We had been contemplating this ride and decided what is a greater way to get better at dual sport than to get out there and ride some crazy trails. We started in Ukiah where we stayed at the Super 8. We were able to drop our bikes at Factory Pipes so they were safe the night before the ride.
We were up pretty early to check in with the Cow Mountain crew. This was a GPS ride so we were able to take off on our own.
It began as a beautiful ride through some farmland, then we hit a dirt road that took us to the trailhead. Scott took off first, then me. I didn’t even get around the first huge turn before I put my bike up over the knoll into a bush. Boy, I could tell this was already going to be a long day looking at this trail. Scott helped me pull my bike out of the bush and he rode it up the hill. From there, we went a long. This trail really messed with my head (ALOT). There was some large hills and some steep downhills. There were a few (a lot) falls here and there. These few falls caused my throttle to stick on so I had a few issues where I couldn’t get the throttle to unlock. We pounded it out a few times to get it unstuck.
This trail was slow going and I felt really bad for Scott as he is a much better rider than I am, and I was struggling. There was a sweep that was behind us, so that made me even more anxious because I was holding him up also. What could I do except keep on keepin’ on. Lots of uphills/downhills to get through before coming to the road. Once I was on the road, I was golden. I have no issue with dirt roads, it is the single track cliffs that mess with my head.
This ride then took us around Clearlake on pavement, approx 40 miles. When we finally got off onto a dirt road, Scott hollers to me that he has a flat tire. He must have been riding the street for awhile with this flat :/ We pull over and begin to get out tools when 3 sweeps come up on us. They were kind enough to help us get his tire changed.
On the trail again. We were going pretty good when all of a sudden, I came around a corner and hit a little ditch and gave it too much throttle and ended up over a cliff and down about 15 feet. Don’t worry, nobody was hurt, not even the bike. But we had some good help getting it out.
The rest of the dirt ride was uneventful (no crashes) and actually was a lot of fun and challenging. We made it to the lunch spot where they had burgers waiting for us. We were able to hang out for a bit with all the riders. At this point, it was later in the day and we decided to bail out and head to the hotel. We were told later that we should have finished as it is a fun little dirt ride. We were just so exhausted at this point, that we just wanted a shower and relaxation. We booked The Lodge at Blue Lakes.. a quaint little lodge.
What was nice about this group is that they have an overnight bag transport to the hotel you are staying at and they will come and pick them up and take them back to the start of the ride.
When we arrived back at the lodge, we noticed that Scott had another flat tire on his 500. Not sure what happened but that is 2 flat tires in 1 day. So we knew that we somehow needed to get the bike back to Ukiah at some point. We weren’t too worried and would figure it out the next day.
We had a really nice dinner at Blue Wing Saloon in Upper Lake. Really quaint restaurant with an outdoor patio. It was a really nice time and the food was awesome
Scott ended up getting a ride with the organizer back to Ukiah where he picked up the car and trailer and headed back to the lodge to pick up the bikes. We headed home in some G Force winds. This was the day all the fires started 🙁
We were told that the group is doing the Lost Coast next year which will be a great ride.