Side Note

This year the Black Dog was sent to the pound by the USFS and the event wasn't allowed to use any single track in the Mount Hood National Forest.

"Thanks USFS, I really appreciate the fact that my tax dollars are being spent to keep me out of the areas I help pay to maintain".

Do you honestly think that by restricting and penalizing a fully organized dualsport event, that you will stop so much as one rogue motorcyclist /ATV / 4x4 user from entering the MHN Forest and doing damage to the forest system ? "I think not" .... At least with an event you know where the riders are going to be and you can prepare for that. Plus the event organizer does and will do everything in their power to ensure that entrants stay on course and abide by the rules of the land.

If I was you, I'd rather have 200 dualsporters following a planned out course for two days, with safety checks, sweep crews and daily pre-ride meetings, compared to 200 riders going out on their own and making new trails willy nilly in a vast forest that you don't have the man power to cover 24 hours a day. Most eventers I know belong to different clubs or organizations so we know and understand the need for compromise when it comes to keeping and protecting the natrual beauty of our forests. Lot's of us are volunteers helping out in any way we can. Please don't single us out from the array of people that enjoy the great out doors America has to offer. In the end it all boils down to fairness, hikers need trails to hike on. Horse riders need trails to gallop along and dualsporters need trails to ride along. Keep them sperate, keep them safe, but most of all keep them OPEN.

Well the 2004 Dawg was a hoot, even though there was no single track trails the folk's over at NWTT still found and marked out an excellent course with plenty of exciting and sometimes challenging moments for all to enjoy.

For this years ride I had decided to take the big six-fiddy out for a change and got together a few other KLR riders so we could do the Dawg in style.

On leaving the campsite there was Gary A, Kelley K, Bryan T and myself. Not long after leavng the pavement and approaching the power line section Kelley decided to see if his brakes worked rather than rear end me and start a punch up. Unfortunately they did work and before he knew it he was over the handle bars and tumbling along the side of the road while still attached to his bike via his foot. Sadly he had broken his right collar bone (heal fast dude), as we tried to help get him up and re-right his bike we noticed his foot stuck in between the rear fender and wheel. It didn't look pretty, I would have sworn he had broken his ankle as his foot was twisted in the opposite direction to the norm. As we spun the wheel around and watched his foot fall from between the two parts I waited for a moan of pain, but thankfully that all so terrible sound didn't come, and within a few minutes he was up on his feet and making his way over to a rock where he waited for assiatnace to come and get him.

Have to point out that one of the sidecar riders gave up his place on the Dawg to ride Kelley's bike back to camp ... Way to go Mr Hackster, an outsatnding show of pulling together when someone is in need. Anyone know his name ? he deserves our respect and thanks.


 

Someone had said there was a little dust on the course this year .... I didn't see any myself (cough cough) .... Not sure if webtv will show enough detail on the photo above, but just to Gary's left it looks like he's creating his own vortex in the cloud of dust.

There was even rumor of there being a few rocks along the route. When I saw the train I was tempted to jump on board and take the easy way back to camp ... But I didn't.

To be honest I thought the course was great. I don't know about you, but I can only ride on one side of two track at a time, so basically I did a whole heap of single track this year and had a blast.

After losing Kelley earlier on, we hooked up with Ched who was riding alone. This was only his third time riding a dualsport bike and did an great job ... It was fun having you in the group Ched.

Factile:

180 miles is along freeky deeky way to ride in a day ...
Add on another 38 miles and I could have rode from Salem Oregon to Seattle Washington :-)

For me the highlight of this years Black Dawg has to be the ride along the Barlow Rd, it was just awsome. I've rode it a couple of times before, but this time I was lucky enough to find myself in a space between riders as Bryan and John K had gone ahead while I took photo's. I basically had a straight run along the length of this fun and exciting historical trail until about two miles from the end where I saw a guy on a Trail-90 ? riding alone going in the opposite direction. lol this guy had a grin on his face bigger than a half moon it was obvious he was enjoying the trail and didn't seem to mind the fact that was getting past by about 150 riders who's dust clouds had turned his white face to a warm earthy color of mud :-)

Just after passing him, I was brought back down to earth by a Yamaha 450 (I think it was one of the Mt Scott cowd, but I'm not sure), just up ahead was a puddle and I foolishly tried to out run the Yami on my KLR, well we both reached the puddle at the same time and who ever it was got me good :-) I thought it was funny cause I would have done the same thing to them if I could have. I tried to read the liscense plate but my goggles were pretty well coated with gunk along with my bike ..... Who ever you are, fess up .. I owe you :-)

I'd like to thank all those that helped put on another great Dawg run. From the sweepers to the sponsors and to Joe and Julie for hosting two check points and cooking us some tasty burgers Saturday night, great job. But I'd really like to say thanks to the people that put our roll charts together for us, that really helps us riders out and we know it must take up soooo much of your time, so thanks again. And of course the one and only Tom N and his gang for once again giving us the riding public another fun time on the mountain.

Also I think a special thanks should go out to Vernon Wade for bringing together a great group of side hackers. I enjoyed watching them on the course and all of the those that I spoke with were just down right funny and eager to show us here rigs. Way to go Vern !!!!!