First 2012 adventure ride: part 1

Saturday, May 5 2012.  Finally the stars were aligned for a first ride... 

…well after overlooking all other overdue home improvement projects.

When I woke up that morning at 6 am, I told my better half not to expect me before 5 pm and not to call the police before 9.

After a quick breakfast I scribbled a few lines on a piece of paper to plan my adventure ride.  My main goal was exploring Mont Tremblant Park, but by the trails from the Beaches Lake area (instead of the highway) to get there. So basically:

1. Departure from St-Eustache
2. Scotch road, Grenville (a must)
3. Huntington road 
4. Maskinongé road 
5. Tour du Lac road, Beaches Lake (Lac des Plages)
6. Chenail du Moine road 
7. (gray zone, do some exploration)
8. Somewhere in Labelle area 
9. 117 south down to Mont Tremblant
10. Mont Tremblant Park exploration
11. Go back home

That should keep me busy all day.

Scotch Road

[Sand pit] Going to Scotch Road is never a problem. It is once you reach the sand pit that troubles begin.  Ever since my visit last year when I took this video: http://youtu.be/MmLqQaVldbQ, there remains an irresistible attraction between my bike and this dune.

 

 

[On top of the sand pit] On the right, this picture was taken from the top of the sand pit.  You can see the bottom of the sand pit where the bike was in the previous picture, on the other side of the pond.

Getting there was not as easy as I had expected…I still wonder how I made it without crashing.

I lost my balance at least 3 times and each time I was sure I was going to bite the dust. 

I was most likely going too slow and Shinko’s 705 DS is probably not the ideal tire in that situation: the rear wheel was oscillating from left to right to left and was spinning a lot (in the top picture, you can actually see this pattern in the sand just above the helmet, slightly to the left).

To be continued…part 2