RAT DOG 2003

 

Here is my account of the 2003 Rat Dog dualsport event, which was held out of the Trask Park just east of Tilllimook Oregon.

 

 


 

 

Night Ride Section.

This year the riders were given an extra treat with the introduction of a night ride. As the sun began to retreat, Greg U, on his DR650 and myself on my DR350 headed out to see what Tom N, the event organizer had laid out for us to enjoy.

The route was only 16 miles long, but it seemed much, much longer. After a quick speed section from the camp site, we were at the mouth of the Bushong Trail. This is a great dualsporting road and one I personally enjoy alot.

As this was a night ride most people had taped, strapped, welded, nailed, glued or bungee corded on extra flashlights to either their bikes or their bodies in an attempt to help beat back the darkness. This approach worked very well for the level sections of the ride, but there's nothing level about the Bushong trail.

On entering the trail the first thing I noticed was that it was slicker than the insides of an oyster shell. I quickly shifted up from 1st to 2nd gear in an attempt to stop the back tire from spinning and slapping from side to side. This seemed to do the trick and so long as I had a enough momentum going (4mph or so) the 350cc engine chugged along well in 2nd gear.

Bouncing our way up the Bushong, we quickly found out why mounds of mud are given the title waterbars. With headlights on high beam and armed with an arsonal of extra torches, lamps and flash lights, we can see clearly the dirt humps we have to ride over. It's only when your bike goes up the side of the mounds and you illuminated the canopy of the trees do you realize that no amount of extra lighting can penatrate deep enough for you to actually see what is on the other side of the waterbars. My first clue came when I landed and heard a "Spalsh". Well with steam coming off the bikes and our goggles begining to fog over we pressed on.

It wasn't until about the sixth waterbar before I started cussing and moaning. As I came down on the other side of a mound my trusted DR decided to stall, and I had to put both feet down into the soupy goo to stay upright. Sitting there with a stalled bike and both feet taking on water, I begin to ponder the question of "WHY" am I doing this again? :) well while feeling sorry for myself I look forward to try and assess what's to come, here I notice my own shadow forming an outline ahead of me, hmmmm that's kinda cool I thought, but wait, for me to see my own shadow would mean there is another light source behind me right ? .... "Oh No" Greg's flying up the trail behind me and when he lands he's gonna make a door mat out of my body. I pull in the clutch, push the e-start, slip the bike into 1st, and pull back on the throttle until the glue on the grips begin to rip away from the bars and power my way out from harms way. As I ride clear from the squish zone, I stop and look back, and watch as Greg's headlight goes up, comes down, stops, and then goes down again "hehehe" , I shout out the obligitory "You OK ?" and then listen to the sounds of a rider splashing around in the water while lifting up his bike.

After fighting our way through the rest of the Bushong, we eventually make it to easy to ride gravel roads and then back down to camp. The night ride was a great addition to the Rat Dog event, and I hope it's here to stay.






 

 

 

THE MAIN EVENT

Greg U, DR650.
 

 

Saturday morning broke, and I found myself running slightly behind after a good nights sleep. The rest of the riders in the group I was with were nearly all ready to go. But kindly waited for me to strap on my gear and warm up my bike. Our little band of brothers consited of Jim, George, Loren, Greg, and myself a group this size is normally to big to keep together on an event, but this time it worked and it worked well. We had many laughs and an excellent day of riding was had by all.

The course was to be a three section loop system, with each loop starting and finishing at the Trask Park camp site.


 

 

 


 

 

The first slippery yet fun trail was to be the Zig Zag Rd, in the photo above Greg is helping Jim, after Jim decided to use his bike as chain saw in the trees. Alas I missed the canage, but that was to be just the first of many spills by our group.

Once through the Zig Zag trail we are pointed upward to Hembre Ridge Summit.

 

 

Loren, on Hembre Ridge Summit, the valley below is still covered in low clouds
 

 

After enjoying the views from the summit, we head back down the mountain to pick up Rogers Road, in the past this has been a rider claimer section due to deep ruts, rocks and mud bogs, but this time the road had been worked on and the conditions were great for dualsporting down the 2 to 3 miles of trail.

After Rogers Rd, it's a blast through the forest back to the stagging area where gas up and head out on the 2nd loop.

Scott A, tagged along with us as we left camp because he wanted to check on one of his "emergency radio crews" (which by the way do a wonderful job and give us the riders peace of mind knowing that there is someone out there looking out for us, thanks guys) ... As we left camp Scott, turned to me and said "Dave, don't get me lost as I don't have a roll chart with me" .... DOH !!!

Well saying that was like a jinx and I quickly went about leading our group off course. Looking back on it, I know where I went wrong along Bark Shanty Rd, but still that doesn't help as now Scott will forever be reminding me of my easy to make mistake.

 

 

That's Scott, on the left with one of his radio crew in the yellow.
 

 

Hey Scott, if you knew I was off course, why didn't you pull along side me and let me know ?

Oh that's right ... you couldn't catch me uh!! hehe

 

Once back on the correct route, we are led to some old fun two track before once again heading back towards camp. I made one more mistake here and took the guys onto a short section of the "A" course. Not going more than 10 / 15 miles an hour I see a small downed tree which had to be rode over, I ride up to it, give the bike a little gas and the next thing I know I'm on the ground hearng the words "Are you ok Dave" ... I look up to answer and only saw green grass, under normal circumstances when someone looks up, you see blue sky and someone leaning over you. According to the guys I hit the floor pretty good and I was ankle pinned under my bike. After regaining my senses and quickly checking to see if anyone had pulled out a camera. I got up and continued on. I must have banged my noggin, cause all I remember is this going to hurt and then there was a moment of total peace and serenity :)
 
 

2003 Rat Dog

 

 


 

 

Loop Three

After a great lunch at the Trask Store (photo above Trask Store) we start the thrid and final loop of the day. The route took us back to the Bushong Rd, for another run along this slimely trail, but it would be easier to manuvre as we had day light to see with.

 

 

 

Bushong Rd.
 

 

The thrills and spills were just as much fun to watch now as they were last night, but this time I was able to get a couple of photos of some the riders. Even though these kind of trails are energy drawing and very slick they really do make a dualsport event exciting and fun to be apart of. Let's be honest who really wants to go home with a clean bike and to have at least one bruise or scratch to show you rode an event.

 

 

 

Check point
 

 

There was only one check point out on the course, which was manned by Mad Dog Murphy, I bring the fact up about this check point because of two of my buddies Jim and George. Basically the game was, you have a rubber ball and a grid on the floor, the object of the game is to throw, bounce or roll the ball in to the grid and the closer you get to the middle of the grid the more points you score.

The scoring range was from 1 to 65 points. Jim went first and amazed us all with a throw of 2 points ... sad ? yes !!!, but now it was George's turn , he bends down and unleashes his throw. He scored 1 point .... If you had thrown the ball into the forest you would have scored 10 points, as every foot away from the grid equaled a point.
Of course this sealed their fate and they were basically out of the running for a trophy, well for this event at least. :-)
Just couldn't resist putting that little tale into the report. These two make me laugh everytime I meet them.

After the check point stop it's back to riding the rest of the event.

 

 

Rich K, on his new DRZ.
 

 

Here we are given the option of riding up to Grindstone Summit,from there it's two way traffic back down into the valley and back to the finish point.

Once again the folks over at Northwest Tour & Trail put on a great event. Many thanks to them and all that helped put on the Rat Dawg.

 

 

 

Davey B,
Salem, Oregon.