that Lincoln is excited for the ride too. The plan? An all-day moto adventure over the Gravelly Mountain range, just outside Ennis, Montana. On dirt.
Lincoln: Sunday Alex showed up at my place, and we loaded my XR600R into his truck next to his new KTM 625 sxc for a trip down to Ennis to ride the Gravelly Range Road. He had picked the bike up on Friday and was super stoked to go ride it for the first time in it's natural environment: the DIRT! Brad also showed up and he followed us down on his super modified Darth Vader Black DR650.
After fueling up bikes, truck and ourselves we arrived at a nice fishing access lot and unloaded. After some celebratory wheelies by Alex in the parking lot we buzzed on down the road for a few miles of pavement before the dirt. It was a beautiful sunny day, maybe 75.
Alex: We unloaded at a fishing access parking lot, and geared up for the ride.
Boots, goggles, gloves, jackets and pads. I fired up the 625 and ripped a wheelie in the parking lot in a vain attempt to lower my excitement and keep myself objective. This did not work at all, and I became more excited. We rode the 5 miles of tarmac to the dirt road, and stopped at the entrance. In front of us, a long winding dirt road up the side of a mountain, with waterbars and other gleaming moto-road accessories. With a wave Lincoln said "Meet you at the top!" It was all I needed, and I rocketed through the gears on the 625 and up the hill, bounding off waterbars whenever possible.
Lincoln: We hit the dirt and wound our way to the bottom of a long hill that dissappeared up into the trees. This was the beginning of the real ride, as said hill has numerous waterbars and starts to get rugged. I told Alex to hit it, and he did, roaring off in a hail of gravel and dust! I was close behind and he rocketed up the hill, jumping the waterbars and dissappearing into the woods.
Alex hammering the new bike!Alex: I was surprised by the power on the 625. My previous KTM had rip-your-arms-out-of-their-sockets power that would put you into a different zip code without some throttle discipline. The 625 had smooth, usable power, but not in heaps and gobs like the RFS bike I had previously owned. However, it did feel 'planted', and secure ripping on the dirt-roads, and you could really let it hang out around corners. The brakes (despite the added weight of a 5-gallon gas tank) proved excellent as well.
Lincoln: After our break we hit it again and rallied across the open meadows on top of the Gravelly Mountains. This road is really pretty amazing. There were a few cars out as it was July 4th Weekend, but there was plenty of room for everyone. We jammed along, testing the limits of speed, traction, and braking, and had a grand old time of it!
Alex: While I'm sure there is some inferred speed limit on these dirt roads, there is none posted, which leads us to believe it defaults to the Montana standard of "Safe and Prudent". "Safe and Prudent" to us seems to be "As fast as you can without riding off the side of the mountian", so thats what we did. The downside of these access roads, is that they are frequented often by cars. I couldn't help but think to myself "How fun is this, if cars are doing it too?"
This type of thinking led us to our first adventure. We found a sign with a number that pointed to a seldom-used trail, marked only by matted grass from ATV's. We followed it for awhile, and then it seemed to peter out to nothing. In an attempt to find it again, we ended up on top of a hill with another spectacular view, which we made our second stop of the day. When we scanned the horizon, we saw what looked to be some sort of marker at the top of an even taller hill. "I think we're going to have to go see what that is", I remarked to my fellow riders. It didn't take much convincing, and we soon blazed our own trail to the top.
Lincoln and Brad at the Overlook
Lincoln: After finding our way up this hill we had a great view of Black Butte and the whole area. At this point I noticed there were some T-storms off to the West moving towards us....
Alex: We had talked about finding a nice place to enjoy a small lunch, and could think of no other. Over jerky, pizza, cheese-its and some beers, we debated our next move. Ominous clouds
we're forming the traditional afternoon Montana thunderstorm in the direction we had planned to head, so we decided to take trail 413 (marked as a primitive road) and miss the inclimate weather.
Lincoln: At the very top of this hill we found a cairn and a old log stuck in it with some rusty plates with what I think was section coordinates punched in them. This was our lunch spot.
Lincoln: This here is one happy KTM owner! Alex was riding pretty well and seemed to enjoy his new rig thoroughly. He is a recent transplant from the East Coast and I did my best to blow his mind with this ride.....Welcome To MONTANA!
Wanting to explore a little more challenging terrain we headed for a trail we found on the map. I had reservations about the clouds and the rain falling out of them, but said F-it and twisted the throttle. It was a good ATV trail, pretty eroded in spots, and really fun. I still think about how much more awesome my XR is on stuff like this than the KLR was.
Alex: The trail was fantastic. Whoops, and ruts, ups and downs, across
meadows, and around snow drifts still melting. I found my second surprise from the KTM for that day, on that trail. Many folks have said that the 625 is just too big and heavy for tight trail riding, yet I had absolutely no problems bobbing around the tighter trails, and some technical sections. It handled great, and the power was plentiful for the trail. If it wasn't for the bigger tank, and the "LC4" stencil on the motor, I'd have thought I was on my old 520.
Lincoln: We reached a crux point with a "stream crossing to steep off camber embankment" move, which put Brad in the dirt, rider side down! Doh! After renegotiating his DR up the bank, we took a breather. And it started to rain. I reconned ahead while Alex and Brad sought cover in the trees. Trail looked easier ahead and I came back to wait out the rain.
Alex: While everyone was catching their breath, it started to rain lightly, and a thunderclap echoed in the distance.
"Uh-oh" remarked Lincoln.
Those ominous clouds that we had seen before? Sensing our change of direction they had bee-lined right for our position. We looked at the cove and quickly decided that if it was going to pour, it would be better to be in some sort of natural shelter, and prone on the top of a barren hill on the bikes.
Lincoln: After a lot of waiting and no sign of abatement of rainfall, we decided to press ahead. Now, those of you who have ridden in the Montana high country when it is wet know exactly why I was hesitant to head out into the boondocks....Rain turns the grass and soil to a slick mess, that is near impossible to ride. We stymied in our forward progress by a huge hill climb and had no choice but to backtrack. In doing so, all the little hills we came DOWN on our way out, became barely rideable trying to go UP on the way back. Much cursing, falling over, spinning out, skidding, overheating, sweating and general misery promptly followed. Alex and I celebrated summiting the worst climb. I ended up having to push my bike under power up the hill....Alex rode the whole way after failing on attempt number one.
Alex: We came to a small hillclimb that proved to be the first big challenge. I watched Lincoln rally up it, and make it more than halfway up to the first shelf before finally getting stuck and having to push-ride the bike up the rest of the way, with a trail of mud roosting off the back. I followed behind Brad up, and as soon as my tires hit the sodden earth, I knew I had made a big mistake. He reached zero-traction seconds before I did, and next thing I knew, I was wheeling backwards to avoid having him hit me. The front wheel skidded sideways, and flung me off. Ouch. I was not expecting to drop the bike on its first run out.
I rode the bike back down to the flat and level and looked at the climb as objectively as I could. The main trail was essentially un-rideable. Taking that route would just be a matter of luck and a lot of pushing. To the left there was a rocky, grassy section that was steeper, but might offer more traction. I gunned it in second gear, gaining as much speed over the grassy bog as I could, and rocketed up the hill. A couple of off-camber rocks almost threw me off, but I stayed on and reached the top. Phew!
Lincoln: The ride out was super slow first gear clutch slipping foolishness. We all fell down, our bikes were covered in mud, and the ride quickly turned NOT FUN. We just wanted to get back to the road.
Lincoln: Finally we made it out back to the main road. We took a good break and of course, IT STOPPED RAINING! Of course. After de-mudding my bike the best I could with a broken stick of sagebrush, we hit the road, all cold and soaked. I was the only one who had a rainjacket by the way, but I was plenty wet inside it just from sweating so much....Alex: We fought, and fought down tiny hills, through huge ruts and slippery sections. I flipped the bike on its side for the second time, and even the seemingly crash-invulnerable Lincoln took his turn with the shiny side town. When we finally reached the section of the trail that had the smallest amount of gravel on it, you could hear the sigh of relief over the sound of the engines. Lincoln once remarked to me that dirt-biking was like a ritual, putting on gear and armor and doing battle with nature, and when we finally reached the main fire road again, its exactly how we felt.
Brad and Lincoln coming out of the trail.
Lincoln: Despite all expressing our wishes to take it easy after our ordeal, Alex and I ended up riding out even faster than the way in, and I pretty much felt like I was racing Baja or something. It was awesome. Sliding corners, barely staying on the road, sweet! Then, the sun came back! Even better!
Alex is loving the 625!Alex: Halfway back, the sun finally peeked out, and boosted everyones spirits almost instantly. Where before we we're almost putting around the dirt roads, we now ripped around them with legs out, and rear ends sliding around. We stopped right before the
final descent and let the sun warm our backs, soaked gloves and hands.
final descent and let the sun warm our backs, soaked gloves and hands.
We stopped before the descent back to the start, and soaked up some solar BTU's. The views up here are pretty much ridiculous.
Lincoln: I am really glad I got a new bike. This ride was the one where I finally got comfortable with the XR and was able to really ride it like it wants to be ridden.....FAST! After getting back to normal temperature in the fingers, we headed down, sad to leave the dirt road Shangri-La that is the Gravelly Range. Git out of the way you cows!
Alex: All in all, it was some of the most exciting hours of motorcycling I've ever done. While I have ridden in mud and the wet many times before, never have I ridden in anything so challenging. Simple climbs and descents turned into 15 minute ordeals where the only objective was to get down without totally eating shit and falling off the mountain. Likewise, I've never been on such amazing trails (in the dry), with stream crossings, and uphill climbs.
Lincoln's patented "Steering with the rear wheel" technique on his XR.
Lincoln: And of course we still have saloons in Montana....this is the Claim Jumper in Ennis....a great place to end a ride. We had a great day of true adventuring out in the rain and mud, but no one got hurt and we had way more sun than rain, so it was a fine ride in the end. See you next weekend!
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