Nicholas Fluhart

I’m very late in posting this, but as late spring/early summer goes, I’ve had little time for blogging, what with my business and travel schedules. Back in March we launched the 2nd annul, much anticipated, and best yet East Camden, Arkansas expedition with this one focused on one primary objective: ATV riding. Rather than posting an obscenely long post, I’m going to break this up into multiple posts with this being Part-1: Setting Up.

After having planned all year, my core group at last gathered at the Omni Complex for a quick trip briefing before hitting the road north to the remote region known as “The Area”. To learn more about The Area, see my post on the 1st expedition. Since this trip was geared toward riding, it is only fitting that I give a brief rundown of the bikes and quads that the five of us employed on this trip.

My machines:

– 1993 Kawasaki KLX650R- I think this is the first appearance of my 650R on this blog. At some point within the next century I intend to do a full post on this bike. For this trip, I plan to ride it on our sport bike ride scheduled for day-1.

– 2002 Honda TRX350XX– This one was also taken in anticipation of day-1. After several years of storage, I pulled it out of moth balls specifically for this occasion.

– 1998 Honda 450 Foreman– Of course I took my faithful companion. No camping/riding trip would be the same without her, especially since day-2 was slated for a 4×4 adventure.

– Kawasaki Bayou 300 4×4– Here’s a new face in the crowd. I built this quad for a backup unit and took it along as a spare. Our rides can get pretty intense, and I don’t want to be knocked out early due to ATV failure like last year. At some point, I’ll post the project build for this one.

Brad’s Machines:

-1998 Yamaha 600 Grizzly– Armed with a new set of 28″ Dirt Devil XT’s, Big Grizz was quite impressive on this trip.

– Suzuki Z400 -Borrowed from a buddy for the day 1 sport bike ride at the dunes. Seen at left.

– Honda 420 Rancher 2WD- Brought as a backup unit, this quad has been to heck and back and still runs like a champ. Unbelievable.

Chris’ Machines

-Honda XR650R-The infamous 650R, seen at center, brought for the sport ride, day-1.

-1999 Honda 450 Foreman -You’ll see more of this quad later, and only then will you understand why I say that I haven’t seen one this clean since 1999.

Brian’s Machine

– 1986 Honda FourTrax 350 4×4– A legend, the FourTrax 350, later known as the 350 Foreman, easily held its own with the newer machines.

Moore’s Machine

– Honda 250 Recon -Brought for multi-purpose use, the Recon is another one that holds it’s own surprisingly well.

I know, a lot of machines for just five people…but we like to be prepared. So, the first order of business was to get loaded and hit the road. Below you’ll see a slide show of us trailering up, hitting the road, and setting up camp which included a 20″ enclosed trailer for sleeping arrangements, canopies, and a fantastic shower enclosure I purchased on Amazon. You’ll also see that upon arrival we determined that the functionality of the gate at the road was insufficient. Chris, our resident welder, immediately sprang into action…

That wraps up the intro. Later I will be posting the Day-1 sport ride and the surrounding events. TO BE CONTINUED…