I'm starting this thread so I have a place to post my various ride reports. Instead creating a new thread for every ride, I'll be documenting my summer riding adventures in one place. Not that anyone really cares. I've been meaning to post a ride I took Memorial day weekend, but then work happened. So here goes. Mission: Travel from home base to the Waterbury Dam, collect intel, have fun. Equipment: 2012 KTM 500 EXC Plan of attack: Find a route to the Waterbury Dam in Waterbury, VT from my house in Cabot, VT that maximizes offroad goodness. We got off to a late start heading over to Vermont. Because of this by the time I rolled into my house in Cabot it was dark. Soon after arriving I had the KTM unloaded and ready to go for the morning. I then performed a final map recon and got some sleep. The next day the weather was great. A quick breakfast, some coffee and then I'm off. Just outside of town I found one of the roads that was of some interest to me. It was a seldom used road that runs past Colt's pond and (if the map was right) a few other small ponds. It was going fine and then MUD. Anyone familiar with Vermont mud knows it can be rather perplexing. A perfectly innocent looking puddle may actually be a portal to the underworld. After unsticking myself (20 minutes of fun) I was on my way again. Only the road, unused beyond the mud hole, narrowed into an overgrown trail. Soon there after it dead ended into the back of some sketchy looking trailers (hmm, meth lab???). So u-turn me makes. After a quick gps consultation it is clear what needs to be done, I must bushwhack my way over to the parallel road. On the parallel road I find all types of Vermonty things. Outdoor kitchens, ponds, trails that lead nowhere, an airstream trailer on 5 acres of land in the middle of nowhere with a perfectly manicured lawn and a for sale sign. Gotta love Vermont. The southern redneck has got nothing on our brand of crunchy winter hardened outdoors folk. The next event worth mentioning is how I inadvertently found myself on some vast trails. I'm not sure if it was fully legal to be on them but they seemed to go in the direction I was heading. After some time on the trails I came to this really awesome downhill. Single track, rocks, tree limbs and water. I went rather slow until it let out onto a class 4 road. From there on out most of the ride was on class 4 roads. There were a few legal trails I found to cut through but there were also some that just dead ended into nothingness. The ride took longer then I thought, which was a good thing. I learned about some areas I had previously only seen on the map and saw some beautiful sights. When I arrived at the Dam the clouds were thick and low in the sky. They cast shadows on the mountains as they passed through the valley and the birds chased one another. Vermont= Mission complete. Now off to Prohibition Pig in Waterbury Center For some And Now how the heck do I get home? Ahh, who cares. Here is a video, if you care to watch. Video: Gopro Hero2 , Music: Written on my Iphone HD LINK <iframe width="853" height="480" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/YIts_mQrfqQ" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
A short video of the 2012 Mud Parade. <iframe width="853" height="480" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/9r0JjoDqqDA" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> HD link.
Now for your enjoyment, a collection of videos posted elsewhere and now consolidated to bore you into drinking (or your escape of choice). Much better if your intoxicated. Some of the music is written by me, video is with a GoPro Hero2. Met some inmates in the woods. Imagine that. <iframe width="640" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/lTW8eVA9xYw?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> HD link A little NY fun. <iframe width="640" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/Sem_bNSSzg0?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> HD link Power Line run. <iframe width="640" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/H93j-Lk4XKE?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> HD link Bailey Hazen in the spring. <iframe width="640" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/r1proTE4hsY?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> HD link
I had great plans for this weekend, great plans. But certain influences conspired to rain on my parade. So I'll take my fun where I can get it. Last night I went over to Canuman's in prep for the RedNEK rendezvous. It's not the destination but the journey, so I planned out a route to and from the Palace and hit the trails. Night riding is so much fun. Here is a vid of one section on the way home. I had to do a little headlight adjustment on the road prior to this vid. Unfortunately most of the other video I recorded was a little off in the lighting department. The battery died quickly and didn't record the part with the fun stream crossing. Oh well, better vid next time. GoPro Hero2, Music by me. <iframe width="853" height="480" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/FrZt0aDI2Lo?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> HD link
I watched the first video where you got stuck in the mud. Glad you were able to get it out. That shit looked pretty deep. :huh
That VT mud is amazing. There's a joke about Vermont having 2 seasons: This Winter, and Last Winter. Every Vermonter knows that Mud Season rounds it out to three. Cool vids, and cool tunes. I grew up in Vermont, it was great to see some woods riding from there. I had an 70's XL350 while in highschool. The kids in the smoking area called it my "woods bike", it made them beat me up less often because I had a moto. Thanks for sharing!
