Oh look a Caleb post!
Yeah, I got up a bit early this morning and decided to write a bit of a post! As Adrienne has told you before, this is a place to make your own fun. One of the things that I do is mountain biking with some friends. But, I got tired of pedaling up the mountains near here, so I organized a motorcycle trip up to the top of the biggest nearby mountain that we call "Lonetree". When I was here in the 80's, the ridge only had one tree on it. Since then, PNG Forestries planted a pine forest on the back of the mountain and now the whole ridge is covered in pines. But, the name stays.
So we picked a Saturday, fueled up the bikes, and set off out our back gate, through the coffee plantation, up and over the pass, down the VERY muddy mountain road, and around the back of Lonetree to reach the road to the summit. It was an interesting mix of people and bikes. Mostly novices like myself, but one dad brought his kids, and a woman rider went too. We had everything from 1970's Hondas, to a 2009 Kawasaki 650. I was on a 1980 something Honda 250 with drum brakes and mud guards held in place by pop-rivets! But, it was enough!
The ride proved to be pretty damp. It had rained buckets the night before and there was plenty of water still around. I enjoyed getting dirty so that didn't bother me, but I really wasn't prepared for the amount of soft clay we encountered on the downhill run on the other side of the pass. It was ridiculous! Some of the old bikes, and all of the Yamahas (due to poor placement of the rear shock), got their rear wheels jammed up with all the clay they were picking up. We had to stop several times to pick riders and their bikes up out of the mud! Once we got off of Mud Mountain (new name), we hit the valley on the back side. It was flat, mostly dry, and dotted with a few villages. The villages heard the 6 motorcycles coming a long way off so we were constantly riding through a crowd of kids trying to get us to high five them. I learned that this is not a good idea on a previous mountain biking trip. I was pulled off my bike by some teen while I was pedaling home after the ride. So, I ignored the kids pleas and just beeped at them instead!
Eventually our road ran out. I had heard that it had been washed out and was impassible to vehicles, but I wasn't sure if that meant bikes or not. It definitely meant bikes. Look at the size of that hole! Anyway, we stood and stared at the hole for about a half an hour, had a snack, then turned around and rode home. Going uphill in the mud wasn't nearly as bad. Just keep your nose pointed uphill and keep the power on. It was uneventful. We never made it to the top, but I'm going to give it another go from the other side of the mountain and see if that road is passable! I hope you enjoy the pics!
No comments:
Post a Comment