By Michael Knight:
First of all, I have to brag for Cory since I know he’s too humble to do it. He was the top Utah rider finishing 14th overall LOI on Saturday and 11th overall LOI on Sunday. I’m not completely certain how things are calculated, but I have a pretty good feeling that he qualified for Mexico this year. He rode on Dave Kamo’s minute and was out there railing with some of the big boys.
Now, as for conditions, they were pretty darn crazy. It was really nice when we got there on Thursday night. Josh and I rode for a few minutes and there were puddles on the trails but nothing too crazy and they obviously had a lot of rain. I couldn’t wait. But then, the rains came that night and didn’t stop for most of the day on Friday. We were camped up the road from the gravel parking area and it was a complete mud bog.
The rains subsided Friday night and we woke to the sun breaking through the clouds on Saturday morning and Saturday was as perfect of weather conditions as you could hope for (mild temps, sunshine)….but it was too little too late. Riding in the back of the pack with the B’s, the course was like one eternal rut. I would say about 50% of it was absolutely perfect, and the other 50% was too muddy (it was more the ruts that developed, than mud being the problem).
Josh and I took off and I let him lead all day. I had given him some coaching, and I was a pretty proud papa as I watched a skinny 14 year old ride that 200 with a lot of finesse in very difficult conditions. What a difference a year makes in his confidence and skills. He was cruising at a great pace and passing guys stuck in quagmires left and right. We got to the first special test and the lady looked at his number and held him back for a minute because she could tell we were riding at a faster pace than those she had just sent through. He took off and I left about 10-15 seconds after him. I took off at a “special test” pace and was clipping along pretty good and never did see him. There was one really sharp corner that if you blew it, you would go right off the mountain. I barely made the corner and kept going. I didn’t see any Josh and then kicked into Dad mode and started worrying that he was laying in the bushes off that corner, but I kept pushing. Finally I rounded a corner down a deep rutted downhill and sure enough there he was, just as I predicted, trying to pick his bike up. He’s still learning where smoother is faster. We got his bike picked up and he took off again. Despite taking a good 30 seconds to a minute to get his bike up (not sure how long as he was down when I got to him), he was still 3rd fastest out of 36 guys in his class in that special test.
The first section was a really long one…almost 2 hours, and we arrived at the first check point about 10 minutes early. The trails were muddy, rutted, and littered with guys, but we were doing great. I knew Josh was burning a lot of energy and I was worried whether he could keep that pace.
We took off for the next section which was a quick one, only about 5 miles. Again, we made this check with about 5 minutes to spare.
Now, off to the third section. This was on private land, lots of fast trails and fire roads with major mud bogs everywhere. Josh hit a big rut in one of them and I made the mistake of following him right into it. He immediately dumped the clutch trying to get out and completely soaked me with mud and sludge. I was black from head to toe. I was so muddy by the end of the day that when we got to the grass track, I had people taking pictures of me because I looked so ridiculous.
Part way through this section at about mile 50 I could tell Josh was slowing just a bit. He stopped and said something was wrong with his bike. I sat on it and it was like sitting on a pogo stick. His rear shock was completely blown and had lost all the oil. I told him there was nothing we could do about it and to just keep pushing.
The conditions, the ruts, the bike, all started adding up and I could see that Josh was starting to slow even more. To top it off, it was surprisingly warm with the sun out and at about mile 5 his camelback valve broke and he didn’t have any water so when we would stop, I would let him drink from mine. I could tell we weren’t going to make the next check on time so I started to settle into more of a “let’s just finish” mode.
We hit the next gas check at mile 67 about 10 minutes late. But, we were in good company because by this point, we were passing guys that were 20-30 minutes earlier than us on departure time so they were obviously way behind. Josh got a pep talk from Mom at the gas check, and we took our time to eat something get a good drink and then I waited until a nice even number (20) had elapsed so I could do the math easier to adjust our times.
I rode right on Josh’s tail for the next 20 miles to the grass track. This was a rough section where the ruts seemed to be exceptionally bad. We hit the third special test in this section and at this point, Josh was kind of in survival mode and watching him ride the pogo stick was painful. He was riding on nothing but a rear spring that would kick the back end up off every bump. But to his credit, he manhandled that bike through wet and slippery roots, ruts way deeper than your foot pegs and up an over bypass trails with big logs and stuff. The wet logs got him several times and I stopped to help him pick up his bike several times to try and help conserve energy.
At the third special test I let him go ahead of me again. I was pretty much in “sweep” mode trying to stay behind him to make sure he got through everything OK. But, about half a mile in I caught him and he just waved me by so I thought what the heck, I’ll see what I can do in this one. So, I took off and picked up the pace. It was a long special test and before I knew it I had taken a soil sample. I kept going, and then took another soil sample, and another. At this point, I figured it wasn’t worth it so I just slowed down and rounded the corner and found two guys completely buried in a mud bog. I stopped and figured I would wait for Josh. He didn’t come and didn’t come, so I went down in the mud and helped the two guys get their bikes unstuck. Well, karma is a good thing because as I waited, another guy came rolling up and I asked him if he had seen a kid a ways back. He said, yeah, there’s a young kid on a KTM stuck in a mud hole a ways back. So, I went backwards on the special test…yes backwards (the only guys coming were riding a trail pace at best), and came upon Josh with two guys that had already hour’d out trying to help him. With three of us helping we finally got his bike out.
We got going again and pushed on to the grass track. My clutch was going out at this point and when I would get on the gas hard it was if I had the clutch half way engaged. We made it to the grass track where my wife, kids, and Dad were waiting to watch us again. Jeff Good, Travis Good, and Dan Good were all there as well. Jeff, had hour’d out at that point and was just hanging out watching the chaos.
Josh let me go first so I figured I would try and ride at least one special test fast. I had a blast on the grass track and it was in surprisingly better shape than I thought, but still had some monster ruts and a couple of serious mud holes. My clutch wasn’t helping, but I still managed to keep a decent pace until I hit a major hole in a mud bog and got stuck. Yes, I got stuck in a mud hole on the grass track….I couldn’t believe it. Some drunk dude came running out behind a tree and jumped in the mud and grabbed my front tire and helped me get out. I finished the track, and pulled off to the side and waited for Josh. He made it through with apparently the same experience with the drunk dude helping him out of the mud.
At this point, we were three minutes from houring out. My philosophy started to change because I realized based on the number of guys who were obviously DNF’ing, that if we could make our next section, that we could technically still finish. I gave Josh some words of encouragement and we took off, with about a 25 mile section to go. This section was in surprisingly decent shape, but the allocated time was really tight. Despite riding a decent pace considering the bike situation, we arrived at the second to last check about 10 minutes late seconds behind Mike Woodall. We then had a short connector through town to the final check in the pits. We arrived just after 7:00 p.m…..a long day in the saddle.
All in all it was a very awesome experience and I was proud of Josh for finishing. After looking at results, there were 33 out of 36 guys that DNF’d his class (hour’d out). They still logged scores and despite spending over 40 minutes in one special test digging him out, he was still 8th in class.
The course was kind of crazy but I had a riot and would do it all again. Last year it was just giving Josh the experience, this year it was about finishing, next year we’ll be back to compete
First of all, I have to brag for Cory since I know he’s too humble to do it. He was the top Utah rider finishing 14th overall LOI on Saturday and 11th overall LOI on Sunday. I’m not completely certain how things are calculated, but I have a pretty good feeling that he qualified for Mexico this year. He rode on Dave Kamo’s minute and was out there railing with some of the big boys.
Now, as for conditions, they were pretty darn crazy. It was really nice when we got there on Thursday night. Josh and I rode for a few minutes and there were puddles on the trails but nothing too crazy and they obviously had a lot of rain. I couldn’t wait. But then, the rains came that night and didn’t stop for most of the day on Friday. We were camped up the road from the gravel parking area and it was a complete mud bog.
The rains subsided Friday night and we woke to the sun breaking through the clouds on Saturday morning and Saturday was as perfect of weather conditions as you could hope for (mild temps, sunshine)….but it was too little too late. Riding in the back of the pack with the B’s, the course was like one eternal rut. I would say about 50% of it was absolutely perfect, and the other 50% was too muddy (it was more the ruts that developed, than mud being the problem).
Josh and I took off and I let him lead all day. I had given him some coaching, and I was a pretty proud papa as I watched a skinny 14 year old ride that 200 with a lot of finesse in very difficult conditions. What a difference a year makes in his confidence and skills. He was cruising at a great pace and passing guys stuck in quagmires left and right. We got to the first special test and the lady looked at his number and held him back for a minute because she could tell we were riding at a faster pace than those she had just sent through. He took off and I left about 10-15 seconds after him. I took off at a “special test” pace and was clipping along pretty good and never did see him. There was one really sharp corner that if you blew it, you would go right off the mountain. I barely made the corner and kept going. I didn’t see any Josh and then kicked into Dad mode and started worrying that he was laying in the bushes off that corner, but I kept pushing. Finally I rounded a corner down a deep rutted downhill and sure enough there he was, just as I predicted, trying to pick his bike up. He’s still learning where smoother is faster. We got his bike picked up and he took off again. Despite taking a good 30 seconds to a minute to get his bike up (not sure how long as he was down when I got to him), he was still 3rd fastest out of 36 guys in his class in that special test.
The first section was a really long one…almost 2 hours, and we arrived at the first check point about 10 minutes early. The trails were muddy, rutted, and littered with guys, but we were doing great. I knew Josh was burning a lot of energy and I was worried whether he could keep that pace.
We took off for the next section which was a quick one, only about 5 miles. Again, we made this check with about 5 minutes to spare.
Now, off to the third section. This was on private land, lots of fast trails and fire roads with major mud bogs everywhere. Josh hit a big rut in one of them and I made the mistake of following him right into it. He immediately dumped the clutch trying to get out and completely soaked me with mud and sludge. I was black from head to toe. I was so muddy by the end of the day that when we got to the grass track, I had people taking pictures of me because I looked so ridiculous.
Part way through this section at about mile 50 I could tell Josh was slowing just a bit. He stopped and said something was wrong with his bike. I sat on it and it was like sitting on a pogo stick. His rear shock was completely blown and had lost all the oil. I told him there was nothing we could do about it and to just keep pushing.
The conditions, the ruts, the bike, all started adding up and I could see that Josh was starting to slow even more. To top it off, it was surprisingly warm with the sun out and at about mile 5 his camelback valve broke and he didn’t have any water so when we would stop, I would let him drink from mine. I could tell we weren’t going to make the next check on time so I started to settle into more of a “let’s just finish” mode.
We hit the next gas check at mile 67 about 10 minutes late. But, we were in good company because by this point, we were passing guys that were 20-30 minutes earlier than us on departure time so they were obviously way behind. Josh got a pep talk from Mom at the gas check, and we took our time to eat something get a good drink and then I waited until a nice even number (20) had elapsed so I could do the math easier to adjust our times.
I rode right on Josh’s tail for the next 20 miles to the grass track. This was a rough section where the ruts seemed to be exceptionally bad. We hit the third special test in this section and at this point, Josh was kind of in survival mode and watching him ride the pogo stick was painful. He was riding on nothing but a rear spring that would kick the back end up off every bump. But to his credit, he manhandled that bike through wet and slippery roots, ruts way deeper than your foot pegs and up an over bypass trails with big logs and stuff. The wet logs got him several times and I stopped to help him pick up his bike several times to try and help conserve energy.
At the third special test I let him go ahead of me again. I was pretty much in “sweep” mode trying to stay behind him to make sure he got through everything OK. But, about half a mile in I caught him and he just waved me by so I thought what the heck, I’ll see what I can do in this one. So, I took off and picked up the pace. It was a long special test and before I knew it I had taken a soil sample. I kept going, and then took another soil sample, and another. At this point, I figured it wasn’t worth it so I just slowed down and rounded the corner and found two guys completely buried in a mud bog. I stopped and figured I would wait for Josh. He didn’t come and didn’t come, so I went down in the mud and helped the two guys get their bikes unstuck. Well, karma is a good thing because as I waited, another guy came rolling up and I asked him if he had seen a kid a ways back. He said, yeah, there’s a young kid on a KTM stuck in a mud hole a ways back. So, I went backwards on the special test…yes backwards (the only guys coming were riding a trail pace at best), and came upon Josh with two guys that had already hour’d out trying to help him. With three of us helping we finally got his bike out.
We got going again and pushed on to the grass track. My clutch was going out at this point and when I would get on the gas hard it was if I had the clutch half way engaged. We made it to the grass track where my wife, kids, and Dad were waiting to watch us again. Jeff Good, Travis Good, and Dan Good were all there as well. Jeff, had hour’d out at that point and was just hanging out watching the chaos.
Josh let me go first so I figured I would try and ride at least one special test fast. I had a blast on the grass track and it was in surprisingly better shape than I thought, but still had some monster ruts and a couple of serious mud holes. My clutch wasn’t helping, but I still managed to keep a decent pace until I hit a major hole in a mud bog and got stuck. Yes, I got stuck in a mud hole on the grass track….I couldn’t believe it. Some drunk dude came running out behind a tree and jumped in the mud and grabbed my front tire and helped me get out. I finished the track, and pulled off to the side and waited for Josh. He made it through with apparently the same experience with the drunk dude helping him out of the mud.
At this point, we were three minutes from houring out. My philosophy started to change because I realized based on the number of guys who were obviously DNF’ing, that if we could make our next section, that we could technically still finish. I gave Josh some words of encouragement and we took off, with about a 25 mile section to go. This section was in surprisingly decent shape, but the allocated time was really tight. Despite riding a decent pace considering the bike situation, we arrived at the second to last check about 10 minutes late seconds behind Mike Woodall. We then had a short connector through town to the final check in the pits. We arrived just after 7:00 p.m…..a long day in the saddle.
All in all it was a very awesome experience and I was proud of Josh for finishing. After looking at results, there were 33 out of 36 guys that DNF’d his class (hour’d out). They still logged scores and despite spending over 40 minutes in one special test digging him out, he was still 8th in class.
The course was kind of crazy but I had a riot and would do it all again. Last year it was just giving Josh the experience, this year it was about finishing, next year we’ll be back to compete
