For the next couple days I’m going to ride in this Arctic Cat Wildcat on a 400 mile trip to Thief River Falls.
The journey will begin in St. Cloud, Minn., with an overnight in the Akeley, Minn., area followed by the final push to TRF.
Except for a few short sections of ditch, the route will be entirely on gravel roads. Official road experts call the gravel/dirt combo of these roads “Class 5.” And since we like the sound of “rally,” we’ve decided to call this adventure the Class 5 Rally.
I keep saying “we.” My partner in this perfectly legal adventure is this guy, Pat Bourgeois, erstwhile editor of OSM and ATV World. Hopefully he won’t be wearing his snowmobile gear, since the temps are supposed to be around 90. I’m okay with the chicken hat though.
Pat wanted to call this trip “Thelma & Louise, the Sequel,” which I thought sounded a bit to feminine for my tastes.
The sun should beat down on us too much, thanks to the Arctic Cat Soft Top Kit.
A Half Windshield to look cool, and to move some of the wind off of us.
Rear storage bag to contain all of the sweet deals we hope to find at garage sales along the way, in addition to our essentials (cameras, fireworks, potato guns and a change of underwear).
Just in case we get lost, which is highly probable. We might even put the cap on the spout.
Some Maxxis meat. For kicking up a little dust, should the desire arise.
For checking out our wicked trail of dust, and to watch the RZRs trying to keep up.
We’ll be listening to Pat’s collection of Barry Manilow songs, courtesty of the P.C.I. Race Radio kit.
The PCI kit is a full communication system, with push-to-talk. I expect to hear, “Dude, you missed the turn again!” roughly 37 times per day.
So that’s what I’ve got cooking for the next few days. Look for a full-blown story sometime in the coming week or so.
In the meantime, wish us luck.
Thanks for reading.