2007 Shelton Dualsport Ride Report
By Tom Niemela
I’ve ridden the annual Shelton Enduro a number of times, including last year (
CLICK HERE to see the write up), and when Puget Sound Enduro Rider (PSER) Dorian Sleeper said he was going to put on their first dualsport, I was amped. From riding the enduro, I’ve known Dorian a number of years, plus he made a number of phone calls asking for suggestions and tips for the event. As well as the PSERs do on their enduro, I knew they’d hit a home run for their dualsport too. I was not disappointed.
My friend and coworker, Stefano Pellerano, showed up promptly at 4:30am to pool up with me in my little Nissan truck. We then met
Oregon_DSR’s Dave Butt and his friend Brent in Vancouver, WA, snared some java and we were on our way.
After the 2.5 hour commute, we pulled into the Shelton, WA staging area, which was the airport. A sizeable crowd was on hand and spirits were high. We unloaded our bikes, Davey complained about lack of sleep, then we hit the rider’s meeting where Dorian and his sidekick Greg, were educating everyone on their course. Was nice to finally match a face with Dave Hiatt!
After the rider’s meeting, Stefano and I threw on our gear and were off. The route took off North from the airport, then headed West into the local, flat terrain, to the first reset, then the first trail option. Knowing Dorian, I knew he’d incorporate some of the “good stuff” with regards to trails and the first trail option did not disappoint. Stefano and I hit the first A section and quickly got into a slow-moving train, then it stopped. Stefano was all excited with the trail and was wondering what was up. Turns out a couple of the behemoth BMWs tried the trail also. Wow, what a surprise they got!
After the first trail section, the Beemer guys wisely elected to not pursue further the very-tight single track. I must say I was amazed at how well they got those wide cylinders through the trail in the first place! Manly! Stefano and I continued on through the first of three trails option and they were a hoot.
It was well marked too – just like their enduro!
One spot on the trail was this huge boulder in the middle of nowhere – how did it get there in the middle of all this flat-to-rolling land?
After the finish of this first trail section, we were on some gravel roads, riddled with fun two track. We then came to a small creek crossing that a bunch of bikes were gathered around, since it was proving challenging for the larger rides. More gravel road and Stefano and I were in heaven. Heck, the weather could NOT have been better, the course was fun for all skill levels and the woods smelled wonderful. I did miss the dang historic train trestle with all the rubber necking I was doing, but kept going until we stopped on this very high bridge over Fir Creek (I think).
A bit later and we passed through a small campground where there were bathrooms to the thankful lot of coffee drinkers.
Then the roads started to take us up into the high-altitude areas of the Southern Olympic Mountains – stunning vistas! At one of the first vista points, two of some of the greatest people on Earth, Ron and Elrae Morganthaler showed up. Was great to see them again!
This section took us through the mountains and onto the South Fork of the Skokomish River and was a blast.
I opted for one AA trail section and here I am finally making it to the top.
We then descended back down into the valleys for lunch at a quaint little park, where Dorian and the PSERs had tons of food. On the way down we passed some poor sap with a flat front tire on his Honda.
As Stefano and I were getting ready to leave, these two guys showed up on old 60’s vintage BSAs – nice!
Then it was a short pavement stint to the gas stop, where my mighty DRZ ran weakly the rest of the day on their 89 octane gas, but nevertheless I was happy to get some petrol.
And how’s this for Yankee ingenuity for creating an overflow radiator catch?
More road heading South and the course plowed us into some trail in the dark. One guy on a big KTM was rockin’ it with us!
We hit some more road again after the second trail section, then we entered the third and final trail section. This one (like the prior trails) I recognized from my previous riding of the Shelton Enduro. These trails were so tight they squeaked! This pic is where the trail “opened up” to get into second gear!
Stefano had one lipskid with a tree that he actually recorded with his helmet cam (I still need to upload!), plus he got a video of me falling on my arss while stopping to turn around and take this pic of him! I turned around to take the shot, got off balance and it was a slow tipover into the bushes.
Dammit, he got that on video too. And yes, I’ll upload it and suffer some humility… This third trail section kept going, and going, and going, in fact, look at the scale and see how tight one section of it was here! I remember hearing Stefano's Husky a couple times and was thining, "Wow, he picked up the pace on me!", but he was actually back aways on the trail, but only 10 feet away!
Here’s pretty much what I saw in my mirrors all day.
I should’ve Photoshop’d a train into this photo of Stefano! What the heck, here's a before and after.
Back at the finish, we found a very tired and short on sleep, Divey, talking with Sylvia.
We would like to thank Dorian and the PSERs for what was arguably one of the best dualsport rides I’ve done. The stars aligned for them with the weather and they had a great combo of varying challenges, scenery, etc. Thanks Dorian, you and your team rock! (even if you’re not coming to MY event this year – turkey!)
Driving home we cracked up with this Subaru (he looked like he did the ride too), and what was up with the metal cows?
My complete list of pictures can be seen here:
http://tawmn.smugmug.com/gallery/3087509
And one more thing, you racer types who don't do dualsport events because you think their puss rides, you really are missing out on some fun riding in totally new areas. I've been racing longer than most of you and have always had a ball at these things. You should try one sometime!
-Tom