Has spring actually sprung?

1/2 ton at least of solid 10" of ice on my shed.

   

FIRST of all, let me tell you that Prince Edward Island does indeed  has four seasons, unlike my former home in Calgary.

It's now the 25th of March and yesterday we had cold temperatures, brisk winds and wet snow falling pretty much all day.  Today it was so warm I took my jacket gloves and toque off while I did my walk. Originally I had planned to get out and walk to the Irishtown rd rte 101.  It's good exercise having a surprisingly steady climb and contrary descent. There is still quite a lot of snow which translates into pretty good ATV weather.  Being equipped with a snow plow my Big Bear gets little winter trail use.

 

WILLY waiting for me at the bedroom window.

As I passed Simmonds Road, I got a face full of cool breeze. On the spur of the moment I decided to head to the woods.  An ATV two up went by me earlier while I spoke to my neighbor Ken the mandatory 10 feet or so, and I would have no problem walking in it's tracks.

Ken getting a little exercise during our Corona bug downtime

From there is was totally ad-lib.  I followed their trail marks over hill and dale, walking in perfect weather, taking in the white expanse that would shortly be gone for another summer.

So pretty!

I walked through the woods, bushwhacking where I wanted to check some of the sights, following the tires tracks in and out of the
snow covered farm fields and forests.

I was wearing a light sweater, and gloves... and the aforementioned toque.  As it turns out, it got so warm most of my gear ended up over my shoulder for much of the way.


Th
ere were long elevation changes, some maybe a mile long (1.6km) Things look so different during the November/April I wouldn't have the opportunity to wander cross country once the snow was gone and spring is usually muddy for a month or so.  As usual, some of our snowfall would be several feet deep and today was absolutely perfect to get around in.

Potential virus high overhead

All in all, I had plenty of time to think, and must say I had an absolutely picture perfect day.  By my reckoning using the winter closed portion of County Line road as the bar, my estimate was a round trip of approximately 10+ km plus or minus. Sure it was 4 and a half hours, but I love it.  You don't often get weather that is that generous.

Does it get better than this?

I had thought earlier in the day, of gearing up the Serow 225, but unfortunately is was well buried in the shed behind my XT 600, DT 50, patio table and chairs and my ride on Craftsman lawn mower.

County Line road unused winter portion.

I'll be riding soon enough, have to stay focused and with the Corona Virus take precautions.  Truth is I like to travel by myself in any case and being on foot today, had a bonus I don't often see.

Wow what an impressive Bald Eagle likely from AZ

Several years ago a pair of nesting Bald Eagles  made their home here, and both of them were quite vocal today, with my trespassing on their turf.

Snowmobile trail

HOME SWEET HOME!

Wise men speak.

THE other day I grabbed one of my old magazines, to browse as I ate my breakfast.

This one happened to be vintage 1991 when MX bikes had garish color schemes and clothing matched.

I thumbed through the rag, got tips on making your race bike illegally light, turns out a G note will shave 10 pounds off your wheels.  Whether or not the weight savings will make a you a better rider or not... well that's up for discussion.

I especially get a kick looking at full page adverts pre internet days in black and white, when goggles could be had for 10 bucks, jerseys for $15 and a complete set of gear for less than $200.00 ! Umm, not included was the bike.

Nice trail near my home.

I read about the "Phantom Duck of the desert" and the off roaders fight to prevent getting stripped of their rights to ride.

Another story talked about safe riding in the back country.  Being prepared and not taking chances.

BOING ! the alarm went off, I was intimately acquainted with this headline. During my riding career both on the street and of course off it, I thought back to the countless times I've ventured out be it from near my home or thousands of miles away.

Because of the types of careers I'd chosen in my life time and made a point of  living beyond my safe zone, often I was in a situation that could very well have proven to be 'detrimental to one's health.'

 Often I didn't work 9-5 as most around me did, I spent much of my earning years, connecting the dots of this planet and some of the lines were obscured and hidden by snow, mud, dirt, rocks, you guessed it. More times than not, I was riding solo, and by that I don't mean carrying a passenger but rather having a riding companion.

Riding solo especially in unknown places can be exhilarating but also dangerous. Why would someone do that.  It's true that even long time friends with as much or perhaps more riding experiences as I've had, shake their heads in disbelief.



In North America where the language is common, well at least most of the continent, it's pretty easy.  I'd ridden around Baja CA for a decade and my little Spanish combined with hand gestures and smiles, have been enough to make myself understood. And that works in reverse as well.

99 % of my friends would never try doing these things without some sort of back-up plan, the very least being to have a riding companion or three... just in case.  In my own case, only rarely have I ridden in the company of others.  Part of the reason for that is my aversion to feeling responsible to another person.  Even riding on your local street, can be dangerous, what with drivers, pedestrians, people backing out of their driveways etc.

At least when I ride, I know my machine, my equipment, and I rarely take unnecessary chances. If in doubt... dismount (before you make your decision) and scout out the terrain around the bend and over that rocky trail.

In all my off road years exploring, I always respect the land, the geography and my abilities that day.

For example, there was one year while in AZ, I was trying to get from A-B... with little or no help from Google, just "wingin' it" as I often did, and after riding a dry river bed of marble like surface, foot deep sand for about 3 miles, I turned back and headed home.  I had been suffering from a shoulder pain (due to a traffic collision where I was rear ended while riding a M/C in Calgary I have a "Shoulder Impingement" as the sports world knows it) and it wasn't getting better.  For any of you that have ridden on such surfaces, you agree that it can be very dangerous and certainly tiring.  I'm not talking tiring in the normal sense... I'm talking this ain't no fun and I could easily end my ride lying on the ground writhing in agony pain!

Now THIS is stuck! In the muck!!

I hate turning back but doing what I have done, discretion is very much the better part of valour!

I have ridden where serious harm could come into play and something simple as a cracked intake manifold can stop you dead (no pun intended)

As you can see in this pic, I am actually only about 5 miles from home but late spring and mis reading the terrain, caused this problem.  I slipped of the rut's high point into the rut itself and it was so soft and sticky that my seat height immediately dropped from 32" to 24!

I knew immediately that I wasn't going to get out of this on my own.  The muck was like one BIG  industrial suction cup.  Now what?  Well the first thing is to look around to see if there was anything like a solid branch that could possible have given me some leverage, but alas, nada.  Okay, try the cell phone... no signal.  Chances of someone coming by on an ATV another rider was slim to non-existent.  No alternative but to hoof it. I walked out.  Not too bad in a helpful climate but in the desert this could be life or death.  Once home, I called a riding friend who was fortunate to be home, and using my 4X4 ATV back tracked he on his KLR.  Okay, it was funny and for a guy like me that is super cautious even I was laughing.

Took Trevor an ATV and pushing to get out.

Much of my desert riding is n boulders mountains and dry riverbeds.

It took the better part of an afternoon to clean the bike back into a rideable condition.

Other times riding in the AZ back country... where I've ridden in places where the last human being was a gold prospector, it's gnawed at me and I often choose to ride further only because the terrain that got me here was wicked.

Awwwe, the stories I could tell...

In every one's life there are numbers of "turning points"  For example... if you stop at that nasty looking saloon, with a bunch of Harley choppers and levi's with deaths heads on them... you have what could be a dangerous situation.  Or it could be a bunch of accountants and lawyers!

Just a small dent or two

What's the moral here... let me tell you.  

Back around 2017 out for a Sunday ride in the mountains north of Phx… there were literally thousands of shooters.  Now I don't mind shooters... I myself have a few rifles, but we're talking semi autos and shooting in every which direction, isn't my idea of a good time. Some shooters stop at a gully or back stop or dry river bed and let it loose.  That's why I rarely went out in the back country on weekends.

Other times, I'm riding a difficult spot and survey the situation before making a decision to proceed or turn back and try something else.

This particular day while riding on the east side of  I-17 somewhere in the vicinity of the New river gorge, I 'd ridden up a mean hill that didn't look so bad, but was misleading.  As usual the trail was rocky and loose.  In such places it's best to stand on the pegs to better your stability, use the torque of the 350 four stroke single and ride one gear higher to minimize wheel spin.  I'd have to cross several dry washes and stopping giving the steep slope, was not in the cards.  If the engine stalled or a rock bumped me off the track, there was steep drop offs on both sides.  I had walked to the top to make certain I wouldn't fall off a cliff and twisted the throttle.  The XT had no problem and I was up in less than a minute.  I parked the bike on it's side stand and walked back to get a photo or two.

8000' up in the Bradshaws

Having done that I walked back and the loose stones and steepness of the track were evident.  A gust of wind blew up and my Yamaha caught it side-on and over she went breaking a mirror when it hit the turf.



       

December 1st 

 "Hey... Frank... this is a dumb ass thing you're doing."

Three French girls at Los Coco's and a guy from Seattle

Now this wasn't the first time nor the last, but this particular ride had several such mishaps and it was like the Universe was saying to me... 

Can't get much higher

Broken ankle feeding the "boyds" 

Hard to beat those years. 

That wasn't the first time such a thing were to happen.  It happened riding the Cow Creek trail, or the road to Crown King, that wicked ascent/descent/and ascent, or anyone of a number of times.

A few years back (2007) while living on the beach in Baja for a couple of months... I headed out on a 2 day overnight in the Sierra Giganta mountains.  I had my Ford F 150, my 19 foot tow behind, a kayak and my trusty Yamaha Serow.  I knew that area well and I wasn't expecting anything unusual.

I rode the Trans Peninsular highway #1 along Conception Bay to it's southern end and turned into the mountains.  I had ridden about 25 miles of pavement and then once off road, another 25 up into the mountain range.  It was pretty easy going but I didn't know this section as I had not ridden it before.

After several dry river beds and a few rocky sections I was on the right track about 5 miles from a difficult dry riverbed that I past through, big boulders and many washout on the trail. It was quite challenging, the SCORE markers testifying to it's rugged nature.  I felt pretty good getting through there with no problems and I settled back into 2nd gear as the crown of the range leveled off at about 4000 feet.  With no warning whatsoever on a perfect trail, the Serow went down hard on the right side. I picked up the lightweight XT 225 and almost threw up as I put weight on my right ankle.  I started to strip my gear, it was about 105 F and only some scrub for shade.

I tested the ankle and it hurt like hell.

Okay... just a sprain but I had to evaluate the next move.  I knew there were two small villages en-route perhaps 25 more miles.  Back it was about 50 miles but I knew the terrain I'd just covered.  The trail forward was a mystery to me.  Besides I hade been in there in 2004 and there would not be any medical help getting there. I was almost at the top of the mountain at this point se decided to ride the remainder of the way up and see what I could see.

My right ankle hurt, but I rode the next 3/4 mile or so and there in front of me was a volcanic boulder field that would have been difficult if I was healthy.  I wasn't.  I tried standing, not a chance so the decision to turn 180 degrees was made and I headed back.

Turned out one of the women (CDN's) on the beach was a trauma nurse and she informed me the ankle could have been strained or worse.  She wrapped it for me and the trip went on.  Up on my return to Calgary some weeks later showed a fracture in a local X ray.

So... here I am 20 feet from the crest of a mountain trail, my XT 350 laying over on it's right side with a broken mirror when I had one of those "AHA" moments.

A little voice from my subconscious said to me in certain words...

"Why are you doing this.?"

It was at that point more or less that my cautious side was talking and I'd better listen.

My riding career, especially traveling alone on a dual purpose type bike, had been pushed about as much as I think it could.  That wind blown mountain top somewhere north of New River, my brain reminded me how many times I'd dodged the bullet (or in my years in AZ) bullets... and I asked myself with that little inner voice,

"Why are you doing this?"

At this stage in my life, I certainly had nothing to prove. If I hadn't done it all... I have done a hellova lot.

In the years since, when the proverbial apple fell from the tree onto my DOT lid. I have continued to ride but I don't do the death defying stuff any longer.





The Dr. N. Thusiast took some advice from himself and called it quits.  I'm 65, and still smiling!

Spring is just round the corner...

Someone recently said this old adage to me... "spring is  just around the corner." 

The Citicom 300i One of many needing a rear tire.

So, like any good explorer would do, that's what I did.  From my home on County Line Road, I went up the lane and turned the first corner to the nearest intersection.  Okay technically I was still on my property so that may not count. Once on the road and at the first intersection with Irishtown road, I looked left, (lot's of snow there) then I looked right |(obviously the Big road plow has been using that corner for snow storage, and having run out of corners or at least disappointed because I didn't see spring on mine, I went home, put the Blazer in the garage and deciding to catch up on some chores.

Okay, in reality, we've had it pretty easy as far as winter's go, only got pinned down a couple of times waiting till the following day or sometimes two, until I would see the snow plow go by.  Now let me explain this just a wee bit.  P.E.I. is split into three counties... Prince in the west, Queen, centrally located and Kings, the rugged East shore.  My home is actually the border of the first two and in fact during summer months, it's about an 8km jaunt to the Gulf of St Lawrence. In winter months there is a 2.5 km section of County Line Rd that is not open to vehicular use, in fact it's part of the Snowmobile trail system on the Island.

Willy, has his medical issues, but still hanging in there. We're pals.

There is a neighbor to my NW but then nothing until you've travelled an additional 2.6 km.  This, during winter months, is technically the "end of the road."

Unlike my previous long term home in Alberta, we actually see four seasons with clear delineations. Yes, Batman... there is a Spring, summer, fall and winter, and there is no missing or confusing that.

This is the time of year I begin thinking I should have changed those tires last fall, cuz' once spring hits I'm going to want to ride.  My Citicom 300i needs a rear skin, the CBR300 as well.  The MP3, needs two.  Not front and back as you would think normally, but I need to replace the tires on the front.  Yup, that's right... the Piaggio MP3 of course is a leaning trike with two front wheels in case you have forgotten.

This is Coco... she's seen a tough life, I nursed her back to health after finding her weak and frail under my Ascot in PHX

In addition there are oil changes, some routine service and freshening up my gear so I am ready when "spring" arrives.

There are changes taking place around my place, no need to get into them at this point but I'll be sticking close to home this year.

Willy who like many before him, has problems with his health.  In fact he was scheduled for termination the day he jumped up on my shoulders at the local Island Humane shelter in the fall of 2012.  In a nutshell he hasn't had teeth for many years and also has an immune deficiency, that causes pain occasionally when he is chewing.  There's much more but in short, it means I can't leave my Island home for any length of time.  An overnight at Lisa's maybe... but that's about it.

So I am going to ride the remainder of the Island roads and as I always do, make the best of a bad situation.

So... until spring arrives or at least the 21st of March... I am only reviewing old pics (I have about 45,000 digital photos and several albums if I get tired of looking at those.

They have their issues but I love them all. 

Thumbs up, if we pass!

PS My beloved Triumph Thunderbird is going to be sold this spring.  Tough decision but goes along with my desire to struggle less and enjoy more, my bikes.  If you want to see it... or more pics... you can comment on my Blog.