Riding between the levee and the Mississippi...

I have enjoyed reading about your trials course. Keep up the good work!

Well, this AM when I checked the stage hydrograph for the the MS River where I live, it was at Stage 30, so I knew it would be bad news for riding

….notice the black solid current level now, late April 2013, vs first week in Jan when I started riding and building the trail...



So the riding was lousy, the fishing was good...



…and next week's leg of our LA to AK trip should be better!

I look at your great pics and all I can think about are the snakes..

I hadn't seen one snake all winter….but they started to come out the last couple of weeks. Now I'm averaging about one snake seen per ride...plus the ones I don't see…the trick is not to fall….

I have withdrawal symptoms with my trail flooded…when the black line (current stage) is above the blue line (the point at which the water hits the levee)...



What my trail looks like this, 6 feet under, Stage 35







The good news is that when water recedes, we'll surely get new logs along the trail...

I was finally able to ride a bit today…





About a third of the trail is reopened…old logs out, new logs in…





Thinking twice about the next log…




Today, by a huge coincidence, I met the owner of the land where "my" trail is. He's the builder of the home I own, and developer of the subdivision where my house is…and he and his kids ride dirt bikes…he was wondering who had built the trail by the river...and was thinking of taking his kids riding there…His family owns 1,000 acres nearby with miles and miles of dirt trails...

Well, not quite Erzberg Rodeo's Carl's Dinner…but the river's rising and now falling waters opened up a whole new section full of really cool rocks and logs:

blurry pic, but lots of

You have taken the backyard, made a playground and accept what the Mighty Miss gives and takes away. Happiness from harmony.
Army Corps of Engineers is still fighting the river and losing. And losing. And .....

River still up there and actually rising...so can't connect the different sectors of my trail. 60% under water, but the new logs are great. Here's another one:



This is my first try at riding along the top of a log:



then coming the other way the hop was a little taller…




And on my last try:

Opening up a new section that is not under water; approach is at an angle, so I chickened out and dabbed all over:







Tried again this time hitting the log head-on and made it over…barely:

100% of trail is above water. Last couple of weeks I've been clearing the old trail, rerouting where needed or if more interesting, connecting with the new sectors, etc. Lots of new logs. It's also funny to see the old logs I recognize because of the bash plate markings in different locations, sometimes 50 feet away from their original place. Took me 2 hours to ride 2/3 of the trail, what, maybe 2 miles long tops?

Here is a new little reroute

Awesome... brings back ol' memories. However I was riding the banks of the Blackwater River and Davis Creek in MO.
My trials bike was a heavily/modified Hodaka Combat Wombat. Won trophy's in lots of events on that bike. Made my sponsoring/dealership some money with conversions!
Great times...

I opened up a short little killer section today, on the other side of Blackberry Hill . No pics though. Maybe later this week I'll take a couple. In the mean time, this little section was very relaxing:

A whole new band of terrain opened up, still a bit muddy, but I spent two hours in totally new terrain, just 30 feet below my original trail…

Some of the sections have these concrete flooring, grippy, lots of fun!

so dozens of acres opened up…just have to do a little mowing:









My own rock garden:







Lots of snakes this last couple of weeks; two cottonmouths in one day :eek1

I'm still trying to figure out where you are from the pics.

This was in Geismar last week.

This may give it away…you can see the new casino way in the distance right behind the bike…