[ScooterInTheSticks]

Blog : Scooter in the Sticks
Author : Steve Williams



Every ride to and from work opens the door to a little adventure.

I'm fortunate my direct commute to my office is just 6 miles. And now when I arrive there are often two other Vespa scooters, sometimes three others plus a Yamaha Vino. But I digress...

Several variations in route can easily extend the commute to 10 or 15 minutes and even then it is not much of a hardship in time or miles. I chalk it up as a fringe benefit of living in the sticks.

But even in this situation complacency can set in and the rider becomes routine. With that thought in mind last week I made an abrupt turn away from by planned route to see what the unknown would bring.

It brought my first water crossing.

The Vespa GTS isn't in many people's mind (anyone's actually?) an off-road vehicle and I will be the first to stand up and testify to it's less that comfortable feel on loose surfaces like gravel, sand, or just loose dirt. But that doesn't mean it won't navigate those surfaces, it just means going a lot slower than I remember being able to travel on a dirt bike.

I turned off the road onto a farm lane I had seen before but hadn't really paid much attention to where it went. There are a lot of them around and many have various passive or active warnings to stay away. This one was just a gravel and dirt lane disappearing through a line of trees in the distance.

When I arrived at the small pool of water and stream passing in front of me I decided to get off the scooter and look before dropping the GTS into water deeper than it might want to handle. Didn't want to be sucking water into the drive belt case. The water was about 6 inches deep but the bottom appeared to be muddy. I crossed on the right side of the picture in about 4 inches of water with a solid bottom. Nothing for a dirt bike but a first for the GTS.

In celebration I speeded away along the tree line and field but almost tanked as the ruts in the road deepened and the scooter started to lurch around. I stood up on the floorboards and let off the throttle a bit until things were a bit more comfortable.

The road sort of transformed into two tracks in high weeds. Pushing on up a hill through denser grass I passed a big groundhog hole that easily would have swallowed the front tire of the Vespa causing who knows what. That's when I figured I met my limit on this particular road and turned around to head for home.

This last picture was taken a few mornings ago while scouting for pictures for work on the way to work. I wandered through a sheep farm and then across a bridge into a field of even higher grass that a tractor recently traveled through to cut hay. The grass was up to the bars and I started thinking groundhogs again.

Little variations in route wake me up. They freshen the ride. And they don't cost much. I keep thinking about riders who navigate urban landscapes and wonder what the comparable variations might be. With more roads I am certain there are alternatives, if even for a few miles. I suppose it is a matter of willingness to accept there may be alternatives, time, and patience.



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