Disappointed for the effort

[Freedomflyer 1,913]

 Took a ride Saturday,  thought we'd try a different area out of the valley.  Had been talking to a guy I've been working with and he told me about an area 90 miles from us. We decided to check it out and drove over there, we got a pretty late start from home and ended up at the staging area around 4 and on the trail/road about 4:15. Should've done a bit more research about the area itself. It was more of a jeep road than a 4 wheeler trail.  We met a full size Hum Vee pickup coming down along with a couple of other pickups. Starting out,  the "road", was pretty much like any other forest service road to an ATV trailhead except there was never any trail head that had a 50" wide gate for the trail. It a continued to deteriorate to probably one of the roughest, bumpiest, rock filled excursions we've been on in all of our 6 years of riding. The area was nice enough in that the forest is nice and healthy with lots of trees and normally we would've enjoyed exploring a new area but the roughness of the road made it somewhat unpleasant to ride. As usual any pictures taken and shared do not do any justice to the roughness or steepness we encountered. Maybe part of it was the fact it was late in the day but my idea of a trail ride is not 1-5 mph 90-95% of the way. We just expected it to get better and it didn't. There was a looped route and by the time we finished that 7 mile circle of ! we had no interest in taking the spur up to the lake. Some folks might have really enjoyed it, but was really not the kind of riding we enjoy, maybe if it had been an early morning ride we'd have felt differently. In talking to the guy I work with today he said  "It used to be worse, they've pulled the boulders out of the road, it used to be like riding a dry river bed."  We thought it "was" like driving a dry river bed as it was, so we'll chalk that one up to experience and probably not do it again. With all the fires we really didn't have any long distance views, smoke in the distance did away with that. Air conditions worsened over the weekend. There are 35 active large 🔥 fires 🔥 now burning in Montana alone, over 50 in Idaho, and a huge fire in Oregon that has burned close to 500,000 acres. Air quality is listed as unhealthy,  recommending  people not be outside if possible, made for a very long work day and will make does a long work week.   

 

So.........would I go back up there? Maybe under different circumstances, earlier start in the day, better air quality, later in the year so temps are cooler, and probably without the wife, she had enough on Saturday. Here's a few pics of our ride.

[Fishfiles 20,147]

Freedom Flyer Quote " 1-5 mph 90-95% of the way." 

 

I can relate to that .... 

[Freedomflyer 1,913]

😬👎

[Wheeler 2,527]

A positive from your negative is that u got to experience a new area.. maybe different from what ur used too, but change is nice sometimes. 

[Fishfiles 20,147]

8 minutes ago, Wheeler said:

A positive from your negative is that u got to experience a new area.. maybe different from what ur used too, but change is nice sometimes. 

 

 

" It's like a box of chocolates  ,  you never know what you will get "  -  Forest Gump 

[Freedomflyer 1,913]

Wheeler you're right, it wasn't as bad for me as it was for my wife. I really do like to check out new areas, and if you don't you kind of get stuck in a rut. I keep going back to the thought that I it would have been different had we started earlier in the day. It was still a great time to get out and.........our Can Ams got us back to our truck once again😁.