First Ride of 2012

New Year's day turned out to be dry and sunny and not very cold.  There were a lot of years where New Year's day was spent as a track worker at my old clubs Hangover Scrambles; a traditional race for motorcycles and quads that the club has been putting on for over a decade.  Usually it is a cold, rainy, muddy mess, and occasionally a snowy disaster.  I quit working on this event several years ago and don't miss it a bit, but today I thought I would take the KLX out for a ride over the mountains to the Washugal Motocross track where the event was being held this year.  It is slightly over 50 miles each way to the track and the way I went was about 30 miles of forest road. 

The club uses part of the motocross track, which is the venue for a National Championship race at the end of July each year.  But they add miles to the course by making single track trails in the surrounding property.  This year, due to some dry east winds, the track conditions were about perfect.

Here is a picture of the whoop section of the track.  The national pros skip across the tops of these whoops at wide open throttle. 



The surprise of the day was seeing my old dirt bike that I sold after I bought the KLX.  The guy who bought it was getting it for his 16 year old son, who had raced earlier in the day.  They are happy as clams with the bike, which made me feel good.  Here are some pics of it;  I don't think I ever got it this dirty while I owned it. 

On the way back home I passed Dugan Falls, which in the summer is a big party/swim hangout for Washugal citizens, but today the falls were roaring from winter rain/snow runoff. 

So it was a bonus day and a good start for the new year.