26-Dec-14 Diamond Mill Ride

[liv2day]

Ahh, nothing like getting out twice in one week - the holidays really are the best time of year...lol. After knocking out 50 or so miles a few days prior, the stated objective for the day-after-Xmas ride was to take it easy as we had a relative new rider (this being his 4th dirt ride ever), a returning trail rider coming back on a classic XR600 (woof) as well as a couple of guys that don't ride TSF all that often. Plan was to hit some of the easier trails out of Diamond Mill and do a loop around 35-40 miles.

Arrived at staging just before 9:00 and assembled our motley crew: mostly team orange with my GG and the 'ole Honda thrown in the mix.







Headed up Mike's trail and took that over to Jones Creek for a warm-up. From there, it was down Cedar Creek and then up Deerfence - these definitely ensured all arm pump was taken care of...lol.



Took a wrong turn at some point and found ourselves at where we usually exit Stumpy, just went with it and headed down Stumpy and over to Elk Wallow. I can tell you the guy on the XR600 was getting his workout in, he rode that thing like a pro and I had a great time chasing him down Stumpy. The rock ravine of Elk Wallow gave him some grief, but nothing too bad.

From there, it was over to Truck Dent and then one of the newer sections of Summit (I think); had fun bombing through those and made our way over to Diamond Mill Ridge. Most of this was deja vu from a few days earlier...lol. Ripping DM Ridge never really gets old though, and it was awesome to chase different folks along the way.

Stopped for a break and discovered our XR600 rider had hit something hard on the front and had a flat. It's a good thing my buddy packed a spare tube and was planning to pay it forward from when we had a front flat earlier in the week, so we commenced tube changing on the logging road in the snow.





As we're all throwing suggestions on how to best change the tube (lol), a group of riders pulls up after finishing DM Ridge. Cool to see a Dad out with his boys and one of his buds - can't wait to be doing the same thing with my boys in a few years. They wish us well and keep going as tube changing continues. Another 10 minutes pass and a big group of riders comes surging out of DM Ridge...seems a popular destination today...lol. It's Tom and his group of guys, so we BS for a few and then they head on their way too.



Back to watching the tube change and enjoying some gourmet snacks...nothing like some smoked salmon and a little blue cheese on the trail...lol.

[liv2day]

Once the bike was finally back together, we headed up to Triangulation Pt to check out the view and snow, then bombed back down to hit Cramlett's and then over to Frankie.







Rather than just head down to Outback, we went over to Wolf Point and I had my first off of the day...right over the side of the trail and straight down...lol. At least it was a soft landing and I could grab some ferns to get me back up to my bike - rear wheel hit a big rock just as I was planning to get my arse down for traction and it pogo-sticked me right off the bike. Gave the guys behind me a good laugh.



Our trooper on the XR600 had finally hit empty on the energy meter, so he and a couple of the other guys decided to bomb back to staging. Not wanting the day to be quite over yet, we continued on to Outback and Special Test, then a bit of Bungee Road and the slog back to Mike's (should have taken Cedar Creek back up, but skipped it).

All in all, logged 40 or so miles and had another great day out in the woods. Hopefully, the white stuff isn't too deep up in the hills and we'll be able to get back out before spring time.



As usual, lots of video from the fun.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n03CY52050I

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lT0DAVRGds

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7BWnB8faEA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E10_wAxVi0A

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p09Yy94fAyk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bElCWR72D4I

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t69mvfIDzBc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUcYqog0KHI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LFvipus9OQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQeNcG-B5eM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIZ_yo0UiTA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kor5zqRKR2s