April 3-6, 2008: April Fool's Ride in Arkansas!

[Nobiman]

We're here! Tom, Craig & Jonathan

Sean just called and will be here around 1:30

Expect severe storms around 5PM so maybe a quick rede this afternoon before it hits

Next 3 days look good

currently chilly with a light drizzle and dense fog (can't see sears house from the office)

We grabbed the first 3 beds on the left (2 up 1 down) in the lodge - hope that is ok haven't unpacked just in case

Man you guys dont waste any time do you? Does Craig have the 'ol helmet cam ready and operational?

'Bout had a crash before we even left! I was pushing the 525 around to load up into the truck, put the kickstand down and started to walk away and the bike started to go down. About that time the kickstand went flying and I barely caught the bike before it hit the ground. Kickstand bolt broke, so back into the garage for some drilling/easy outing and a new bolt. I guess its good that it happened now 'cause I dont carry those tools with me when we go ride.

We're leaving at 2 AM in the morning after Sandy gets off at 1 AM, we should pull in between 8 and 9 AM. Isnt Star 1 the little cabin directy in front of the main lodge entrance? Ride safe today guys and we'll see ya in 'bout 21 hrs.

Randy.

[Nobiman]

Well we're back, most everybody else is still on the road I suppose. We were on the way to a great weekend, albeit wet, when Russell, one of our Okie group had a bad crash and broke his elbow and many ribs in the process. Luckily, he and my brother Daryl are EMT's and knew exactly what to do in this scenario. We were way the heck out in BFE but luckily cell phone reception was good and we were able to make a 911 call for help. The dispatcher sent an ambulance and the medivac helicopter, the ambulance arrived after about 55 minutes and the copter a few minutes later. Needless to say, this was a very long wait for everybody involved, especially Russell who was starting to have trouble breathing. We kept him on his good (left) side during the wait as he could not stand to be moved. When the copter arrived they brought out the transport board and we had to roll him over onto it while he groaned in agony. It is believed that during this move or shortly thereafter, one of the broken ribs punctured his right lung. So he ended up getting another dose of pain as the tube was inserted through his side to re-inflate (?) the lung. We were very thankful for the helicopter because the 20 or so miles of forest roads out of this area were terribly rough for someone in his condition and would have been pure hell in an ambulance. The accident happened 'bout 12:30 PM, and by the time we got him sent off in the copter, sent a someone back for the truck to come get the bike, rode back to the ranch and got to the hospital to see him it was 7:30 PM. He was actually in pretty good spirits, thanks to a healthy dose of morphine. Surgery was performed on his right elbow to bring all of the pieces back into place this morning and the chest tube has to stay in for 3-4 days, so he's there for a while yet.

The riding was as good as ever before and after the incident, yea we went riding while he was in surgery, but it was in his honor! Somehow though, we kept ending up on LOT-A-WATA trail every time we turned around! Man, those creek crossings were murder. Many bikes were drowned on this trip for sure. Several of us (myself, Troy and Mike off the top of my head) had made the switch to full out RFS bikes from lesser capable bikes for this ride and we were as giddy as a schoolgirls about it. I know that I personally waited WAY too long to do this, my Motarded LC4 will probably not see the trail again after experiencing a true honest to goodness offroad RFS bike.

It was nice riding with all of our old buddies and meeting new ones this trip, I hope to ride with ya'll many times in the future.

I gotta say one more thing about the guys we rode with. Not one single person rode by the accident and kept going. Every rider stopped thier ride to lend thier support whether it was moral or otherwise to the situation without hesitation. Good folks IMO.

Later, Randy.

[chadman]

Glad Russell is ok. I hope the other guy recovered ok (sorry, forgot his name, but he was on the yellow DRZ and smashed up his knee)

The "St Louis Crew" in the Dower house all had a blast this weekend and look forward to doing this again soon. I wanted to thank Sean again for the invite and hooking us up with the great dinner. I also want thank Troy for getting us such a cool place to stay. This will be the cheapest ride trip I make this year. It's so much fun to have a large group like that. We got to meet a lot of great people, tell a lot of lies, learn about other places to ride, and ride in a new place! Hope to see all of you again soon. Chad


PS: I just put my 525 KTM up for sale on E-bay and will be riding my new 300 very soon!

[Mike Wowk]

Holy Guacamole Randy!

Rooster called us on our(me cj devin &will) drive back from our weekend ride with in SOuthern Ohio to fill us in on the details. Glad to hear Russell is gonna be OK. CJ figures it was just bad karma that caught up to him. We're pretty sure that Russell along with Darryl & Rooster were all in on the wet riding sock midnight assault on CJ in Wyoming. Let Darryl know he better ride careful Let Russell know we wish him a speedy revovery. And yes although I LOVED my 625SXC.... I really really LOVE my 250EXC

[troy]

Other than the injuries of course, WOW, what a fantastic trip.

I would not say Russell is exactly "OK", but if OK means "going to survive and hopefully regain use of his elbow after a very long time", then he is "OK". Russell, our prayers for healing are with you.

The other guy who was injured was Dan. Dan lives in the Kansas City area, and none of us knew him previously. He was a friend of a cousin of one of the riders. Good guy, good rider. Turns out, as I understand, that his knee injury was only serious tissue damage that will heal in time--no surgery required. He did not tear ligaments, etc. I assume he'll be on some crutches for awhile. Slimtrader, if you get an update, let us know.

I had a wonderful time. Many of you thanked me and Sean for putting things together. I really appreciate that. What really makes the trip a success, though, is the quality of people that show up to ride. Mulberry Mountain Lodge provides an unbeatable atmosphere and location. The BBQ caterers really impressed us with a fantastic spread. The weather turned out 10x better than I expected, too! It all comes together to make for a wonderful experience.

Thanks!

[xr-nut]

troy, heres the official thanks a million from the honda boys! the only problem i had with the whole weekend is that is was way too short! heres to repeating it over and over again! would you believe last nite i had dreams about deep water crossings!

to russel and dan, heres to your recoveries!

[KC]

What really makes the trip a success, though, is the quality of people that show up to ride. Mulberry Mountain Lodge provides an unbeatable atmosphere and location. The BBQ caterers really impressed us with a fantastic spread. The weather turned out 10x better than I expected, too! It all comes together to make for a wonderful experience.

Ditto!! The fact that the trails are really, really good helps out too.

I'm pretty sure that if we worked out the percentages, we were riding in water more than on dry land. The ride was ridiculously gratifying!...Painfully enjoyable? If you knew the experiences I had with water disasters the three days prior to this ride you would understand. Never The Less, GREAT RIDE, GREAT PEOPLE

Kyle

[tom reiner]

Just woke up, rolled into town around 6am unload the boys and hit the hay, I'm getting too old for these all night drives.

Glad the weatherman was wrong and I didn't wimp out and cancel.
I'm definitely going to design and build a Boot Drier

Troy and Sean,
Ditto what the others said, Thanks for putting it together. We'll see you next time I hope. I hope we can have a Bigger OH posse next time too.

Randy,
Please keep up up to date on Russell's progress, Our Prayers are with him and his skilled caregivers.
And I will get the OH Posse saddled up to meat ya'll @ Mid Ohio. That sounds like a good time too.

pass this on to Josh,,,
Nice riding with ya Son,, You're now a "Rock-bike" Rider, way to step up the skills in one weekend.

[SilverSurfer]

Hey Guys,
What a great trip! Too bad the DRZ* couldn't hold me up for more than 10 miles! I had a great time and wished it could have lasted longer, and also missing out on that BBQ! Went to the ER and they said that I should have significant improvement in one week. Nothing broken or torn in the knee, just *stressed* it out. I won't be kick starting any bikes in the near future, but can't wait to ride! In the meantime I will be doing some stunts on my new crutches, they have some pretty cool foam grips too! Next time I am headed for Chadwick, I will make sure to post up here in advance.

I can't thank you guys enough for all your help. Carrying me up the mountain and riding back with me. This Buds for you!

Russel, ride free brother. I hope you get to feeling better soon!

~Dan

*I am sure my XR400 would have taken me up and over those logs lickety split!

[safiri]

I put up my pictures and video ... not much taken as I was too busy riding!
http://home.everestkc.net/malsin/Motorc ... 080404.htm
The video has not been edited so the files are large. But, too me, worth the time to download and view!

Included is a picture of my redneck ski-boot drier that will be coming along on the next AR adventure.

BTW, this is what happens when you follow too closely:


Tracy and his posse:


The path less traveled:

[marksharp]

St. Louis crew, ditto on Chad's comments, a super ride. I need some help however, I would be indebted to that special someone with a camera who snapped a shot of my buddy on Saturday at the big creek crossing, the one where you had to follow the bank to the left for about 200 feet before you could cross. The "fast group" was stopped with cameras ready as we crossed. I went first and made it, but while my back was turned my buddy lost his balance and fell in, him and his bike completely under. Blue and yellow jacket, white helmet. It's got to be priceless. Please let me know if anyone caught this.
Thanks again for the great trip, everyone we met was friendly and we'd like to join in again at the next outing.
Mark

[tom reiner]

St. Louis crew, ditto on Chad's comments, a super ride. I need some help however, I would be indebted to that special someone with a camera who snapped a shot of my buddy on Saturday at the big creek crossing, the one where you had to follow the bank to the left for about 200 feet before you could cross. The "fast group" was stopped with cameras ready as we crossed. I went first and made it, but while my back was turned my buddy lost his balance and fell in, him and his bike completely under. Blue and yellow jacket, white helmet. It's got to be priceless. Please let me know if anyone caught this.
Thanks again for the great trip, everyone we met was friendly and we'd like to join in again at the next outing.
Mark

I think Craig has Video of that, Face first in the cold water, we wacthed it Sat night after the BB game.
I'll get him to email me the the Video and posted it on u-tube, it is priceless

[Jeff620RXC]

Hey Daryl, would you have sucked the poison out if Tracy got bit on the ass by that CopperHead?
Seriously, that could have been real bad.

[ajayhawkfan]

WOW great pictures and report. Maybe I need to get a little bike and join you next year.

I have a couple of these boot driers. http://www.amazon.com/OPTRONICS-Portabl ... B000CHGCHG They are great. They work using a power socket in a car or plug in.

[Nobiman]

St. Louis crew, ditto on Chad's comments, a super ride. I need some help however, I would be indebted to that special someone with a camera who snapped a shot of my buddy on Saturday at the big creek crossing, the one where you had to follow the bank to the left for about 200 feet before you could cross. The "fast group" was stopped with cameras ready as we crossed. I went first and made it, but while my back was turned my buddy lost his balance and fell in, him and his bike completely under. Blue and yellow jacket, white helmet. It's got to be priceless. Please let me know if anyone caught this.
Thanks again for the great trip, everyone we met was friendly and we'd like to join in again at the next outing.
Mark

Its your lucky day Mark, I just happen to have several pics of the event in question. The first one is the original that I snapped just as he hit the water;

[Nobiman]

Same pic here, just cropped a bit. Yea, he pretty much went under all right!

[Nobiman]

Here good do'ers Craig and Phillip come to the rescue.

[Nobiman]

For those who were not at the scene, a pic or two of the accident. Here the ambulance had arrived and Russell was being tended to by Daryl using thier equipment.

[Nobiman]

A group carry of the woundee over to the helicopter.

[Nobiman]

As if the day wasnt bad enough, Phillip accidently locked his keys in the truck (he swore that Josh did it though) after riding all the way back to the lodge to get it in order to retrieve Russells bike. Here Daryl is holding the end of a long piece of rebar that he found in the farmers junk pile as Phillip guides it in to the opposite side door unlock button. It worked like a charm!