Captain’s Blog

Today BJ found room for me on his trailer, and we drove up to Barrie to visit his old friend Curtis…and to meet a new friend from the ODSC site, named Ross. The idea was to roam the trails around Barrie then stop for a BBQ lunch at Curtis’s house. Ross lead most of the day and didn’t disappoint!

Here we are loading up…

And here’s the gang unloading: Ross is on the left with his Honda CRF 250X, BJ is on the right in the white top, and Curtis is in the black, with a very nice Suzuki DRZ400SM (with the stock street tires still on it)!

Better look at Curtis’s bike…

Better look at Ross’s bike…

Everyone was blue-plate, meaning we were street legal, so we could drive from Curtis’s house to the trails:

Amazingly Curtis rode very well on his street tires, even through mud puddles and sand… with one minor get-off:

Our first rest stop was atop a cliff overlooking a river:

The next was after some tighter trails, when we decided what the plans were for lunch…

…and it just so happened when we stopped at the intersection we had people walking their dogs coming from 2 different directions… and soon we were overrun! Release the hounds!

After a few more trails Curtis took off to warm up the grill, and we stopped to get our bearings:

The last pictures I took were at a tiny oval track under some power lines, where BJ got bit by a soft sandy corner..

…and where we stopped to film Ross taking a “leisurely” ride down the trail:

Actually… lets take a better look at that one. Ye-haw!

And, finally, we get to the title of this post. After a day of staying upright, not falling over once… at the last intersection before Curtis’s house I ran into Ross, yikes! Totally my fault! As we were approaching the intersection we had to switch lanes to the left to go through, and just as we were coming up on it the light turned yellow. Seeing that BJ went through… I did a shoulder-check to my left to lane change, and when I looked forward again Ross had decided to stop for the light… I could see him hard on the brakes and the back locked up. I managed to grab a handful of brakes as well, and started to turn to the left of him… but was still moving too fast and not far enough over…. the right side of my bike hit his left rear and pushed him a few feet forward… then I fell over. I picked up my bike (and my pride), sat with Ross through the red light… made sure he was OK… and after the light turned green 30 seconds later we were back in Curtis’s driveway.

Here’s his plate and mount at the beginning of the ride…

…and here it is again after I plowed into him.

Looking back on it… I should have tried to stop for that yellow, instead of trying to switch lanes to keep up with everyone. BJ would have waited for us, and I would have kept my eyes forward… with plenty of time to see Ross slowing down… time to stop safely… and I wouldn’t be sitting here feeling like shit. Ross, if you’re reading this… I’m really sorry I hit you. I can’t apologize enough.

By the time we got back, Curtis had started his massive grill and had burgers and pop for everyone. Then it was time to load up and head home. Thanks Curtis for your tasty meat and hospitality! (um, that came out wrong).

Here’s a video of the ride:

It has been awhile since the last two TrailTours outings, so we booked another for 2009 -- which I just got back from! With me were Robert, Mark, Lea, Deirdre and Andrey… all people I either work with… or know through friends at work.

Andrey and I got an early start, and arrived at the meeting place about 30 minutes early. But it wasn’t long until other people started showing up. At 8:45 a guy on a dirtbike came to the parking lot, and lead us to the small grass field TrailTours uses to park cars for the day… then we all walked a short trail to the main compound. First order of the day: sign the waivers saying we take full responsibility if things go horribly, horribly wrong

Next, line up and get your safety gear…

…then go get changed. Here Mark’s sporting the latest in neon-green outerwear:

…and getting renamed:

And here’s Andrey and Robert (when Robert still had his ‘cute’ nametag )

Andrey ready to go…

And Robert feeling more manly…

Deirdre and Lea waiting for gear: in-progress:

…and then ready to go!

Andrey, Mark, and Robert looking like Power Rangers:

Next was the pre-ride safety meeting:

Then we got split into groups and went our separate ways. Mark and I got about 30min of “refresher” training in the big field, then hit the trails. The others got walked through how to ride a dirtbike, right from the basics on up! (I may have caught some of our people on helmetcam footage: I’ll have to check). Mark and I had 2 instructors (Rick on the left, and Jonathan in the middle, below) who took us to a small sand track section for some practice… then to the lookout:

Then, with a bit less energy than we started out with… back to the compound and get out of the gear…

Mark

Andrey

Robert

…for lunch!

Deirdre

Lea

…the whole gang…

They said a large group of people hadn’t showed up (more food for us!): but we still had a lot of riders! Here’s the bikes parked at lunch:

After lunch we headed out in separate groups again, with slightly ‘different’ experiences than in the morning. When we were at the lookout in the morning I told Mark he was doing great, that he didn’t fall off once! Apparently I jinxed him, and he fell off a couple times in the afternoon, but always got right back up again! And Andrey managed to wheelie his bike off into the bush… doing some damage to it… but he was fine. Nobody got that particular episode on camera… but we still crowned him “CrashMaster” of the day! Here’s some screencaps of Mark from the helmetcam:

…and Lea just for fun!

I was with Mark again, and after a bit more riding we stopped at the top of a small hill for a break…before pushing on…

…and while resting this guy rode by on a a dirtbike older than I am!

Then off to “The Falls” (a small natural spring) in the afternoon… where we crossed paths with some of the others:

Me, Deirdre, Lea and Mark

…and here’s one final shot of the team after we got back, had changed, and were headed for the cars:

Deirdre, Mark, Lean, Robert and Andrey

I had a great time, and everyone seemed to enjoy their day! No injuries other than a bit of fatigue… and likely some sore muscles tomorrow . The TrailTours staff was fantastic, catering to our needs, and the guides were happy to help anywhere they could!

Finally, here’s a bit of video so you can see the types of trails we rode… and I managed to catch all of Marks ‘incidents’ on tape (and Lea once too!).. while watching this please remember:

a) I was following Mark the whole time… nobody was recording my ‘navigational hiccups’
b) I had to chop nearly 3 hours of footage down to a 10 minute clip to fit on YouTube… so I had to include the interesting stuff