I went on my first adventure ride this past Saturday.
What exactly does that mean? Generally, an adventure ride starts when you leave tarmac and enter the unpaved realm. It involves dirt or gravel or water or other natural element. You do this on a motorcycle. Dual sport bikes are purpose built for this kind of ride. They are for going both on-road and off-road.
I participated in a planned charity ride starting at Kaeppner’s Woods. We were supporting the Meals on Wheels organization.
I went with Joey and his father, Bill, who are both very experienced riders. They have so much knowledge about riding that I just try to soak in as much as I can from them. We had a nice ride from Columbus to Logan. We stopped for breakfast and I really couldn’t hide my excitement to actually go down one of those little roads to nowhere that you sometimes see.
Once we got there, Bill showed me how to cut and setup my trip-roll. This is sort of like those TripTik flipbooks that AAA gives you to maps out your travel but in a form easy to manage while on a motorcycle. Bill keeps all of these and hangs them from a wall in his garage. From what I saw there must be hundreds of them.
Off we go. 120 miles of dirt and gravel.
The first time entering gravel was an eye opener. That firm, planted feeling that you have on pavement goes away and you feel the bike start to pull and skate. It made me uneasy. My experience on the street didn’t seem to help any. I was tensing up and getting real nervous in the turns. I now have to learn how to ride all over again.
In my excitement to go out there and have fun I invited 2 more people to join our group, 6 in total would do the ride together. They were really nice people, but everyone had more experience, and I felt like I was just holding everyone up at times. That was a bad move on my part. I did my best to keep up with everyone.
I really enjoyed the scenery. Most of my thought was in concentration of just navigating the paths. I would have liked to have seen more and stop to take pictures. I saw so much that was beautiful. Next time I won’t worry so much about holding up the group because I’d love to have pictures to remember by.
As the day went on I got better and better. After lunch I had some of my confidence back as was actually keeping up with the rest of the pack. I had a moment of panic where I truly thought I would be laying the bike down. I was on a steep decent and hit a muddy rut or something. I hit my brakes hard trying to slow enough to make the sharp turn at the end. I felt totally out of control but just held on to the bike and rode it out. Everything worked out though. They guys were waiting for me at the next turn point and all looking at me as though I muddied my pants. It made me feel as though I had just made it through a real challenge.
I rode home discovering two things about myself. The first being that I really enjoyed the experience of riding on challenging ground, I’ll be doing more adventure rides. The second, is that in this environment I like to take it slow, smell the roses, and enjoy my surroundings. I wont be in a rush next time.
