How was everyone's summer?

Hello, everyone! I haven’t posted in ages, but I’ve been peeking in every now and then to see how everyone is doing. Thanks for starting this thread, MXGirl230!

As some of you know, I got my new KTM 400 EXC in January and just love it—it was the perfect bike choice for me, although it did take me a few rides to adjust to the increase in power over the CRF230. (Yep, I did loop it the first time I tackled a steep hill.)

Before mid-July, I was doing a lot of riding and having a blast. I went on a 4-day Baja ride in the spring, which was so fun. Then Ben and I did the Sheet Iron 300 together in May (a 300+ mile ride from Stoneyford to Fort Bragg and back over two days). I was riding at Hollister on a regular basis once a week and planning another Baja trip for the fall. Then the big whammy happened. I broke my foot. It was truly a disruption in the rhythm of my life--26 fractures and a crushed bone. I was riding at Hollister and trying to stretch my comfort zone by going through a section in a gear higher than I normally do, realized I was going too fast into a corner, hit the brakes, hit a bump, went flying over the handlebars like superman, caught my foot on the handlebars, wrenched all the bones along the top of my foot, and slammed down hard. I knew that I had really hurt myself, but I didn’t think that my foot was broken because I could still wiggle my toes somewhat. I waited a bit for my riding buddy but couldn’t hear his bike, so after a while I got up, picked the bike up and continued onward (I knew I had to get to the hospital). I ended up riding about 5 miles of trails back to the parking area where my truck was, although I did stop a couple of times and cry because the pain was so bad. (Oh the things that the body can do out of necessity.) The recovery has been slow. Among the various pins and screws, I had to have an external fixture screwed into my bones; the first month was an education in pain tolerance and pain medications (I hope I don’t have to repeat that, ever). I was housebound for about six weeks. It has now been almost eleven weeks since the accident, and I am now up and about; I just started putting weight on my foot last week, and I'm feeling more optimistic about this "thing" on bottom of my leg being transformed back into a foot again.

My trip to Baja has been postponed until the spring, but it will happen. I’m going to go riding again as soon as I can get a boot on my foot (still really swollen and quite painful). I’ll be investing in a pair of Alpinestars Tech-10’s to give my feet extra protection; I tried one on last week on my good foot and loved it. (I also tried on the new Alpinestars women’s boot, made in the Tech-6 style; very comfortable and well constructed, but it didn’t come far enough up my shin for me to feel satisfied with the protection.)

In my personal life, I made a career change and will start a new job as soon as I can walk normally. The healing process has given me plenty of time to contemplate various aspects of my life. I’ll be working with the small group of attorneys in town who represent all of the children who are removed from their parents due to abuse or neglect. This will be quite a change from business law and litigation, but I’m really excited about this path.

In any event, I’m really looking forward to being back on a bike soon! I’m thinking my first ride may be in early November—I hope that I remember how all the controls work!

Kathy

Wow that sounds like a tough time! So sorry to hear about your injury! Hope things heal up fast.

Rocky ROads!! OMG! I didn't even know about your foot!! When you get ready to ride again in Novemeber, give me a call and I'll meet you at Hollister.

Sorry I haven't participated in this thread yet. Truth be told, I have not done much riding at all since the January Chick's ride at Hollister and I've been focussed on work and personal matters.

I started a new job at the same company doing something completely different. This started in March. I feel like I'm doing a great job and learning quickly and making some significant changes for the better in this new department. My old department was driving me bonkers and I can only say that the new type of stress from staying busy and throwing myself into learning new things and seeing positive results is so much more rewarding than the type of thankless stress I received in the old department.

I went to Las Vegas with Phirechick in May for the Supercross and had such a great time, I've been back to Vegas three more times since then. I LOVE LAS VEGAS. Its the best little two day getaway in the whole world. I just wish I could bring my bike, although the 117F weather during the summertime was more conducive to poolside cocktail sipping :).

I rode in the Furnace Harescramble a couple weekends ago and did very poorly. I crashed and burned on the FIRST LAP and could not continue. I thought I broke my hip, but it was just one helluva body slam into hard pack. Its been over a week and my hip still hurts in a weird way, but I can walk normally, only with a bit of pain.

My next focus is the 25-Hour Grand Prix up at Starvation Ridge. This will be the third year for the Shred Betty's and I think our team this year is the fastest one yet. We were able to recruit some very fast women.

Lastly, I have been focussing on my freelance writing sub-career. I've been trying to hone my skills the past year or so even though I've loved to write all my life. Recently, I've hooked up with an editor of a small magazine who throws me an assignment now and then. I bought a digital voice recorder so that I can interview people and playback what they say and so far I've interviewed a cookbook author, a professional wine sommelier, and a Las Vegas Pit Boss. This is fun! Too bad it doesn't pay that well :)

Natalie

Haha welcome to journalism, Natalie. We certainly aren't in it for the pay ...

Hi all,
Kathy, that's terrible - 26 fractures, think you have to have the record! Hope it heals up fast.

We switched to the streets for the summer - did a 7,000 mile 6 week street bike tour of the western US and Canada. Adapted Givi sidecases to my CBR, Randy already had a set on his VFR, and we were off. Four corners of our route: south to Monterey to watch the Moto GP at Laguna Seca in July, east to CO where we road over a bunch of 12,000 foot passes, took the coal fired steam train from Durango to Silverton, north to Yellowstone, Mammoth Hot Springs, watched the Billings Hill Climb in Montana, Glacier and on into Canada. Stayed in Banff a few days, up to Jasper and then west to Prince Rupert. Then took the Inland Passage Ferry to Port Hardy on the northern tip of Vancouver Island, spent a week up there kayaking and looking for whales. Then home - wonderful trip, haven't really adapted back yet... weather was very hot and dry, only one day of rain, really beautiful country, did some hiking around as well.

Then did the Dick Jagow Memorial GP mid September as our first ride back on dirt - sort of shocking... but what was really fantastic is I think all those street miles helped my target fixation problem go away!!! I was able to pick good lines and make my way around and thru riders stuck on the hills, used to be I'd get distracted by them and then crash too. So I can't wait to get back in the woods and see if I can do better on the trails as well.

However, Randy sold his KTM in anticipation of a new one that's on order - but isn't here yet, so we're short a bike! He might be able to borrow one to go riding around Bend next weekend if that works out. Hope so!

-SusanP.
CRF250x
CBR600F4i

Where's the rest of the girls?

Is summer over all ready? No, say it isn't so... :(
Actually, fall is my favorite time to ride. It's dry (usually, except for this weekend!! :| ) , the weather is cool, and the scenery is beautiful with all the leaves changing.

This probably has been my best summer of riding, ever. The weather stayed dry, but it was pretty hot and dusty. Things started out slow, had a couple of trail rides in May to get in practice. Then we rode Broad Mountain enduro at the end of May, and I had a hell of a time. The best I could do was Check 3, and that was with Dave's help. I was in tears, and Dave was ticked with the stupid trail layout. Grr. No fun, and a waste of our time and money. What a way to start the season..

Then we were busy June and July clearing trail and putting on our club's enduro. Then all the fun started. Between July and August I don't think we were home more than two weekends! One weekend in July was out to celebrate Squeaky and Roo's wedding (yay!). Then we took the next weekend to clean up trail/pull arrows from our enduro, and get our bikes ready for a trail ride at Paragon, and then another enduro.

End of July was the next "must do" enduro on our list, The Rattlesnake. Dusty and hot, but I FINISHED. Whew! (Full writeup is in the ride report forum). Finished my first enduro ever, last year. So this was #2. Then a week break for a visit with the in-laws on their boat.

Then the third weekend in August was another enduro-- Speedsville. Only an hour from our house, so it's very convenient. The past few years have been wet, muddy, and very difficult conditions. This year was dry, and warm. Dave's comments to me before hand "If you can finish this, you've finished a REAL enduro". Speedsville is known for being fairly difficult even in good years.
I gave it my best shot. Lots of hills, dry and silty. Off camber trails, and miles upon miles of rocky creek beds at the end to make sure you were good and exhausted. But I finished THAT one, too! I wasn't going to wow anyone with my huge score, but that didn't matter to me. Woo hoo, two in a row! I was elated.

Weekend at the end of August was our wedding anniversary, and the Beehive Enduro. This is the first enduro I had ever finished, last year. This year, I was bound and determined to get a better score. And after finishing Rattlesnake and Speedsville, this one was going to be just plain FUN!
We celebrated with a nice dinner that Saturday night, and raced on Sunday. Whoo, what a great time! I actually had a few minutes at the first gas stop to rest (what a concept!) and eat a Powerbar. The trails were (by comparison) easy, but the speed averages keep even the fast guys on their toes. I finished, with probably half the score that I had last year. Another one in the books for me, and 3rd enduro finish of the year.
So, I finished 3 out of the 4 enduros I rode this year, and I'm pretty happy with that.
Since then, we haven't ridden at all! Pretty much done with the enduros for the year, but I'm going to get some more trail rides in before the snow flies... :nod:

Summer.... where did it go? :think:

Well, back in winter, we decided to go for the double-whammy - have a wedding and build a new house in 2005. Needless to say, the riding was at a minimum this year, compared to years in the past. Plus it doesn't help that my riding buddy Buko decided to break her ankle in May. The guys don't ever want to race anymore, so Stacy and I usually go solo. Still got in around 20 MX races so far, including a Loretta Lynn Regional in Minnesota and hitting 3 of 4 rounds of the Racer X Vet series (I'm finally eligible!). Looking forward to getting some seat time on an outdoor style track next week at DirtWeek/Cooperland, considering most of my races this year have been on tight stadium style night tracks (they added a women's class to our stadium series this year and at Mendota, Wardy's track, we've been pulling in 15 riders a race - good stuff!)

So the big wedding was in August. After seven years, we finally tied the knot. Had a few DRNers in attendance for the big day including Reddog (duh!), Buko138, BigLou, Julius Pleaser, Oldguy (and Trudy), and AJ. And of course we took photos on the bikes, a few photos in this thread:

http://www.dirtrider.net/forums3/showthread.php?t=120773

And some more photos:
http://www.441designs.com/gallery/nik_red_wedding/IMG_1937.JPG
http://www.441designs.com/gallery/nik_red_wedding/IMG_2014.JPG
http://www.441designs.com/gallery/nik_red_wedding/IMG_2124.JPG
http://www.441designs.com/gallery/nik_red_wedding/IMG_2134.JPG
http://www.441designs.com/gallery/nik_red_wedding/IMG_2173.JPG
http://www.441designs.com/gallery/nik_red_wedding/IMG_2192.JPG - check out Buko's Flower Girl Hair :laugh:

The new house construction has been pretty stressful... we first saw the land (7 acres) for sale in early 2003. Had to go through a bunch of county zoning stuff, and finally bought the property in May 2004. Then had to sell our old house last year and have been renting at "the garage" ever since. Finally dug our basement this June, and should be moving in this November-December. We can't wait until it's finished. Did I mention it's right across the street from Stacy's (poor Stacy) and there's already a track about 300 feet from our property (pretty much everyone on the street rides!).


So that about sums it up. Dirtweek bound in four days and can't wait!


:ride:

Not much to report here regarding my summer, thanks to the horrible work contract I was on. By the time the weekend came around I had to play catch up with myself... which meant limited time for recreation.

I made it out on a few weekend camping/fishing trips with Cory (we've been dating since January). We didn't catch any fish, but I did manage to show him and his bros how to properly ride the hell out of a jetski. :)

The bike and its new parts sat in the garage collecting dust. No real time to ride this summer. If Cory feels like getting back on two wheels we might make it out more often next summer.

I bought a new truck in August... 2005 Chevy Silverado 1500 4X4 in fire engine red.

I've made it to three small rodeos (just to watch friends.) Since I didn't have enough time to work with my horse in the spring I had to miss out on competing. :(

My summer wasn't extraordinary by any means, but I was able to get out and relax once in a while. Next summer should be more interesting whether we are still living here in Washington or not. ;)