nklr safe riding

[Dreas Nielsen]

I'm planning on riding the BCDR (http://www.oohva.org/pages/BCDRmain.html) from north to south at the end of August. Has anyone on the list ridden this, and know of any high or low points worth mentioning? Thanks. Dreas

[Rob MacLeod]

I took a mental holiday yesterday and spent six hours in psychotherapy with Dr. Kawasaki. I rode more than 400km on some really nasty forest service roads in various stages of decay. While passing an area that had recently seen heavy equipment pass when the clay roadbed was quite soft, my wheels got trapped in different ruts and in an instant my rear wheel sling-shot to the front and I was skidding backward on my right side. As a result I have a huge black bruise on my right knee, but nothing broken on the bike (it's like the KLR is designed to be dropped with out too much damage). In hind sight I realized that this little mishap was entirely preventable. If I had been up on the pegs where I belonged, I would have been fine. The lesson from this--DON'T GET COMPLACENT WHEN RIDING! I saw lots of bears (one sow even had two new cubs) two bobcats, two moose, a coyote, lots of ducks, ravens, hawks and eagles. It was a good day. Rob (bruised and humble)