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Snowshoe takes place in the mountains of West Virginia. The views are incredible, the terrain is rough, rocky, rooty, and hilly. Last year when I E-biked the track, I felt severely under prepared for this race. Going into this year, I took a lot more time to prep. I even went for a swim with my dirt bike the weekend before. We took it seriously.. haha If you have been keeping up with me for a year or so, you know Snowshoe is the round where I hurt my hand/wrist last year. So, I came with a REDEMPTION attitude. Saturday I walked 6 miles of the track with the Raines’. It rained, we found water holes, mud holes, big logs, and took in the terrain. I skipped out on the Howard’s Hole chaos. If you are unfamiliar with that, go to YouTube and type in ‘Snowshoe Howard’s Hole’ and you will learn all you need to know. It rained on the mountain 5 days straight. Because of that and the issues the quads had, our track was shortened significantly. I think it was 5 or 6 miles long. It was still technical but yet fast. Unlike other GNCC’s, we started in the village of the Snowshoe mountain on a paved road, live engine start, 5 per row. I was on row 27. That put 100+ racer’s in front of me. We also got to run Howard’s Hole this year. It’s big mud hole full of boulders or bottomless ruts. My first lap through there, I buried my bike. I lost a ton of time. However long it took for my entire class and 4 classes behind me to pass me. When I finally got it out, I hit my brake pedal on a rock and bent it so far in, it wasn’t usable. I remained focus with one goal, moving forward and making passes. My next two laps, I made it through Howard’s Hole “clean”. The trail traffic got very intense. One of the hill climbs had at least 30 rider’s stopped or stuck on it. It was crazy but not surprising. I didn’t miss my rear brake a ton other than steep downhills with sharp corners at the bottom and following others who had rear brakes. I run a Rekluse clutch so I was picking up speed. It was sketchy and came close to plowing a lot of guys over. I finished 5th in my class. I am not thrilled with my mud hole capabilities but I am learning. Massive thanks to the Yamaha mechanics and spectators pointing lines and helping me get unstuck! My race was only half of the excitement of the weekend… Thorn Devlin wanted to race Snowshoe in XC3, so WE made it happen as a team effort. He had ridden the bone stock Gas Gas 125 a few times leading up to this race. His pure skill showed pulling off the win by 10 minutes and finishing 20th overall! Bonecutter Off Road and I are incredibly stoked to be a part of Thorn’s program this year. It has been such a fun year doing things that are FUN!

The theme for this year seems to be, “LET IT RAIN”.  Mud can make you have the best day ever or the worst day. It is tricky. I have never seen so many bikes sitting on the side of the trail blown up, broke down, or just racer’s being worn out. It was very wild. I made a costly mistake fairly early in the race, setting me back significantly and I really struggled to navigate the conditions and the people. Every corner I turned, there was 10+ bike’s sitting in the middle of the trail or laying in it. When the dirt is like ice, the mud is sticky, and momentum being your best friend, that made things extremely tricky. I unfortunately had an electrical issue causing me to have a trip back roped to a ATV. I was pretty bummed with that but very happy with my overall strength and conditioning. If you struggle with picking your bike up in mud races or digging it out of ruts, get yourself to the gym & lift some weights. It makes a difference and not only in mud races. I finished the day in 5th. Massive thanks to Emily Raines for not letting me quit and feeding me delicious food Saturday night and Jordan and Lucas for helping me out throughout the weekend!  STORY TIME: Never fails but at every GNCC I have at least one “out of the ordinary” story. The John Penton left me with multiple. My favorite one would be learning I am not a person who is “towable”. Being towed makes it to where you are not in full control. The control is shared between two people. The one driving the ATV and the one navigating a broken bike. I wrecked a solid three times before getting it out of the woods.. I kept wanting to touch the ground as we crossed the mud and small ditches. It obviously did not work out for me.. haha.. it get’s better.. As we approach the parking lot and start in on gravel, I get slightly distracted waving at someone and look back over just in time to realize I caught too much speed going down a hill. My reflexes made me slam the brakes which in return slammed me and the bike to the ground. Luckily, the bike didn’t get drug to far. It hurt my ego more than me but I got a gnarly bruise going! Another memorable moment from the weekend was being sandwiched between two bikes. I am not really sure how I ended up in that position but I was in it! I had to wait for a bike and my bike to get pulled off of me. In the meantime, my water pack and but was being burnt on someone’s exhaust. I have a nice burn mark and destroyed my water pack. It’s in these moments where a lot seem to go wrong, I question my sanity, wonder what I am doing out there but then remember I live for this shit and nothing will ever change that. Racing dirt bikes is life, the good, bad, and ugly is part of the fun.

Conditions were looking to be dusty and perfect in spots on Saturday for the race on Sunday. So far this year, Mother Nature has had some strong feelings against perfect dirt. The rain clouds opened up Saturday night and did not finish until 6AM Sunday morning. When you are in Indiana and if it just has rained, be prepared for ruts, swallowing mud holes, and sections that feel like ice. I prepped my bike for the water and mud as much as I could. One thing I have learned from GNCC racing is to always have mud supplies packed in the van. Weather might say one thing and then it changes. Always be prepared no matter what. One less thing you will have to worry about. The Indiana sticky mud is always tough to navigate. I struggled to find traction, constant spinning, and looked forward to seeing water that was trustworthy. I got stuck a few times but mostly spent a lot of time on the ground. The ground was very unpredictable. It was hard to no when you were going in and out of traction until sliding out. I did 2 laps in this race and was very thankful to see the checkered flag. Last time I did a mudder at Ironman Raceway, I got stuck in a root in the middle of the field and spent my race sitting Indian Style backwards on my bike directing traffic. With that being said, I was happy to finish! I came in 5th place. As the saying goes, if it was easy, everyone would do it.

Camp Coker ranks extremely high on my list of favorite places to race and is worth every minute of a 14 hour drive!! This place has plenty of sand too keep my inner child smiling, dirt, hard pack, and some soft sinky holes. Yes I did find one of those sink holes, haha. I got off to a great start. P3 to the woods and got passed a few miles in. I was feeling good and making smooth, fast passes on the trail traffic. After lap 1, I was only 50 seconds down from 1st. That is the closest I have been to the front of my class after a full lap ever. I was feeling good. Unfortunately, I have taken some time off to heal my foot so my endurance is not quite up to par and I could not maintain that pace. I fell back a few minutes. Last lap, I had to gas and also buried my bike in a field. It took a few fella’s to help me get it out. So I lost some significant amount of time with those two things. It’s a learning process but I am feeling good and confident. I am riding like I know I can and BELIEVING in myself. I finished the day with my best class finish, coming in at 4th. I cannot wait until the next round. I am thankful for those in my corner helping me on or off the bike. It takes a team!