cycle world trek 2007 — beginners on ice

Day 2: Ice Riding Seminar — Watch For Trees?

october 5-7, 2007 | by John Siebenthaler: photos©john siebenthaler

taking business to market

Saturday dawned clear and sunny. Perfect for exploring the woods or taking in the enduro riding seminar Scot Harden planned for the fire roads around Bald Mountain.

Opting for a four wheeled excursion to Mono Hot Springs in the morning, Scott later explored Shaver Lake in the afternoon. Eric and I decided to take Mr. Harden up on his offer to share with us what it took to ride like a champion.

After breakfast we gathered in the parking lot with 20 or so others eager to become better offroad riders. We got a quick run down on the basics — stand on the pegs, steer with your knees, don’t leave your buddy in a pit full of rattlers — before heading back up 168 towards the Tamarack cutoff.

It’s important readers understand that if I refer to "honing my skills" relative to offroad riding, picture carving a Thanksgiving turkey with a two by four sharpened down to a one by two. My riding’s adequate but my experience remains miniscule. With that full disclosure out of the way, lets continue with the lesson.

Just Stand Up Straight
Scot’s upright riding style, in which the legs do all the work and you navigate from a vertical position, involves nudging the bike in the direction you want to go with your knees. He’s been at this for awhile. His KTM is dialed in, and if not for our heights of 6-feet plus, Eric and I might have been able to better appreciate his wisdom.

But we are a little taller, our bikes are off the rack, and we can’t simultaneously reach the bars and stand on the pegs without leaning way forward over the headlight. Our center of gravity — the point of the whole exercise — ends up roughly over the front axle. Or so it seemed.

We hung at the back of the pack as the group climbed the thousand feet or so back up the highway before turning off onto one of the more heavily used logging roads that interlace this skiing mecca. The area gets a lot of vehicular use, more so in hunting season, so two-way traffic in the form of a Warn equipped Hummer front end was a concern because of the limited manuverability.

Is Snow Slipper-WHOOOP!
As we wound our way deeper into the woods we ran into more snow pack. Shade from the trees lining the road preserved the previous day’s storm, lending a winter wonderland air to the ride. I’d try the standup style for awhile, then settle back to a more familiar seated — more secure — position. The post card setting for these high altitude trails was enchanting, if not for the death grip I had on the bars.

As I rounded another curve things felt a little squirrely. This wasn’t like the sand washes I’m familiar with back home. No, more like roller blades on Teflon. But nothing I can’t handle with a little WHAM! Welcome to the dirt.

Shouldn’t We Have, Like, Spikes?
I was underneath my trusty XR650L with no recollection of the dismount process. Up and on my feet and righting the bike before anyone else came down the road, I busily checked bits and pieces for damage while imagining this was my get-off for the trip. When Eric pulled up I asked him about the requirements for riding on snow, given his former background at Arctic Cat. The Minnesota native said we were riding on ice covered with snow. Ha ha. Well then, that was so much fun lets just do it again.

We’d gone what felt like fifty feet further and this time as I came out of a gentle curve at speed just above training wheels my front end began trying to swap positions with my rear. I can save it I thought, without realizing the futility of it all. Then I fixated on the tree dead ahead and closing. What started small was expanding exponentially. Was this the phoenomenon the Titanic’s captain saw just before impact?

This next ding slapped me on the dirt just like the first fall down, but this time an obstacle was involved. I don’t recall closing my eyes before hitting the beast. What I do recall is 1) realizing this day of in-the-field classwork was done and 2) thinking that didn’t hurt so bad. Once back home I’d have two weeks of nursing sore ribs to reconsider snap judgements.

Time For Lunch
We hadn’t ridden another 1/8 mile after turning around before it was Eric’s turn to drop his bike. And just as he was getting back upright the entire pack came riding around the bend for the same reason — non-existent traction. As they motored past on their search for an alternate route to Bald Mountain (but not before desert rider Steven Soto flopped down on his prepped 650 like a bear on ice skates) we decided to head back for some lunch before trying the road less traveled to Mono Hot Springs.

After patching up the parts that had either shaken loose or gotten a bit twisted, we headed for Lakeshore before starting the climb up through Kaiser Pass. We’d barely gotten off the two-lane before we again hit ice that covered the blacktop from side to side. Despite wanting to ride this scenic route, the knowledge of road conditions further ahead and the fresh experience of ice slamming combined to cancel that plan, and after exploring a few of the side roads we headed back to the lodge and called it a day.

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