Your name is Mud.

So Doc Wong has this little ride down at Clear Creek. I've never been to Clear Creek before and decide to check it out. The trip down, early in the morning, was pretty nice. Even the cows were happy.





Riders collect at one of the parking lots.



Doc talks about the plan for the day. Jean-Luc seems unimpressed.



Ricky, sporting a new "monk" hairdo, fiddles with his camera.



First exercise: a baby hill climb. Ricky goes up and then comes down.





We tire of these little games and are eager to attack the trails. Doc takes the "little" bikes off to some reportedly "hard" trails. Ha. With large displacement vehicles, we stay in the main trails which turn out to be quite challenging. For instance....



We notice a little mud in the trail. Rad oozes past another rider (whose name I've unfortunately forgotten) on an airhead. That airhead is wearing Tourances--not exactly the mud tire of choice.

Rad and Jean-Luc confer while waiting for the rest of the group.



Ricky rides sweep.



And what do you know, we find more mud. This time, a couple of other riders get mauled by the mud monster. Some of our group goes by, but I'm stuck in the right-hand track and have to wait.



Shortly after this part, the guy on the airhead decided to turn back. The Tourances just weren't up to the task. That decision probably made him the smartest guy on the ride.

We come up to a "playground" area with lots of little hills. Here, Rad goes right though the spot where I crashed a minute before.





In the distance, we see a fallen rider and some folks on scene to help out. The woman on the left did a *major* face plant and ended up bending her handle bars with her chin. She had a 1.5" gash underneath her chin but still had the wherewithall to ride out. What a trooper!





I mentioned the mud, right?



Boot sucking, bike swallowing, slimy nasty mud.





Rad contemplates his fate.



And offers to sell his bike for $1.00



No takers.



Hey Rad! How about $0.50?





We did make it out of the mud hole from hell though. Lunch was a welcome break from hauling bikes through knee deep slop. Here Ricky gets chastised for having dirt on his boots.



We didn't ride much more after lunch since we were all pretty tired by that point and had a trip home. The mud was certainly memorable though.

hot damn that's some good mud whompin'! it's a long ways to go just for the day you bad asses!

Great write up Turkish

Thanks for go'n today and thanks for drag'n me outta da mud.

Important point, the bike is no longer for sale for a $1.00. But it was then

Lesson learned; the next time J-L pics a line, I will take his and not do my own.

I was very impressed with how you rode that 950 today...Well done

Not because this is my picture but i really like the composicion and the movement,,


I'm trying to load my photos for the last 3 hours but smugmug is not really working today with my computer

Actually Jean-luc is a absolutre monster,,in the best posible way

He climp this thing TWO Times,to the top,not even on my best dreams I will even attemp a trick like this on a bike so big.


Here are some more just for reference


this thing is STEEP that is for sure


how about the view of the "Wall" so you can see they magnitude

mud is fun, though im not to shure about going through it on 2wheels...
Awsome pics!

Finally is working,kind off

Line? Line?

Where the hell, in that mess, is there a good line?
What's the other option - try to skate on the edge of the hill?
:huh

Awesome... absolutley awesome. I think I'm sorry I missed it. I may have to think about it some more though. :huh

Great report! You guys rock (and are just a little looney )

Jean Luc t'es un gros encule'.

What's there to think about? If you go to one of those fancy places up in Marin, you pay big bucks to get slathered in mud. Hangin' with your advrider buds at Clear Creek is way more fun and the mud is free.

Awesome report Turkish and great pictures too! Your new little toy is great.

Congrats to you too Ricky, your pics of the hill are really impressive: it's always difficult to give an idea on a picture on how steep it is.

It's funny Fish, but while we were in the middle of the mud we spoke about you, mentionning how you would not like to see your bike (or you) in such condition :eek1

I will have my pictures ready to add to this thread in a couple of hours...

Hey turkish ... if you're gonna make these kind of rideouts your standard...

I HAVE THE THEME SONG 4 U.... "My name is mud" by primus....

NIce picts... !!!

first the typical pretty picture


the master at work,is a shame I'm a lamme fotografer and my feet were sliding downwards on the step hill,so i was unable to take more photos,this one is almost at the very top the "Flat part"


The view from the "CLiff"


A view from the far


I walk downwards to get a better view,the lower part was super step,this was the "Flat" section


when you don't even use the side stand you know you reach "dirt nirvana"



the famous RAD edisode,,man that bike when down faster than the titanic


Let me tell you I'm glad the boots are water proof


three is company


more to come

how about the view of the "Wall" so you can see they magnitude


This looks Burl. Is there a GS'r that can do it if Ricky can't??? oser

I don't know why people keep thinking i'm good at the Dirt trap,on the contrary i'm pretty lamme I just a Clueless but very entusiastic crazy F^^K not much more,one think i can tell you is that even on the ktm's(950 or 640) I will not even dream of trying this,,believe me the guys were jumping the wopds(you can see the ripples on the picture) to get to the top,,this was not "flat road to heaven" that is for sure

Clear Creek is a great place but almost 3 hours away from the city which means early wake-up to be there at 9 AM. What the heck, it was supposed to be a gorgeous day and I was looking forward to discover new trails with Doc Wong (see Dirt Clinic thread). I arrived a bit late because I tried to babysit my brand new rear Michelin Desert but thankfully they were still at the meeting point. Bad news though, Doc is saying that they will go in stuff much too technical for a 950 (the average bike of their group was a 250). Well, we went on a 2nd group quite big and on the main trails. I was not too happy about it and the pace was super slow but for one reason or another people had to leave the group and we ended up the 4 ADVriders plus a cool dude, Marc on his XT 225. Then the real fun began .

I must say that I was really happy to play a bit in the mud since it's not something that we see a lot in California. Plus, i had the perfect tire for it and it was really fun with the 950 .

I'm not going to post too many pics since they're quite redundant with Turk and Ricky's ones and you can still see then there if you want.

First Turkish, still clean at that point. This guy was already kicking ass on pavement and in the last months he made huge improvements on the dirt too. I was really impressed



Ricky is always great for pictures: he loves spinning the rear wheel





He made it!



Some more spinning with Turkish...



The Desert was just perfect on a day like this one but even a knobby can get clogged fast in the mud:


In this other muddy spot the "good" line was a rut on the left of the screen. However it was so deep and narrow that the Golem would have stand on its cylinders :eek1. Ricky is trying to move from the rut to the center but it took 3 of us to move the "monster".





Dirty Rad



I like that one because it captures well the mood of the team . Rad, tired to push those pigs out of the mud; everyone trying to find a different / better line and mud, mud, mud...



Well, it looks like the "edge of the hill" was not the best option