The 5, 40 and 80 MCCCT Ride

[2TrakR]

Ted & Mike (and crew) - The finish photo has to be one of the more awesome photos I've seen posted in a looong time.

Truly job well done!

I hope you'll take the time to put this together as a submission to Trail Rider (the one Ted was front cover story with before). This would certainly rate as cover material!

 

[70 marlin]

Mike, Ted & crew sounds like an epic ride. Wish I’d been there!

 

[meterman]

Great write up Mike! I wish I had the guts (or stamina) to attempt a ride like that. Congrats to the four of you, and kudos to Sheila and Connie!

I rode about 45 miles of Atlanta on Monday, riding way to much route to avoid the whooped out trail. I'm heading south from my house next time.

 

[KTM Mike]

2trakr
Yeah, I saw that sign, you cant miss it! I assumed it was from a fellow off roader. I need one of those at the end of my drive way! The magazine write up(s) is/are in process already.

CCCNurse - so are you sure that was us? You know there could of been some other group with 2 Pentons, a KDX and a recent model KTM... ;) So that was you! Had I known that I would of stopped for a second. Small world isnt it. Thanks for yanking the stuff out of our way - dont know if you heard it as I rode by, but I did shout out a "Thanks". For what it is worth, the trails were clearly in quite good shape and well maintained down there.

YZ - we disabled the texting on our account - didnt see the need, plus to expensive for this tightwad to send pics at $.25 a crack when you have about 75 of them between the two phones we had with us! We have a new micro SD card on order we will use - transfer to the card and then to the computer, plus greater storage capacity in the future.

Marlinberg, MJ - thanks. All it takes is setting your mind to it..and then DO IT! Well worth it, and I will do it again in the not so distant future - Mark has already mentioned he wants to be sure to do it again such he does not miss any of it like he did this time.

Meterman - next time you ride, give me a call. Going south from here is the way to go anymore - east side of Hunt Creek is fun, then turn around when the whoops get you on that side. I hope to get in a ride on Sunday. Tomorrow I am tackling that "on my own fork re-valve" and will need to test it out. Worst case, we could ride on my trail.

 

[KTM Mike]

Oh, not sure if you noticed it or not, but that is Ted's GPS he is using in post #21 above (first pic in the post). His GPS uses a slightly different spelling - it is spelled MAP.

 

[INCA]

Whoever it is that started this thread has done a fine job in a short time. I am thankful to no end all the way around to all who comment and even read what is here. This is the culmination of a two year long idea and I type this with a full and happy heart. It is also my full belief that had it not been for the entire Stephenson family, including Metzler and Samson, and my wife Connie, success would not be ours.

RJ - Had you called out STOP or HALT I'm sure I could have stalled once more as you were moving that log. No way would I have known who you were. I go for a peaceful ride in the woods and get caught at it.

Mike B - I'm glad you included Mark as a man, because he certainly is. Chronological can get lost in this case.

Jeramey - Getting that final picture was not exactly easy. Your opinion is appreciated, as is all the other things you do and have done for trail/dirt riders.

Pat - No sound to it. It was a good time.

Meterman - What it takes to do something like this ride is team work and co-operation. The other thing is you have to put one foot ahead of the other.


Mike S - I may have been using a MAP at that point, but there was a time when I didn't use it correctly. I would have been better off with the GLS that INCA carries on the front fender.

To my way of thinking I made three mistakes and many errors. The difference being a mistake is one over $.50, while an error is under $.50. May we all live life, rather than simply exist.

Young Ted

 

[Fred T]

I loved reading this story, Ted-holy cow-650 miles in a long weekend!!! :cool: Congrats to all of you for memories you will cherish for your lifetime.

 

[silver]

Sounds like you all had a great ride .Great write up. :ride:

 

[KTM Mike]

Ok - finally a couple of pictures:

Here is Ted putting the reliable, no batteries required MAP to use:

And here we are at the start of Day 4. Still smiles on the faces after 400 miles in to this point. I was just happy to be able to start this day on the Penton!

Here is Ted working on replacing the clutch cable which broke on Day 4:

And a nice shot of "Davie". The old boy does rather well in the trails!

Here is the start of Day 5. Day 4 was a really tiring day, particularly more so for me on the Penton than when I had been on my EXC the days before. (note - Ted never uttered a single word of complaint the entire ride! Man of Steel indeed!) In spite of this, while feeling somewhat sore and tired (worst was the monkey butt from that brutal seat on the Penton!), I think we were all still feeling pretty good.

I have more pics to post later on - still need to get the ones off our phones - maybe by Monday or Tuesday.

 

[Z-8]

This is very cool Mike! :cool:
This is on my "to do" list.

 

[MuddyBuddy]

Mike, finally finished reading your report, great stuff!! Young Ted is my hero and I will think of him when I feel like complaining or whining about something out on the trail!

I also printed off and read yzman400’s 2006 Safari report and he talked about part of the trail near Tower being in bad shape (overgrown). Was this area cleared out better when your group went through it?

Even though we’re not doing the whole trail, I’m still very excited about doing our trip in September.

Stacey - aka NUN

 

[KTM Mike]

Stacey - join the long list of those of us thinking of Ted as a hero!

Are you referring to the stuff south of Tower? If so, it is very short - but no, it really was not brushed well - still no problem. One muddy area in there to pick your way through - but Muddy Buddy should be able to handle that! If you instead meant the stuff before Tower - we accidently took the route along the mud holes - but I think we were supposed to head north to by pass the mud area. the part we rode there was wide two track, with plenty of big mud holes, (would be a fun trail to take our Jeep on actually) but entirely passable by riding the edges as needed.

Hey 2trakr - I noticed your maps you posted no longer correspond to your comments? Did you re-arrange the page you had linked those posts to - or was i dreaming when they all seemed to tie into your comments directly?

 

[MuddyBuddy]

I think the area I'm talking about is south of Tower - this is from yzman's Safari report:

"South to Tower, I hoped we could get some gas here. We weren’t that low on gas but you never know how far its going to be to gas so it’s a good idea to top off when you can. The only station had nothing but 87 octane so we passed and pushed on south. Well we went south after finding the correct road (My GPS didn’t tell me were to turn here for some reason) We headed south on the roads then the trail took a jog to the west and then south on a 2-track. This section did not look very promising. It was really wet and overgrown. It looked like fun, but not on an overloaded bike. A quick meeting determined that we did not want to try this section. So we backtracked and picked up the trail down the road a little bit after this section on Tucker road."

 

[2TrakR]

Hey 2trakr - I noticed your maps you posted no longer correspond to your comments? Did you re-arrange the page you had linked those posts to - or was i dreaming when they all seemed to tie into your comments directly?

Updated the map pages (had to had a couple new trail systems) and completely forgot that it would break these posts. I've updated them to reflect the correct ones now (again).

 

[YZMAN400]

I think the area I'm talking about is south of Tower - this is from yzman's Safari report:

"South to Tower, I hoped we could get some gas here. We weren’t that low on gas but you never know how far its going to be to gas so it’s a good idea to top off when you can. The only station had nothing but 87 octane so we passed and pushed on south. Well we went south after finding the correct road (My GPS didn’t tell me were to turn here for some reason) We headed south on the roads then the trail took a jog to the west and then south on a 2-track. This section did not look very promising. It was really wet and overgrown. It looked like fun, but not on an overloaded bike. A quick meeting determined that we did not want to try this section. So we backtracked and picked up the trail down the road a little bit after this section on Tucker road."

If memory serves me that section of 2-track has been bypassed permanently. I think it was actually bypassed when we rode it but we missed it or maybe I was working off old GPS data or something. Either way you shouldn't have any troubles when you ride it.

 

[fatcat216]

:cool:

awesome. thanks all.

 

[KTM Mike]

I had someone ask me about riding the MCCCT recently - thought I would bump this post up so they can find it easier. I skimmed back through this little tale - we all had such a great time. Almost 1 year ago now. The next MCCCT ride is already under discussion.