Paul's Power Line Poker Run Writeup, with pics and video

In this helmet cam video I follow Taylor and catch him in the act of eating some dirt.  Shortly after Taylors spill he hits a rock in the trail that kicks his rear wheel up and over.  This is the same rock that his brother Trent hit and caused his endo.  I also follow Brad (CR85R) for a little bit through the woods.  We come up on Duane (KX250) who was just picking his bike up off the ground, and discover his clutch cable snapped.  We end up at check #1...  
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NW Montana
Where the pavement ends and the fun begins  
2005 KTM300exc

PaulB14:
So we finally leave check #2 at Hidden Lake after filming several riders attempting to climb the hills and made our way to check #3.  We passed a couple atvs in the tight stuff, then at the end when I came upon the rest of the group at check 3 I was going too fast and layed it down so I wouldn't run into them!  Here is the video

RidingTheRockies:
Where is this vid at? I got to see this one!

Anyway Paul it looks like you had a ton of fun! Thanks for posting your adventure for us to see! Love the area, looks pretty challenging. Now get me the vid of you going down!

here you go Rocky; not very spectacular, since you only see the ground and surrounding woods as I go down...video  
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NW Montana
Where the pavement ends and the fun begins  
2005 KTM300exc

In this final video we leave Upper Sunday Lake via the power line road/trail.  I follow J.J. on his KTM300 for a ways until he leaves me behind, but catch him again on the road along the RR tracks.  See if you can spot the raven that swoops down in front of me at one point.  When we get back to camp there is Trent nursing his shoulder with a bag of ice.   This is the last helmet cam video.  Camcorder video coming in a day or so...  
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NW Montana
Where the pavement ends and the fun begins  
2005 KTM300exc

They are really good videos Paul!  
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The King Of Crumpets - Crumpet Boy!

- 1991 RM125

thanks joe, glad you enjoyed them!  I'll continue the write-up later, about our trail ride up to Louis Lake, Paul Mtn (its real name) and back, bikes only for that ride.  Got to get to work...  
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NW Montana
Where the pavement ends and the fun begins  
2005 KTM300exc

Didn't look like your body even touched the ground Paul? Cool vids though, these helmet cams are cool!

Man around here you get frowned at if you go off the trail to pass. We call it " stay the trail". They close down land if people start cutting threw the woods blazing thier own trails.  
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"These are the things that condition the man, seldom shown the ways to understand"

Same here, and for the preservation of the sport we are very careful no to touch anything green (especially bushes).  
But we ride in an area that is close to LA and the liberal nation.  Montana has a lot more green then we do.  
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"Every time I start thinking the world is all bad, then I start seeing some people out there having fun on motorcycles. It makes me take another look." -Steve McQueen

Rocky, "they" close down public lands at the drop of a hat, everywhere we go.  These trails that we use are little access routes used by loggers and firewood gatherers, as we have used them for for decades.  After this year's new forest-wide law begins getting implemented, most of these trails and roads that we use will no longer be legal to use, strictly speaking, but at the same time the district here can not close any roads without an EIS report and other legal action.  The age-old forest rule has been "stay on existing roads and trails" for years around here, and we have always been responsible to clear the brush and downed trees from the existing roads and trails, as well as gather trash and clean up after ourselves and others.  The new law states that all roads and trails are "closed unless posted open", which is the exact opposite of previous Nat. Forest rules, which assumed that if there was an existing road or trail, it was open unless posted closed.  The new law does not say much more than this, and it is up to each district ranger to begin posting signs on all the roads and trails that are to be open, however my experience tells me that they may take their sweet time in posting signs on all the trails that are to remain open.  The law will not allow them to close roads and trails just because they do not post signs on them, but that is exactly what may actually happen in many National Forest Districts, including our own here in Montana.  We stay on the existing roads and trails, and any "new" trail that I cut out is an existing road or trail that has simply been neglected over the years.  Our district ranger has confirmed that what we do here is legal.  We also travel on State Forest lands, which have different rules to follow than Federal Forest lands.  

About half of this poker run is on State land, while about 1/4 is on National Forest land, and the remaining land we use is RR (BNSF) right-of-way and/or utilities right-of-way (power lines).  The campsite is on private property.  It gets pretty complex...  
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NW Montana
Where the pavement ends and the fun begins  
2005 KTM300exc

Cool, hope I didn't offend you. I am not saying that you guys are just blazing new trails everywhere, I just noticed that when you guys passed those trail hogging ATV's that you all went around them, I was assuming that you guys were off the trail? I am positive that you take care of your trails and forest and I am proud that you go out of your way to clean up the area from those who could careless!

I hope the new laws there don't effect your riding areas.  
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"These are the things that condition the man, seldom shown the ways to understand"

Thanks Rocky, no ill feelings here    

The poker run itself was 22 miles in length.  After the riders all came in and the pot was awarded to the high and low hand holders (Jeff won high hand with an A-high flush, while 5-year old Jazmyn won low hand with a 9 high, they each received $90.00), a few of us bike riders took off on a trail ride to check out Louis Lake and Paul Mountain.  It was J.J. (KTM300), Jim (KLX450), Taylor on his KX250, Duane on his Suzuki RM250, Brad on the CR85R and myself.  No one has taken the time to clear the trail yet this year, so we encountered several blow-downs we either jumped over, rode under or rode around.  About half way up the mountain to Louis Lake Duane had to turn around because of his lack of a clutch.  It was too hard for him to walk his bike under trees while climbing a steep hill and plowing through snow banks without a clutch!  We counseled him to look out for the bears and sent him back.  We took turns cutting ruts through the snow for the others to follow.  You have to walk/push your bike through the snow while the rear tire is getting to dirt.  What a workout!  There is no doubt we were the first ones to make it this year.  At one point the trail disappeared in the snow so we tried an alternate route that had us huffing and puffing in three different directions.  Four of us made it through to the top, including Brad on the little 85, but Taylor had to be hunted down because he got off into a different area.  We did see a brown bear on the ride, and I came across a cow moose, obviously killed by wolves.  It sickens me when I see the unnecessary killings done by wolf packs in our area.  Anyway we eventually made it to the top of Paul Mtn and found the downhill trail we had marked last year.  I left all my camera paraphernalia at camp so I don't have any video or pics to post.  Take my word for it this is a fantastic hill to come down!  The scenery is about as beautiful as any place on earth, with two creeks coming together in the valley below, and more mountains all around us.  My bike runs a little rich on top of the mountains around here, but by the time I reached the bottom she was running right again.  The downhill drops 2,500 feet in elevation through mostly fir and larch forest up high and spruce, cedar and fir forest at the bottom.  We decided to return to camp because Brad was running low on gas.  J.J. and Jim were dicing it out in the lead while I bided my time behind them.  I timed my pass on Jim just perfect and by the time he realized I was there it was too late for him, as I was hitting top speed in 5th gear when I went by.  There is more than one advantage to having the quietest bike on the trail!  It was about 7:00 when we returned.  
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NW Montana
Where the pavement ends and the fun begins  
2005 KTM300exc

its the same out here. stay on a path wether humans or animals (cows elk etc) made it & your fine. they are tank trapping roads up here but have no authority to do so. & are ignored.....

sounds like a lot of fun Paul & thank you for the great vids & pics!
DavidS  
i take a lot of pride in what i am

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ride: 02yz426
local: north east Oregon

terrain type woods with lots of roots & rocks

Great write up Paul...I went riding on my favourite trail this weekend...at least I tried but it's been logged and the trail has been obliterated.  I tried to find the trail through all the fallen logs and stumps and ended up in a marsh that I had to drag my bike out of....I totally get your huffing and puffing comment about going through the snow!!  
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WAFNIA!

BC
01 YZ 125
02 RM 85
99 KX 80
87 DR 200

I am sure these are very nice people.   But why do they park those big things in the road side by side during a poker run. There must have been six of them where you crashed.  
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"Every time I start thinking the world is all bad, then I start seeing some people out there having fun on motorcycles. It makes me take another look." -Steve McQueen

They were stopped at a check Dag, here is a video of a few of the riders from the poker run, both bikes and 4-wheelers.  
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NW Montana
Where the pavement ends and the fun begins  
2005 KTM300exc

This is the last video I will be posting on this thread, descending into Hidden Lake, and out again via two steep hills.  Video  
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NW Montana
Where the pavement ends and the fun begins  
2005 KTM300exc