Sunday Ride With Friends

I don't usually ride on weekends, but the weatherman promised a nice day yesterday, and it was the first in quite awhile, so Ross and Orv and I went for a little 180 mile or so road ride.  Still lots of snow in the mountains, so we had to pick a low elevation route, and Orv led us on one of our favorite winter loops north of Woodland.  This route runs through farm and timberland in a little known area of Washington with small towns with names like Castle Rock, Vader, Boistfort, Winlock, Pe Ell, and Toledo.  Unlike the big cities everywhere, these small towns don't seem to change at all, at least in the time I have lived here. 

Here's a pic of Ross and Orv as we were taking a lunch break in Toledo:

Ross (left) and Orv

Both these guys ride Triumphs, but not the old kind like I have in my living room

I started riding with Ross on dirt bikes shortly after I moved to Washington in 1995, when I joined the Jones Creek Trailriders Association motorcycle club.  The JCTRA "adopted" a local riding area and did a lot of trail maintenance for the ORV trails that were on state land.  In our Western Washington semi rain-forest, trail maintenance is intensive.  During the summer months, stuff grows so fast that it constantly has to be trimmed back from the trail to provide clear line of sight and prevent "face slappers".  Then during the winter water damage and tree blow-down has to be dealt with.  I had come from a desert riding background, where we NEVER did trail maintenance.  Ross retired about the same time I moved up here and we started riding and working on trails during the week.  Carolyn was still working every other week down in California, so it was not unusual for Ross and I to ride one day of the week and work another day.  We started expanding on the trail maintenance theme and began to search for old logging skid roads that we could convert to trails to connect with existing trails and expand the system.  It was the golden era of my dirt bike riding.  We got to where we could ride 60 miles on prime trail without running over the same section in the same direction.  Between the riding and the working, it was also great exercise. 

 Then it all started to go downhill, mostly due to intensive logging of the forest.  The trees were mature and ready for harvest, so one by one our trails were obliterated or converted into modern 50 ft wide rock logging roads.  It got to the point a couple of years ago where we could hardly get 25 miles of riding in, and that would take some laps around the same loop plus some fire roads to get from one tail to another.  But nothing stays the same, and I was getting ready to move on to dual-sport riding and exploring larger areas.    

I remember the first time Orv rode with Ross and I.  Orv had strayed from riding dirt bikes and had got into snowmobiles for awhile, but was wanting to get back into dirt bikes.  He bought a bike just like I had and Ross brought him out to ride with us one day.  After unloading the bikes, the first trail we got on was my favorite trail.  It was an old logging railroad grade that was fairly steep uphill, but with sweeping curves and a fairly wide tread, plus some water bars to jump.......perfect stuff for this old desert rider.  I knew every inch of that trail and the best line to pick at any moment.  I took off in the lead with Orv right behind me........and he stayed right behind me.  It didn't take too many times of him riding with us before I realized I had probably been holding him up.  Then I learned he had been the Oregon state enduro champion, not once, but twice, and that explained it.  Orv could ride. 

Orv also retired and started working on trails and riding with Ross and I.  The rest of the JCTRA members started calling us the ORG's, for Old Retired Guys, and we were presented the following plaque for our service: