A fellow KLR owner (Matt) whose doohickey I'd helped replace a couple months ago called and asked if I wanted to join him at the 19th Annual Michaux Dual-Sport meet, held in Southcentral PA's Michaux State Forest. I said sure, thinking it would be good opportunity to get some more offroad experience on the KLR. I got it—and then some!
We met along Rt.340 outside Frederick Maryland at 7:45am. It was a beautiful day—low humidity, clear skies and cool temps. I enjoyed sitting at the overpass waiting for Matt...
Matt rolled up on his (faster) green KLR:
We had a pleasant 60-mile ride up to the Big Flats ATV parking area in Michaux State Forest, arriving after most people had already hit the trail (which was fine with us)...
Before arriving, I thought "Cool—a dual-sport meet! I bet there'll be lots of people with KLRs!" NOT. A quick look around revealed the meet should have been called the Michaux MX, because all I saw was this...
When I show up on the KLR for rides with people on ST and sportbikes, I'm a freak...and ironically, Matt and I were just as freakish in this crowd of 100+ dirtbikers in full MX gear on 250cc MX bikes!
We were still psyched, though. We picked up our registration packets, which included number stickers and a nice t-shirt...
I silently pitied Matt, who planned to ride all day in his textile street gear...
Though I'd ridden up in my mesh jacket, there was no way I could have survived even wearing that...so I stashed it and donned my spankin' new chest protector and elbow pads. In a few moments, I'd transformed into SUPER-DIRT NOOB!
I might not have looked good, but I was cool and comfortable! While we aired down our tires to about 12F/16R, Everyone else disappeared from the lot in a cloud of dust, and Matt and I (KLR slackers that we are) headed off down what we thought was the right trail. About 2 miles later, Matt pulls over and says "Uhh...this doesn't look right---we should have crossed Rt.233 by now." DOH! So we backtrack to the lot and ask someone who sent us down the right path. (I suspected we were wrong, as this gravel road was entirely too easy!)
Soon we found ourselves on rougher double-track through the forest—still no big deal, but not quite as easy as the fire roads...
It was only 30 easy miles or so to the picnic area where lunch was dished up. Along the way, we made a few more wrong turns before finally stumbling across a parking lot full of bikes—lunch!
Once again, our KLRs were sideshow attractions amongst all the dirtbikers...
The gang from Chubby's Barbecue (a restaurant on Rt.15 near Emmitsburg) served up an awesome buffet lunch of roast beef, ham, beans, potato salad, and fruit. First-rate!
I have to digress for a moment to explain a realization I had at this meet. Not being a dirtbiker, I was amazed at how little all these dirtbikers knew about the broader world of motorcycling. I don't say that critically, just that for some reason, I figured everyone there must also ride on the street...but that didn't seem to be the case! For example, at one point I overheard a couple guys gawking at my KLR. One said (in total seriousness) "I bet that thing'll do 70mph!" (As if it was unheard of for a bike that can go on dirt also being capable of 70mph.)
The KLR was literally attracting small mobs of people, who poked and prodded it like something they'd never imagined. some of the comments were (seriously, no editing)...
"Can you actually take that thing on the interstate?"
"It must not get good mileage." (It gets 52mpg.)
"Can you commute on that thing?"
One guy pointed at the nerf bars and said (in all seriousness)..."What are those?"
And my favorite question of the day was, "What happens if you get a flat tire on that thing?"
I mean, these dirtbikers were flabbergasted by the KLR! When I told a few of them that I'd ridden it 5,000 miles to Newfoundland and back, they thought I was totally bullshitting. "Naw," they said, incredulously, "On
that thing?"
The ride continued after lunch down some nice, open singletrack...
Then the route turned into the woods, and before I knew it, I was on the gnarliest, narrowest "track" I'd ever been on. I would never have taken it on my own, but in the group, I plunged ahead. The track was no wider than a tire, and there were countless "tree squeezes." This one below, for example, was too narrow for my bars, so I had to stop, turn the wheel to get one grip through, then the other...
Let me just say this was offroad riding at a whole new level for me! The gopher track twisted through the forest, with tight turns, basketball-size rocks everywhere, and downed logs to climb over. I was simultaneously scared shitless and exhilarated!
I also quickly learned a critical lesson for riding stuff like this: momentum is your friend! You've gotta keep your feet on the pegs and stay on the throttle. When I stopped (as I did several times) it was a royal pain to get going again. But in this case, the challenge was keeping your feet on the pegs on a 6" wide track that plunged between trees 36" apart! LOL
At one particularly tight turn Matt and I pulled over when we heard (much faster) guys overtaking us. Matt (a relative dirt noob as well) just shook his head laughing, and said "This is just the craziest stuff I've ever been in!"
The guys on micro-bikes blew past us...
...as I sat wishing I had a micro-bike too!
This tiny track continued another mile or two, and I'd never been so mentally and physically wiped out by such a short stretch of riding in my life. LOL (I'm sure experienced dirtbikers are laughing as they read this.) I was pretty proud of myself though, and kept my feet on the pegs for the most part. I did drop the KLR once—it was another "tree squeeze" and rather than stop, I went for it and did a crazy, sudden jink with the bars to get through. I made it through, and went down on the far side.
I got the bike up quickly, though (motivated by the approaching whine of micro-bikes catching up from behind).
I was thinking I was the only one who was tested by this trail...but when I popped out onto the main road, I found a crowd of other dirtbikers stopped and resting. The 6" track continued, but this crowd decided to bail—after a couple miles of this stuff apparently many people said "Screw it, I'm done with that trail!"
I was feeling pretty good after manhandling the KLR through the same stuff that was tiring out the micro-bikers. LOL (I should add that I was stunned and amazed I still had my mirrors after all those tree squeezes!)
The ride continued on easier trails like this one...
There was even a ride medic on the trails with everyone, who was a good guy and helped orient people who were heading the wrong direction:
We arrived back at the Big Flats parking lot around 2pm, happy, hot and worn-out. The event organizers even had an ice cream table set up, complete with mixin's and fixin's!
As we changed gear and got ready to ride home, everyone else loaded their dirtbikes onto trucks and trailers. Several people looked at Matt and I with amazement and said "Are you guys RIDING home???"
I jokingly responded "Yeah, we're REAL dual-sporters—we actually RIDE our bikes everywhere!"
The triumphant KLR dirt noobs in our official t-shirts:
And here are my stats from the ride in the woods...
All in all, it was a fantastic day, and though it might have been tame by dirtbiking standards, I pushed myself and the KLR *far* beyond anything I'd ever ridden before...so it was a great learning experience. Best of all, my definition of what's "difficult" got raised considerably, and I expanded my range of what type of trails I'd ride alone now (having a better idea of what's possible on the KLR).
As we rode home down the west flank of the Catoctins, I reflected on the joys of dual-sporting. I'd learned this day that there are two distinct definitions of "dual-sport" riding: most of the riders at this event would define it as 90% dirtbiking/10% pavement...but I still prefer the 60/40 definition.
This view below of the road home, along with some images of what I'd ridden earlier, perfectly captures what dual-sporting means to me: doing it all in a single day, on the same bike!
Scott
