Rocky Mountain ATV Jamboree 2009

Day 1 Monday

Monday morning, after trailering from Richfield to the other side of Salina we unloaded and got ready for our trip on the North side of I-70 and the Gooseberry trail. Previous attempts on these trails have ended up in deep mud and being unable to finish. hopefully this time will be better.

After about 5 miles we had to stop, one of the riders in our group caught a rut and rolled his quad (he is sore and we think he bruised a couple of ribs). But as we were waiting the clouds started to roll in, just like usual. Well we finally got back underway and as we rode it started to rain, not to bad at first and it kept the dust down. Soon we got to the clay, it was wet and it sticks to everything. For most of the riders they are on utility quads, which means that the have full floor boards and the tires are under the fenders, so the mud will stay off the rider. Paul and I were on sport bikes and they are less desirable in the mud, but man are they good at slingin' it!

This is about a third of the way into our ride and we have already knocked off some of the mud. Those tires do have tread on them but you can't see it anywhere, Paul is in the back left of the picture scraping off some mud.

Well after some more riding, the sun came out and it got a little warmer and drier, note the tread on the tires, John is on the quad behind Paul, note that he is not that muddy, Paul is being asked what were you thinking taking this bike into the mud, are you crazy?
Check it out, the bikes are loaded on the trailer, and we have finished the Gooseberry ride! We had dust, rain, mud, clay, sun, and finished up with another serving of dust. John, (on the right) is clean by virtue of his bike, I, (center) am clean because of the waterproof pants and jacket, and Paul (left) is clean because John let him use a jacket but his pants are dirty.

Stay tuned for further installments.... mikieg