Rocky Ridge

They say God created the universe and the earth in 6 days and then rested on the 7th day. I guess he created Rocky Ridge on the following Monday because from what I understand, it has been there since the beginning of time. It has been well since the beginning of time that I first rode out at Rocky Ridge, but I guess that’s because I was born about 4 billion years too late and, well – because I did not have a dirt bike until a couple of months ago. I’ve ridden my R1200GS out there before, but it was to muddy for me to really do much, and since I got my XT350, that has been my mount of choice for these types of excursions. The past few weeks Gary and I have made our way out to what has become my off-road park of choice.

On our first trip out there we met Oliver who had just purchased a BMW F800GS and was trying it out in the dirt. The next weekend, we met up with Oliver again, and a few other folks he had put together via Adventure Rider for a dual sport ride out at Rocky Ridge. Unfortunately, due to the untimely demise of my brake handle, we were not able to meet up for riding with the group that weekend, but this past weekend, there was a small group from ADVRider that met out at Rocky Ridge. Oliver started the post, and about 5 of us chimed in that we would all meet at the ranch about 15 mile north of Decatur between 8:30 and 9:00. With the exception of me, who hauled my bike (because it is not quite street legal at this point in time…) everyone rode their dual sports out to the ranch. Oliver on his F800, fully loaded for a “shake down” cruise getting ready for a camping trip in Arkansas next weekend, Scott and his dad Jeff, on their Kawasaki KLX 250 S’s, Cris on his recently acquired Yamaha WR250R, and my on my beat up old Yamaha XT350 (the prettiest bike of them all….). As I was unloading the beauty from the hitch mount MX hauler, I noticed the 4 other bikes ride by and head off in the direction of the only spot at the ranch that could possibly resemble an MX track (sort of…). A couple minutes later I headed that way, and when I noticed nobody there I found the group at the gravel pits. Erosion is an amazing thing, just two weeks earlier, Gary and I had found a little climb at the gravel pits that we could hit and easily jump the bikes, maybe 3 or 4 feet in the air, nothing great by any standards – but a fun little jump that you did not have to hit very fast. Two weeks later, same jump, same speed and it had been worn down so much that I could barely get the rear tire off the ground. After meeting up with the group at the gravel pits, we stopped, talked for a while and then headed off towards the lake. There was a little flat track area just below one of the hill climbs that goes up through the trees. This was a fun little spot that you could get the bikes up to a decent speed. After that we followed Oliver to a part of the ranch I had never been. Oliver and Cris had been there a few weeks ago when Cris was out on his R1200GS. It was a whole other interesting part of Rocky Ridge, and while we would come back and visit the Rock Gardens later in the day, it left me intrigued and ready for more exploration of this yet uncharted area. After finding another little jumping area, we headed back towards some of the single track trail sections. Rocky Ridge has some really good trail riding. Challenging enough to add interest, but not so much so that it destroys any semblance the enjoyment you had envisioned when setting forth on the trail. After meandering our way through the woods, between rock outcroppings, over logs, and across dry creek beds, we made our way back to where I had parked my truck and stopped under a shade tree to take a little break. The weather was fantastic, by this time it was approaching 10:30 or so, it was barely over 80 degrees, not a cloud in the sky and gentle breezes were making random appearances for the sole purpose of making great weather even better.

After a brief break, we mounted up and headed back out to the Rock Garden. To get to this area there is a downhill road that breaks off of the main road, I find it kind of fun because there are a couple of little bumps as you are heading downhill, you can pop the throttle just a little as you hit these bumps and launch your bike in the air just a bit as you make your way down the hill – yeah, silly I know, but for some reason I find that fun so I thought I would put it down in writing for all of internet blog cyberspace eternity… (A thousand years from now some AI Cyborg will read this, bust his mechanical ass trying to do it, and need to have his flux capacitor replaced – I’ll be laughing my long gone dead ass off.) There is a little bit of trail riding before you get to the Rock Gardens, but once you get there, you know why they call it the rock gardens. Oliver was in front, Cris was behind him, I was behind Cris and Scott and Jeff were behind me. Oliver went up a fairly steep incline and stopped at the top. Cris took a path to the left, Scott, Jeff and I stopped and waited for Oliver to start moving again at the top of the hill before making the climb ourselves. This was a pretty rocky section and we waited at the top for everyone to make it through. Afterward, we all made our way down the boulder ridden path. I’m not sure what happened, but by the time Oliver and I had made our way through the rocks and back down the hills, we seemed to have lost the others in the group. We stopped at the crossroads that headed back to where we had parked, but after about 10 minutes decided we had better head back up the hill to see if we could find the others. We headed back up, and at one point where we had made a sharp right downhill turn we thought the rest of the group might have gone straight along the path. So we ventured that direction.

After the terrain had leveled out in a few hundred yards. Oliver stopped his bike and said something did not seem right with the gears, he said he was in 2nd, but the bike shifted to neutral, and then to 1st. We played around with it a little and once we determined that nothing appeared to be broken, decided to try and ride it again to see if it would shift. After a couple hundred more yards, it still would not shift. We worked on it some more and decided to go back to my truck where I had some tools, and had the number for BMW Roadside Assistance in my cell phone. The ride back was a bit slow as it was a 1st gear ride for the F800. After we got back to the truck, the rest of the crew was already there and waiting in the shade. We worked on the bike a bit and determined that there did not appear to be anything mechanically wrong. A call to the service department of the dealership, confirmed that the most likely culprit was a sensor in the transmission. Oliver then started his ordeal of calling Roadside Assistance. In the end, I think it all worked out smooth, but I think there were a couple of numbers – it was just a matter of getting the right number to call. We went on a quick ride while Oliver waited for the towing company, and then everyone headed for home. As I was the only one with a truck, I waited around until the tow truck got there just to make sure Oliver got picked up. Hopefully the dealership will have the 800 up and running for his trip to AR next weekend.

Other than the gear sensor on the 800, it was a really great ride out a Rocky Ridge. I met some new people to ride with, two of them are heading to Big Bend in October, and another wants to go the next time Gary and I head down. So, there are common interest even outside of Adventure Motorcycles. Small world, even if it did only take 6 days to create.