Wow! :yeehaw:
What a weekend! The trip started for me Thursday night when I headed over to the Bay Area to Kali and Kevin's house, where GoSpeedRacer was staying. I had my kTm250rfs and Aimee's borrowed kTm200MXC in the back of my truck. After hugs and hello's, we make dinner and Kevin and I put a big chain lock through the two bikes, tarp them over, then back the truck up against the garage door. I figure Kevin's dog Brock (the friendly pitbull) will bark if someone tries to steal our steeds!! Kevin has their three GasGas bikes in the back of the box van, ready to go! Nicole, one of our instructors is going to borrow the GasGas 200 to use in class.
Friday morning 4:15 am and its coffee time and last minute loading of coolers and walkie talkie demos and plans for our first gas and potty break (poor Kevin and all these women!!:) ) 56 miles later, we have our first gas stop and potty break.
We make good time on I-5 up to Oregon and actually get to Ellen's ranch in Selma sooner than I think, even with the three additional breaks. We see Marshall and he tells to go on up to the cabin that many of the Nor Cal spodes are renting for the weekend. What a COOL cabin!!:thumb: Its very rustic and roomy and has a huge kitchen and lots of benches out front. Plenty of beds and a fridge. The pine kitchen table could seat a dozen or so hungry riders. I'm thinking I could really do some damage in that kitchen and wish I would have brought more supplies to whip up a better breakfast than plain old eggs and bacon.
Karna and Justin show up and then later on we walk down to the main camp area to meet some new faces. We finally get to meet Mini Thumper and her husband Mike, MudnRocks and her husband, and a few other new faces. Belle and Bob are there, and many others who I remember from last year. Many are gearing up for the ride that Marshall is leading. We're too busy gabbing with new faces and getting settled in the cabin to get in on this ride. A little later, Ellen drives in with our instructors, fresh from the airport. Nicole, Kerrie, and Andrea! I let her know that Marshall has taken most everyone out on the trail and she says she'll be back for us in an hour to go on a trail ride too.
Ellen takes us (Karna, Justin, Kali, Kevin, Aimee, Me, The Ant) on a SUPER trail ride. All fun stuff. I'm remebering some of the trails from last year, but instead of being intimidated by them this year, they are all a total blast. I did need one lesson in clutch control on a mid hill start after killing the engine, but got through it in the end (Thanks SuperKevin!). We did a quick 14 miles of pure fun then headed back to the ranch to clean up for dinner at the local Mexican place. Racergril76 (Kyra) screams up to the cabin on her kTm200 to seek help from Justin (an EMT by trade), apparently Mini Thumper's husband has had an accident and needs medical attention. The other riders have already got him in a truck and he's taken to the local hospital. We get a report on his Tib-Fib break later on at dinner. Mini Thumper, trooper that she is, attends to her husband, but makes it back to class the next morning! We were all bummed about the crash, and happy that she made the most of her trip!
NVR FNSH, Mick, and bratt show up later on after eveyone's gone to bed, so now we are all here. Jennifer and Pierre are supposed to be staying at the Holiday Hotel. Still haven't seen Tami and Eric or met 4EverOrange. There are many more faces to meet in the morning!
We finally all round up in the Meadow below the horse stable at 8:30 am. I am meeting so many new women who ride dirtbikes.....Sarah on the DRZ250, Brenda on the XR200, Stacey on the TTR125, Katie on the kTm400exc, and many more. I finally get to meet Michelle, or very special visitor from New Zealand! And Leanne (4E-O) glad to finally meet you! LocoCD, wife Jane, Daughter Ashley and son Jared are here too! I see my friend Erinn on her 3-day old kTm 200 and we make plans for Tahoe riding in the near future.
I'm in the Intermediate class and soon find that MudnRocks is my hero on her kTm400Exc. That woman is F-A-S-T through the single track and looks completely in control while doing it. I try to follow her whenever I can to learn a few things from her as we work on uphills and downhills on Spring Hill behind the main house. NVR FNSH and E-Ticket are our trusty sweeper dudes who help us through the single track switchbacks and other fun stuff. Back at the cabin, I meet up with Karna and Kali and hear all about Lower Cell Phone Hill, the hill from hell that the Advanced girls rode. Kali has made it up on her first try and just a hand full make it up on their own. Apparently, this hill was originally intended for the Intermediate group :think: but I think Dave Hiatt had a change of mind on this after seeing our skills earlier in the day and dropped all the hill work down a notch, heheh. Everyone was in great spirits, a great Day 1 was had by all. Dinner was later that evening at the pizza and brew place, where we got to watch great video footage of last year's event, as well as some killer crashes that Nicole's husband shot during the Scottish 6 Day.
After the pizza dinner, bratt, Mick, GSR, NVR FNSH and myself walked down to Carlos' to have "one cocktail" but ended up closing the place down. Once again, all conversation topics occuring after 9 pm shall go un-mentioned (shhhhhh:laugh: ) Back at the Ranch, we find Belle and Bob and Evan, 4EverOrange, Liddy, and Zack passing the Jack Daniels around the campfire. 12:15 am and its time to hit the sack.
Photo shoot at 8:30 (or so!) then we do this excercise on planks of wood that are supposed to represent "ruts" with a left handed turn thrown in. For the life of me, I could not get past the turn and kept riding off it. This proved to be a tough excercise for many but a few made it, and made it look easy. Later, the instructors have a 5 station event set up that we must loop through 3 times: (1)The Planks from Hell, (2)The Timed Twisty's, (3) The Off Camber Blunder Maker, (4) SuperKevin and Randy's Rooted Hill of Horrors, and (5) Evan's Magical Meandering Meadow(timed!). This was SO MUCH FUN!!! We really got into the competetive aspect and since we were competing against ourselves, it was fun to see or speed or skill improve with each of the three rounds. We really had to focus and concentrate on all the skills that the instructor's had taught us (Turns, off camber turns, weighting the pegs, looking ahead, uphills, downhills, etc.) It all came into play. We were coached constantly at each section and cheered on by the other girls.
Great to see everyone again and looking forward to next year!!! Nicole, Kerrie and Andrea, you ladies ROCK! A big fat THANK YOU to Ellen and Marshall for hosting the ride school - you are truly special and giving people.