SaturdayWe were up at 6:30 Am and going over the bikes for the days ride. We purchased breakfast for $7.00 then got our bike gear on and headed to the riders meeting at 9:00 AM. I heard of numbers of riders ranging from 150 to 175 riders either way it was a good turn out. At the meeting we were all warned of the last option of the day. A Expert Level 5 with a deeeep water crossing that was 15 km long. We were told that riders would not be allowed to enter this option after 4:00 PM.
The morning ride was the typical Algonquin stuff. Lots of rock , hills and mud. Funny how a small uphill section can become such a challenge when you scatter it with large rocks and cover it with mud.
The first gas stop and lunch was at High Country Lodge. The food was good and it was a nice break.
After lunch we did a few options on the way to the second gas stop. The dam crossing was slick as He!! But we made it across. It was great the way everyone was helping each other.
The second Gas stop was in Whitney. We all fueled up and headed out for the last leg of the ride. The trails so far had been nice but challenging , the options we did were a level 3.5 a bit tough but doable for us.
With my “Trusted” friend leading we blasted down some high speed trails. This stuff was similar to a rail trail but was winding amongst the trees. Fun stuff and easy trails to end the day on.
Has anyone ever told you something that sounded like it “might” be true? Well for some reason the arrows on the trail changed colour. We looked around and only saw a “wrong way” sign and one wrong coloured arrow. Not sure what to do Rudy convinced me “they must have ran out of the right coloured arrows.” The trail got harder and harder with increasingly tough up hill sections.
In some places the trail just ran up narrow rivers full of slimy rocks and branches.
I was sure we were not on the right trail , then we came to this.
Not wanting to go back through all the tough stuff we had spent the last hour going over Rudy decided to walk out 10 feet and see how deep it was.
It did not seem too deep and we knew we did not have the tools to dewater a bike we thought it would be within reason to cross. Rudy should have walked a bit further and he would have found the hole. I yelled at him when I stepped into it but he was already on his way.
Rudy was lucky to make it through. I hit a big rock on my way through and it sent me into the weeds. I hit the kill button thinking I was going down . I managed to grab some weeds to hold myself up. To my surprise my Husky fired right up and I put all the horsepower to work with my bike and me screaming like wounded animals making it to the end of the water crossing. We had about another hour of tough going until we got back to the main trail. I was to tired to take anymore photos today. We were back to the resort only about 30 minutes before the sweep riders.
We cleaned the air filters and checked over the bikes before getting cleaned up for dinner. Dinner was included with the ride entry. Roast beef , cabbage rolls, taters , corn , buns , salads.
I think the whole park turned in early, it was a long , long day , and we still had Sundays ride to go.
