Trails of the Lost at Lost Lake
I had this "new" CR500R, and all I wanted to do was ride it. I wanted to ride the piss out of it. I wanted to ride it until the rubber fell off and liquid metal oozed out the exhaust ports. My convalescence from 4strokeotoxia was in complete remission. 4 strokes are "nice", they may even offer advantages on and off the track. But one thing they are not and never will be, is "as fun" as a 2 stroke dirt bike. Especially a big bore bruiser like the CR500R.
I loaded the bike up and took it out to my pal Akerlund's place near Lost Lake. I had ridden there with him since I was on my first YZ465. The best riding we ever did was while I was on my last CR500, and I could sense he was nearly as excited as me for me to leave the Husqvarna TE510 at home and be back aboard "The Earthmover".
Here's me tilling some earth in a small gravel pit.
And here I am trying to get a little hang-time...
...riding this area is fun, but decidedly lacking in jumps of any mention. This looks cooler than it was.
More gravel pit blasting...
This is a cool set of twin ridges next to each other with a killer drop off between them. Hit is at speed and feel your butt pucker!
The dense foliage made it hard to get a good shot doing the drop off justice...but it's there. Too steep to stand on with the camera.
There used to be a sign there, on a tree that said "Farnigal's Flyoff", or something like that.
I will get the correct name and edit this. Whoever Farnigal was, he had balls.
It was dark and rainy in the woods, but we had fun.
Akerlund shows how to bounce off the trees as a cornering tactic on his '05 CR250R...
He used to ride years ago, "back in the day", but had drifted away from it like so many of us. Then, one day he snapped. He stopped at Renton Motocycle Center, broke out the Amex, and came home with dirtbikes all around for his wife, daughters, and young son. He picked up himself a fancy CRF230R (despite my advice that he'd quickly outgrow it and that he really shouldn't get anything but a CR250R).
He brushed off my advice, with a "what the hell do you know" look and rode the CRF230 for all of about a week before he was back at RMC buying himself the shiny new 2-stroke race bike.
He kept the 230, and it is useful when he wants to go slow with the kids. But when there's REAL riding to do, the woods echo to a quicker firing tempo, and smell lusciously of pre-mix...
...and sliding through another desperate turn.
Here he goes blasting through an alpine vista...
There he goes...turn the page.
This is some of the absolutely coolest trail riding I've yet found in Western Washington. Probably the coolest aspect of it is...no quads.
Most of the trails are very tight single track and I think that keeps those SOB's out of there. You'll excuse me if I don't get into too much detail about where this Nirvanna is. Suffice to say that it's not too far from the Shelton airport trails.
I really feel bad preferring the old CR500 to my still nearly new TE510...but it's just...Funner!
I am keeping the Husky for the dual sport game, but that's probably the only reason. It will be a cold day in hell that I ever succumb again to the 4 stroke bug...at least at the expense of a good 2 stroke.
Best to have both.
ELSINORE'S RULE!!!