We rode with Nathan Woods and Ty Davis

Monday I had the chance to go out on the "Industry Trail Ride". Dad, being heavily involved with all the trails on Blue Mountain, was selected to be the guide for all the riders after the weekends races at Bull Hollow (by Monticello if you don't already know where that is.) Since it was a holiday, we made sure that we could be down there too. Who could pass up an opportunity to go riding with Nathan Woods and Ty Davis. If you don't know those names you better click the links.

Well, things started off fast and slow. We all took off with Dad leading the way and not all the riders ready to go. It's a good thing someone in the rear knew which direction we were heading. Not too far up the first little road Jed hit a big rock and landed on his rear. I saw it. Ty Davis saw it too. Lots of people saw it. I'm sure Jed is excited I remembered to point this out.

A little later, we all waited at the top of the mountain (by the towers if you are familiar with the area.) Dad made me wait for all the people in the rear. I waited and waited and waited. Then I decided to coast back down the hill. I found a few riders 1/2 a mile or so down the hill also waiting. They said they knew where to go and were waiting for someone who had a breakdown. I'm glad they broke down there because we weren't in the middle of the boonies yet. I took off to catch the rest of the crowd.

At the head of the Spring Creek trail I got assigned to wait again. (Good grief I'm missing all the action.) After a bit, the slow crowd all showed up and we started to catch up again. When we found everyone, we started on a new trail. This time the people who were slow riders were separated from the people who were just slow because they were waiting for people. I still had to wait a bit for some of the guys in the rear. It took way too long to get up the hill and I saw some big ruts from all the people spinning around the switch backs. Of course, my trusty CR500 didn't need anyone's help but my throttle hand to get up the hill. I had to help a few people push though and ended up walking up and down the hill a few times.

Finally, over the mountain, past Shooters Rock, and into Robertson pasture, we caught up to Dad (Only because he was waiting though.) I convinced him I had ridden at the back long enough and needed to head on down the trail. So I had the 6 guys with me that didn't need waited for and he stayed and waited for the slow riders. We headed down the Red-Ledges trail and caught up with the slow pack from the first crowd. Avalanches this year created a few places in the trail that most riders aren't used to riding across. One guy got stuck on the wrong side of a tree and had to have a couple guys help lift his bike over to the trail again. Nothing me and the 500 couldn't handle here though.

Here is a picture of most everyone waiting at Indian Creek. The #1 rider is Nathan Woods and the #2 rider is Ty Davis. After catching up to the crowd at Indian Creek, I was finished riding with the slow crowd. They decided A-Riders go down the Indian Creek trail and all the rest go up to Aspen flat directly. I took off with the A-Riders. I must admit I wasn't rubbing my front tire on the back of Ty Davis' but I did keep up and left most of the pack a ways back. We came out the bottom of the trail, rode to the head of the Aspen flat trail and then waited for the rest of the crowd to show up.

The picture here is of Jed and Ty Davis waiting too. After a bit, Dad came riding up and said that he got to ditch the slow riders too. We all took off through Aspen Flat as quick as we could go. At this point, we had spent too much time waiting for slow people and needed to get back so we could have lunch. Some of those guys had to drive a long way too and were supposed to leave. (Dad's adventures usually take at least an hour or two longer than planned though.)

There was a little more slow going when we caught up to the other group that had gone the short way. Also, one rider ran out of gas and I had to give him my extra. Good thing I brought extra. I never did need it anyway. He ended up running out again and had to borrow from someone else.

After Aspen flat we headed up the road and were fed a great lunch at the Halliday's cabin. We took this picture. You can see how many riders came on this ride. I'm the one on the far right.

I also took a picture of my face so you can tell how much dust there was. It really wasn't too bad on the trails but the roads were quite dirty after than many bikes went past.

After lunch on the way back to the truck, one of the riders hit his face on a stick. We thought he broke his nose. He landed in the ditch and had to recover for a bit, but in the end he made it back too. All in all, I had a great time.