[WoodsRider]

wasn't even a hare scramble! It was the 2006 NETRA Rocky Mountain Enduro in Alton, NH. Not much need for timekeeping at this one, unless you're one of those AA riders.

The start was kind of fun. Maybe a 1/4-mile grass track with logs scattered about. Then the club dumped us into the woods, 28 miles of it to be exact. Rocks, roots, loose dirt, logging debris, uphills, downhills. Of course I messed with my suspension clickers a couple days prior and had everything screwed up. It was not a smooth ride. At 18 mph there was no way for me to stay on time and found myself 13-minutes down at check 2.

Somewhere around mile 13 my silencer fell off. Talk about loud. I stopped to check the damage. The forward mount on the silencer body had worn through and the rear bolt had either loosened or snapped. I had no spare bolts and no way to physically carry it, so I took off. Right before check 3 they dumped us into some really tight woods littered with boulders. It was first gear all the way to the check, where I dropped another 12 points.

Then we got a brief rest, one of the few all day, with a known control restart for check 4. From that point the trail opened up and I found myself running hot, so I backed off just in case there was a sneaky check waiting for us. There wasn't, of course, and we had more rocky trails to pound through until the gas stop, where I dropped another 6 points at check 5.

At the gas stop I refueled the bike and opened up both the compression and rebound clickers on the fork. Would've messed with rebound on the shock, but I ran out of time. The known control (restart) after gas was the same spot as the start. The second loop was the same as the first, only the speed was now 24 mph. I couldn't zero anything at 18, so it was a struggle just to keep from houring out.

The clicker changes I made seemed to be working out and I wasn't fighting the bike as much the second loop. By check 7 I was down another 12 points, but I kept going. At check 8 I came flying in WFO, scattering check workers, one minute from houring out. Then a short trail section and reset brough me to another known control, check 9. When I took off I knew there was no way I'd make check 10 within my hour so I tried to keep the rubber side down.

Eventually I reached the finish. The last check had closed, so I turned in my scorecard and thankful I didn't have to ride the A/AA loop. At this point I was just numb. Everything hurt and I was just happy to still be in one piece. After loading up and changing out of my gear I checked my score and found I had 2nd in the B-Heavy (Open) class. That has to be the hardest I've ever worked for a trophy.