Riding between the levee and the Mississippi...

A place to post pics of my rides near my house between the levee and the river…

So one day I figured one could ride near the shore…if there were trails…

First, I took a trials course at TTC…



Then Santa dropped off a nice Xmas gift Dec 2012…









….then I started playing around, practicing, learning, and taking my share of slow motion crashes…



Idea is to slowly build a nice little trail over as many interesting logs and rock piles I can find…before the river wipes it all out later this spring…and then start all over again every year thereafter….at least for a while...



When the black line (current stage) is above the blue line horizontal line (the point at which the water hits the bottom of levee)…it means my trail is totally flooded by the Mississippi...

plenty of logs to learn and practice the double-blip...





plus rocks, mud, sand...





all I need is real mountains…but the sunset will do...

River flooded part of my trail…guess I need to get used to that…



But it is relatively easy to move the trail up…





showing off a kick turn I learned watching youtube…

Even grey days are fun…







even if you get hung up…

Neat. What's the range, 20 miles? Kind of ironic, with a name like that, no? :)

yes…

2.5 liter gas tank...no idea what the range is…I ride/work on the trail about 3 hours at a time which consumes about a third to half the tank. But riding the those conditions with my level of skill is slow going and exhausting. I ride about 2 to 3 minutes then need to catch my breath... Plus scouting, opening up and building the trail, cutting branches down, etc. takes time and energy too…

Wonderful idea to use river bank material for a course. Very nice bike.

I spent alot of time on my ole hodaka ratting around back there.
Hasn't changed much in 40 something years.

Looking good .... Great bike !!! Looks like you learned alot at the trails school.
Check out this video, this dude is good !!

http://www.advrider.com/forums/showpost.php?p=20828475&postcount=2221

I guess not hitting the obstacle with the front wheel to load the suspension didn't allow the back wheel to bounce on top of that slippery log…didn't help I'm not unloading the rear suspension much…need more practice!

Foggy spring day….the growth season is upon us down south and the trail is about to get swallowed by the weeds…lots of buds and shoots….and by the river...about 15% of my trail is now underwater…Just went through the first spider webs of the season…

After much youtube video watching and practice...I more less hopped this log, which I just found in the 3rd Sector after having to reroute, not perfectly, but maybe a B-...

Took this one at the end of the ride today; glorious spring day down south...



Day started foggy though. This next little section is funny…just a few feet into the 1st Sector, I managed to find a mini "climb" and built a switchback and all…





Here we head down the rocky bank to the shore on the 2nd Sector…this seems to have been the natural bank of the Mississippi in this area, reinforced by rocks...







Lots of rerouting today, about 25% of my trail is gone as the waters come up inexorably...









And back up the bank. Wonder how long ago those rocks were dumped along the bank...



Next to one of several lagoons that feed from rains or when the river floods...



And showing off a bit as I climb onto the levee…

I did quite a bit of walking down there. It's easy to forget about thins when you have that level of escape. I have to get one of those trials bikes and get to the school you are talking about. The school is only about 90 minutes east of me.

Mind posting specs on the bike and pricing?

I could do a lot of riding around here just like that with all the blow down that will never be cleaned up as well as the brush piles that have been cleaned up. You ever et up this way let me know. You are more than welcome to ride. I stomped around your grounds long enou up in that black hole known as Scotlandville. I miss that place like a Soldier misses Afghanistan.

2011 Beta Evo 250, 2 stroke. 2 or 3 years old, but I bought it new from dealer. Here are the specs for the 2013 model: http://www.americanbeta.com/node/781

With more of the original trail under water, this Holy Saturday I was pushed to higher ground…

Here's crossing a short "floating bridge" I built from logs to cross the drainage from this natural lagoon (right) into the river (which you cannot see, but is on the left of this picture.



This one is on the southern end of the same lagoon, about 1/5 mile south. This end of the lagoon is surrounded by about 15 feet bank which makes for a nice area to build a couple of interesting switchbacks down into the waters and back up.









In these one can appreciate the banks of the lagoon in the background









Overall, a really nice day as I was able to finally connect all the 4 sectors into a longer single track, probably three or four miles long. Short but with plenty of interesting sections to repeat, several difficult logs that require me to dismount and wrestle the bike over, etc. the possibilities are endless…as long as the river cooperates...

I always find abandoned footwear around the shores of the river...never in pairs though...



practicing tight turns to get ready for Stanbury Mountains in Utah…

Riding up Blackberry "Hill…"



Steep and rocky…for Louisiana standards…



The reward, a ziplock full of ripe blackberries. Just ate them with heavy cream for dinner this evening...