What a ride! I met up with a friend in the morning and we shot the breeze while waiting for my minute. I lined up with the riders on my minute and sized them up. Hmmm... one on an old XR-600 and the rest look kinda slow. I decided to go for it at the start and my auto clutch Husaberg did not let me down. First kick in gear and I was off before they knew it. The Husaberg howled for about five miles when mega arm pump got the best of me and they all zoomed by me. OK, maybe they aren't so slow. I soldiered on to the first check and we lined up together for the last time. Meanwhile, I got out a bag of stuff called "Goo" that a friend of mine recommended and sucked it down. It's kinda like snot in a bag but it does work to give you energy. After a few miles I actually began to recover. Most of the beginning of the first loop was easy fast stuff but things got interesting very quickly. Once we started to head out to Pebble Point, I noticed that we made a turn up the hill. The locals rarely ride up there because it is pretty ugly. The uphill went forever with tons of loose grapefruit sized rocks to bounce you around and ledges to climb over on top of that. By the time I finally got up on top, I was out of breath and wheezing like an old organ. Snot bubbles were coming out of my nose and I didn't care. But... I made it. I figured hell, it should be easy from here. Wrong-o. The next five miles or so were very tight hand cut trails through Manzanita and scrub brush that ripped at your arms and the trails were full of rocks that bounced you around. I was happy to leave that area. The rest of the first loop was a mixture of fast roads and trail. I finally got to gas and put a gallon or so in the tanks and yes, sucked down some more snot in a bag. It worked.
The second loop began with a long road section. All day, the wind blew cold and the chill factor from hauling butt on the road did not help. By the time I reached the first trail section I actually fell over because my muscles were so cold that they wouldn't react. The first part was fast trails and roads but they mixed in some new hand cut stuff that was challenging. About five miles from the finish I was headed up this hill that didn't look like much. When I got around the corner I was greeted with three guys struggling to make it up. The hill was rock covered with a slippery white talcum powder dust. I went back down to get a run at it and was passed by a few other riders while doing so. I made a new run at it in second gear Hauling butt only to discover that all the new riders had created a bottleneck. Bummer. I waited untill some of them had cleared the top and moved over to the far right where there was fresh dirt. I cranked up the Husaberg and rode right up over the top - to my surprise. The final check wasn't too far and I was happy to discover that I hadn't houred out! The club had laid out a fun section for the last 3 miles of the course and my only regret was that I was too damn tired to enjoy it. North Bay M/C did a great job! The time schedule was very fast!
The second loop began with a long road section. All day, the wind blew cold and the chill factor from hauling butt on the road did not help. By the time I reached the first trail section I actually fell over because my muscles were so cold that they wouldn't react. The first part was fast trails and roads but they mixed in some new hand cut stuff that was challenging. About five miles from the finish I was headed up this hill that didn't look like much. When I got around the corner I was greeted with three guys struggling to make it up. The hill was rock covered with a slippery white talcum powder dust. I went back down to get a run at it and was passed by a few other riders while doing so. I made a new run at it in second gear Hauling butt only to discover that all the new riders had created a bottleneck. Bummer. I waited untill some of them had cleared the top and moved over to the far right where there was fresh dirt. I cranked up the Husaberg and rode right up over the top - to my surprise. The final check wasn't too far and I was happy to discover that I hadn't houred out! The club had laid out a fun section for the last 3 miles of the course and my only regret was that I was too damn tired to enjoy it. North Bay M/C did a great job! The time schedule was very fast!
