Shelton Valley Beginners Enduro

Shelton Valley Beginners Enduro
Pete Naylor

On Friday night I met Doug Chapman in Shelton, WA with plans to ride the Beginner's Enduro hosted by Puget Sound Enduro Riders on Saturday. I participated in the event last year and enjoyed it so I was keen to give it another try and see if my riding had improved any.

Saturday morning we arrived at the local fairground, the starting location for the event. A logging company owns a big section of land attached to the fairground and they generously open it up for events such as this a couple of times a year. Rider meetings etc are held in a big shed in the fairground itself. We unloaded the bikes and registered, then took a seat for the short class on enduro scoring, timing and trail markings. This is an important part of the event - planning and execution of a strategy is the key to doing well in enduros.

Next we went to have our bikes sound tested. Doug had been a bit worried about his aftermarket exhaust, but he passed without problems. Usually my bike gets tested for this type of event - and passes _way_ under the noise limit - but this time they just took one look at my street legal stock setup and signed off on the sound test part of my score sheet.

We started on row twenty-two - there is generally three riders to a row but an administrative error meant we started with five on ours. The row numbers extended to forty-seven, so there were quite a few participants this year.

Off we went - and right away I could tell the trails were going to be different this time. Last year the course was muddy from recent rains, but this year it was dry, and dust was a real problem - affecting visibility especially when trying to overtake. From the gate we knew we had at least three and a half miles to the first checkpoint so we tried to set a quick pace to get ahead on the clock. This worked well as we were almost on time for the first checkpoint. From there we tried to remain consistent and get to the checkpoints on time but there were some hiccups. Doug had a number of spills and I had some mishaps of my own. The first trouble I had was caused by trying to look behind me to see if Doug was there - when I turned back I was headed directly for a stump - I tried to avoid it but clipped my right foot peg on it. I didn't think anything of it at first but slowly I noticed that the bike seemed down on power - evening pinging on hills - then I heard the rear brake squeal a bit. I looked down to find that my brake pedal had been bent back - it was essentially wrapped around my foot peg and I was inadvertently standing on it and applying the brake. I moved my foot out to the very end of the foot peg and made do without the rear brake. Being unable to find and apply the rear brake throughout the remainder of the course was a real disadvantage - later I was running along an open gravel road and overcooked a sharp turn onto tighter trail. Without the rear brake I wasn't able to get the controlled braking and sliding I wanted, and the result was a locked front wheel sliding and then digging in to pitch me into the gravel. I jarred my wrist and tweaked my neck a little, and the roll-off holder on my goggles was ripped off, but I was able to quickly tuck the broken plastic parts down my jersey, pick up the bike and continue.

Thanks to a distance reset we were able to get back on the pace and we were riding the trails comfortably. Unfortunately Doug felt things were going too well and he was getting bored, so he decided to fling his bike skyward with a fistful of throttle and to bring attention to himself he threw himself into battle with a stump. The stump won, but Doug did succeed in gathering a small group of concerned onlookers. I was using the section as a place for us to regroup and was a short distance ahead when I heard the commotion. I stopped and ran back to pick up Doug's bike, clear the course and get him back on the "horse" that threw him. Doug was pretty badly winded and we lost quite a bit of time. Once we got rolling again we were able to pick up a few minutes but still lost points at the remaining checkpoints for late arrival. The trails were quite easy this year - there were few obstacles or technical features - I do recall one or two fallen logs that had to be ridden over but they were very small. The average speeds required for good scores were just right to push us along at a challenging rate for the terrain though, and by the last third of the event I'd gotten comfortable and was really relaxing and enjoying myself.

I had a great time and I'm really glad Doug was able to come along - trying to work together on the course was an added element of difficulty but it was more than worthwhile for the fun of telling stories afterward.

Here are some pictures that Doug has organized into a gallery...

http://gallery3.dougc.com/sheltonenduro