I've never ridden there, but I've read two radically different ride reports on the PB300, both from very experienced dual-sport riders. I think it's really interesting how divergent they are, and makes me wonder if they make substantial changes in the route from year to year
:
From a long-standing WATR member:
"I just wanted to share some of what we experienced on our Pine Barrens 300 ride.... It was great.
Adam and I road our adventure bikes to and from the event. Andy showed up with the trusty Honda 600 to let the sand fly. The PB 300 is a GPS guided event. There are markers in the tighter enduro portions, but the rest is naked forest - you need the GPS to stay on course. Chris, a previous Dakar rider, helped me understand how to use my GPS and by day two I felt comfortable with navigation. It was over 300 miles in two days. The conditions were perfect. Temps were in the 60's and sand was moist. Nice traction and no dust. You can really haul the mail in these conditions. You can check with Andy, but I'm pretty sure he tapped out his 600 for miles on end at times.
Jack, the organizer, put together a great mix of wide open sand roads, fire cuts, water crossings and some tighter sections just to keep us honest. Everything is big bike friendly. No two strokes at this event. It's a course that favors big bore machines while being 90 percent off-road. We attended the Saturday night dinner which gave us the opportunity to meet with some of the guys from the various clubs in Jersey. The event has strong sponsorship from BMW of Manhattan and Twisted Throttle which both offered goodies and services.
I loved riding this course on my 990 and hope we can get more WATR members to join us in the Spring for the next running of this event. Don't take my word for it. Ask Adam and Andy. Check it out on ADV Rider forums.
If you like the dirt part of your dual sport riding more than the asphalt part you'll probably like this ride as much as I did."
And this from another dual-sport group I'm part of:
"Uh...a word of warning. You will see sand. And tight trails. I mean stupid tight. And whoops. Freaking miles and miles of whoops. Sand whoops. Four feet tall sand whoops. If you can figure out how to ride miles of them then you are a better man than I. I've done a handful of enduros up there. There are some decent trails. But you will spend a lot of time in deep sand. Good for learning, but really can sap your energy....I guess I just like rocks better."
It's possible that the difference has to do with the kind of bike they are riding. The second guy rides streetable dirtbikes, e.g., 250 or 450 4-strokes, whereas the first guy is riding bikes more similar to yours (I think).
Dave
Depending on how the Shenny 500 works out, I'm thinking of doing the
Pine Barrens 300 (miles) in April next year...
