Black Bear Enduro

[Tim H]

Last Sunday Roscoe's (Reverup) club put on the Black Bear Enduro to wrap up the Northwest Motorcycle Association Enduro season. I posted the ride report below on RMD, and thought I'd share it with y'all here. Sorry if the stuff about mt kid assumes more familiarity that you have, they have known us for a long time over at RMD. BTW, son Scott rides an '05 200E/XC, I am on my trusty '04 ECO300.

Last Sunday was the conclusion to the Northwest Motorcycle Association
Enduro season. The Black Bear Enduro is always a long, tight, fast,
tough enduro. This year didn't disappoint, as trail boss (for the 15th
year!) Dean Dorsett, himself a competitive AA rider at 54 (!!), laid
out just shy of 85 miles of twisties. They wasted no time putting us
onto single track, and started winding us all over the Tahuya Multiple
Use Area near Belfair, Washington. The area is second and third growth
forest, meaning lots of trees, lots of stumps, and LOTS of roots. On
top of that, the dirt in this part of the state is composed of glacial
till, which is the crap left behind by the forward edges of the
glaciers a few years back. It's basically rocks that have been ground
into roundish ball bearings, and the sand that all of the ground off
material turned into, mixed with a few dozen centuries of decayed wood
from those ever present trees. The result is that riding at Belfair is
an endless series of hits to those roots and rocks, and the odd log
crossing. Scott and I were pre-entered, and drew minute 2. The guys on
minute 1 were a Senior A (+40 Y.O., my class) and Vet A (+30), and
both wound up finishing second in class, so we never really saw them
except at resets and gas. Scott was riding really, really well, smooth
and fast, and except for 2 brain fart burnt checks by 1 or 2 seconds
stayed right on our minute everywhere except the special test
sections, where he turned very respectable times. I could hang with
him on the “easier” stuff, but he can pretty easily pull away from me
now in the special test stuff. It’s official this year, Scott is
faster than I am. He’s thrilled with this inevitable development. I
can’t help but feel proud watching him ride now; I have to pick up my
game so I can keep watching this next phase when he gets REALLY fast.
It had started raining just a few days before the race, so the many,
many whoops and other depressions at Belfair had turned into their
winter guise as many, many ponds. On minute 2, there isn’t really
anybody in front of you to clear out those damn puddles; two guys just
don’t have much of an effect on them. We were soaked by mile 1.5, and
stayed that way to the end. During the first loop, they ran speeds in
the transfer sections that took a pretty consistent effort to
maintain, though I imagine the C class guys behind us were losing
time. When they want to get points on everyone, they get points on
everyone. After the specials, they threw in generous resets that had
most of the A and B guys around us at the front complaining about how
long they were, but we all knew that there were going to be plenty of
people behind us that’d be lucky to catch their breath. We also all
knew that after the short course classes ended, the second loop would
NOT have that problem. As it was, we were at several resets for 12 to
14 minutes, which is a long time for a bunch of soaking wet people to
sit still in the rain after getting all worked up and hot.
The second loop was something of a surprise, as they didn’t just run
us to death. The past few years, they've just jacked up the speed
averages on the last loop and let the points pile up. This time, they
had a couple of sections that were guaranteed to get points, one
actual reset, and some sections that allowed you to catch back up if
you stayed on it. All of it on tasty single track, about 34 miles of
it.
With 20 speed changes to keep us on our toes, there were plenty of
timekeeping opportunities during the day. It was a major challenge
just snatching a look at your instruments to see if you were on time.
Scott seemed to be able to drop right into whatever pace the section
had and ride a nice steady speed staying 5 to 15 seconds into our
minute most of the time. I find that much less tiring that sprinting
forward then slowing way down when you get ahead. Other than those 2
burnt checks mentioned earlier he did a nearly flawless job of
timekeeping. I watched him roll into the first check and knew he
burned it, and from the sounds of it he did the same thing at the
second to last check; just rolled in a second too soon. Starting the
race off with a burned check put a little extra pressure on him, since
he came into this event with a 3 point lead for the season
championship, and the guy in second place was riding on the minute
right behind us. We figured that as long as Ty didn’t pass us
anywhere, Scott was good to go. Ty never passed us, and at the end of
the day Scott not only won the 200B class with a 32 point score, but
he also took the B class overall for the event, and wrapped up the
season championship, his second in three years of enduro competition.
We’re really proud of him, both for the race results and the attitude
he approaches the races with. Scott says he’s moving up to 200A next
year whether they bump him or not (just like he moved up to 200B last
year when he still had 2 more years of eligibility in the 15 and Under
class. He’ll have to work at it, but if he keeps up the effort he’s
made in the past 2 years, I expect Scott will be at the top of that
class in a few years, too.
Oh yeah, I wound up 3rd in the Senior A class with a 33 (yes, note
that Scott had 4 points for the burned checks and still beat me); the
winner of Senior A won the event overall with a 17. I’ve got to get in
shape!
All in all, the fine folks at the Cascade Family M/C put on a top-
notch Enduro with a great course, good execution, and lots of fun for
all. Sorry you all missed it!

Tim H

[REVERUP]

Nice write up man! I'm glad you guys had a fun day out there. Good ride Tim.

Way to go Scott! Great job! Now if your dad will get you off that KTM and on one of those sweet 2009 Gas Gas DE 250's, the A class will be shakin in their Alpinestars.

Congratulations on your Enduro series win! Do you guys know if Scott gets the B overall for the year also? That would be great.... there are many names you will recognize on that trophy from years gone by.... one Gas Gas rider. Hummmm I wonder who?

See ya soon! A new Enduro season is just around the corner.

Roscoe