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SMHooligans - Snow & Mud Hooligans - The Craziest Ride I've Ever Done...

SVsick50

SVsick50

Deep in the Heart of Texas
Joined
Feb 27, 2003
Location
Buda, TX
Moto(s)
1986 Honda VFR750, 2006 Suzuki Blvd. C90T
Name
Dion
In the SuperMoto Forum, we've been planning to do a dual-sport type ride for about a month. The route that I came up with went through New Idria and Clear Creek, where I've read on ADVrider.com is a great place for some dual sport riding. ACCORDING to a BMW website the dual sport road was easy and managable.

That wasn't the case for us.

The ride consisted of about 14 riders, all on SuperMotos and Dual Sport bikes. Most of us strapped a 1 Gallon gas can to our bikes due to the fact that we we're going to be in the middle of nowhere.

Our route was Hwy 25 > Panoche Rd. > New Idria Rd. (turns to dirt and snow) > Clear Creek Rd. (all dirt, some snow and 5-6 water crossings) > Coalinga Rd. > Old Hernandez Rd. (turns to dirt and a large water crossing) > Hwy 25 > end.

We all met up at Frank Klaure Memorial Park in Hollister and unloaded.

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We stopped at the turn-off to Panoche Rd. and noticed that we were missing Craig1200. Rumor has it that his batttery went dead. Two riders went back for him, but didn't find him (???). It was a blessing for him, though: his Caponard would've NEVER made it. More of that later.

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Waiting for Craig1200...

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From Left to Right: MondoF4i, Atomic Spew, Mortifer (in the back) and Port4formance

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Farmer John and PYRO

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Most everybody had extra gas. SuperMotos and dual sports generally have small tanks, so this was essential for survival.

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Going up we turned the corner (I had slowed down and gave everybody the "slow down" signal) because for the next few miles we were all sliding around through snow and ice. Seems the locals spread dirt on the road to offer traction. On a motorcycle, it was nutty.

MondoF4i chucking it up with the Santa Cruz riders (Brett, Moises and Tom) with Farmer John in the background.

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Snow. And YES, that is ICE on the ground.

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Cold! One of the Santa Cruz guys named Eric was locking his bars and going down the road sidewayz on his XR650L. HE was a savage and saved my ass later on in the ride.

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We finally arived into New Idria - an old Ghost Town. We we warned to not go into the buildings or else we might get shot (not really, but we did get warned by some local hick). It was dirt from here on out.

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Atomic Spew on his MZ

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We stopped to fix some gas cans that were falling off and gassed up for a few riders. We all got a little food in us and some fluids - which was a blessing because of what we were to face in the next few miles. We started seeing more and more OHV, like these quads.

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Tom and Moises. Tom's gas can started to fall off his bike and was dangling and bouncing off his tire. The solution was to do an early gas up.

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Port - bending over and getting ready to enter HELL.

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This is where things started to get real shitty (or fun, depending on how many times you crashed). The ride turned to 5-10 miles per hour, both feet down, sliding all over ice and falling. Snow and mud is the most trecherous terrain I've ever ridden. Add that to my top heavy, tank of a bike, and you are going to fall. The riders with the lighter bikes didn't have it so bad. Even with the street tires.

I fell/crashed eight (8) times. If it weren't for my comrades helping me pick up my bike and getting me through some shit, I would've just laid there. At this point it was ALL teamwork, and I have to personally thank Eric and Brett for helping me through my crashes. I bent and cracked a few things on the KLR, but until I wash the 1 inch caked-on mud, I really can't inspect all the damage quite yet.

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There was a thin layer of ice over the mud. At this point, you were hoping for straight mud, because you at least could get SOME traction.

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Sasquatch

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Brett. He handled that KLR like a MX bike.

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Waiting for crashed riders. A lot of us had to put our bikes in 1st gear and walk them up the hills.

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We survived it!!!

Everybody was all shits-and-giggles after that craziness. Here's a sweat-drenched Port laughing it off.

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We stopped at the top of the mountian in Clear Creek to get some lunch and replenish. I was exhausted. Picking up that 400lb. bike and falling again was tough. I did jam my thumb in one fall, but that was the worst it got for me. Some guys were doing runs up and down the hill in the background and hitting some of the jumps.

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Entering the Official Clear Creek Recreation Area. We HAULED through this section. There were some some creek crossings and jumps and such. This section was insanly fun.

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I didn't take out my camera until we arrived back at the park. I know Mortifer and others got some pics, including the Old Hernandez Rd. water crossing.

Here's MondoF4i with his mud-caked bike.

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I have never been on a ride this trecherous before. It ended up being a test of patience, because for me, after about crash #4, I started to get tired and frustrated.

Our only street crash victim was Mortifer, who happened to hit the ice on the road a little crazy and he slid. Thank God he was okay.

I want to thank all the fools stupid enough to show up! :laughing We'll have to do this again in the summer, no snow! I have to give a shout out to Farmer John for leading us through New Idria and Clear Creek.

Thanks to those for helping me pick up my bike and getting me through this. SM on this ride stood for "Snow and Mud".
 
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Awesome write up and ride Dion!!! Thanks for organizing it!:applause
although next time can someone do a recon run a day before? :laughing

I had a blast, never imagined our bikes could make it through that crap.

and yeah, cruising slowly down a paved road after clear creek I touched the front brake and went right down on a large section of ice/snow.:(
Picked up the bike, fixed the mirrors and hand guards and was off.....after collecting myself.

Here's a few pics from my old 2 meg pix-

First snow stop on Ponoche, I was all excited to see so much snow, that quickly changed :|

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those dirt roads covered in snow and ICE were very difficult and draining. Street tires totally sucked, still can't believe we made it.

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this was fairly steep, hard to tell in the pic.

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the sunny sections were great, no probs at all even with street tires, but all the "road" in the shadow of the hill never saw the sun.:(

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Lunch stop at the top of clear creek, looks more like slicks that street tires.:p

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The road leaving clear creek....was a fun slip'n around without knobbies.

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then onto Old Hernandez...... mostly gravel and dirt...and ice....:cool

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You guys rule for taking that on! Great pix. Better than coming back and saying "ya, it was some road and dirt, nothing special really."
 
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