Wow. What a day.
Wow.
I met up with Rusty (Woodbutcher), Don (Batcountry) and Justin (je2000) at the infamous Cedar Park Taco Cabana; seems everyone found it okay...
We got off to a little bit of a late start and proceeded to the first trail. After pondering the terrain, Rusty and Don decided that the big bikes weren't up to the steep, rocky decent, so they went back to bypass it and meet Justin and I on 1431. From there we decided to scratch the other off-road portion of the ride and move on to Cow Creek Rd and the CR's up around Burnet.
We came up on HardyBaker and his friend who's name I missed (nice Duc though
), sat and chatted for a while, then continued to Oatmeal. Along the way I had stopped for a moment, then tried to restart the bike, only to find the battery was dead... we bump started it and were on our way to CR330, 335 and 340 into Marble Falls.
Pulled into Blue Bonnet at about 11:20, lots of folks there, but Chuck hadn't made it in yet so there were no names
Well, folks talked anyway, and we eventually made it in for some pie
We walked back out to the bikes so I could hi-tail it back on what little battery I had left (seemed my regulator/rectifier was shot), only to find my right side panel missing
No one noticed up to this point, and had no clue as to when I might have lost it... So Justin helped me get the bike bump-started and I was off to retrace my steps home in hopes of finding the panel...
I made my way back out CR340 and sure enough, there it was, just north of CR341, just before the 1st creek crossing. I hopped of and grabbed it, then moved
down the hill so I could pull off and put the panel in my back pack. I pulled over and killed the bike...
I looked ahead at the hill that climbed out of the creek, then back at the hill I had just come down
After a lot of sweat and raw heals from pushing the pig up hills in my dirt riding boots, I had it started and was on my way... I opted to take the short way to 1431; scenic CR341.
I don't know why, but I just don't enjoy 1431 like I used to. Maybe it's because I've ridden/driven it so many times, or that I always seem to be in a bit of a hurry when I'm on it, but I often dread the drive between Cedar park and marble falls.
After a seemingly long and uneventful ride through Lago Vista, I came up on some emergency vehicles at the bridge before Nameless Rd... There were a lot of cars pulled over and a Tahoe with a cruched driverside corner in the road, and I could see a group of bikes on the side of the road ahead.
My first thought was, "man, I hope there weren't any bikes involved"...then, as I slowly rode through the scene, my fears were confirmed; medics were surrounding a rider (in full gear) in the road, and it
didn't look good...
I rode up to where the other riders were standing, and killed my bike despite it's ailment. As I dismounted, I immediately recognized the black DRZ400 super moto that was sitting next to my bike at Blue Bonnet... my heart sank... It sucks to see this happen to any rider, but it really hits home when it's family.
Brian "McB" approached and was obvioulsy shaken. He explained that the rider was a girl named Jo (sp?) and was with his group. They came up to the light and saw that she and her boyfriend weren't behind them, so they went back to find them, only to arrive at this scene. I asked if everyone was okay and his face changed as he looked down and said she had lost a leg. I felt like I'd just been hit in the face with a brick... Not knowing where they were from I asked, and asked if there was anything I could do, since I live just down the road. He said they were from the Hutto area and needed a truck, so I offered my trailer and one of his friends went with me to retrieve it. We brought the wrecked Virago back to my house, as well as the boyfriend's ridable GPZ1100 (he rode with her in the abulance), which he apparently ghost-rode into the ditch as he bailed to run to his GF. The plan was to just leave the bikes at my house until they could decide where to take the bikes and come pick them up with one of the rider's truck.
So here I am, looking out the window at this poor girl's bike, once again pondering whether riding is worth the risk. I'm still not certain what happened, whether it was her fault or not, but the officer that released the bike to us made a sincere comment to us, "be carefull out there, 'they' don't see you"... this leads me to believe she, as a new rider BTW, was not at fault. But it doesn't matter, you just never know when one little mistake, beit on your part, or a cage's part can really ruin, or even take your life.
I have a regulator/rectifier to fix.