PICS cOMING IN A MINUTE

Golden Eagles Motorcycle Club

Some friends and I headed out last Saturday for a one day blitz at the Thielman MN trail ride. This ride is put on the by the Golden Eagles MC out of the twin cities.



If you want you can ride all weekend, camping out Fri and Sat. In the past our group has done both, all weekend, and the one day blitz, and they each have their advantages/disadvantages.

These are some of our riding buddies from here in town. The one guy has quite the rig. I think there are 5 of them "camping" in the tour bus.


The trail ride takes place at the Zumbro Bottoms conservation area, this is a horse park with a camping area and miles of horse trails. The motorcycle club has an agreement with the DNR and is allowed to use the area 2 times a year. In return , the club helps maintain the trail system. It works out well.
There were 7 of us riding up together (5 adults and 2 kids) so there was a bit of planning and prep work to be done. GMC Denali borrowed from one guys brother, trailer configured and loaded by a couple of the other guys. It's a 4+ hour drive each way so any glitch will cost you dearly in the riding time dept. We ended up doing great, leaving before 5am and arriving just after 9.




Stopping at McDonald's



Unload the bikes quick, go register and do the sound check, gear up and off riding by about 10. It was a hot and dusty day. They hadn't had any rain for a couple weeks. I ended up going through two camel backs of water and only pee'd once There is a pretty good selection of trail types. Rocky hills , sandy creek-beds, wooded hillside single track, flat twisty river bottom, gravel road, etc etc.

Overlook above campground


Stop for a quick lunch about 1


heading home.

After that we got back riding until 4:30, load up and head home. I was home by 10:30 and that includes re-loading 2 bikes on my trailer and dropping my one buddy and his bike off .
Sorry no trail pictures, we weren't stopping much. In total we got 65 miles of mostly single track in. Awesome day. If you are anywhere close you should try it out ( I know there are a few of you on here that are closer than I am ) the next one is in the fall the weekend after Labor day, I'll try to put up a reminder before that one.

Here's a short Gopro vid from after lunch. Click on the gear under the vid and select 720 for a better picture.

http://youtu.be/eEqgWUbhg3o
Dan

Golden Eagles Motorcycle Club

Zumbro Bottoms Horse Camps

 

Nice looking trail, Dan...fast and swoopy. Man, that's hard to believe it can only be used by the dirt bikers 2 times a year for the trail maintenance agreement. Even being from Texas, I don't like horse people for the most part. They usually seem to think everyone owes them a place to ride, and they usually do little to maintain those places...many times too much money and too little commitment. Sorry for the rant, Dan...back to topic. A lot of the fun at these events is the fellowship among the friends and riders. Looks like you guys loaded up quite a crew there. Man, everything looks so green there.

 

Dan, in the video, it shows that your 351cc bike sure has a different power delivery than my 250!

 

Not really...I think it's just Dan-the-Man's superior riding skill and throttle control that gives one that impression.

 

I'm sure it's like anything , there are good horse people and bad horse people. It was kinda funny last fall . We were up there for the ride and while we were eating lunch a BIG ol' dually rig rolls in full of hoss'es. The were pretty pissed that they drove however far and couldn't ride the trails. I'm sure they drove away complaining about the motorcycles. Sorry, the ride dates are right on the parks website.

You are soooooo right I'd have to say just hanging out is half the fun. We really have a good group, and it's non stop laughs all the way up and back. + 1 to the "fellowship"
Out on the trails or in the camp, I didn't see one bit of inconsiderate behavior.

 

Hey Jim!! how are you? Have you ever gone over and checked out Thielman? Directional trails, ride at your own pace, I think you'd like it.
The 351 is nice, the KLX definitely needs to be more than a 250, or at least not a de-tuned 250. The 351 is just a tractor, the low power, on demand, makes up for a lot of my missing skills.
We're heading to Wabeno WI for the Ride for Research in a couple weeks, maybe I'll see you there?? Have you been to any rides this year?
Dan