Weekly Photo Blog - June 4 - 11 2018

in #travel6 years ago

The weather wasn't all that great this week so I really didn't get out to take a lot of photos. To my surprise though, I woke up Sunday to an absolutely lovely day! I decided to take a little adventure on the dual sport.

Earlier in the week I had mentioned to my mechanic that there weren't many places to ride in New York State legally anymore, and he drew me a map and told me I needed to check this place out. The start of the trail is about 20 minutes from my house starting in North Tonawanda NY and running through multiple towns and counties to Lockport NY.

I usually take a Sunday morning ride before the family arrives for dinner, so I decided to make this my Sunday ride. It turned out, this was a really great decision.

1-beginning-of-trail.jpg

Here's the beginning of the trail. At this point I wasn't sure if this was the dirt road I was supposed to be on. I really wanted to get the bike off road though and decided to take my chances. The trail rides along the side of some old railroad tracks for a couple miles then curves out into the wilderness.

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One of the first things I came to was a stream and this old railroad bridge. I should of took a picture of the old bridge. I was a little paranoid riding over it. After I crossed I parked the bike and took this image of the stream.

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About a mile or so from the bridge I came across this sign. It sounded like a battlefield with multiple guns being fired. I wasn't sure if I wanted to proceed, but was having way to much fun at this point to turn back.

5-restingRoad.jpg

After riding for about an hour. I decided to pull over and rest a little bit. My hands were getting a little numb from the vibration of the rough trail. This part was pretty smooth, but some of the riding got extremely rough. Especially the area by the shooting range, which I was trying to get through as quick as possible. More on this later on.

So I make it all the way to the end of the trail. The trail lets out on a thruway on the edge of Lockport a few hundred feet from a sign that reads, Welcome to the city of Lockport. I rest on the side of the thruway for a bit then decide to head back the same way I came. I turned the bike around and headed home.

During my ride I noticed a bunch of side trails and decided to investigate a few. I was really happy I did this, because each one led to some really interesting discoveries.

3-quarry.jpg

This was a rock quarry I found. There was a little waterfall in the corner. I rested for a bit and snapped a few photos. I love the sound of waterfalls.

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The next side trail I took led me to this pond / motocross track. There is a trail with all kinds of hills, and obstacles going around the entire distance of the pond. I thought it was an absolutely beautiful place to ride. The next time I return I'm going to make sure I have my action cam with me and grab some footage. Anyway, I rode around the pond a couple times, then left a little disappointed that I didn't have more time to hang out there.

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So I managed to ride close to 100 miles getting nothing but dust on the bike. I was pretty good with that, and considering I'd be returning home for Sunday dinner with the family I went out of my way to stay out of the mud.

Now I haven't driven off road in probably close to 20 years, maybe longer. When I was a kid I got my first mini bike at 12 and rode dirt bikes throughout most of my teen years. By the end of this trail I was pretty comfortable riding off road again. I had picked up my pace considerably, and when I got to the section of the gun range I really laid into it. That was probably the roughest part of the trail, and as I hauled through there standing on the foot pegs the bike bounced around beneath me like a wild horse being ridden for the first time. Suddenly I bounce out of my line into an ATV rut and I'm heading directly for this mammoth mud puddle that I can tell is deep just by looking at it. I can't slow down, I have no choice but to attack it head on. I try to jump over it as I'm exiting the atv rut and almost succeed. The back half of the bike lands in the mud puddle/rut/motorcycle pit of hell and I'm covered from my feet to my waist in a thick coating of mud. If I hadn't had the years of experience I had riding off road as a teen it probably would of been disastrous. Luckily I had just bought a chest protector for the cross bar of the handlebars the day before. The whole bike was almost straight in the air, and the chest protector kissed my chest for the first time. Talk about an Adrenalin rush! I slowed down considerably after that, The Dood's getting to old for that kind of riding.

Over all it was a pretty pleasant ride. I had a lot of fun and the little Chinese bike did great off road. Honestly I was pretty impressed with its performance especially after my run in with the ATV rut. The bike currently has 1000 miles on it now, and I'll be posting an updated 1000 mile review with my thoughts on the bike soon. Anyway, hope you enjoyed my pictures for the week. Thanks for reading, and thanks for taking an interest in The Dood! Happy trails, safe travels and happy trading everyone!

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Hi dear @the-bitcoin-dood ..how are you .
I am new to your bolg ..
Amazing nature photography and
very good traveling ..really like your post.
Thanks for sharing..
I just #Followed and #Resteem and #Upvote

Thanks for the resteem, follow, and upvote. Glad you enjoyed the post. Thanks for the support! Just followed you back! Cheers

The pictures have been beautiful and the motorbikes roam freely, the post was good.

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