Well, I guess I should add my ride report too. Milo (my brother) and I rode A course sweep on Saturday with Gunny and Paul and had a great time. We were just glad to be out there after a 1.5 hour "git er done" wrenching session in the pits before we left. There's a story here...
After getting all geared up Saturday morning, Milo and I (the above mentioned brothers Juenemann
![Wink :wink:](./images/smilies/icon_wink.gif)
) took off about an hour after everyone left to start sweep. About 3 miles down the highway after leaving Mt. Hood Village, Milo's XR400 mysteriously started cutting out and belching black smoke when it cut back in, anywhere above part throttle and especially with load. So we stopped at the entrance to Still Cr. Road, poked around with the air filter, etc. Finding nothing, we turned back to camp since it wasn't rideable. Once back, started the process of elimination, beginning with possibility of bad gas from a can that had been stored too long. We scrounged 2 of Tom's milk jugs and drained the entire tank and bowl. Refilled with fresh, tested, same problem. Since "Mr. Prepared" Milo didn't have a spare plug, we scrounged a used spare one from a XR600 rider who was heading home early due to mechanical difficulties. Tested again, same problem. So now we get serious, pulled the tank, seat, and carb off. All the time I'm thinking "damn I hope I get to ride today..." as the sun was beginning to come out I was getting real antsy by this time. While we were wrestling with the carb, Tom walks up to check progress, points down to the coil (normally hidden underneath the tank, now removed) and says "hey, why is that bolt missing there?". Turns out there was a ground lug that mounted under that same bolt. Once we scrounged a 6x20mm bolt from my toolbox and threw everything back together, it ran like a champ! Good thing Tom was wandering around camp, otherwise we might have bolted things back together and never found the root of the problem...
So we finally hit the course, but since we were so far behind at this point we rode straight up the highway to CJ's Chevron and fueled up. As we were sitting there, Danno and Randy rode up behind us after sweeping out the first section. Shortly after this, we caught up with Mike and Steve at the 1st checkpoint, who were sweeping with Danno and Randy. Not much eventful to report for awhile, as the weather dried out we were lovin' life blasting down what were normally sled trails in the winter.
At some point later on we connected up with Gunny and Paul who had went out on a mid-sweep of the A course. Pretty soon we started catching up with a few riders. All 4 of us got sort of lost at one point where the rollchart had a confusing intersection graphic, with text that said "TRAIL NOT ROAD". We didn't see any trail entrance so went down the road for a couple miles until the next intersection and knew we were off the rollchart. We rode back, looked around for awhile and finally Milo discovered the trail entrance we had missed. This led to some great trail sections, which were actually dry and dusty. Plenty of brush to tear at the clothes and goggles too. Finally we emerged at the McCubbins Gulch riding area, hit highway 216 for the road rip to lunch. Along the way, we ran into a couple guys on XR600s, one got a flat. We tried a can of fix-a-flat from my fender bag, but no dice. He pushed his bike to a house across the street (the only one in what seemed like a 10 mile radius...how lucky is that????) and got a shot of air from the nice owner's air compressor, but still no luck, flat before he was out of the driveway. Left the bike in the front yard, doubled up with his buddy and rode to lunch.
Rest of the ride was uneventful but boy the Barlow road was fun. Traffic was light this late in the day so Milo and I wicked it up a bit for the final leg of the ride, as monkey butt was beginning to set in by now.
I wasn't able to ride on Sunday since I had only had a one day free kid-sitting token from my Brother-in-law and Sister who graciously came up to help out.
Here's some photos of the gorgeous view for those who rode up to the radio tower peaks on Sunday, taken earlier in the week (Tuesday) during pre-ride. Boy, too bad the weather didnt' work out, the view that could have been!
http://tawmn.smugmug.com/gallery/639737
Was a great event. Thanks Tom & the rest of the gang for putting on such a good ride!