I Just Sold my House for $379

No, not really.
If you did sell your house for $379, I'd guess that it was a bit of a fix'er-upper special, eh?

I felt a little bit like this on this past Saturday's Pachaug loop ride.
Without the red hood, of course.  ;)

I went on yet another Pachaug loop ride this weekend (Saturday only, and I'll tell you why there was no Sunday ride), and it was pretty good.
I felt good with no hints of feeling sick or tired or suffering from any pesky bug or illness that saps energy and concentration, so, things went well.
I rode a total of 50 miles and had a very good time, making some good moves on the bike and feeling as if I was riding as well as I typically can, and that's due to feeling in good shape in both body and mind, something you can't put a price on, folks.
If I feel that I'm riding well, that's a sure recipe for a good ride.
Period.

Why can't I just feel at or near 100% every  time I go out there?
Well, well, well, if only I had control over my body and mind on some kind of microscopic level, huh, Bucky?
Maybe it has something to do with me being 46 years old, and maybe it has to do with my working for a living where retail sales are made to people off the street, and who knows what kinds of sickly microbes they're carting around as they come into the store and breathe on other people.

The reason I didn't ride on Sunday was because I took the bike apart Sunday morning in order to bring the forks and rear shock absorber from the CRF-450X9 to my ol' friend Tom at Nasin Machine, just up the road from jerk.
If you remember, early this year I had Tom perform a couple of front fork modifications to the damping valving inside the fork (called a "revalve" by most riders) on the ol' sorely-missed-and-now-it-has-been-proven-that-I-shouldn't-have-sold-it WR-250FY.
Well, I'm dropping the suspension components off to Nasin Machine this (Monday) morning so that he can do a bit of a revalve on the forks and shock.
Why do I need that?
Simple, Simon.
The suspension on the CRF-450X9 is setup off the showroom floor for riding terrain where you can keep some speed up as opposed to 1st gear rock gardens like we have a lot of out here in Connecticut, and that includes the ol' Pachaug rock n' roll pile.
If you can get the bike into 3rd or 4th gear and sail along at a good clip, that means the terrain ain't slow and rock gardenish, but more like the kind of bumps you find on a motocross track, which, basically, means the ground probably isn't littered with pesky rocks sticking up out of the ground and forcing you to slow down.
So, since the suspension on the CRF-450X9 prefers higher speeds and the less rocky terrain that come with it, it doesn't work well in the slower rocky section because it has firm valving meant for higher speeds and it simply feels too stiff and unyielding over that slower stuff, bouncing me around and making an already heavy-feeling bike in the tight stuff even more so.
So, after seven months of riding this bike every weekend over the rocky sections and having the clear feeling the suspension set-up isn't intended for that rocky trash, I feel it's high time that it be modified with a valving setup that IS intended for that stuff.

I should have the bike put back together by Saturday afternoon, and I'll report back with how it feels after this coming weekend.

-John

My Blood Pressure Went Past 378

On the most recent Pachaug enduro loop ride, there was somebody who looked very much like this, but with probably a few more little black lines shooting away from his head.

I do believe the more black lines you have, the more excited you are.

He wasn't smiling at first, either.

As for the title of this post, I forgot what units of measure are used to measure some one's blood pressure, but, I'm just gonna' go with it, OK?

Well, today is July 5th, which means it is the day after the 4th of July, and I have two Pachaug rock pile rides to write about.

The ride on last weekend (Saturday) wasn't a very good one because, for some reason, I felt weak - both physically and mentally - from about the half-way point, onward.

It might be due to a couple of guys at jerk having some kind of 24-hour bug they told about, so, for all I know, I got it, too, but it didn't come to fruition until I was riding my CRF-450X9 on the Pachaug loop.

Hey, it could be for all I know, Dr. Spock.

I felt that I didn't have my typical concentration and riding ability from the start, and at about the 26 mile mark, I felt pretty lousy, and although I thought about cutting the ride short, I carried on and rode just about the whole thing, minus about 5 miles.

I didn't crash or get hurt, but not feeling well means it was a crummy ride, all-in-all, and I didn't ride on Sunday because I didn't feel any better.

On top of that, I didn't start feeling normal until about Wednesday morning, the morning of the the 4th.

Yesterday was the 4th, so that means no jerk and a ride on the Pachaug rock pile enduro loop during mid-week.

I felt mucho better than last weekend, thank God, and felt more like my normal self.

I had a  good energy level and I quickly saw I had a good level of concentration and felt I was riding the bike in a decent manner.

The bike felt good, too, and ran and performed just fine, although the rear tire is now mid-life as far as performance goes.

The humorous part of this ride happened during the middle of my favorite whoops-through-the-pine-needled-woods section, and this is what the pic at the top of this post is all about.

Half-way through this section, the trail goes down a hill and crosses a wooden bridge spanning a little pond dam at the bottom of the hill.

It looks so nice and natural and all woodsy and inviting to anybody looking to go to a peaceful and woodsy-looking place to relax with some minor league fishing, or to walk the dog, or to smoke a joint and drink some booze if you're a loser and believe that stuff is good for you in any way.

Well, the wooden bridge, while very much suitable for walking over and fishing off of by anybody, was actually built by Pachaug enduro loop trail riders for trail riders.

In other words, guys involved with the start-up of the actual Pachaug motorcycle trail loop (which came into being in 1974, I believe) also built this bridge so that trail riders could span the little pond without putting a tire track into the ground when entering and exiting the water, getting wacko environmental nuts all worked-up, and also so that (probably the real reason and without doubt the most important) the Pachaug loop riders would have a more enjoyable ride without having to slog through some deep water and steep pond banks to contend with.

So, to reiterate, the bridge was built by trail riders for trail riders, and those very words were actually spoken to me just a couple of weeks ago by the very man who was, as far as I know, one of the guys (if not THE guy) who got the ball rolling with getting the Pachaug enduro loop officially started and endorsed by the state of Connecticut back in 1974.

That's an interesting story in itself, told to me by this man, himself, and I should tell it here sometime soon.

As I crested the top of the hill and got on the brakes to slow for the bridge (I never go flying up to the bridge since I know people could very well be on it with their vehicles parked directly in line with the far side of the bridge), there was this guy with a fishing pole in his hand waving his arms, trying to get my attention.

I could tell he was trying to signal me to slow down, and as I slowed to a crawl and stopped directly in front of him, I could see the little black lines of excitement gradually diminishing from around his head as he realized I wasn't some brain-dead retard who was going to go flying across the bridge, and as i asked him how he was, he pointed to his woman and child standing on the bridge, the girl also holding a fishing pole and the telltale plastic floating bobber that floats the hook with the worm on it when in the water, making all of the local pumpkin seeds (a small, flat fish) come fishing around it.

I nodded to him and her and just putted across the wooden trail rider-built-for-trail-riders-to-use-as-the-priority bridge and carried on, getting a small chuckle at his earlier excited expression on his face.

I was feeling pretty good and riding decently well, which made that funny incident all the better.

The ride on the 4th of July (which was yesterday, by the way) was good all-in-all, although I did screw-up on two spots, both on rocky hill climbs that I usually make without screwing-up, but I at least didn't crash or fall.

I just got off my usual line, stopped, regrouped my thoughts, and got going again.

It is in this kind of situation (rough, rocky, and difficult to maneuver the bike and/or hold the line I intended to take) where the bigger CRF-450X9 starts to be more of a liability than an asset when compared to the smaller WR-250FY (remember that bike?).

Although the 450 has a truckload of power and torque that, in comparison to the 250, starts to just ooze out of the engine from the lowest RPM and just gets stronger from there (while still being very easy to modulate with your throttle grip), the heavier feel that goes along with the 450 is always there and actually comes back to haunt you in the tighter and trickier sections, and the more rocky and bouncy the terrain, the more of a truck the bike can feel like.

Period.

The CRF-450X9 is happy when it has a bit of room to keep some speed up, as around the pine-needed whooped section and places that allow a good pace, not the more trials bike terrain where you have to slow down yet you still can get bounced around and shot off your intended line if you happen to put a wheel wrong and hit something you didn't see coming.

By comparison, the WR-250FY was much less powerful, yet still powerful enough to get the ride done very effectively, and (this is a BIG plus out in Pachaug) the handling and feel of that bike were a pleasure in the slower, tighter, and rockier spots.

The fact is, on sections that I didn't love due to being tight and rocky and challenging to me, I still could and would routinely ride through these sections without incident time after time on the WR-250FY, yet with the CRF-450X9 in these sections, I need to be 100% on my game and riding and concentrating very well in order to make it through without screwing-up.

Like I did twice yesterday.

What does that mean?

Well, the writing on the wall tells me that someday soon, I'll have to buy another 250cc bike to ride out on the Pachaug enduro loop, as I am constantly reminding myself that, in all honesty, the WR-250FY really was the better bike for me out there most of the time, and the only place the CRF-450X9 is really better is in any place you have room to fly along (not many places to do that), and with the performance of the front fork, and with having all of that strong power and torque at your disposal.

Too bad the heavy feel of the bike in certain situations basically negated the positives.

Hmmmmmmm.  ;)

Off to jerk.

-John

It's 377 Degrees Outside

What's your idea of hot?

Is it something like this?

Hmmmmmmm.

That does look pretty warm, don'nit?

Or, does it look like this?

This past week, the weather was kinda' like this pic.

Which, in turn, had some of the girls dressing like the top pic.

We did have a heat wave for most of the jerk week, although tonight (Sunday night), things seem more like June instead of July or August as far as weather goes.

This weekend's Pachaug enduro loop riding was pretty good.

On Saturday, I decided to mix it up again by first going out to that boring place just over the Rhode Island boarder called Arcadia Land Management.

I unloaded the bike in their little dirt parking lot (where mountain bikers and pot smokers park to get their game on, too) and proceeded down the many dirt roads in the place, just trying to learn the lay of the land and to see if I could find any terrain that's interesting.

Well, since the place is a collection of dirt roads, and public dirt roads at that where I don't think it's a good idea to go ripping around at speed, I still didn't find any super-duper interesting parts on this second trip out there as of late, but, I figured it was worth a shot.

I did rain for about 10 or 15 minutes, and I'm sure that any nature lovers out there beside myself were really appreciating all of nature's splendor as their hair got all wet.

Hey, you want outdoorsy all-natural?

Well, there you go, Lenny.

Enjoy.

After about an hour there, I got fed up with the place, loaded the bike up, and went out to my favorite pine-needled whooped section of the Pachaug enduro loop, parking right next to it.

I unloaded the bike and did about 5 laps around that section, which was quite fun, and then decided to catch my breath by riding out to a part of the Pachaug enduro loop about 10 miles away and riding it back to where I was parked.

That was a good day.

Today's ride was more like a typical route out there, except at about the 35 mile mark I skipped a part of the usual route, instead riding through the main entrance for the Pachaug state forest, past the green soccer/softball/football/who-the-hell-knows-what-it-was-made-for field, and then carrying on in typical fashion when I hit the usual trails to bring me back to the starting/finishing parking lot on Spaulding Road.

You remember Spauling Road, correct?

Well, read-up on my past bloggy posts, dammit.

I had a good time out there this weekend, and starting it off with two new Bridgestone M603 and M604 tires didn't hurt, either.

In fact, they helped quite a bit.

-John

376 Days in the Year Riding Dirt Bikes

The CRF-450X9, waiting for the next Pachaug enduro loop ride.
Too bad I have to work for a living and to avoid becoming a burden to society, huh?

No, a year doesn't have 376 days in it.
You should know that by now, Lenny.

This past weekend was a great one for weather and for riding the CRF-450X9.
I rode both Saturday and Sunday, and it was quite enjoyable.
Saturday was my typical route out on the Pachaug loop, and it was good for the usual 50 miles.
I went to jerk in the morning and did the usual free-bee for about an hour and a half, and once that pesky stuff was done, it was time to suit-up and dump the clutch!
I rode well, felt good on the bike, had no crashes or heart-stopping moments, and had a good feeling and a good time.
The bike felt and performed as well as usual, I'm happy to say.

Sunday was a bit of a change from the usual route.
I first thought about riding out to the place in Rhode Island called Arcadia Land Management (an intimidating title meant to make you believe that only a select group in the government has the ability to  "manage" a pretty good chunk of "public" land), but as I was driving out there and remembered how boring that place was when I went there a few weeks ago, I decided to do a different different Pachaug enduro loop route.

I parked at the usual spot, but instead of the usual thing of riding the 1.5 miles to the official start of the trails, I rode the street out to the main part of the Pachaug forest (the part where the city folk come in their SUVs to gawk at that green stuff on the ground called grass and to see what the woods looks like with their own eyes and to get away from those supposedly "artistic" murals painted on the sides of brick buildings), down the dirt road through it, out the other side, and out toward my favorite whoops-through-the-pine-needled-woods section.
I rode that section about 5 times, stopped for a water break, rode it one more time, and then basically rode from there along my usual route and back to my parking spot.
Total mileage on Sunday was 54 miles, and it was very enjoyable.

My tires are worn enough to need replacing in order to retain a good feel from the bike, but, since I was told just yesterday at jerk that a few of the guys will be going out on Wednesday after jerk for an informal Pachaug loop ride (along an unspecified route, to me, anyway), I'll wait until Friday night and Saturday morning to change them since I may as well finish-off these worn tires with a Wednesday afternoon/evening ride containing what I suspect may be a fair amount of pavement use.
We'll see how that ride goes, and I'm looking forward to it.

I've decided to sell the fixer-upper 1998 Honda XR-250R I bough last month instead of making repairs, registering it, and riding it.
Why?
I'm gonna' put a chunk of money to paying-off my 2011 Ford Ranger pickup, the very one I (regrettably) bought new last October after some youngster cleaned me out and totalled my 2004 model, and spending dough on getting that bike up and running and insured and registered doesn't seem a very good idea to me right now.
If it weren't for that loan pay-off, then I probably would.
But, I do, so, I won't.
I've got the bike listed in the For Sale forum of one message board, selling for a loss just to liquidate and get rid of it and get at least some of the money back.
I've also sent a pic via e-mail to a guy who has a habit of fixing-up dirt bikes and ordering his repair parts through the shop I work for, so I've got my fingers crossed that somebody will buy this thing and somehow get some enjoyment out of it.
We'll see.

-John

375 Things to Disagree On

 This was once a dirt-worthy dual-purpose bike.
Now, it's an overweight and over wide "adventure bike".
Yes, folks, there are riders who make a habit of riding a motorcycle off-road with all of this shit strapped to it.

Yeah, it's pet peeve time, people.
If you log onto message boards like ADVRider, WR250R Forum, the dual-purpose or adventure sections of the ThumperTalk forums, and who knows how many others, you'll find lots of riders who think the bike pictured above is a really great thing.
I think it's a sad joke and is simply not my idea of riding a motorcycle.
If you wanted to drive in your minivan or $50,000 SUV, why didn't you just do that, Lenny?

No, to me, riding in the dirt is about light weight, maneuverability, and riding a bike that lends the rider a good feel.
To be able to actually ride the bike in some kind of performance-minded manner, not use it as a pack mule 24/7.
I'd hate to think about riding even the easiest sections of the ol' Pachaug enduro loop on a bike with all of that crap attached to it - way too cumbersome and awkward.
You may be thinking, "Well, ease-up there, son. Maybe the guy with the bike in the picture is gonna' ride out to some camp site with all of that stuff on his bike and remove it once he gets there."
No, sonny, you misunderstand the typical adventure rider.
He will insist on keeping all of his worldly possessions strapped to the bike all of the time, as if he's doing his penance for some sin in one of his past lives.
Yes, it's how they do it.
On top of the stuff strapped to the bike, he's installed a different fuel tank that allows him to ride for 5 days without refueling, as if he really needs to carry 10 gallons of gas with him.
Let me guess - he's going into a death-defying region where even the in-training NASA Apollo astronauts would have feared to tread, right?
To go where mere mortals would not even want to consider going, right?

Well, enough of that time-wasting topic.
Here's another one I read about from time-to-time.
That is, some guy who is new to doing basic maintenance to his motorcycle writes a tale of woe on a message board, and he's looking for some advice on how to get out of the jam his klutzy hands have gotten him into.
Here's an example, condensed down to a shorter and more to-the-point version, as these guys will write pages on how to change your grips or check your drive chain slack, something that takes mere minutes or even seconds:  :)

HELP!!!
I used an 18-inch-long torque wrench to install the 6mm-diameter bolts that hold my oil filter cover on.
Now, I've stripped one of the bolts!
How did this happen?
And why?
It's a brand-new torque wrench that I just bought from Harbor Freight and I had it set way down to the torque setting my Service Manual says those bolts should be torqued to.
How should I fix this?
Should I bring it to the dealer so he can laugh at me and then charge me too much to repair?

That's actually a good rendition of the typical post on a message board looking for help on a botched job that should have gone off without a hitch.
See, the guy make a huge mistake by being a Star Trek-type geek-and-a-half by using a torque wrench for a job that absolutely did not require one.
He only greatly complicated things by choosing to use one for these small-diameter fasteners.
Of course, he uses a torque wrench that's well over a foot-and-a-half long, one you expect to see tightening down nuts and bolts that are 4 times larger in some ship building yard.

In fact, using the type of torque wrench that the typical guy will buy is asking for stripped bolt threads because he will want to buy just one wrench for the rest of his life, and he buys one that supposedly can handle small torque values like 7 ft/lbs all the way up to 75 ft/lbs.
Well, the guy finds out the hard way that not only was his wrench not able to do a small 7 ft/lbs job like that (because he's expecting to be able to swat flies with a sledge hammer), but he will then get reply after reply insisting that once he gets the bike repaired, he should continue to use a torque wrench on small fasteners, fasteners that are so small that tightening the bolt by hand is simply the most reliable way to do it.

So, yes, Lenny, bring your adventurous bike to your dealer and let them chuckle at your inability to do an oil change, one of the easiest and most common and, unfortunately for these geeks with the wrenches, one of the most important things you can do to your bike.

Lest you think I know everything and have never been a klutz, I sure have done things like this.
As a matter of fact, this is why I know from experience that using the average econo torque wrench for small nuts and bolts is simply looking for botching a simple thing like this.
You see, I learned that doing that is simply dumb because the average torque wrench will not work correctly when set that low, especially when a steel bolt is threaded into an aluminum crankcase, and the bolt is only 6mm in diameter, and there is more than likely oil on the threads.
Period.
I do believe there are ones that will, but most geeks won't buy one because they think they should be able to get by with just one wrench, and it's one that will work better at settings like 30 ft/lbs.
On top of all that, breaking-out the torque wrench for simply bolting the oil filter cover back on is being way too anal.
Period.
There is simply no need to have to use a torque wrench for something you can safely do with just your wrist.
Even Spock would agree with that logic.  ;)
Beam me up, Scotty.

Another quirky thing on these funny message boards is something I know I've mentioned more than once.
That is, these guys (at least the ones that don't know any better) believe that they can take a dual-purpose bike like the one in the above pic off-road regularly (even if they do ride the bike like a grandma most of the time) and should absolutely be able to go 3,000 miles between oil changes and six months between air filter servicings.

Wrrroooooooooooooooooooooong.

If you are riding your motorcycle off-road a lot of the time, you need to up the maintenence schedule compared to that of a street bike, Bucky, no matter what your Owner's Manual says or what your Internet forum cohorts think.
You see, the Owner's manual of a WR-250R, like the one in the above funny pic, has a maintenence schedule printed in that book that makes sense for a street bike.
Period.
How do I know this and what makes me so sure?
It's because I've bought, paid-for, ridden, and owned and eventually sold over 50 bikes, most of them Yamahas, many being dirt bikes, many being street bikes, and many being dual-purpose bikes.
These WR-250R riders like to point to the chart in their Owner's Manual where it shows the first valve clearance check is not recommended uptil the 26,000 mile mark, and this is something they take pride in.
Really, I'm quite serious about that.
Too bad this is misleading for these guys with the taped-together glasses and the WD-40 pocket protector full of pens.
Any rider with a brain in his head knows your bike will not even make it to that first valve clearance check at 26,000 miles of off-road usage if you change the engine oil only once in 3,000 miles, or service the air filter once every six months.
A street bike will last for 26,000 miles under that schedule, but not a dirt bike.

End of story.

And yet, guys post their tales of woe and surprise when their dual-purpose WR-250R that gets ridden off-road much of the time won't even make it past 13,000 miles before the engine needs to be taken apart for a top end overhaul when given a maintenance schedule of a street bike.
Hmmmmmm.
And these guys on the forums insist that this shouldn't ever happen because the Owner's Manaul says you should change the oil at 3,000 miles.
Yup.
Pretty studdorn lot who don't really know as much about riding a motorcycle off-road as they probably thought.
I know a teen-aged girl that rides motocross who knows how to show more experience and common sense on maintaining a dirt bike than these adventure guys do.  ;)
For real.
Yes, folks, if you're riding in the dirt, the dirt will wear the bike out faster.
Bottom line.
It's up to the rider to know this and take steps accordingly.
Or, maybe he should just bitch, piss, and moan and point to his Owner's Manaul.


On a more pleasing note, I went on yet another Pachaug rock n' roll pile ride yesterday (Saturday).
I felt good, weather and vision conditions were good, and the bike felt just fine.
There was some water out there in the usual spots were it puddles-up after a decent rain, but that was to be expected since it rained at least a little bit every day for the last week, and, it basically did not cause a problem for me.
All-in-all, it was an enjoyable ride because I made some good maneuvers on the bike that felt good to me, I rode in a decent manner, and I didn't get unusually tired or fatigued.
Good stuff.

As a side note, I used a Bridgestone M22 rear tire for the last two rides, and it gave me a chance to compare how it works versus the Bridgestome M604.
Basically, it's as I have always felt:
The M604 is about $5 less to buy.
The M604 is a little bit better on any kind of surface where you can sink a tire knob into (softer terrain).
The M22 is noticably better everywhere else, and there's plenty of everywhere else out on the Pachaug enduro loop.
In fact, I could easily feel how good the M22 still feels to me - after 20 years of using this tire on all manner of dirt bikes I've owned - because it simply grips harder dirt and rocks like no other tire I've used, and the feel is very confidence-inspiring.
So, while I'm sure I'll continue to use the M604 in the future because it is a close 2nd place to the M22, the M22 is still my all-time favorite.

-John

374: Heavy Rain Can Make Things a Bore

I went out for another Sunday Pachaug enduro loop ride this weekend (Saturday was a rainy day), and, all-in-all, it was a crappy time I have to say.
Why?
More rain spoiling the party, that's why.
Saturday's rain ended late in the day, and from sunset Saturday to about 4:00pm Sunday, things were dry with the sky (and ground).
Figures, though, that as I was driving out to the starting point of the Pachaug rock n' roll pile enduro loop, it would start to rain lightly as I saw drops on my windshield.
In actuality, I was driving into the region that had already gotten what seemed to be a heavy rain shower just minutes before, and this region included the trails I'd be riding.

What made the ride suck, specifically, was that there were 1,493,087 wet tree branches, heavy with rain water stuck to the leaves, hanging down over the trail and perfectly positioned at head level (my head, that is), and I was ducking my head every second-and-a-half to avoid a wet smack in the face from these branches, something that would result in a spotty goggle lens and crummy optical clarity (poor vision).
As if that wasn't enough (and I was already putting through these sections a lot slower than normal), it started raining fairly hard at about the half-way mark, reducing vision to shit levels even more.
This happened as I was approaching my favorite pine-needled whoop section, and instead of having a fun rip down the trail, it was a slow, tedious, torture-like ordeal with poor vision, low light (I was wearing my dark tinted lens), and wet tree roots on the ground just waiting to take my front wheel out from under me if I wasn't paying attention.
Well, I did pay attention, but it wasn't fun like it usually is.
So, at about the 28 mile mark, I cut the ride short and rode the paved road back to the truck, resulting in 40 total miles for the day.

Bummer, yeah, but, I'm hoping for a quick jerk week and better conditions this coming weekend.

-John

373 Dykes on Horseback

Here's a typical outdoorsy girl who likes to ride her horse through state forests.
Also typically, they're dykes.
Yikes.

I did go out for another Pachaug rock n' roll pile ride today (Monday), so that makes three in a row for me this long weekend.
I felt good, I felt good on the bike, and the bike felt good as well.
Just as it should be, goddammit.
I did something different for this ride, too, and that was to start the proceedings by riding about 20 miles out to a state forest in Rhode Island.
You know, Rhode Island, the smallest state on the United States union, also known as The Ocean State.
Maybe that's because if one more fat person crosses the boarder and enters the puny little place, it will break off from the rest of the continental Unites States and fall into the Atlantic Ocean once and for all.
God, I just hope all of the politicians are there and go down with it.  :)

The forest is called the Arcadia Land Management, and is, basically, a collection of dirt roads going all around a chunk of acreage with trees all over the place.
You know, the kind of place that those air-headed types like to go to "commune with nature" (AKA environmental mental cases hugging trees while the very guys that fund environmental groups are putting up and billowing the smokestacks of all of those factory sweatshops in China and the like), kid themselves about how great it must have been to have lived back in 1801 when things were much simpler and more pure and natural and just like it still would and should be today if we all knew what was good for us and not so gaddammed selfish with the poor Earth's limited and frigile resources (as they turn the AC up to full blast and reach for the PLAY button of their CD player in their Lexus while texting a stupid message to one of their retard friends while trying to drive), and, most of all, the usual gathering spot of horse-loving and horse-riding dykes.

Being a national holiday weekend, I saw (and pulled over and stopped my engine for) about 6 groups of these lezbos and their four-legged friends, and a couple of them actually made for some minor league entertainment.
The first one, after seeing me come to a stop and wait for some kind of a signal from the slut, waved me to go by her and her homo friend, also on horseback.
As I passed along side at jogging speed and actually trying not to spook her big animal with a pea-sized brain, she gets all pissy and gives me a frantic SLOW IT DOWN type of hand gesture.
I had to laugh to myself as I just shrugged and yelled to her, "I can't go any slower!".
Goddammit, what is fuck's name am I supped to do?
Carry the bike past on my back for the little equestrian lesbian, or something?
Jesus.

Once I got into the actual Arcadia forest, I came upon another pair of his and her horse homos.
I came to a stop and shut my engine off, as usual, and asked what they wanted me to do.
(Hey, I'm there to ride, not sit there for an hour while they piss their pants gawking at the trees.)
The old dyke made a comment about she didn't see what I was going to do out in that forest on that day, and I asked her what she meant by that.
She then informed me that there were lots of horse riders out there somewhere, and I just replied that was the reason I keep my eyes peeled.
Yes, indeed - peeled for gay pride on four legs.

I spent about 25 minutes and 10 miles in that place, and quite frankly, it was boring.
I actually expected it to be boring, knowing that I was allowed to ride only the dirt roads and not any actual trails (too bad), but, I went just in case I might be wrong.
Nope.
I was right.
And a bit bored.

So, after high-tailing it out of loser paradise, I crossed back into the Constitution State (AKA Connecticut) and immediately hopped onto the ol' Pachaug enduro loop.
As luck would have it, just over the CT. boarder is where the good part of the Pachaug loop starts, and I enjoyed myself on my CRF-450X9, especially as there were no horses in sight on the real trails.

Tomorrow starts a shortened jerk week.
Hope it goes by quickly.
-John