Back In the Saddle

The final tally was 514 days.
514 days since I had last been on a trail ride. For someone who had been hitting the trails nearly every weekend for the previous 4 years, and at least once a month dating back to the early 90's, this was a huge change. Part of the collateral damage from our ill-fated move to Kentucky that ultimately cost me my trusty old 9000 mile Pioneer 700, as well as some loss of quality of life. This is not Kentucky's fault, per-se, but a failure of others to acknowledge what I told them life would be here as the truth. Life in the west makes you soft...

So, 508 days later, a step back in the right direction by purchasing a lightly used 2015 Pioneer 500 from a local dealer. Day 514 finally brought a return to the trails.
Back in AZ I drove maybe 15 minutes to stage (or simply went from the driveway), and then racked up 100+ miles at times. Choose a destination on a map and go. Here, I will drive 1.5 hours to get 32 miles on "designated trails", but when you're starving, most anything tastes good.

So it was today I returned to Wildcat Off Road park near Bernstadt Ky, also the scene of my last ride on old red. Lots of rain meant the the place was a sloppy mess in most areas, but the southern trails weren't too bad.

The trails really circle a few mountains in the area, and skirt CSX rails on one side...and this is the point of lots of controversy. Under no circumstances are anyone outside of Railroad employees allowed on or near the train tracks, yet several of the more popular landmarks you see online from Wildcat are actually across the tracks...except the abandoned tunnel, which is right beside them. Apparently, some big fines have been handed out to quell this activity, though its clear plenty of people are still crossing them at will.

These trails near the tracks are some of my favorite. #3 (Union Pass) and Pritchett trails (which I swear is new since the last time I was there) run around the side of the mountain near Altamont and Hazel patch creek. Ultimately, you can hit #5 and then Beaver trails which goes down and crosses the creek, where you can access the tracks closer to "the tunnel". Today, this creek was more like a river, so no crossing today. Instead, I settled on it as a place for lunch.

A stop on trail #3 with CSX tracks just down the hill.

After this I started hitting the Sasquatch and related trails. These trails feature the rock overhangs you've seen online. It's also where Bigfoot lives...

It's not raining. That's water runoff from the rocks!

Bigfoot life...

After spending some time shooting pics and video (later), I made my way back over to the "lost boat", a Wildcat landmark...

The "lost boat"

What's interesting is that the last time I was here, the "lost boat" was about 1/4 the size it is now. This means someone went to all the effort to haul a junk boat back into the Kentucky woods, just 'cause...

After this I wanted to hit some of the more Northern trails which I did not do last time (or so I thought). Turns out they were mostly playground/mudholes, or where little snippets I had done last time. Nothing really all that interesting.

So I went across the street to the area between Laurel rd and I-75. Last time, I only had time to go hit "the dome" and then had to get back home. Today, with all the rain, the dome trail, like most of steep trails at Wildcat, had been rutted out by machines with much greater ground clearance than I, making it impossible for most average machines to actually use the trails.

Instead, I concentrated on the few trails on the side of the road, and happened upon a real gem in the "Jurassic trail", which featured some technical riding with more rock overhangs dripping water, with the noise of I-75 traffic blasting by up above...

A section of Jurassic trail

After this, I went back over to #3 for one more peek at the trains from "CSX overlook", and then headed home after around 32 miles of  lots of water and mud.

So what of the new machine?
It did OK. It's a much different machine than what I was used to, but in its element (which is riding on trails), it did fine...and even surprised me with some of the things it went through. It is a stiff, bouncy ride, however, but I knew this coming in, and worked on this through the day with lower air pressures and reduced shock preloads. I also wonder just why someone though it'd be a good ideal to build a SxS without a box, but...

These are ATV bags from years ago. That cooler is a legal adult now. Why would someone force you to use these on a SxS, HONDA?

It also has its moments where it can be a little scary. Ever increasing tire sizes and horsepower are turning places like wildcat into places where the average joe like the little Pioneer is totally out of its element.

But at any rate, it was nice to be back on the trail again, and I had fun.