The eagle has landed....

The eagle has landed. We are in Greenfield Massachusetts at the Super 8 hotel and we are getting ready to check in. All has gone well. We'll get checked in, we'll get our rooms and wait for Peggy to show up for dinner in a little while. Goodbye. listen

Powered by Jott

On the road again. We're...

On the road again. We're on route 2. Just made a stop in Alfro(?) Massachusetts. We departed Mark(?) Hamster(?) approximately 2:00pm as planed. We're about 35 miles from our destination for the day in Greenfield, Massachusetts. All is going well, everybody be safe. Goodbye. listen

Powered by Jott

T Minus 14 Hours

I am getting ready for work and gonna load the gear on the bike. 14 Hours until our departure time. All apears in order. It is damp this morning as it rained pretty heavy last night. I am on paved roads today so will not encounter slippery until tomorrow.

I will gas up on the way to work and then be all set for departing at 2:00 pm. I will test the JOTT Blog transmission also before I leave.

Have a good day, weekend and be safe!

Pat in NH

Practice Makes Perfect...

Or should I say, "Mud is Fun!" We spent Friday (after an all night rain Thursday) exploring a trail I found! There were 3 of us, Dave, Yigal and myself. I slid out a couple times and saw plenty of mud from too close!

It was a fun day, though wet and muddy. We got a pretty good ways down the trail before deciding that it was really beyond our safe passing with DS tires instead of a more agressive knobby tire. We want to go back and explore it further when it is dryer...

Sunday, Dave and I drove down to MA to pick up some spare parts. Upon our return, we worked on our bikes a bit and then headed out to a couple areas he found. One was hilly, wooded, rugged and rocky. Very good "technical" practice and we did well. This was tougher than most stuff we would run into normally.

Then we shifted to a hilly area, soft and steep.. the first hill was not too bad, down was ok and the next we had no business being near. Dave almost made and tipped near the top. I walked up and we got him turned around and headed back out. I got hung up, stalled and then buried the rear wheel on the way out. We had to lift the bike out of the soft groove that I dug, then I got restarted and made it up.

As we left, 2 fellows on "dirt bikes" were coming in and looked at us like we had no business in there on our bikes. They were probably right!

Getting ready now for the Adventure in VT!

Pat in NH

The Puppy Dog Route

Our next great "Adventure" will be the VT Puppy Dog Route. It is a dual sport (dirt road run) from Greenfield MA up to the Canadian border. Basically it works out to almost 300 miles of predominately dirt roads traversing the entire State of Vermont. My friend Dave from New Hampshire and I are doing this together. We are both riding BMW F650 GS

Devised by a BMW owner from VT, he had been out west in the mountains on what was called "The Big Dog Ride". He had such a blast he developed this in VT to allow some of the same fun and challenges on a smaller scale, hence the name "Puppy Dog".

I have route sheets and a gps route so we are hoping to be able to Negotiate the route just fine. We are departing from my work Thursday afternoon of July 10th and riding to Greenfield where we are grabbing a motel room.

The southern section is from Greenfield MA to Allis State Park in VT. It is just over 160 miles and we will ride that on Friday the 11th of July, arriving and camping at Allis SP. This will probably be a 6 1/2 to 7 hour day depending on photo stops etc.

Saturday, we will break camp and do the Northern section which is 130 miles. This will be a shorter day than Friday and we are planning to camp when finished but have not determined our exact plan as some will depend on time of day, weather and how we feel.

I will have the Blog going and am planning to update via Jott when/if I have phone coverage.
http://rockynh.blogspot.com/

I will also have my SPOT Tracker on from Thursday at 1:00pm until my return home Sunday. With this you can actually follow along with me.. Typically if you see a tracking point, they are transmitted every 10 minutes as I travel. I usually will send a "manual" OK at major stops as I shut off the tracker for meals, arriving at a destination etc.
http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?&glId=0Sqs8ICqhvc2TigJXr3Cbf9pLA7L2tgVe

Hope everyone enjoys...

Pat in NH