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warrior~kid
Canada
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I have been an active member of the ATV Magazine forum for the past 5 years. Over these 5 years I have learned many things about the sport I love, and have made many friends along the way. Recently I had the opportunity to meet up and ride with one of my best forum friends, cchagros, in his home state of New Hampshire.
My 2007 YFZ450 was loaded up in the trailer, my gear was packed, and my vehicle was ready as I left my house early Monday morning, a 7 and a half hour journey ahead of me. Upon my arrival I met with Chris for the first time in person, went for lunch and discussed the riding schedule for the trip. We went to a local powersports dealer to register my machine with the State of New Hampshire in order to legally ride the trails there. The rest of the first day Chris introduced me to his family, friends, and the area of Newmarket, NH. Monday evening I had the pleasure of meeting NH_Kingquad, a good friend of Chris, and a fellow forum friend of mine. After a good conversation over wings and beer, we went to sleep for the evening and to rest up for the following day, full of riding.
We arrived at the Hopkinton-Everett Reservoir in Dunbarton, NH, on Tuesday November 17th at approximately 9:30 in the morning. We unloaded our machines, my YFZ, Chris’ Kingquad and Rincon, started up my GoPro Hero Wide helmet camera (whose batteries failed miserably) and hit the trails. Most of my riding has been done in the relatively flat landscape of Eastern Ontario, and for me, the quick hills and sudden elevation changes of New Hampshire were very exciting. The roots and rocks sticking out from the hills made picking lines difficult, and found myself tensing for impact with rocks on my skidplate frequently. It was a beautiful day for riding, however with a lot of rain in the past few weeks, there was tons of sitting water on the trails. Chris and Dave, on the Kingquad and Rincon, respectively, had plenty of protection from all the water. The fenders on my YFZ were not designed with copious amounts of water in mind, so I found myself sopping wet within 30 minutes of being on the trails. After 2 and a half hours of riding, my YFZ had decided it was done swimming for the day, as it had sucked water into the airbox and intake, and refused to run. Dave had to pick his daughter up from school, so I took his spot riding the Rincon for the remainder of the day. I had never ridden a big bore utility machine until that day, and I was pleasantly surprised at the handling and power these machines have to offer. After having ridden a sport machine, and a utility machine on those trails, I am confident in saying that the Hopkinton-Everett Reservoir is a place where 4 wheel drive, and hefty fender protection shines. We headed back to Newmarket late in the afternoon, and I hung up my gear to dry for the next day of riding.
Unfortunately Dave was unable to accompany Chris and I to our next riding spot, Jericho Lake, the following day, due to work. This did work out in my favour as my YFZ seemed in rough shape, with milky oil caps, suggesting water in the oil, Chris would let me ride one of his two machines at Jericho. We woke up early and headed 3 hours north along Highway 16, to Berlin, NH, the home of Jericho Lake ATV Park. We stopped at Jericho Motorsports for a trail map, and hit the trails. Jericho Lake had a lot less standing water than in Dunbarton, the trails were also, for the most part, much faster and well groomed. They consisted of a mix between clear cut switch back trails down the mountainside, to high speed logging truck roads, to tight and technical paths through the woods. There were several rocky hill climbs, steep descents and plenty of changing scenery to keep the ride fun and interesting. The views of the valley and Jericho Lake itself from the tops of the mountains are spectacular to say the least. With well over 60 miles worth of trails there is plenty for a day of riding. Chris and I managed to clock in at just under 60 miles for the day, having ridden most of the trails in the park, save a few. We loaded up just before dark, tired, but satisfied after a day of some of the best riding I have ever done.
We had given up on the rechargeable batteries I invested in for the helmet camera, and we bought a pack of alkalines to use for Jericho. With the working batteries we were able to capture well over 2 hours worth of riding footage.
I had an absolute blast on my trip to New Hampshire. It was very refreshing to ride new and exciting trail systems, and to ride with people that love this sport just as much as I do. If ever you get the opportunity to ride in New Hampshire I strongly urge you to go, I have no doubt you will have an amazing time, have some amazing stories to tell, and pictures to show your friends and family. I would like to thank Chris and Dave for their hospitality during my stay, they are two wonderful people and great riders as well!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xR2ujXakxg
Chris will be (darn freakin better be) putting up pics shortly!
www.quadhub.com December 2009 QOTM
  
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cchagros
New Hampshire
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Warrior Kid at glass smooth Jericho Lake in the White Mountain National forest
Can you guess who was leading the way? The King and I.
Happiness is..........
Guess the XTRs kick up a little mud heheheh
The mighty fleet of two...........
I am very happy to be here!!!!!!!
The official wake up crew lol
What a gorgeous day...in a perfect place!
Taking it alllllllllll in
Good times...good times!
He likey....a lot!
Switched rides for equal opportunity mud slinging.
Let me just say, first of all, that its not every day I invite someone I met on the intraweb into my home to spend a few days with my wife, dogs, and myself. After 3 or 4 years of consistently communicating with Mark on Messenger, and then through the magic of texting, I felt I knew Mark well enough to take the shot. He did not dissappoint. Mark was an excellent guest, and is welcome here anytime he wants to make the trek.
Funny thing happens when you ride with someone half your age. You find yourself feeling old, but at the same time, you feel younger when all is said and done. Mark is an excellent rider, and for someone his size and weight to throw the King Quad around as he did is a credit to his abilities. On the other hand, I wondered if I'd be able to keep up with him. I think I did just fine, and thats where the feeling young part comes into play. The feeling old part happens when you crawl out of bed bruised to hell the next day lol.
After our day in Dunbarton, we went over to NH_KINGQUAD's house for some hot wings. Most don't know this, but we have a vast selection of hot sauces, mostly from the Carribbean. Our objective is always to make buffalo wings a sport. Its fun to see just how much heat we can handle. Mark was a noob to this, but he did an admirable job dealing with the pain. It makes for some good laughs watching each other turn various shades of red as the habanero takes over.
My only regret was he could not stay a few more days to ride some more. Hopefully, we will fix that next year, or maybe even later this winter.
In closing, it was great to meet face to face finally, as it was when I visited TTP in Arizona last year for a Glamis weekend. You hear a lot of horror stories about people meeting via the net, and not being the same when they meet in person. I'm happy to say Mark is not only a great rider, but an excellent person as well. Please, come back soon for some more riding adventures.
A good time was had by all!
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2010 Honda Rincon, Red, Bone Stock
2005 Suzuki King Quad, Yellow, also bone stock.
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princevaliant1975
Them big hills west of Denver
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Nice write up! The pics are really nice. We need more of this around here on the forum. I think I will lift this and throw it up on the blog!
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02-Sportsman 400
Wisconsin/Minnesota
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Very nice write up, pictures, and video. Someday I'll have to make a trek to ride with you guys somewhere. So Mark, what's the verdict on the YFZ? Hopefully an oil flush is all it needed.
The terrain looks similar to what I ride here in the upper midwest. The only difference is there isn't as much open area and the trails are a little tighter.
Started the Predator up today and she's running good! I'm going riding tomorrow and wish I had a helmet cam to record some of it.
2005 TLD Predator
CFM Aluminum Airbox
Dual K&N Filters w/ outerwears
Outerwears Airbox lid
HMF Ballance Slip on
ITP Holeshot GNCC's
Black ITP T9 Baja's
Rath scoops
DG nerfs
DG 6 pack
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warrior~kid
Canada
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02-Sportsman 400 wrote:Very nice write up, pictures, and video. Someday I'll have to make a trek to ride with you guys somewhere. So Mark, what's the verdict on the YFZ? Hopefully an oil flush is all it needed.
It ended up only having water and some gunk in the carb bowl, no water in the oil after all, the white we saw must've just been condensation in the caps. It is running as good as new now, and I have an EHS racing lid coming in the mail to prevent future airbox/water issues.
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camo fox
wisconsin
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02-Sportsman 400 wrote:Very nice write up, pictures, and video. Someday I'll have to make a trek to ride with you guys somewhere. So Mark, what's the verdict on the YFZ? Hopefully an oil flush is all it needed.
The terrain looks similar to what I ride here in the upper midwest. The only difference is there isn't as much open area and the trails are a little tighter.
Started the Predator up today and she's running good! I'm going riding tomorrow and wish I had a helmet cam to record some of it.
I thought the same thing as soon as I saw the helmet cam footage. That's what we have here in wisconsin (mostly central-northern wisconsin) with out the vast openings. As sportsman said, our trails get mighty tight at times around here too.
Nice write up you two, and great pictures! Mark- Nice footage with the helmet cam and good editing of it! I will be getting one of those before spring so I can record some of our trails around here for everyone to see.
EDIT --- This is a little bit of what I will be bringing here come spring Black River Falls
It is not my video, just a youtube video I saw that shows some of what it to be expected next year. Hell, I might even make a winter trip to do some filming (if I get my camera in time)
* This post was
edited 11/27/09 10:35pm by camo fox *
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jhess
usa
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Joined: 11/30/2008
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Great Post! Beautiful country side! You folks are blessed with the wide open spaces!WE have some hills,but nothing like that scenery.The dogs belong to Chhag?
Willie
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02-Sportsman 400
Wisconsin/Minnesota
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camo fox wrote:02-Sportsman 400 wrote:Very nice write up, pictures, and video. Someday I'll have to make a trek to ride with you guys somewhere. So Mark, what's the verdict on the YFZ? Hopefully an oil flush is all it needed.
The terrain looks similar to what I ride here in the upper midwest. The only difference is there isn't as much open area and the trails are a little tighter.
Started the Predator up today and she's running good! I'm going riding tomorrow and wish I had a helmet cam to record some of it.
I thought the same thing as soon as I saw the helmet cam footage. That's what we have here in wisconsin (mostly central-northern wisconsin) with out the vast openings. As sportsman said, our trails get mighty tight at times around here too.
Nice write up you two, and great pictures! Mark- Nice footage with the helmet cam and good editing of it! I will be getting one of those before spring so I can record some of our trails around here for everyone to see.
EDIT --- This is a little bit of what I will be bringing here come spring Black River Falls
It is not my video, just a youtube video I saw that shows some of what it to be expected next year. Hell, I might even make a winter trip to do some filming (if I get my camera in time)
If you go to Black River Falls let me know. I'm somewhat close and hear it's a decent place to ride.
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camo fox
wisconsin
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02-Sportsman 400 wrote:camo fox wrote:02-Sportsman 400 wrote:Very nice write up, pictures, and video. Someday I'll have to make a trek to ride with you guys somewhere. So Mark, what's the verdict on the YFZ? Hopefully an oil flush is all it needed.
The terrain looks similar to what I ride here in the upper midwest. The only difference is there isn't as much open area and the trails are a little tighter.
Started the Predator up today and she's running good! I'm going riding tomorrow and wish I had a helmet cam to record some of it.
I thought the same thing as soon as I saw the helmet cam footage. That's what we have here in wisconsin (mostly central-northern wisconsin) with out the vast openings. As sportsman said, our trails get mighty tight at times around here too.
Nice write up you two, and great pictures! Mark- Nice footage with the helmet cam and good editing of it! I will be getting one of those before spring so I can record some of our trails around here for everyone to see.
EDIT --- This is a little bit of what I will be bringing here come spring Black River Falls
It is not my video, just a youtube video I saw that shows some of what it to be expected next year. Hell, I might even make a winter trip to do some filming (if I get my camera in time)
If you go to Black River Falls let me know. I'm somewhat close and hear it's a decent place to ride.
I think the trails open back up dec. 1st. If there isn't much snow, I want to get a december trip in there! I love the fact that they are open year round!
I will deff let you know if I head back up there.
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coyote170
Sikeston,Mo
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Great post neat pictures thanks for sharing!
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