Five Hills of Death in a thunder storm.

#1
We took a ride to the Five Hills of Death this morning. The roads and trails have been badly eroded by heavy rain. More large rocks and boulders showing than I have ever seen before. We took of of the forest roads for several miles until the road was so festooned with boulders it was no longer ride able for fun.
We reversed direction and picked up a 2ND trail which took us down the mountain. Still lots of large rocks and boulders but the trail was ten feet wide for fire fighting equipment. We rode to the bottom of the mountain and then reversed making sure his chain drive clutch did not over heat. My TAV was fine never missing a beat.
We climbed the 1,000 feet back up the mountain and picked up another dirt bike trail. This too was covered in loose large rocks and boulders.
My chain guard came loose and had to be removed due to the loss of a mounting bolt from the severe vibrations.
I secured the guard in my bike's rack and we continued on back up to the summit.
The sky was clouding up a little with the large white cumulus clouds you see out here on most late summer days. The weather man was calling for heavy rain in Albuquerque at 11 AM. Were were riding 30 miles East of ABQ.
We picked up another trail and headed down the mountain again this time heading in an Easterly direction. After a mile of hard riding Patric yelled at me to look ast the sky. The white clouds were now a deep green in color.
The smart thing to do was to head back the two miles to the car.
After riding about one mile I noticed Patrick was no longer behind me. I doubled back and found him bringing up the rear. He had struck a boulder,ran off into a tree and sheared of his left foot peg on his CT200U-EX bike.
It had just started to rain. My camera and gyro are not waterproof. I had to get back to the car.
I pulled over and put on my foul weather jacket only to find the zipper was broken. Now I really needed to get back as soon as I could to the car.
I'm not sure just how fast we were flying through the trees and boulders as we climbed back to the forest road, but it was the fastest two old men could do it and not kill ourselves.
We hit the forest road at full speed and it was now a down pour. The road was now wet and slipperier than dog snot. We had to descend a very steep grade of the dirt road to the parking lot. My TAV went into overdrive and it was the fastest the bike had ever gone.
Having only one shoe brake it took quite a distance to stop the bike. We both locked up our rear tires and slid to a stop just inches from the trailer.
I jumped off the bike leaving it running on it's kick stand and open the car as fast as I could. Diving inside I was just able to get out of the rain when the heavens opened up. I peeled off the camera and the gyro and wiped them dry with towels I always carry. I just made it in the nick of time.
Lightning all around us as we loaded steel bikes into the trailer while parked under a tree. Not too smart in a thunder storm.
We now had a two mile drive to a paved road. The dirt road was flooded with the ruts filled with rushing water. We made the paved road just as the hail started to fall.
I had the AC and heat on to try to clear the windows as both of us were soaked to the bone. The heavy rain stayed with us for the next five miles then tapered off to a normal rain.
We decided to get a sandwich and a beer for no other reason than they had outside seating and we could dry off a little. Within ten minutes of parking at the restaurant the sun came out and we were both dried out. The beer tasted good after our fun ride and dealing with the storm.
 
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#2
Here are a few photos of the ride. The video will not upload at my house and the State has closed all the library's with hi-speed internet.
vlcsnap-2020-09-02-17h10m21s805.png This was the start. with the heavy rains we had, many rocks and boulders were now exposed. The trails was 65% rocks and boulders from then on.
 
#3
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As you can see, with a close ground clearance and loose rocks it is sometimes better to roll over the larger boulders. It is very steep here but the camera does not catch that in 2D.
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When we did find a 4-wheel drive road that was free from rocks, it was rutted pretty good. With 5 PSI balloon tires if you went into a rut, you were not getting out without a fight. If your foot pegs grabbed the edges of the ruts you were going to play Super Man.
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Most of the ride on the 4-wheel drive road was like this. A real test of your balance and skill to keep the bike going where you wanted it to.
The balloon tires really bounce off of some of the rocks adding to the fun.
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And then you come around a corner and see this...just yards and yards of boulders sticking out of the ground. Reminded me of WWII "Dragons-Teeth" to stop tanks.
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Then there would be rock shelf drop offs, just enough to catch the frame of the bike. You went around them if you could.
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After a work out navigating a few boulder fields it was nice to stop and stretch out my old bones and come up with a plan-of-attack for the rest of this portion of the ride.
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The views and clean air are always nice, we were descending down the mountain and we rode for several miles.
to be continued.
 
#4
Part3
9.png Then we hit an area that was very steep to our right. As long as you kept your speed up and allow centrifugal force keep the tires from "rolling over" you were OK.
Lots of loose rocks in the boulders.
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Patric is not leaving me in his dust, I'm staying back to prevent being hit by flying rocks off of his rear tire. We started our climb back to the summit and this section went on for a 1,000 yards being loose rocks and a very steep incline to our right.
Both bikes did very well gripping the surface with little side-slipping.
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There were several rock layers that we crossed. The surface is very smooth like ice. If you keep your speed constant there are few problems crossing them.
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There were a few nice sections where you could open up the throttle and have some fun floating over the rocks.
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As long as you minding the road surface, you can avoid sections like this.
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Areas of the 4 wheel drive road had been like this from the heavy rains. We were lucky as it had rained the day before and we did not have to deal with clouds of dust from our tires.
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In places the wall was so steep it was impossible not to bury the right foot peg. You rode to the left minding the shear drop off if you were thrown off of the edge.
 
#5
Part4
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We reached the summit and more level roads and some really fun trails.
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Open rock free trails were very few. I was about to have my chain guard fall off. Even though Loc-Tight'nd the screws had backed out from the pounding from the rocks we rode over. I stopped and bungy-tied the guard to my cargo basket.
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Loose rocks are a killer. You never know how tires are going to react. Both of us have been thrown into trees because a rock shot out to the side and the bike followed it right into a tree or boulder.
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Then there were areas such as this. You will bend your foot pegs. Patrick sheared one of his off of his bike. No matter how careful you think you are, the rocks always win in the end.
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This one section just went on for hundreds of yards. We rested after this bit to get out witts about us.
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We had rested and checked the bikes out for any possible problems. All was good. A nice section of the 4 wheel drive road and Patrick gave-it-the-gas.
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There is a Trail Head about a 1/2 mile up the road I wanted to ride.
That is Sandia Mountain in the distance.
 
#6
Part5
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More loose rocks. We were getting good at traversing these fields.
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We were on a trail now. It was going to challenge our driving and balance skills.
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A narrow trail guarded at it's edges by Yucca plants. Natures living bayonet plants. There was obvious signs that some unfortunate souls did not pass without paying in blood.
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Just to add some fun, lets throw in some large rocks and Yucca plants.
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It was this time Patric called out to me to look at the sky. To our west a couple of miles the sky was dark green. Not good. We could hear thunder over our engines and see lightning. They were calling for heavy rain storms at 11 AM. It was 10:40.
We made a mad dash the two miles to the car.
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Although you can't see it in the images, the storm is just behind us and catching up quickly. My camera and gyro are not waterproof. I did not think to bring a large zip-loc plastic bag. I had to get back to the car, We are flying down the trail.
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Nothing like doing S-turns through the trees at speed. Patrick hit two of them. I bounced my knuckles off a couple myself.
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I had spooked a squirrel that was running for its life, I darned near ran it over. The storm caught us just a few seconds later. I had to stop filming and put my coat on and hope for the best. The coat's zipper failed and allowed the rain to get to the camera and gyro. Just my luck.
We made the car just seconds after the down pour really began. It was 11:02 AM.
The camera and gyro were wet but not ruined.
Both bike's engines were hot from the ride back to the car and the down pour had them sounding like a steam locomotive had just pulled into station.
We only got to ride 8.4 miles this time out. I had lost my mounting hardware for my chain guard and bent the crap out of my foot pegs again.
Patrick had sheared off his left foot peg from his CT200U-CT and was sore from bouncing off of two trees.
We were soaked to the bone, but had one heck of a ride on the 5 Hills of Death.
We need to return and do the whole 20 miles of 4 wheel drive road.
END.
 
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