Hoot's First Was a Hoot!

There was a hugh turnout for Hoot's Turkey Run and Dual Sport Ride. The gravel pit was packed with trucks and trailers with riders from as far away as NY and NJ ready to tackle the trails.



Buckrider and Captain Crunch were joining us to make a group of 5.



Beez was there with his 620 riding the Turkey Run.



Sign up was busy with riders picking up their respective route sheets and entering a contest to win an '09 KLR650.



The legend Gordie Coyle laid out the Dual Sport ride and it lived up to his scenic and challenging standards.



Even Janet From Joisey and Glenn were there riding their small bikes in the turkey run.



Why does Buck always look so happy when he's on his bikes. Just like a kid in toy store.



Out on the course it was a nice mix of rolling hill and dale with an occasional woods section.





Crossing the Thompson Dam with Thompson Lake below.





Another legend was Bob Hicks wearing his Six Days helmet from when he represented the US in Spain.



The first gas stop.



Out in one of the woods sections.







The route took us down an old abandoned railroad bed.



The mud monster grabbed Buck in the water hole.





Bruce on his GSA found a better line on the left squeezing it's cylinder heads between the trees.



The rock monster grabbed Captain Crunch.



More open wooded sections.



Imagine the old trains that used to frequent these woods.



Bruce riding his GS through some greasy sections.







A few Video samples.







A great time was had by all. A big thanks to the Hoot Owl Scramblers.

Thanks for posting the pics and video. I hope people had the right tires or right skills for some of those water and rocky sections. I did the Turkey Run and was prepared for the trails that they sent us on, but if I would have done the dual sport on my klr with the wrong tires I would have been on my ass. I saw some bikes at the start that looked like they were going to be challenged by the wooded sections.

Hope everyone was challenged just enough for some great memories. It was a excellent event, especially for the first one. I don't know how they are going to improve it. As I drove home and into the rain I appreciated how fortunate we were that the weather was so perfect.

John

Had fun today. The mud monster got me almost in the exact same spot!

Kudos to Kevin in our group for doing the entire D/S route on his V-Strom. I think it was his 1st ever organized ride.

I can see myself in line for registration. Love that Olympia Suit!!!! Had a great day and as always thanks Skip for the Nice pics and writeup. Good to see Buck too. I love your water hole trick. Very Nice. LOL

Great turn out and a fun ride. I did the D-S route on my XR 650 with Jon from NH on his DR 650. Section 1 thru the RI state forest was so much fun, we did it twice! Actually, we got off course following arrrows instead of our route sheets and ended up on the final section, back to the start. We got an early start, first out on the DS, I think, so we started again. I had to bail out early due to the threat of rain, but I rode to and from the event so I logged about 160 miles on the thumper. Thanks for the pics and report.

I believe someone removed the channel markers for this ride! My U-Boat skills were a little rusty on this trip - plus I might have fixated on my boots rapidly filling with mud and water .

Of course just prior to this I was boasting to Skip that I could have done this on my other tires (Metzler Sahara's)....silly me.....

For what it is worth, everyone but the Wareham brothers wen't down shortly after I did. Apparently it was the trendy thing to do . Bruce did a great job keeping the big GS upright. I'm pretty sure if was riding the Wareham Racing CR 230 - that he would have been dumping the bike all day!

It was a neat Dual-Sport route. I'm impressed Kevin got through on his V-Strom. He was obviously "riding his ride" properly because some of those sections were definatley a navigational hazard for the larger bikes or bikes with smoother tires. Cheers to Kevin !

There were a few interesting looking roads we saw along the route that need to be explored. They might be nice additions or alternates for future events.

We had one lady come up to us and complained in Eastford at a reset. She asked if the people in front of us were kids - and that they were on the wrong side of the road and she almost hit them. Bruce proudly told her - "No Ma'am - we're all adults here..." and about 3 seconds later we all started to laugh with Huck stating ya - I'm a 63 year old kid!

There were some amazing houses scattered along the route and in places (on class IV roads) you would not expect. There were a few neat old Wyllis Jeeps and one house had a significant collection of military duece-and-a-halfs.

Hmmmmm- lets see - kid - yup, toys all around - yup, not in the office working - yup; why wouldn't I be smiling?

I would like to recommend to the Hoots Club that they team up with Hooters for the next event and serve chicken wings during registration - well actually if they just dressed up like the Hooters girls I think we'd all be happy.....especially the Tech Inspectors.....


Just teasing.......


Very well done - Thanks!

Nice pics and vidios Skip. Had a blast riding with you guys. Thanks Bruce for helping me rescue my DR from the rock monster. And thanks for the guided tour back to Rte 16 when we bailed out. That was a great road. All together I did 305 miles by the time I got home and never hit any real rain, just sprinkles. All in all a great ride.

I thought you might like that road. I tried to keep it more spirited for ya. I like that road. I try to get on it once a month. Its twisty and fun. It was a great day.

Great report and photos. Nice to meet you guys at the start too. If only I could divide myself into 2 I could do both the TR and DR. I will be back for this one next year for sure. Gordy said they sent you all the way up to Sturbridge, sounds like you guys went all over the place. Meanwhile rthuy, vfr870 and I were going back and forth in the same small plot of woods, it's amazing how much trail they fit in the same piece of land!

Arrived a little late yesterday (I know, so unlike me ) but met up with Tim and his mate and we did the DS ride. Sorry I missed meeting the usual crowd. Had a pretty good day - bit more dirt would have been fun but there ya go. Next year I think I'll do the TR.

I was going to give The Comet it's annual clean Saturday but thankfully I resisted the temptation. Today it's looking pretty muddy.

I think the worst part of the wole day was making me go through the gravel about 4 times as tech inspection and the people doing the licence and reg check didn't know WTF to do with me. And with an audience to boot :huh

We eventually bailed a little before the end - Tim had to get home and it just started to sprinkle so we put waterproofs on and headed home - it never really rained though.

I have to give a huge thank-you to the sweep riders that helped me get around that big mud hole. If they hadn't held me up I'd have drowned the strom. They proceeded to follow us and keep us on track until almost the finish. Many thanks. And also to the guys I was with for being patient with me in the rocky sections....

I had Conti Trail Attack's on, which I thought worked well for everything except the muddy stuff. Lot's of paddling with the feet there.

Thanks to the Hoots for organizing a really nice ride.

I did 341 miles. Rode up from Milford, CT, did the ride, and then rode home. Somehow the bike is still all muddy after the ride home in the rain .

--Kevin

I'm no Nice Rumble, you know.
Really nice meeting you guys and I appreciate the gang that let me tag along. The V-Strom guy....? Wow.

http://s206.photobucket.com/albums/bb281/cmeal/?action=view&current=ride5-09004.jpg
http://s206.photobucket.com/albums/bb281/cmeal/?action=view&current=ride5-09003.jpg
http://s206.photobucket.com/albums/bb281/cmeal/?action=view&current=ride5-09002.jpg
http://s206.photobucket.com/albums/bb281/cmeal/?action=view&current=ride5-09001.jpg

Gotta figure out a way to get to the camera quicker while riding- or at a quick stop.

Bummer. That's my XRL in the pic, I'd have liked to have said hello.

HeyDoc, sounds like you guys hooked up with us in the campground. Good ridng with you for a liitle while anyway.

URNUTS - Good to have you along. Thanks for testing that bridge for me!

Here's a few pics I took before things got really busy....

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tiz_1/sets/72157617599746157/

--Kevin

URNUTS- good meeting you and riding with you. Thanks for the help getting my bike up on 2 wheels after I took the bath!

A few more pics from Hoot's:

A coupla FF's at the start:

Beez, Mycirus, and Nice Rumble




Another line thru the mud over a larger-than-it-looks-in-the-pic cement pipe. Some guys make it all look so easy.




One of the easy bridges.


Too bad Glenn doesn't carry a camera. He woulda had frontpage material with me splashing into a creek after cross-rutting my wheels on a vertically-laid out log bridge covered with chain-link fence (right after the last check-point). Thankfully, the bike stayed on the bridge and the water was clear running. Woke me up!

We come up to this and no, there isn't any go around, only surrounding swamp and tracks leading in; can't even see the exit.



Okay, I'll go in first, sez Glenn.



Made it, no problem, and with no special carb venting required.




This trail riding thing is getting better and better, tho. At times I felt like TaddyB at an endurocross, dabbing over rocks. I want to thank Drew Smith at WER for setting up my Husky so sweet. http://www.werproducts.net/


I also want to thank Shane Watts for teaching us some skills that came in handy yesterday. I got stuck on top of a nice-sized log; just rolled back with front wheel on the log as much as I could and throttled off. Saved a bunch of energy. http://www.shanewatts.com/schools

About 10 miles from the end of the TR, we lost the TR trail markers and were following the DS arrows which took us back to the start.
Glenn suggested we go back and find the trail, but I was just thankful that he rode with a sore shifter toe all day and not a complaint. That was enough for me.

Thanks, again, Hoot Owls!

Looking forward to meeting more FF's at the Berkshire event in two weeks!

Fixed.

Janet, I caught a glimpse of you at the start but I was running to the Porta-pottie and didnt have a chance to say hi.
Beez, myself and Roy had a great time on the Turkey Run. This event will definitely be on the list for next year.

I know that face...


Sorry I missed it, looks like a lot of fun.

Thank you very much to the Hoot Owl Scramblers for putting on a great ride. Heard some got burgers at the end of their ride. We made out much better with the pasta finish i think. I really appreciated when the sweepers whom we always seem to meet, were not of the pushy hurry you up type. We always try to provide end of day comedy with our attempts at motorcycling. Hope it turned out well in your opinion to want to host another event next year.


here is a compilation of the video i took. this is of the turkey run.

Embed technical difficulties apparently, link to our Hoot's First