Some footage while chasing Dorito from EOD3MCs camera

Nothing fancy, but here is the video EOD3MC got from the "smaller" mud hole...

(I have helmet coms with two other riders so I'm not always talking to my self )

The group on the right was working to pull the white DRZ out.

As the day ends, Deadly99 perhaps summarizes the teams performance most succinctly. MoonBeamer is on the hunt back to Woody's to get the pick up truck. Tim has setup his tent at the fire road to have safe haven from the unrelenting bugs, and EOD3MC makes it to camp. Meanwhile, Blaster and I get diverted to this place for a nice evening.

The Sands Resort




The day 2 track is quite a nice dual sport track. A bit less technical than day 1, but nice high speed rolling hills that ride like a roller coasters, some sand pits, and what would Canada be without more Terrapin sightings in the water!





The rain did pick up while we were on Ligham Lake. The newly constructed roads were a bit slick, but it was still fun all the same!

This was a view from one of the bridges, look at all that river rock!


The pace was more relaxed today..more time for happy snaps












Look at all those tall pines!


Now soggy wet, we end the track at Woody's. What an incredibly fascinating place he has!




The next morning, it's one more stop at Timmy Horton's before we cross the southern border. This is happiness of a Canadian Maple Timmy Donut


I think that somewhere in about 1 in 10 riders Did Not Finish. The fortunate ones had bike troubles, and the others got to meet the nice folks at EMS.


Another great year and big hoorah for our Canadian brethren that hosted us again (Ted, Shawn, and James!) 'Til next year

We have this little sayin' that our trusty team captain, Blaster, only gets paid when the tires get wet. If that means he needs to pee on them at the end of the ride so be it. However, this weekend there would be no lack of hydration. In fact, we lost count of 'notable' water crossings.

But this ride should have been aptly named "Terrapin Trekking". I don't think I have seen so many turtles/terrapins in my entire 2 scores of life as I did in 48 hours! As we approached the check-in camp ground, we were dually notified of the Terrapin situation with this sign:



As we awaited our turn in the pickle barrel for the all encompassing (and rigorous!) bike inspection, we find this little dude:


Among the team, EOD3MC is especially tickled. You see, he is "Team Turtle Recovery Unit". (Yep, he's even got the license plate to prove it!)




When Deadly99 warned us that we should walk the water XCings before we attempted to ride them, I thought it was to check the water depth. Imagine my surprise when the "rocks" started to scatter


Luckily, this one doesn't appear to be snapper and wasn't aggressive. We mostly played "rocks, paper, scissors" to see who would walk the next crossing. Blaster was happy when he saw some 1-lb sized tad poles, as that meant there was nothing around to eat them (or him!)

But it seems his joy was short lived. The hub-capped sized snapper was on the exit point


The water never failed to impress us



Some rode it out like a champ


Occasionally, we got to see pretty water that we could just gaze at, and not have to traverse. This one complete with a fortified beaver dam


It seems that Canada had one of the driest winters, and thus the water XCings were reported as low. However, what we lacked in water height, we made up for in mud height. We realized that we were so coated in mud, that despite helping a dozen riders through the bog, nary a single photo of it as we were literally so greased in mud there was no hope to keeping the camera lens clean! This was the aftermath of the 34" inch mud bog on track 1A. A track mind you, that only took us a mere 4 hours to complete. Fortuitously, the bikes only got cleaner as they molted their mud shells through next 400 million water XCings




If you have ever dated an Italian Supermodel, you'd know that she's pretty to look at, but probably something you should avoid overtaxing. The same analogy could be said of a Husqvarna motorcycle. One bike decided she really didn't like getting her toes wet, and ended up needing a tow jump start after the track 1A mud-wallow pit. Later in the day, she flat out laid down with a horrendous motor "clunk". TTRU was back in action, and towing the Husky off the powerlines to main road to await a pickup from her truck chariot.



By the time we hit Calabogie, the sun was low on the horizon. It was time to slab to camp. What a great day of riding though!