The things you find in your own back yard.

FROM very early days... 

I've utilized two wheels to "get away from it all."  

First is was with pedals providing forward motion.  I'd ride my three speed bike that my Father had bought me at BF Goodrich off 109 st and Jasper avenue in Edmonton.  It had pedal extenders rubber banded to the existing pedals and was so high (If I remember it had 28" wheels) that I had to stop at a curb to get my toes on the ground.  All these years later somethings don't change.  Even when I started racing long travel MX bikes and then riding Dual Purpose bikes, I'm still looking for that hump to assist me at stops.  My 600 sits about 33" above ground as does the SYM scooter and the V Strom as well.

Not a problem off road, but I do on occasion miss calculate and topple over.  Like I did in May twice while down south in the desert.

My first bike, a used Honda S 90 of course, was able to travel at Warp speed compared to pedaling to say nothing about the little horizontal cylinder being a lot easier on my leg muscles.

It was nothing for me to travel 20 miles on the pedal bike to visit the various bike/MC shops.  Kanes had a Yamaha store fairly close to me just before the railroad tracks, Alberta Cycle's shop was off 118th ave if I remember correctly.  Al Klatt had a HD business on the north side just off 95 St. United Cycle was through the city on White Avenue.  I could only reach there on the odd occasion where my Dad drove or I took the ETS bus.

Having that Honda completely changed my life.  At the age of thirteen, I had what most of my contemporaries didn't have but wanted.  

FREEDOM! 

Ironically, many moons after I named my Motorcycle business Freedom Cycle.  (Not to be confused with the current FC) 

THROUGH the years, I've taken full advantage of exploring on motorized two wheels (and sometimes three) 

My Suzuki A 100 with it's chromed raised exhaust pipe and it's shortened front fender, was a street scrambler... and of course I rode that off pavement whenever the opportunity presented itself, which in those days of Alberta gravel roads, and lots of nearby lakes, was often.  It was more prone to fouling the spark plug but had more power than the Honda, and that essential, high pipe!  Have the pipe run alongside the frame rather than under it, cut down on dings and scrapes.

Since those heady first forays off road I have always been looking over the hill or horizon getting further and further afield.

Several street scramblers came and went but it wasn't until 1973 that I had a street bike, a Suzuki T 350 Rebel that I bought new at United and got my first "race bike" a Yamaha LT 100 MX, which was really nothing more than a stripped version of the street bike with a GYT kit installed. the most obvious of which was the black painted low mounted expansion chamber.  

The 100 was primarily my race bike (I was living in Fort Mac Murray by then and racing on the weekends) but I also used it for exploring.  Something it really wasn't secure with.  The low mounted pipe was again subject to dings while the powerband was about rubber band wide and if you fell off the pipe, you needed to downshift several times and be quick about it.

THESE days, trail riding is a piece of cake and I have several trail bikes that I use on a regular basis.

In my garage I have a dual purpose DT 50 L/C... both and XT 225 and 600 with a 350 at my Phx home.  

FUN around the track

I also have a TTR 125 for "racing" around my .7 km grass track as often as I can... and let's not forget my Suzuki V Strom, an "adventure bike" just don't take it off road!  

Each and everyone of these bikes does one thing or other better then it's garage mate and I would be hard pressed to part with any of them. 

Which brings me to last Sunday's trail ride.

Trevor, being a working stiff, doesn't often get a chance to get out riding.  Stretch as I call him make his old school KLR 650 seem like me riding my DT 50, gangly.  We have often gone out on trail rides, it's amazing what you can do off road if your legs are long enough!

We've done some pesky trails but of course PEI being so small, most of our riding is short duration.  

Doesn't mean we don't have fun mind you... (Frank remembering burying his 225 last year) we just don't get out often enough together.  

225 buried

He texts me the other day and says: "Feel like tackling the power-line trail, its been opened up 

now?"  

Un buried with the help of the Big guy on the Big Bear

Self explanatory

Not all this easy going!

That's like dangling a worm next to a hungry rainbow trout!

We arrange to head out Sunday last and I ride to Kinkora on the road and Trevor leads me to the Ross road.  Now, when I say "road" I don't actually mean blacktop with painted lines in it.  Nope, often a road here on the Island is nothing more than a way for farmers to travel from one field to another.  

The plot thickens 

Tis pretty

Ross rd is no exception.  In itself, it would constitute a trail ride! Half way to Brookvale we come to the power line and we turn onto the two (sometimes) track.  I follow Stretch, he's done this before and we have a great little trail ride, my Serow mostly in 2nd gear.  The puddles are sometimes past my footpegs but the bottom is hard and there are no calamities unlike that time I buried the 225, did I mention that?

After about 15-20 km we come out on another paved road still feeling really fresh despite the heat.

The only person we meet on the trail, works with Trev

We decide to head to the trails at Brookvale alongside the ski hill (DO NOT RIDE ON THE SKI HILL!) abd head up hill.  Apart from some loose boulders we have no issues and even run into a worki friend of Trev's riding his 750cc Suzuki King Quad.  I remember from my FCI days when I sold Suzuki that a "KQ" was a 270 cc multi-gear about half the size of the one I am looking at now.  To think these machines began as 'toys' and have grown into big boys!

Alas we had come a long way from Kinkora and arriving at pavement we made the direct jaunt home.

Abandoned farm house

Okay maybe not exactly direct as once parted, he did some local trails to his home and I took the Millvale route, well known to me this time downhill on the Devils Punch Bowl.

Another trail ride under my kidney belt.

Genuine smile!