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?
Mike Green
Mike Green
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We want a Clayton ride report :)
- Thread starter Goat Trail Green
- Start date
Patience . . .
Water crossing vid from Friday afternoon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nuuWltrwMeE
Greengoose & Backspin trying to cool off:
Those are just a teaser. I'll write something up and post the rest of my pictures as soon as I get a chance.
Water crossing vid from Friday afternoon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nuuWltrwMeE
Greengoose & Backspin trying to cool off:
Those are just a teaser. I'll write something up and post the rest of my pictures as soon as I get a chance.
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LOL
whooooooo hooooo
I am just giving Chris a hard time...
Mike Green
whooooooo hooooo
I am just giving Chris a hard time...
Mike Green
mcrider
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What's the holdup? It's not football season & basketball is over. 
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mcrider said:
Not till tonight!
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You talkin bout me?
When I hit Clayton I called my wife and told her I would be home in two hours to unload the trailer and take it back to my uncles. I said if she wanted to go with me we could take the long way home on my bike that I left at his house. So I was riding with my wife, sorry I let you down Mike!
Here are a few photos to wet your appetite.
When I hit Clayton I called my wife and told her I would be home in two hours to unload the trailer and take it back to my uncles. I said if she wanted to go with me we could take the long way home on my bike that I left at his house. So I was riding with my wife, sorry I let you down Mike!
Here are a few photos to wet your appetite.
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So there we were, tires flat, bikes soaked and caked in mud, us worn out and breathing hard... From among the gentle rustling of the leaves we began to catch the faint whispers of dueling banjoes drifting on the muggy breeze... 
"You pretty boys ain't from round here are ya's?!"
"That shore is a purdy seat you got there..."
We knew right then it was gonna be an adventure like nothing we'd ever had before...
GetBent
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that river looks a little deeper for some reason.
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Tourmeister said:
"You pretty boys ain't from round here are ya's?!"
"That shore is a purdy seat you got there..."
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Ok, ok here it is..... The forecast called for rain. 6-8 inches was what the storm that was heading our way had produced in areas south. I can tell you this, I was not the only one in the group that thought about backing out.
The cast of characters for this fools tale is:
Krabill from Tulsa
Scott his buddy
Hood Ornament
Backspinn
Greengoose
Also camping with us but doing their own thing was Cagiva 549 and Hardybaker
We all arrived Friday at some point. Krabill and Scott were the lucky ones and got in a little riding before the rain started. We all had been looking at the radar and we all had seen that there was a possibility that the storm would skirt us. None of us really wanted to talk about that possibility though in fear of jinxing the chance.
Friday around 6:00 the rain started.
Backspinn and Greengoose decided to set their tents up under the pavilion since they had arrived late and the rain was already underway.
My tent on the other hand was out in the elements. The rain lasted most all of the night, and into the morning.
As soon as we woke up everybody was anxious to see how wet it was. The caretaker seemed to wipe most of the worry away with these words “we only got about an inch of rain”
With those words I’ll say this, the conditions were near perfect. I have never been to Clayton when the riding was this good. It was like a big April Fools joke God was playing on us.
We left out of the state park on Backspinn’s wheel over some of the nastiest rockiest stuff I have ever had the pleasure to ride on. It had been awhile since I had been on the bike and was trying to take it easy to start off with.
Not something you can do when the terrain gets brutal. I went down early on, but got back up quickly and realized that I needed to give into the wishes of my XR and open the throttle up. Soon I was floating over the rocks and having a blast.
Backspinn got us to the highway via trail leaving out of the state park. We then hit some dirt road where I was given the reigns.
Krabill said he wanted to go to the lookout tower, I just happened to have the coordinates
Scott took the opportunity to adjust the suspension on his 250 he rode down from Tulsa.
While we were at the fire tower some of the guys decided to do a little trials riding.
After the tower we headed to Pickens for lunch. My process for getting to Pickens was to ride fast down a logging road following the GPS. At times I would see a road paralleling us and a goat trail that was not on the GPS heading in that direction. So I turned down the goat trail. That method turned up some of the best riding I had ever done in Clayton. A nice mix of hard trail and fast dirt roads.
At one point Backspinn and the others did a little exploring, but Krabill and I on the big bikes decided against it and went our own way with the agreement that we would meet up in Pickens.
On our way to Pickens we made a little pit stop.
After lunch we decided to try and ride some of the trails around the river. I had the coordinates for the washed to bridge that has made appearances in just about every ride report there is on Clayton. So we headed that way following the dirt road/goat trail/dirt road method.
At one point I led us down a NASTY descent that was barely doable with the assistance of gravity, the whole time thinking I hope this goes somewhere cause I sure don’t want to try and ride up this nastiness.
Turns out it did and all was well…until we got to the river. Just as we pull up and put the kickstands down I mention to Backspinn that it looks doable. Greengoose then without blinking an eye takes off to cross the river.
This is after dumping it at least twice and just before backspin decides to cross so that he could help his friend with a little motivation.
Problem is you have to make it across to give motivation. If you drop it to all you do is spread doubt and fear.
Both of them were in the river for at least 15 minutes trying to get out. All the while we are shouting words of encouragement.
“I don’t think we are going that way.”
“I think you picked the wrong line.”
“Is the water cold?”
The last comment would prove to haunt me the following day.
After we all met up back in camp Cagiva549 and HardyBaker started the fire and told us about their trip to Arkansas that day and we all relaxed glad to be in the company of dirtbikes and friends.
Rewind a little bit to dinner at the Clayton Country Store where we met up with Ricky. Ricky decided to ride his KTM 640 down from Norman to ride. He didn’t know we were going to be there, but I quickly invited him to ride with us on Sunday.
That night over the campfire Rickey told us tales about some of his adventures, The best of witch started with I was checking my e-mail one morning, saw the Horizons Unlimited meeting was in Creel that weekend, called in sick and was on my way to Mexico in an hour.
Not such a big feat for a seasoned world traveler…Ricky had never been to Mexico before that, nor did he know anything about Mexico. All was well though, early on his trip he got good advise from an English speaking local that was deported for trying to kill somebody.
Waking up in the Clayton Lake State Park has never disappointed.
The plan for Sunday was to ride short as we all needed to be at work on Monday. We rode the big loop out of the state park which is at times is a pretty tough trail. Here are a few photos to enjoy and a water crossing thrown in for fun.
The good thing about being the trip photographer is that there is usually no pictures of you under water.
After we got back to camp the conversation went a little like this:
“Hey Steve ride over that rock and I’ll take your picture”
“Which rock”
“I don’t think I can do that one”
“I can do this one though”
He thinks about it…
Then he does it…
Then he does it again.
Then he says “take my picture while do some wheelies”
After the fun we all get loaded up and packed up to head our own ways.
I would have to say that this was by far one of the best riding weekends I have had in Clayton. The small group of riders all seemed to get along well, and our riding style suited each other well.
Plans were discussed over Saturday’s campfire for another trip further abroad. Stay tuned for the next trip report.
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Outstanding pics as usual
YOU other guys were supposed to take my ride report lead in and run with it
Cool man, I'm glad I ran into you guys. I really had fun.
I was feeling pretty crappy about missing the ride out at Eureka and at the last minute decided to ride back out to Clayton again. It seemed a little redundant having spent last weekend out there too but what the ****.
I snapped a few pics after our morning ride though ****.
Using the pointers I made last weekend I was able to navigate my way to Pickens without map or gps.
I broke a few things along the way,
I also spotted a broken cow,
and a few unbroken ones,
I also rode up to that tower you guys were talking about and spotted some of your tracks,
I was feeling pretty crappy about missing the ride out at Eureka and at the last minute decided to ride back out to Clayton again. It seemed a little redundant having spent last weekend out there too but what the ****.
I snapped a few pics after our morning ride though ****.
Using the pointers I made last weekend I was able to navigate my way to Pickens without map or gps.
I broke a few things along the way,
I also spotted a broken cow,
and a few unbroken ones,
I also rode up to that tower you guys were talking about and spotted some of your tracks,
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Glad you found Pickens. Did you get a sandwich? That's 80% of why iI go to Clayton. I keep threatening to ride my street bike up there one day for lunch. What did you break?
What a weekend.
Hey guys,
WE sure missed the morning talk arount the campfire this morning. Hood orniment, good to have you over for dinner last night. Good company. Beautiful setting. Great time for all of us. David and I rode the parkway and numerous side trips to total an easy 180 on mostly asphalt roads Sat. Sunday we took the dirt bikes and did about half that off road and on atv trails. David was breaking in his new KTM 450 Exc. Sprocket, "our" xr400 is an old hand at this. That Clayton Lake State Park is a fantastic place to take the family and for the rider to have almost a million acres to ride in. Highly recommended. Lets do it again guys, just say the word. Hardy
Hey guys,
WE sure missed the morning talk arount the campfire this morning. Hood orniment, good to have you over for dinner last night. Good company. Beautiful setting. Great time for all of us. David and I rode the parkway and numerous side trips to total an easy 180 on mostly asphalt roads Sat. Sunday we took the dirt bikes and did about half that off road and on atv trails. David was breaking in his new KTM 450 Exc. Sprocket, "our" xr400 is an old hand at this. That Clayton Lake State Park is a fantastic place to take the family and for the rider to have almost a million acres to ride in. Highly recommended. Lets do it again guys, just say the word. Hardy
A couple weeks ago I was looking at my way too clean KLR sitting in the garage thinking it probably feels left out since I got hooked on trials and have been spending all my "dirt time" on my new, tiny little Beta. Browsing around the boards I saw some goofball wanted to do a small Clayton ride. Woohoo! I love Clayton, I love camping, and this was the perfect excuse to get my big pig all dirty again. I even had some new luggage that needed a good test run on it. Perfect.
I met another Tulsa rider (ScottH) on the October ride and asked him if he'd be interested in going down with me since I saw the group whittling away and I knew he was a good camper, a **** good rider, and I was pretty sure he'd fit in with the rest of the yahoo's that were planning on coming. He says he's in. Perfect.
With the ride getting closer, the weather started looking ominous. With Friday already taken off as a vacation day for the ride, I go ahead and pack the bike up Thursday night despite the forcast for thunderstorms and tornados. Friday morning rolls around and I checked the weather again. Through some weird twists and turns from good old Mother Nature, it looked like we would have zero precipitation until Friday evening. I called Scott bright and early to confirm he was still going. "What are you doing?" "Packing my bike" he says. See you in an hour. Perfect.
We meet up at a local gas station and head on down the road. I think I should mention that he is riding a KLX250S. While we weren't in any danger of busting the 75mph turnpike speed limit and we did have to stop once to top off his tank, that little bike just kept on chuggin'. No rain the whole trip and we rolled into the campground to find it pretty much empty. There were a couple people fishing on the little lake, but no other campers in sight and the weather was cooperating. Perfect.
We took our time setting up camp making sure to pick out tent spots carefully as we knew that even though the weather was fine at the moment, there was going to be some rain tonight like it or not. Well . . . we're here . . . we're set up . . . nobody else is here yet . . . what to do . . . let's RIDE! We decided to just hit the trails behind the campground and stay somewhat close because, well, the rain was coming. The first section out of camp was much worse than I have ever seen it (this is my 5th trip to Clayton). I can only assume all the dirt around the rocks was washed away because rocks is all it was. Big rocks, little rocks, rolly-polly-knock-your-handlebars-out-of-your-hands kind of rocks. Not a real problem, just a little more challenging than I remember it last time. This is the kind of stuff that keeps you on your toes. We found some nice trails and even a decent water crossing.
After a little more exploring, we noticed it was getting close to dinner time and we decided we had tempted the rain gods long enough, so we head to town to load up on some supplies and go on back to camp. Just when we start to think all the TX guys have up and stiffed us, here comes Photojojo rolling up in a minivan with the beastly XRR on a trailer. Soon after Chris arrived, two of the nicest, kindest, and out-and-out hilarious folks you will ever have the pleasure of meeting (I'm talking about HardyBaker and Cagiva 549 here) pull up in a big *** Ford pickup with bikes in the back and a 6x14 trailer in tow . . . hmmm . . . what's in the trailer? Turns out . . . . everything, lol. Took them the better part of an hour and a half to set up "camp". Now I say "camp", but it was more like the Taj Mahal. About dusk Greengoose and Backspinn pull up, and as soon as they get out of the truck it starts to sprinkle. Great. Oh well, we sat around under the pavilion and told lies for a while, then they just set up their tents under the roof.
Saturday morning comes and the rain has all but let up completely. Hood Ornament shows up bright and early and we all gear up and hit the trails. The trail out of the campground hasn’t gotten any easier now that the rocks are wet and it gets especially tricky once you get a little bit of mud on your tires. Woohoo!
A few hours of clouds break way for a beautiful, deep blue sky and we head out for the fire tower. I’ve heard about it, but have never seen it. I figured it would be a nice side trip to see something we haven’t seen yet. Pretty cool.
After that, we head out for Pickens using Chris’s awesome dirt road, goat trail navigation technique that made for one of the best rides I’ve ever been on. The rain the night before left us with very little dust and massive amounts of traction and by now the sun has dried off all the slick rocks.
Lunchtime at the Pickens general store.
Our afternoon ride was every bit as good as the morning ride. Maybe even more so. Great ride.
Saturday evening Ricky showed up on his KTM just in time for dinner, a nice fire provided by HardyBaker and Cagiva, and enough riding stories to go around.
Sunday morning meant another short ride was in order. Time for some singletrack behind the lake. Some more water, a decent sized log crossing, and some rocky singletrack. I wasn’t about to let Backspinn and his yz426 out of my KLR’s sight when he kicked it up a notch at one point. I’ll bet he never knew a 400 lbs KLR could run singletrack like that. It takes a bit of work, but it’ll do it
That’s about it. Headed back to camp to load up the bikes and had an uneventful 2 ½ hour ride back to Tulsa. Can’t wait to do it again.
I met another Tulsa rider (ScottH) on the October ride and asked him if he'd be interested in going down with me since I saw the group whittling away and I knew he was a good camper, a **** good rider, and I was pretty sure he'd fit in with the rest of the yahoo's that were planning on coming. He says he's in. Perfect.
With the ride getting closer, the weather started looking ominous. With Friday already taken off as a vacation day for the ride, I go ahead and pack the bike up Thursday night despite the forcast for thunderstorms and tornados. Friday morning rolls around and I checked the weather again. Through some weird twists and turns from good old Mother Nature, it looked like we would have zero precipitation until Friday evening. I called Scott bright and early to confirm he was still going. "What are you doing?" "Packing my bike" he says. See you in an hour. Perfect.
We meet up at a local gas station and head on down the road. I think I should mention that he is riding a KLX250S. While we weren't in any danger of busting the 75mph turnpike speed limit and we did have to stop once to top off his tank, that little bike just kept on chuggin'. No rain the whole trip and we rolled into the campground to find it pretty much empty. There were a couple people fishing on the little lake, but no other campers in sight and the weather was cooperating. Perfect.
We took our time setting up camp making sure to pick out tent spots carefully as we knew that even though the weather was fine at the moment, there was going to be some rain tonight like it or not. Well . . . we're here . . . we're set up . . . nobody else is here yet . . . what to do . . . let's RIDE! We decided to just hit the trails behind the campground and stay somewhat close because, well, the rain was coming. The first section out of camp was much worse than I have ever seen it (this is my 5th trip to Clayton). I can only assume all the dirt around the rocks was washed away because rocks is all it was. Big rocks, little rocks, rolly-polly-knock-your-handlebars-out-of-your-hands kind of rocks. Not a real problem, just a little more challenging than I remember it last time. This is the kind of stuff that keeps you on your toes. We found some nice trails and even a decent water crossing.
After a little more exploring, we noticed it was getting close to dinner time and we decided we had tempted the rain gods long enough, so we head to town to load up on some supplies and go on back to camp. Just when we start to think all the TX guys have up and stiffed us, here comes Photojojo rolling up in a minivan with the beastly XRR on a trailer. Soon after Chris arrived, two of the nicest, kindest, and out-and-out hilarious folks you will ever have the pleasure of meeting (I'm talking about HardyBaker and Cagiva 549 here) pull up in a big *** Ford pickup with bikes in the back and a 6x14 trailer in tow . . . hmmm . . . what's in the trailer? Turns out . . . . everything, lol. Took them the better part of an hour and a half to set up "camp". Now I say "camp", but it was more like the Taj Mahal. About dusk Greengoose and Backspinn pull up, and as soon as they get out of the truck it starts to sprinkle. Great. Oh well, we sat around under the pavilion and told lies for a while, then they just set up their tents under the roof.
Saturday morning comes and the rain has all but let up completely. Hood Ornament shows up bright and early and we all gear up and hit the trails. The trail out of the campground hasn’t gotten any easier now that the rocks are wet and it gets especially tricky once you get a little bit of mud on your tires. Woohoo!
A few hours of clouds break way for a beautiful, deep blue sky and we head out for the fire tower. I’ve heard about it, but have never seen it. I figured it would be a nice side trip to see something we haven’t seen yet. Pretty cool.
After that, we head out for Pickens using Chris’s awesome dirt road, goat trail navigation technique that made for one of the best rides I’ve ever been on. The rain the night before left us with very little dust and massive amounts of traction and by now the sun has dried off all the slick rocks.
Lunchtime at the Pickens general store.
Our afternoon ride was every bit as good as the morning ride. Maybe even more so. Great ride.
Saturday evening Ricky showed up on his KTM just in time for dinner, a nice fire provided by HardyBaker and Cagiva, and enough riding stories to go around.
Sunday morning meant another short ride was in order. Time for some singletrack behind the lake. Some more water, a decent sized log crossing, and some rocky singletrack. I wasn’t about to let Backspinn and his yz426 out of my KLR’s sight when he kicked it up a notch at one point. I’ll bet he never knew a 400 lbs KLR could run singletrack like that. It takes a bit of work, but it’ll do it
That’s about it. Headed back to camp to load up the bikes and had an uneventful 2 ½ hour ride back to Tulsa. Can’t wait to do it again.
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Here's a few of my pics:
Lunch stop
Lemme see..... acording to my GPS we're lost!
Trust me, I'm a professional, I won't make you look like a dork!
Errr, I thought this trail went somewhere
Sunday afternoon everyone else took off so I went and did a little exploring on my own. Rode about 50 miles through the Pushmataha Wildlife Management area. The thing I like about it is even I couldn't get lost here.
At one point I came up on what I first thought was the remnants of a paved road. Then I realized this was solid flat rock. Pretty cool, mother nature highway.
Eventually I came down to this little water hazard. Contemplated turning around since I wasn't even sure where the heck the trail went if it did at all. I walked out past the brushy point and spotted the other side of the trail up to the left about 30 yards. What the heck, I decided to go for it.
Half way through and so far so good.
Just 10 feet before dry land the water got deep and I hit a rock that stopped me. Stuck my left leg out and had visions of the ride in Clarksville ride where I submerged the bike and it took over an hour to get it started and that was only after I got a jump. Anyway, I managed to plant my foot on a rock and kept the bike from going under, gave it a whole lot of throttle and jumped up on the bank.
Have to say this was one fun trip. Great riding, Great weather, Great people . Can't wait to do it again!
Lunch stop
Lemme see..... acording to my GPS we're lost!
Trust me, I'm a professional, I won't make you look like a dork!
Errr, I thought this trail went somewhere
Sunday afternoon everyone else took off so I went and did a little exploring on my own. Rode about 50 miles through the Pushmataha Wildlife Management area. The thing I like about it is even I couldn't get lost here.
At one point I came up on what I first thought was the remnants of a paved road. Then I realized this was solid flat rock. Pretty cool, mother nature highway.
Eventually I came down to this little water hazard. Contemplated turning around since I wasn't even sure where the heck the trail went if it did at all. I walked out past the brushy point and spotted the other side of the trail up to the left about 30 yards. What the heck, I decided to go for it.
Half way through and so far so good.
Just 10 feet before dry land the water got deep and I hit a rock that stopped me. Stuck my left leg out and had visions of the ride in Clarksville ride where I submerged the bike and it took over an hour to get it started and that was only after I got a jump. Anyway, I managed to plant my foot on a rock and kept the bike from going under, gave it a whole lot of throttle and jumped up on the bank.
Have to say this was one fun trip. Great riding, Great weather, Great people . Can't wait to do it again!
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Hood Ornament said:
Okay, NOW basketball is over. Guess Florida's got Ohio States number in EVERY sport.
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That was well worth the wait
Thanks for sharing guys !!
Great pics.
The watch tower is it south of the state park in the three rivers WMA ?
Mike Green
Thanks for sharing guys !!
Great pics.
The watch tower is it south of the state park in the three rivers WMA ?
Mike Green
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Thanks !!
Mike Green
Mike Green
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Good stuff, lucky stiff's.
This was a heck of a ride one of the best Clayton rides I've been on. Chris lead us on a perfect combination of goat trails and high speed roads on saturday including lots of new stuff Ive never hit before, the crazy rocky singletrack behind the park on sunday was a blast as usual. Gotta tip my hat to the guys on the big 600cc + bikes you guys rode some crazy stuff on those pigs. The company and stories around a big fire on sat night was a great way to cap off the day. I only got a few pics
got crowded under the pavillion in friday night
but sat morning the skys parted and we had great riding conditions
backspinn takes a little rest after our adveture in the river
nature was breaking out everywhere saw several snakes lots of frogs one kamikaze squirel, and lots of bugs some annoying and some beautiful
Lets do it again soon
got crowded under the pavillion in friday night
but sat morning the skys parted and we had great riding conditions
backspinn takes a little rest after our adveture in the river
nature was breaking out everywhere saw several snakes lots of frogs one kamikaze squirel, and lots of bugs some annoying and some beautiful
Lets do it again soon