Issue link: http://trailridermagazine.uberflip.com/i/694092
HMS VIKINGS Ride Report - Hoot Owl, 4/17/16 TRYGVE HALVERSON Imagine the fun 11 guys could have in the woods for 6 ½ hours over 82 miles? Ok, do you have an image in your mind? Here we go; 0600hrs departure… delayed by Johnny Thunder Road! But not Albert type of delay (35 minutes), only 10 minutes delinquent. On the road we go…. Ross & the 2 Haajees, Trooper and his little friend Pete, Big Jim and Bri Dog…. And Tombs, Nitro, Hughes & Trail Boss. Rolling Coal we head south. Slipping through the Bedford tolls I spool it back up towards the 80 avg mph. ooops, is that a state cruiser in my mirror? I slip in to the "Slow" lane and let him pass. Only to mind drift off seconds later and run up his ass! I better use cruise and set it at 72. Rte 3, comes & goes, 495 the same…burning down 290 to Woooosta and we rip past a cruiser perched in the median…. 82mph? so much for cruise control. We get away unscathed…. And set sights on 395 exit 97. A quick stop for fuel, ice and porta potty…. Next stop, Barnesville Sand & Gravel. Pulling in next to Team Maine Cycle…. We wake the sleeping babies Jim and Kev, bust their door open and out tumbles several empties. It smells too…. Suit up, register, tech and on the trail…… 11 men leave, 1 returns shortly thereafter….. another returns midaft- ernoon and a third sweeps through to make sure # 1 doesn't drink all the beer. Incident #1: Harjy Junior cuts off Ricky Racer, tangles bars and breaks finger….. 3 miles into an 80 mile ride. He carriers on another 27 and calls it quits. Or maybe his dad called it for him, either way he's headed back to camp. (The remainder in no particular order) Incident #2: Marsolais buries his bike in a swamp…. The bigger problem is, he's underneath it. In an attempt to keep it from drowning out the motor, BriDog grabs at the chassis to keep it above the surface….. problem is, the right hand was wrapped around his sweet (and smoking hot) FMF PowerBomb header….. Down one glove that was borrowed from Tombsie…. his index finger will never leave a print again. Incident #3: Trooper realizes he doesn't have electric start…. This cause him to either leave his bike running at lunch, or sit in the pack waiting to go with his right leg cramping up as it sits high on the kickstarter….. good things he a troopah! The day he threatens the nearest rider with either starting the bike or losing his license. 14 Trail Rider www.TrailRider.com