VCHSS Lake Sugar Tree (Axton, VA)

A few weeks ago I attempted to change the sprocket of my YZ250F in order to ride supermoto at the Carolina Motorsports Park. The impact wrench didn't loosen the nut, neither did the heat from an oxy acetylene torch. My final effort came in the form of a 4ft jack handle slipped over a half inch breaker bar. I knew it wasn't simply going to thread off, but I knew it must be done. I put all my might into the handle and the nut slowly turned - along with the threads of the output shaft.

It was an inevitable outcome, but I was nonetheless disappointed.



I ordered new parts and after a couple of weeks they arrived. It was then that I set to dissasemble the engine to swap the destroyed shaft for a new one.

My friend Brian offered his pristine garage for me to complete the work. Within a couple of days, it was back together. By the next weekend the motor was back in the bike.

On a Friday afternoon, I kick started the bike and rode around my neighborhood to verify that it was in working order. Two days later I loaded the bike onto the trailer and headed to the final round of the VCHSS series - Lake Sugar Tree.

When I pulled the YZ off the trailer and attempted to start it, though, the kickstart was stuck! We removed the clutch cover, but couldn't see much from there.

Again, luck was on my side and my friend Todd offered up his KTM 2-stroke for me to ride.

I rushed to the start line with Todd's bike. Since his girlfriend Charmaine had just finished her race on the bike, we worried there might not be enough fuel for my three laps. Charmaine decided to find a can of premix and meet me after my first lap. Moments later, the start flag waived and I was off!



Adapting to the bike took at least the entire first lap. Even then, I never fully mastered the feel of the clutch. Luckily, though, I erred on the side of slipping it rather than stalling the motor.

Early in the first lap my right foot slipped from the peg. My toes planted on the ground as the bike [and the rest of my leg] continued forward. I was fairly certain I'd sprained my ankle, so I tried to keep it resting on the peg closer to the center of my foot for the remaining laps.

There were several offs, though. One occured at a short, punchy hillclimb. The rider in front of me propelled his bike from beneath his lap and it flipped above both of our heads! It landed on the front wheel of Todd's bike, but neither of us suffered an injury.



By the end of the third lap I was happy to have survived without more serious injury. I hobbled my YZ back onto the trailer and bid my riding partners adieu.

The next day I removed the side case (outside the cylinder, so I could perform this with the engine within the frame). I found one of the gears had a loose nut, which had worked its way up against the case. In a way, it was fortuitous that the kickstarter jammed immediately. The engine doesn't seem to have been damaged by my brief test ride on Friday and I believe the issue is resolved now.

Of course, I'll have to wait until my ankle is healed to know for sure 😁

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Wave Daze (Virginia Beach, VA)

This year's Wave Daze event marked the first time I've ridden my Yamaha Superjet in saltwater. I had my fears of corroded electrical lines, malfunctioning bilge, or general problems caused by corrosion. Luckily, though, the ski had zero issues - despite being tossed a couple times by the shorebreak that pummeled many of the riders upon launching from the shore.

Air and water temps were excellent for the weekend once Thursday's rain departed. Highs in the mid 70's and sunny skies from Friday through Sunday made hanging out to watch the action superb. In the water, however, was a different story. The waves weren't especially large, but the seas were choppy and rough, requiring constant awareness of the next rogue wave headed your direction.

I took two or three runs each day, but didn't spend much time in the surf as I was lucky to stay upright most of the time. Before the event I'd envisioned trying a barrel roll, but once in the water that aspiration quickly disappeared - replaced by the urge to simply surf the waves and survive. Perhaps some time spent practicing on flatwater and off boat wakes is in order before the next round...



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VCHSS Pipsico (Spring Grove, VA)

After a fairly good race at Coyote Run (excluding the bad start), I was eager to see how I could perform at the next race.



The good luck began when my YZ started on the first kick, which allowed me to get into the woods near the middle of our group, rather than at the very back as I'm usually kick-starting for a few seconds while the rest of the line leaves.





As usual, the most difficult part of these races is making a clean pass. I did have a couple incidents, but for the most part the course had enough alternate lines to allow for it. I did get a little balled up, though, during one pass - this caused my chest to hit the handlebar, tossing my GoPro MAX from the chest mount and sucking up valuable minutes while I dissasembled the broken connectors and got it back on its mount.



Overall, I finished in 6th out of 16 riders. It's a result I'm certainly happy with.

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VCHSS Coyote Run (Rural Retreat, VA)

To wrap up an epic weekend on two wheels, I towed my YZ from West Virginia to Rural Retreat, VA to attend the Coyote Run race.

My friend Brian met me at the venue for his first attempt at a Hare Scramble. As I'm still a newb, I prepped him with the limited experience I had on Saturday night before we retired to our respective tent and car-camping abodes.

In the morning, we suited up for the ride and headed to the start grid. Our class is rather crowded, so I told Brian I'd let him go before I began kicking my bike to start.

When the flag waived I paused for a second, then got the YZ fired up and set out after my heat. By the first turn I was within the pack of riders, but when we reached the first climb I was a bit too close to the edge of the soft ground, eventually sliding off the side of the track and having to stop to pull the bike back onto the course.



Yanking the bike out of the ditch took a serious amount of effort, and with the following heats taking off seconds behind ours, I was forced to give way to them.



Eventually I was back on course, but forced to battle back to my heat for basically the rest of the race. NOT a great way to start!



A few dicey passes had me off the bike again, but eventually I made my way through the slower riders. There was definitely some back-and-forth going on as I routinely slid out while trying to pass a rider, only to be passed by the ones I'd just cleared.



Once I reached Brian I knew I was at least within the correct heat, and eventually I noticed another rider in my heat which I was able to clear and continue beyond.

Although the circumstances of my race weren't great, the course itself was phenomenal. It felt very much like a singletrack mountain bike trail with long off-camber sections, and several lines to choose from. Roots were everywhere, requiring split-second weight shifts to keep traction. Near the end of each lap, we'd ride through a creek bed, mimicking the slippery rock sections I'd been navigating in Slatyfork for the past three days.



With one more round near this area, I'm looking forward to another chance at similar terrain. Hopefully next time I'll have a better start ;-)

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Snowshoe Bike Park (West Virginia)

When some friends invited me to ride with them at Snowshoe the same weekend I would be racing a hare scramble in southwest Virginia, I decided not to turn up the opportunity. I loaded up the trailer AND roof tray to carry the dirt AND mountain bikes to wild, wonderful West Virginia.



Since reaching the ripe old age of 41, I’ve opted to ride cross-country more often than lift-accessed parks. One, because I get a better workout – and two, because there’s less chance I’ll suffer an injury.

Since there would be so much driving involved, I decided to extend my weekend by taking off Thursday and Friday to ride XC in Slatyfork, just below Snowshoe Mountain. Both of those days were long and exhausting, so I figured some lift-accessed runs would be a good break before my dirt bike race on Sunday.

It’s been several years since I rode at Snowshoe, but the runs still felt familiar and I had a great group of riders to follow down the track.

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Cape Lookout National Seashore (NC)

Our annual trip to the beach was another excellent weekend in the sun!



This year we invited some friends from Austin, TX to join us. They were going to be visiting Richmond that week, so the timing worked out perfectly!



One of the highlights of the trip was an opportunity to use my snatch rope. A Ford Ranger towing a camper got stuck when crossing the rutted sand on its way down the beach. Although the driver came prepared with boards and plywood to use as traction pads, he would require a bit more to get moving again. Luckily, a few tugs with the Crosstrek were enough to yank him out of the ruts and onto the hard-packed sand near the water's edge.



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Big Bear Bike Bash (Bruceton Mills, WV)

After Dirt Rag Magazine filed for bankruptcy, I was a bit worried that its events at Raystown Lake (PA) & Big Bear Lake (WV) would disappear as well. Luckily, the local riders in West Virginia did not hesitate to resurrect the event near Bruceton Mills. I would assume this is largely due to the existence of an event which predated the Dirt Fest, known as the Funduro.

This time around, the event was called the Big Bear Bike Bash, but it had very much the same look and feel of the Dirt Fest.



I wanted to get in as many rides as possible this year, so Rebecca and I stayed at a hotel near the area on Thursday night, allowing us to work remotely on Friday. Around noon that day, I clocked out and headed to the camplands, set up camp, and joined in on a ride with some camp neighbors.

On Saturday, Rebecca was able to join me. I probably should have devised a better "warm up lap" for her, but I wanted to badly to return to the Little Canaan Trail that I sort of threw her right into the deep end. She handled it well, and soon we were on the more manageable Roadside Trail. At the end of that section, I asked her if she'd like to wait for the shuttle or continue across the road to one of the iconic sections - the Crack Trail. Without a second of hesitation she decided we could both handle a few more miles, so onward we went, pedaling Beaver Creek to Voodoo Rocks, which eventually turns into Crack.

We rode with a couple other riders for this second half. I led us into the woods, followed by the two guys, then Rebecca. A few minutes into the trail I stopped to let them catch up - only to see that Rebecca had passed them both and was the next rider behind me! The guys were very complimentary of her riding skills, which boosted her confidence and gave her even more gumption to try the challenging up-and-over obstacles throughout the ride.

Eventually we reached the rocks which the trail was named after. The first is a narrow path between two large rocks and the second is a tunnel through a rock with a wooden ramp which drops back onto the trail. We stopped at each to snap a few photos before continuing on to the completion of the trail.



Once out of the woods, we pedaled to the country store to reward ourselves with ice cream before boarding the shuttle to return to camp.

On Sunday, Rebecca headed home while I took part in the Feats of Skill & Strength Championship of the Universe Group Ride. I expected it to just be sort of a goof ride, but it actually was a competition!

We started the event with a race near the registration tent - 25 pushups followed by a sprint around the port-o-potties and skills tent. With that "warmup" behind us, we headed into the woods.

The subsequent challenges were "no dab" competitions through technical sections, accompanied by head-to-head races UP rock gardens. Our group of competitors had a great time scoping out the lines, watching each attempt, and laughing about the ridiculousness of it all. Our fearless leader, Chuck Morris, chose to scattter our bikes for a LeMans start for one of the races. We turned around at the count of three and sprinted aimlessly into the brush to retrieve our bikes before pedaling like mad to ascend the rocky route.



At the end of this series of competitions we returned to the registration tent to tally points. I'd been neck-and-neck with another rider named Josie during the event, but in the end I snuck out the win! More than that, though, I got to meet some awesome riders and will be tasked with leading next year's competition :-)

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