Alright! Allow me to make my entrance to this forum with a nice ride report. Turns out part of my ride was in the same place as another ride report from this forum, so bonus points to whoever knows which one I'm talking about.
I took my new, to me, NX out for my first dirt ride in a long time.
I explored NFD 9020 off exit 38 of I-90 in Washington. I set out a bit later than expected, almost 11:00 am after fitting new brush guards to the NX. I was wearing street riding gear and really didn't know what I was even going to be doing. It was all kinda improvised, but it turned out exactly as I hoped.
It didn't occur to me that I could be taking photos with my cell phone until I had explored a firefighter training facility and a few gnarly dirt roads near it, so the first part of this report will just be text.
I managed to lay the bike down within the first minute of hitting dirt. After a rather large water crossing I hit a huge mud pit and had a spill. Broke a piece off of my already broken dash, and put a chip in my windshield. Oh well, at least I got that out of the way.
I passed a lady walking her dog and did some more mud riding. That road ended quick and I turned around.
The next road had even tougher obstacles. After exploring a bunch of muddy forks, I ended up at a stream crossing followed immediately by a steep hill climb with rocks. No problem. Next was an equally steep hill with 3 logs along it. This took me about 10 tries and a broke mirror and nearly all my strength to get up. Of course the road ended right after the hill. I was pretty beat at this point, but rested for a moment because I had a lot more exploring to do.
I exited the firefighter training area and made my way to NFD 9020 (I was looking for 9021).
On my way up a long graded hill I passed a bunch of mountain bikers. I think there is a lot of bicycle single track this this area. At the very top of the road there was a barrier. Further investigation proved that the road had been completely washed away, there was no way to get across on a motorcycle. Now at the top of the road I decided to work my way back down trying every side road I came across.
The first road caused me to fall again. I now know that roots can be slippery and should be driven over at a perpendicular angle. At the end of the road I snapped a picture.
On my way back to 9020 I found this:
Can anyone identify that bike? I wonder what happened to the rider....:huh
I explored a bunch more side roads. Really good riding! They usually ended faster than I wanted them to.
I came upon a bunch of guys in a clearing near a pick-up truck acting very suspicious. I asked them if the road continued much farther. They didn't seem to think so, but I continued anyways. The road had some huge drainage ditches that put the NX's suspension to work. In the picture it is hard to tell how deep they really were. Even scarier going through them when there was a cliff on one side.
The road did end very quickly, but it was a nice challenge.
When I got back to the clearing the suspicious guys were gone, so I took another photo.
On one of the longer offshoots I came to a fork in the road. I marked the way back by placing a phone book I found in a tree on the correct road, incase I was to forget my way back.
Cool road here, sometimes its nice to just cruise through the trees and not have to worry about rocks, whoops, mud or water.
This road had me excited but it only lasted ~100 ft. :cry
Next was one of the hardest roads I took. A huge, long uphill on a road of rocks. I bottomed-out the suspension over and over on this section. I did have a spill here too. These picture were taken right after picking up the bike.
I started spotting snow here and there as I continued up the hill climb.
A few hundred feet from the snow line I decided to park the bike, have a snack and then turn around.
At this point I was fairly tired but decided to explore the non-phonebook side of the split on my way back down. I came upon an older guy and two kids who were doing some target practice. The three of them had maybe 15 guns they were shooting, I remember they had an AR-15. I should have asked if I could shoot it. The older fellow was very nice and pointed out a road I could follow, assuming I could get up and over the rock pile caused by a wash-out. We also worked out a communication system so they wouldn't shoot me on my way back, as I was heading down range.
The road was nice, but I will have to save it for another day. My arms started cramping up and I turned around. I ran into the people doing target practice again on the way back and they took a picture of me on their iphone and emailed it to me right then and there.
Note to self, iphone takes better pictures than blackberry :rofl
I said farewell and headed back down the road. At the very end of the forest road I ran into a fellow ADV rider on a KTM 690 taking a piss. I still need to find out who that was!
http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?p=12282067#post12282067
We talked a bit and he recommended some nearby routes that sounded even better than what I just did! :clap
We parted ways and I headed home on the freeway.
Back in the city before a sponge bath:
It took me half the day to get the hang of dirt riding again and to get used to the NX, but I learned that it is a very capable machine -- even with modestly knobby tires at street pressure.
I will have to upgrade the suspension so I don't bottom out any more on whoops and I can't wait for the engine guards I have on order to come in so I don't have to worry about the plastics quite so much.
Sorry for the long ride report!
I broke a mirror, anyone have suggestions for a good cheap replacement pair?
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Subject: Exit 38 off I-90 
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