2012 AMA Husqvarna Shenandoah 500 National 2-Day Dual Sport

[Wingfixer]

I wish they were but the QOFE is basically house bound until the end of the year to let pelvic fractures (after effect of her cancer radiation treatements in 2005) heal :(

Kathy and I are sorry to hear that. Tell her we all hope she is feeling better soon!

[Wingfixer]

Is Gail and Bandit joining you? Kathy wanted to know if she is going to have anybody to hang out with during the day.

She can hang out with Zephyr, though she is a bitch.

You shouldn't talk about Kathy that way

You guys do know she reads this board once inna while, right?

[phoo]

Is we is our is we ain't gonna have a grill at the DAMN hq tonight?

If we do, I'd like to but something to cook on it, please.


Thanks,

Patrick

[the dude himself]

Yeah, so I was in a hit-n-run Thursday afternoon in a parking lot. Some asshole in a white van tried to cut through the parking lot of the Gaithersburg Tool Rental and nailed me, then sped off. No one got the tags. It bruised my knee pretty good and cut my shin, but I'll heal. Stay safe guys - looks like tomorrow will be wet and cold.

[zamobro9]

Dude, on your bike or cage?

[Rut Row]

You POSERS! Yes, YOU! Bumble (aka Vanessa) rode her XT225 down to the Shen, did most of the 1st day and then rode it HOME! Whilst the rest of us hauled the bikes down.

HARD CORE GIRL!

Bumble is a real trooper. She didn't ride fast and really struggled on the real long rocky sections but she learned fast and responded well to a few pointers. I'm thinking it won't be long before she's hammering down the trail making it look easy.

Anywho... as usual it was a great DAMN time and I can't wait for the Hammer Run!

[Bucho]

Another fun year at the Shenadoah 500. I was finally able to get there somewhat early on Friday. I was walking my dog and found all sorts of neat things. To think I had been there the two years before and never knew this stuff was there.


These neat geological formations. Some of it was behind a fence, but some of it you could check it out and get inside.

[Bucho]

There was also this nice trail along the river.

[Bucho]

And there was dirtbike riding too...

Saturday turned out to have great weather. No rain and just cool enough to keep the sweating down to almost nil.

We had a pretty large DAMN group, so we split into several riding parties. My party consisted of Patrick (Wingfixer), Sam (BigBird), Ron (Ovo), and myself. Patrick did most of the navigation w/ assistance from the other two. I had neither odometer/rollchart/map, so I was just along for the ride.
We did the morning option which was a good time. Some rocks and a few small ledges in one spot, nothing too hard, just enough to keep it fun. We were having a great time and doing more passing then getting passed by people.

Until a minor disaster struck. I was leading the group and blasting down a fireroad. Not sure how fast I was going, but fast enough that I was jumping these little bumps in the trail. Then one of the little bumps wasn't hardpack but loose mud. It slid my front wheel off to the right, while myself and the rest of the bike kept going straight. When the bike hit the ground and I didn't instantly wreck, I remember thinking to myself "holy crap, maybe I can save this".
The bike swapped from the right side over to the left side of the trail. I just barely kept it out of the trees, "oh man, I'm somehow gonna save this". However that extreme side of the trail, had some huge rocks. I smacked a couple of those and went down.
I took some hard hits to my right shoulder and arm. I firmly believe that my pressure suit was the only thing keeping me from broken bones. I slowly got up amazed that nothing was broken. Ron was nice enough to pick my bike up and move it to the side of the trail for me. The bike suffered some damage though. The throttle housing on the bar was totally smashed.
I was able to limp it 2 miles or so out to the road by pulling on the cable. The trail marshall at the hard road was able to do an amazing roadside fix w/ bale wire. He by passed the throttle housing and attached it straight to the twist grip! I finished the day w/ it like that.

[Bucho]

Sunday morning started with rain. Not super hard but water non the less was falling/misting from the sky. Just about the whole collective DAMN group decided to pack it up and head home.

Though there was a few exceptions. One was Bumble/Vanessa, while she did bag on Sunday's ride. She had to pack up her little campsite and stuff it into the panniers on her XT250. Because she then rode home in the rain.
ReardenSteel/Cory. Not sure how much of Sunday's ride he did. But I believe he left on the route with plans to at least ride till he was getting miserable.
Sam/Bigbird and I also wanted to at least do some riding. My idea, we loaded up the bikes and trailered up to Route 33 near the ATV park and Sunday's AA option. We rode the whole atv loop one way, then turned around and rode it the other way. The rocks were a little wet, but it reallly wasn't that bad. With some assistance I think the majority of our group could have made it.
After that Sam and I felt we could go home w/out being total pussies.

Due to the rain I kept my phone wrapped up, but I did take one or two pics.

This was a tricky rocky uphill

Then you have to make a difficult hard left turn in front of this rockwall

And then go up this root filled slick slope (Sam and I both did it like champions...)