I take my 2000 Polaris Scrambler 400 4×4 out to Tri-County ATV Park to test out new Stage 1 Modifications.

Me riding the Scrammy, testing out new Stage 1 mods.

Almost exactly a year ago to the day that the dynamic duo of Glenn Cox and Matt Rayburn came down the first time to go riding in Rice County, the two came down again, this time for an extended four-wheeling outing.  Not only were Glenn and Matt along, but also Adam, Joe, and most of the Short Bus Racing Team were able to make it to Summit Pit near Ellendale for a day of riding on Saturday.  Even Justin and Anna were able to make it along for the fun!

I had broken my steering stem on my RcR Scrambler 400 the last week at Tri-County just entering a jump, and it was over at J&J Powersports to get a new one installed.  Time went on, and we were still waiting on the part.  I was getting nervous that my primary machine may not be ready to go by the weekend.  Finally, the part came in Friday at noon, and the Scrammy was finished at 4:30 p.m., barely enough time to spare.  Whew!

I brought the Scrammy and my new Yamaha YZ250 along for the ride on Saturday.  Summit Pit itself was in good condition this time around … a lot less wet than the early April run.  My goal was to get proficient with shifting and to get going a little faster on the YZ250.  Joe was definitely leaping past me as far as the bike was concerned.  He gained a lot of skill today … I suppose I could say I did too.  Both of us weren’t doing too bad for being on a bike for only our second times.  The YZ250 is definitely a scary choice of a learning bike, but yet it got less intimidating as the day went on.

The original Short Bus boys … Chad, Todd, and Travis were each on bikes, and they were definitely putting on a show!  They were crashing left and right, and they were all attempting very steep hill climbs and jumps, at times almost straight up and down.  Chad admitted that his riding skill had gone way up already this year, and he was attempting stuff he would have never attempted last year.

We took a break at noon for a cookout consisting of Hamburgers, Nerstrand Weiners, and Brats.  It was almost perfect weather for riding … a little on the cool side, but you didn’t have to worry about heat tiring you out.  After lunch, Adam and Matt with their Raptor 660s, Glenn with his 250EX, and even Justin with his YZ250 were ripping up the pit.  Anna, you sure know how to take Justin for a ride on my Scrammy too!  He was hanging on for dear life!  Oh yeah, so was I with you driving…

We stayed out until dark.  And we loaded up and headed right back out Sunday early morning, this time to Tri-County ATV Park.  Glenn, Matt, and I met up with several regulars out at the pit, including Ryan Volk on his Suzuki Quadracer LTR450 and his friend on a Predator 500.  Even Bob Bartlett, the GNCC Racer from Jordan was down testing a new dual exhaust system for his highly modified Kawasaki V-Force 700!  This year, he is also sporting a bottle of Nitrous, and he claims to be pushing out near 85 horsepower on the thing.  I once again lucked out, and Bob offered me the opportunity to ride his beast.  I rode it once last year, and this year it was definitely a faster and more intimidating machine!  The slightest blip on the throttle would make the rear tires spin.  Bartlett stated that it’s down right dangerous to ride on pavement, because all the thing wants to do is have the front end in the air with all the traction…

It was a super weekend!  At the end of the weekend, I was tired both physically and mentally …. mostly because of the coordination necessary to get a trip planned out that people were able to make, and of course worrying that the weather may turn out less than perfect.  When it was all said and done, of course it all came out just fine.

Enjoy the pictures below of this great outing.  I have many more pictures, in the highest resolution possible, along with 3 videos (including one of me getting my butt kicked by Bartlett’s KFX700 at Tri-County), here, on my home-hosted picture site.  Note: This link may go away in the future, so check it while you can!

Plans are already in the works for next week’s ride!

As a sidebar, here’s the list of the outings so far this year, leading up to this “big one”:

1. January 2006 – Summit Pit Warm Scouting Run – Brian/Adam/Brian B/Chad/Doug
2. March 10th – Tri County ATV Pit – Brian/Chad/Doug – Chad and Doug first time out with Predator.
3. March 26th – Tri-County ATV Pit –
4. April 1st – Tri-County ATV Pit – Brian and Jeremy – Very crowded pit – DNR was there
5. April 8th – Summit Pit – Brian, Jeremy, Joe, Chad, and Doug.  Others.  Brian’s first time riding dirt bike.  Doug crashes bike into Ford truck.  Joe crashed twice on bike.  Cookout.
6. April 9th – Tri-County ATV Pit – Brian/Dave/Joe/Tyler/Bob Bartlett … One Scrambler crashed on jump and trashed front axle and a-arm … Even the master Tyler almost crashed.
7. April 14th – Tri-County ATV Pit – Brian/Doug/Chad/Todd – Todd’s first time out … Doug wheelies his Predator and tips it over on the grab bar.  Brian breaks steering post on Scrambler … Brian first time riding 2 predators … Brian best rider in pit for first few hours . 2 guys with Raptors doing nothing .. Banshee and Warrior or something going slow as well.

Matt Schmitz invited me out to Birchwood, Wisconsin once again this year, to enjoy a weekend full of four-wheeling adventure.  Adventure was certainly an understatement about the weekend, and before we wrapped up day #1, broken chains and flat tires were the least of our problems.

I knew that the trails we would be taking this year would definitely be more intense than last year, since many of the guys, like Matt’s brother Scott, had moved from sport quads to utility quads, and had put big mud tires on them.  I expected we’d be in some deep mud, and that my Scrambler may have a few problems along the way.  Last year at Birchwood, my day ended after about 90 miles, with a soaked air filter, that was completely choking off air flow to tne engine.  I thought I was a pretty good rider back then, but the Birchwood trip was a huge wake up call.  I found out that not only did I need some skill, but my ATV wasn’t too well-equipped to handle the very rocky terrain or the wet conditions.  This year, I vowed I’d make it through the trip.

Everyone’s quad went up on one of two large trailers.  Matt, his best friend Dustin, his boss Dan, and I headed up there in Matt’s Beretta early Saturday morning.  Once up there, we left “camp” at about 11 a.m. or so to head out riding.  

We were pretty much right away hitting some muddy, rutted trails.  The Scrammy was doing well, and most of the utility quads were having no problems.  There was a kid with a Banshee there that was having a little difficulty, but he was doing amazingly well for the terrain.  Dan’s rear-brake locked up on his Raptor after the 1st big mud hole, but that was an easy fix.  We were back on the trail right away.

Just before lunch, Spencer broke the chain on Scott’s Raptor he was riding.  He hit a mud hole that was rutted on the bottom, and the chain snapped, taking the case saver with it.  He was pretty much done for the day.  After lunch, the trails really started to get gnarly.  Many stretches of trail had sometimes 2 feet of water covering them, with rocks hidden underneath.  Some holes had less water, but had soft mud underneath.  The Scrammy was doing amazingly well, with the Kenda Claw tires that are made more for dirt than deep mud.  The 4×4 was in almost constant operation through these, and the 2-stroke 400 was spinning the Claws enough where mud was flying 10 to 15 feet in the air.  Despite my best efforts, I needed to get winched out a few times.  The kid with the banshee had the throttle wide open, bouncing on the back of the quad, moving it from side to side, and the thing was just not moving.  He ended up fouling out a plug and ingesting a little water, and he was pretty much done too, and got towed the rest of the way.

All this mud, rocks, and sticks on the trail eventually started to take its toll on more machines.  Two King Quads went down with flat tires, and needed to be repaired trailside.  My Left-front CV Joint on my Scrambler started to develop more and more play as we continued down the trails.  It was getting to be about 4 p.m., and we had only traveled about 30 miles.  The trails were very slow go, and very difficult.

Finally, my CV Joint broke altogether, leaving me with no 4-wheel-drive.  I continued on the trail, knowing there wasn’t too much more of a choice, and we all eventually got to a gravel road.  At this point, everyone agreed it was best to head back to the trailer to do some repairs, and for me, to get my quad back on the trailer.  Scott headed out first, with me limping my quad back at a slower speed, a few quads behind.  Our quads were well spaced apart, due to the dusty roads.

I came around a corner, and I see the rest of the guys off to the side of the road.  I pull over, and notice right away that we had a HUGE problem on our hands.  Scott was laying in the ditch, his left leg bent underneath his right, and he was in A LOT of pain.  At first, it appeared that he had rolled his quad.  I immediately got off the quad, and went over to the scene to find out what happened.  One wheel on Scott’s quad was broken, and two tires were off the beads.  One rock, about the size of a beach ball, embedded in the ground, had been moved out of its spot, and over a few feet, with deep scratches in it.

Things didn’t look too good right away.  At least we were off of the difficult trails, but we had no cell phone coverage at all to call 911.  Scott stated between breaths that his upper leg really hurt, and his lower back was really sore.  Three of the group were sent up the road to get help, while one of the guys was holding and elevating Scott’s left leg up on a helmet.  I was trying to keep Scott cool by damping down a glove with water, and throwing it on his forehead.  He looked to have a roll of quarters in his left pocket, but when asked if he had anything in his left pocket, he stated, only a driver’s license.

It felt like a long 30 minutes, but the ambulance came quickly down the fire road where we were at.  Scott got loaded in the back, and his brother Matt rode with him to the Hospital in Rice Lake.  The Rice Lake hospital didn’t have the needed tools to do surgery, but they did say he had a dislocated Pelvis and a clean break on his left femur, near the top of the bone.  He was airlifted that evening to Regions in the Twin Cities for surgery.

We all rode back to Faribault last night, a riding weekend cut short by a very bad incident.  Even though what some might say was the worst case scenario come true, things could have been far worse.  It could have been a compound fracture, with blood loss and shock, or it could have been miles and miles down the muddy, rutty trails that an ambulance would have never have gotten to.  Scott had a helmet, but he wasn’t wearing it.  If his head would have nailed that big rock, it would have been all over.  After my CV joint broke on my quad, I was disappointed I hadn’t achieved my goal of making it through, but it seemed miniscule as soon as the true tragedy struck that day.  It got everybody thinking, and even though none of the guys I rode with going up to Birchwood in the Beretta had seat belts on, I noticed that everyone was wearing one on the way back.

If only everyone could think of safety beforehand, instead of after the fact.

I drove up to the Staples, MN area and met friends Glenn and Matt from Alexandria/Fergus Falls for a weekend of camping and riding.  Thanks to Glenn and Matt, we had a simply kick ass camping spot!  Just a few feet from the trails, LAKESIDE, and it even had its own ghetto pontoon!  Thanks to Becca for driving up from Park Rapids to hang out with us for a few hours Saturday evening…

Until I write more here, enjoy the pictures below…