I’m not much of an off-road rider. Heck these days I don’t even ride motocross enough either! I grew up and raced motocross for 24 years, but I never did a lot of off-road riding growing up. Maybe we did some trail riding to get to a motocross track to then, you guessed it, we rode moto.
So when the Motosport.com guys invited me up to Gold Creek Lodge up in northern Idaho to be a part of their Driven to Ride video series, and they pitched it to me that I, Steve Matthes, would be the main focus of an off-road school with versatile off-road/MX/Endurocross/Pacific Northwest legend Rory Sullivan, well I’m not too sure why I said I would be down with that to be honest!
Maybe because the Motosport guys said that they would bring Jake Weimer and Ryan Villopoto up? Now that seemed like a good time with those two yahoos.
So myself and Pulpmx Show producer Tallon Taylor (who actually loves off-road and is a good rider) flew up to Spokane, Washington, drove an hour or so and met the owner of Gold Creek Lodge Dave and his son at a dock. From there we got on a boat and sped across a gorgeous lake to the dock at the lodge. From there we got into a UTV and blasted up some dirt roads to get to the lodge itself. Are you keeping track? It was like the ultimate guys’ version of planes, trains and automobiles.
The lodge itself is really cool, it has everything you need to have a lot of fun. Dirt bikes? Check. Boats and wakeboards? Check. E-Bikes? Check. There’s cabins and restaurants as well. The next two days were going to be a lot of fun!
Thanks to Yamaha, I had a brand new 250X to use. That’s their two-stroke off road model. RV had a 250FX and there was a 450FX as well to use for Weimer.
I’m a decent motocross rider, (check my 15-15-17 scores in 45+ B at World Vet for conformation) but yeah, off road stuff is something that takes a different set of skills and Sullivan gave us some great tips. The clutch activation drill was something I hadn’t really thought of but made a lot of sense, we did some log jumps and even hit an endurocross track that I wanted nothing to do with, but RV was pretty good on it!
The Motosport.com guys were there to document all of this, they had Go-Pros, drones, a Cardo system for all of us to talk to each other. There was a lot of, “Hey stop and hit that again” that, at times, got RV swearing at the cameramen. That’s the full Villopoto unfiltered experience!
The second day we were able to ride a lot more and climbed over 5,000 feet to the top of a mountain that had some great views. Getting there was an adventure in off-roading as there was a lot of side-hilling it (I didn’t know the word “side hill” was a thing but yeah, learned that also) and tight 180-degree turns up the mountain. We even had 1980 500cc National Champion Chuck Sun riding with us on day two. Chuck just hangs out at Gold Creek and is part of the furniture there, I guess.
I was better on day two (except for first thing in the AM when after the rain the wet roots got me pretty good, and yes, they got all of that on camera ICYWW). It took a while, but I learned to trust the bike more. Like, I was riding the thing like a normal two-stroke and making sure the bike was in the upper RPM’s but on the X model, with the off-road specific ignition, power-valve timing and whatever else, you can really lug it and not worry about it stalling. So, once I learned to just leave it in second and slowly chug up the hills, things got easier. Then at the top, it was great. The views were unreal and awesome.
Having Villopoto and Weimer around makes for pure comedy. They’re super tight from all their years as Monster Energy Kawasaki teammates and also training together with Aldon Baker. These guys are hilarious and, because I’ve been around them so much, I’d like to say I’m friends with them as well. I’m not sure we were ever serious at any point during the two and a half days we were there and after each night, there was a gathering in the restaurant for some beers and more laughs. Really, think about it: two full days of riding and crap talking followed by food and beers, at a lodge? Does it get much better?
As much as this pains me to admit, Villopoto was surprising. I know he’s pretty good at motocross and supercross but whether it was endurocross or off-road climbing or whatever, he had that stuff down easy. Like, he’s shorter and one “might” think his moto accomplishments might not transfer to slow single-track up and down mountains, across roots and all that but it did. He was very good and even Sullivan was surprised. Of course we told him this and now he wants an endurocross-only ride for like $500,000 a year.
Before this event, I didn’t know Rory Sullivan at all. But he was awesome, even after he told me that, "I didn’t think I’d like you, but I do," which was also something I hear from my wife every now and then. And many others. Rory is a great rider and you can tell he’s a teacher, he’s very patient and also a funny guy.
The Gold Creek Lodge is pretty sick and I highly recommend it for a fun getaway for anyone that’s into doing outdoor stuff. The e-bike ride I went on after the second day of riding was great also. They can build you whatever program you’d like to do, for example, Weimer and RV went out wake-boarding after day one.
Watch the video for more of what went on and yeah, a good time was had by all. Thanks to Motosport.com, Yamaha, Gold Creek Lodge, and everyone involved in making the latest Driven to Ride video become an actual “dream to ride” video.
