sideways enough that I was taught a lesson in RESPECT for the Gas Gas that I needed to learn.. After about an hour of ripping around in fairly easy terrain I began to lose the arm pump and started getting comfortable on this really cool bike.. I started getting beyond the geekness of being dirtriding in a foreign land with foreigners (eay mate) and started focusing on the ride.. I found the Gaser to be VERY user friendly, an EXCELLENT lenier powerband and very nimble – not to distant to a KDX that I had spent MANY hours on in years past. The motor had an EXTREMELY solid pull right off the bottom and just kept on pulling right to the top! NO “normal” 2 stroke “hit” that you had to stay on the edge off to be ready to wheelie over an obstacle – just twist and lift a little in the higher gears and it would grunt its way up and over! WAYYYYYY COOOOOLLL scoot there KIWI – a true PLEASURE to ride!! We cruised around riding the (cough cough) “easy stuff” for a couple hours. Some AWESOME up and down mountain sweepers and down right sinister boulder climbing. KIWI took us to a really cool old cabin up in the mountains. We got snooping around a little and you will NEVER guess what I found outside of the cabin.. Go ahead – take your best shot and then check out the attached pic and see if you can figure out why the heck anybody would want those things in up in the mountains which are located out in the Desert… [/QUOTE]
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An Epic Adventure Of Kiwibird Proportion - A Woodsy Trail Report!
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