LOOSE MOOSE REPORTS:I'll BEG if needed!

[woodsy]

Yea, I know, your bikes arent even off the Trailers yet and and the mud shaken off and here's Woodsy, BEGGING for some ride reports!! It aint good enough that Terry & Neal did a "3 course meal" of a report, I have an unsatisfiable desire for more, more, MORE I tell ya (must be the kid in me :) ) !!!
Can you hear my fingers tapping beside the keyboard.. I have been checking since 5 am and the suspense is KILLING me (Young Ted is probably still sleeping in a rest area down by Peoria somewhere)!!
WRITE ON BROTHERS!! Give me all the MUDDY details! Who topped on the Nathen/Aaron competition? Did Fast Freddy CLEAN house in the B Class? Is Young Ted polishing his Trophy on his way home? Did Fatherandson leave any winnings for anyone else? Did Smitpuppy FINALLY get mud on his new bike? Did Napper abousultly annialate all that out of state competition? Did Marlin have a RIOT on his Husey? Did ANYONE even go? I keep forgetting that while I am healing up, you guys are still working, ok sorry for the "manipulation thru pity"!! Write when ya can folks!

Woodsy

 

[YZMAN400]

Here is a little tidbit for ya.

http://www.thumpertalk.com/forum/sh...view/collapsed/sb/5/o/all/fpart/1#Post1226171

 

[woodsy]

Now YZMAN, THAT IS INHUMANE!!! Kinda like holding a sugar cube just outside the fence beyond the reach of the horses nose!! Your a sicko Don, a real heartless, Honda ridin SICKO :)

 

[Smit-Dog]

I did not win. :uh:

 

[Magoo]

Smit-Dog, you can do better than that! Let's hear it -- I'm on the edge of my seat, too!
How'd Zach do in the MiniMoose?

 

[Don Marsh]

I think I won the MONKEY BUTT AWARD!
Tough course.
Don

 

[Smit-Dog]

Give me a chance to write up something worthy of the event... too busy at work now.

 

[team-green32]

Nate and I had a pretty good time. We both had 4 points but, I got the win at the emergency check because he was on minute 1 and he got a 00:00:40. So he was hot, I was on minute 2 and at the emergency check I had 00:02:14 so I was closer to 00:00:30. We both had 4 points but, I just had the better E check.

I also need a new odo line because 8 miles in, mine took a puke and I was riding blind.

 

[team-green32]

Woodsy, I'll write a better "Dual" write up at home and then i'll post it or call you tonight sometime.

 

[fatherandson]

What a great weekend!!! The weather was good and everyone had a good time.

FredT saved Team PTP camping space. He and I ran two checks for the Mini Moose. The E check that Nathan came in too early..that was our check. All I could hear was slow down, slow down, SLOW DOWN!!! Too late...sorry Nate.

It was cold on Sunday morning, but the shivering stopped by the bikes started! The Loose Moose has two main areas of trails...the Plains and the Mountain. I asked on Saturday night what the club had in store for us and was told..plains, mountain, plains, plains, mountain. Thankfully the final mountain section was for the A/AA riders...it was an A$$ kicker.

Team PTP (FredT, Napper and I) freight trained it through the first section. No big issues, except for the 8 foot drop off. Fred and I walked the bikes down...Napper did not, but he can tell that story.
The second section on the mountain was awesome!! It was VERY tight and A LOT of rocks. I knew I was going to be late. However, when they wrote my score down, I was ONLY three minutes late and I knew the clocks were off and the check would not count..DAUUM!
The second plains section was typical....high speed winding through the trees mixed with MOON rocks. If you have never ridden over MOON rocks it is an experience...momemtum is your friend and wheel spin is not. This section was 20 miles long!
The last section was only six miles and consisted of more MOON rocks. I counted down the final miles and was very happy to see the last check. Team PTP rode back to the staging area as we were finished.
The A/AA riders still had a test or two to complete. It was fun to watch them change tires, brake pads, etc..preparing for the final section. We found some mud on the Mountain on the second section, but they found A LOT of mud on the last section and. The trail was very tight and brand new. Some riders liked it and some did not.

The club did an excellent job with both events. Thanks to PAPA Zambon for a great trail (and listening to some suggestions from last year)! I was disappointed that Magoo could not be there, but I understand why. It a lot of hard work and many worker bees to make two events on the same weekend this successful! THANK YOU!!

I finished fourth in the Open B class. I got a third place trophy because the B Hi point winner came from my class (again!). I do not recall the others, but I know Napper got a trophy too.

I am not sure how much smack talk was going on between Aaron and Nathan. However, I know they both got beat by a girl (woman). The mother of Mad Max won the overall trophy for the Mini Moose and I saw her get her picture take with Mike Lafferty (overall winner on Sunday).

 

[Magoo]

Nice report, Mike! Glad you thought it was fun. I hope the B & C riders "had enough!" -- I'm pretty sure the A riders did!
Keep the reports coming guys! If you have specific ideas (or positive/negative comments) that could help us do better in the future, please email me at: info@upsandstormers.com
Thanks to all who attended!

Now its MY turn to go to some enduros! :yeehaw:

 

[KTM Mike]

Woodsy -

A quick summary from the KTM Mike camp -

In the Mini Moose it was my friend's son Andrew took first away from Nate and Aaron! They messed up on his name when they did the scoring - somehow Andrew came out as Andra! Sorry guys for bringing in someone to break up your duel - but you know who to go for at the Pine Cone! My son Mark, got a second in his class ( 101cc to 125cc 11 to 15 yrs old)- so he still has the series lead in his class (sure, its a small class, but its still the lead!).

In the Loose Moose, I got 10th in slow old fart class (no clue how I did among in D-14 riders specifically). My row had Tom Dixon, Smit Dog, and two others from MI - one another C Senior rider, and the other I am not sure who it was (Tom got his name I think) but I think he was a Super Senior? I only saw Tom for oh...the first 1/2 mile - didnt see him again until the race was over!

One tough course - about 11 miles in I managed to do some R&D on a nice new signature series handle bar bend with +3" sweep on left, then about 35 miles in I fine tuned it a bit more with -.5" sweep on right and a smashed throttle housing (ie - sticking throttle) and messed up front brake lever, and about 2/3 of my pipe guard is up on the Mountian section as well!

Oh on that 8 foot drop - I have absolutely no clue how I managed to ride it down - on the right side as I recall it was a bit better line - but somehow I didn't crash my brains out. That was NUTS! :yikes: And those Moon :moon: rocks - man I see them in my sleep now... I think I had about enough moon rocks to last me for quite a while! Mike is right about momentum! I kept repeating to myself over and over Momentum, Momentum - it kinda became a chant.

At one point, I was totally wasted - zero energy left. I looked at my watch, figured I was houred out and no hopes of getting back on time (I just somehow could not imagine I would suddenly be in a section that would allow a 60 mph average) so I parked the bike on top of a moon rock with a nice view, pulled up a nearby tree to lean against, sat down and munched a granola bar and drank some water! I figured I had to have enough energy left to actually ride out of them damn moon rocks - so I might as well relax a bit. About 5 minutes later - here comes that other C Senior rider that had been on my minute! He takes a smoke break and we ride off together

Smit Dog along with two other guys caught up to us at check 6. I thought it was a sure sign we should consider bailing out when there was a card board sign there saying "Check 6" on it...but no check crew! At first one of the other guys rode ahead on the trail a short distance (you could see yet another moon rock just ahead), and about 1 minute later he comes back shaking his head saying no way! He was taking the road back! We all rode in the easy way! So Magoo - to your question - did we have enough moon rocks? If you consider that there we all sat - 5 C Senior riders - and there we all bailed! I would say we had our fill of moon rocks! Magoo did say it was going to be a challenge though didnt he!

All in all I had a great time. I have done two other Loose Moose events (I missed last year but did the prior two years). The last one I did, I actually made it farther through before houring out, and I think I actually did better, but ironically, this year I had way more fun with it - and came out of it feeling much better physically and mentally.


After the race, the kids insisted they wanted to ride more, so we headed down to camp at Bass Lake, and rode a part of that loop this morning (Monday). I sure could feel every joint and sore muscle during that ride! Tight loop - I have not seen anything like it in lower MI by a long shot. The Loose Moose course - nothin like it ANYWHERE is my guess!

I suspect I will be back for more punishment next year!

Time to go collapse and sleep! I have a bunch of pics my wife took. I will weed through them a bit later this week and post some here.

 

[Magoo]

Great report, Mike! :cool:
I'm glad you enjoyed it! Awesome how well your son is doing! :)
We were hoping this years course would be more fun for the B and C riders. We wanted to keep it a good enduro challenge as well -- a tough thing to do, but it appears we might have succeeded.
Sheesh you guys stress too much about that drop off -- it's a mental thing! :ohmy:
Thanks for coming, Mike, thanks again for the report.
And ummm, Bass Lake is really a wide open highway of a trail with HUGE sandy whoops.... :debil:

 

[Tom Dixon]

I loved the race. It was just as good as last year. I personally would like to see more technical stuff on the mountain. I had a blast, and the 250 was just screaming in some of the hilly, open sections! I loved the powerline hillclimb, and the drop off! It was sweet. One thing though, maybe make the end of the run AT the staging area instead of in BFE and make everyone ride 12 more miles of trail. If that isn't possible then maybe a straight line on 2-tracks? Anyway, it was a great run!

 

[KTM Mike]

Here are some of those pics Circuit Rider and Woodsy were asking for. These are from the Mini Moose.

First on is of 70Marlin proudly showing off his and Aaron's 'Bergs.

Second is of Mark and Andrew at the Start

Third is of them with the result - a 1st place and a 2nd place trophy!

(oops...problems with uploading the pics...stay tuned! :bang:

 

[Fred T]

I Just Got Home.

This year I finished the Loose Moose and I am thankful for that. I thought the club did a good job of keeping it fun yet challenging for the B-C riders and gave the A/AA guys something to challenge them. The resets were much better this year and you got to stop for 4-8 minutes and get a drink, much appreciated after the long sections. The route was tricky yet rideable-good job Magoo.

This year after trying to get into shape all spring and then missing about 6 weeks of ride time getting a new restaurant open got my training screwed up so I did what I could to ride a little bit 10 days before the enduro and rode my mountain bike a few times to get some breathing room built up. I decided to just trail ride the enduro and finish and not worry about the score. The strategy worked for me, I did finish -very tired but satisfied that I did it this year. The other 2 members of Team PTP put a whoopin' on me but the cheers as I crossed the finish line all bloodied up was a treat.

I made all the sections with only a few minor mishaps and get offs but nothing that took all my energy to recover from, but I didn't make the big hill climb the first attempt and had to spend a little time there so I was a bit off at the "check in" to Mr Mountain. National Enduros are going to create some misques for everyone and I know that all in all I made it through in pretty good shape except for my nose. In the last 6 mile section in the plains and moon rocks I was doing pretty good keeping the TEAM PTP in sight even thought I was pretty much riding in survival mode. I came upon one the infamous MOON Rocks and was determined to get to the top but my front tire glanced off a smaller rockj and poiinted me a few feet to the right of where I was supposed to go headed for a pine tree at the top. i made the decision that I could just go around the right of the tree and corcle back to the trail all whil holding the gass on and flailing up the rock. As I got to the tree I just bashed into the branches a foot or two off the main trunk and one of the branches was a little more substancial than I expected as it tried to tear my head off as I went through the tree but it got to smash the hell out of my nose and I was bleeding like Niagra Falls from my nose. I had blood running down my face, in my mouth, on my chest rpotector, on my bike gas tank and just about everywhere. I kept going as best I could but I did have to stop to take my towel that I use to keep my eye glasses clean and sop up as much blood as I could for a minute. I thought well I only have about 5 miles left and I am going to finsih this damn enduro unless I pass out from loss of blood. I figured that it would stop eventually and it did a few miles later so I got to ride the last 2 miles with out spitting blood all over. I will take a few shots of the gear and bike to show you.

As it turned out although my score sucked I do know that if you finish a tough enduro some good things may happen and I ended up 9th in my class and there were 29 riders in it so at least I beat 20 of those guys. Last year I was DFL. I think I may have ended up in the top 4 or 5 in distract 14 but we will have to see when the points are posted.

Congratulations to Mike Maurer for having a great ride and leading the TEAM PTP in scores and abring home some hardware too. Also congratualtions to Napper for being really consistent and getting second place in his class and first place in the district 14 points and also bringing home the hardware.

You guys make me proud to be on the team. Congrats too to Tommy Dixon who also had a good ride and passed me a few times although he got gobbed up on a moon rock and
f-ed up my momentum on that rock so I had to get off and push the damn bike up the rock totally exhausted, but hey no problem Tommy. I got a chance to wipe a little blood off my face for a second. It's all good. Congrats too to Loctite for his good ride and I think 3rd place in the class and first or second in the distract points chase. I had to leave early so I didn't see how every one did.

See ya all at the Harrison National and hopefully I can get myself in a lettle beter shape by then so I don't suck wind so bad.

Freddy

 

[KTM Mike]

Ok - I got the upload to work finally. Here are some more Mini Moose Pics:

1) SmitDog and son Zach with Zach's big trophy!
2) Nate - now stare right into the sun...yeah that's it.... with his trophy!
3) Group shot of the DRN trophy winners in the Mini Moose (all except Zach - sorry I think you had left already). From left to right: 70Marlin, Mark, Erin (ET), Nate, Aaron, Andrew.

Fred - sorry to hear about (and see!) that nose - man that musta hurt! Did you end up needing stiches? It sure looked like you would need some when I saw it!

 

[KTM Mike]

Now some more misc. shots from the Pits.

Side Hack shot - I would love to play around on this rig! I did about 50,000 miles on a street sidecar rig - this would be a real trip off road! A new definition of "tight trails" would certainly result! Being the monkey would be quite a ride as well!

And - yes officer, no sir officer sir.... Fred T has a chat with the law. Turns out he was just looking for the organizers to congratulate them on how well run this race is - no complaints etc! I suspect a small reminder about helmet use might of been thrown in for good measure!

This one should go without saying BUTT :moon: , anyone that has done some long days in the saddle understands why they would come up with a "specialized" product for Monkey Butt! (does anyone have a testimonial for this product?)

 

[KTM Mike]

Here are the last 3 I will post.

The first is just a nice shot my wife got of me - seems that new S-12 hooks up rather nicely!

Next is row 40 waiting for our minute to come up. From left to right SmitDog, Tom Dixon, Me, besides me but out of view is another C Senior rider from Michigan - forgot his name!, and yet another Michigan rider - not sure who it is though.

A lastly - Tom Dixon shows us all his lightning fast reflexes with a holeshot. Seems the rest of us had only gotten around to lifting our legs to kick the bikes over... and Tom was long gone already!

So are you satisfied now Woodsy? We dont want to see you beg anymore! :worship:

 

[Tom Dixon]

Sweet pics Mike!! The older guy on our minute I believe was Cornelious Sharphorn. A few times he would go into a section way early and then sit just before the check in the woods. It must run in the family...

 

[woodsy]

WOW!!!!!! GREAT JOB TO ALL!!! These are indeed soome AWSOME Enduro Reports with some OUTSTANDING pics - thank you, thank you, THANK YOU!!
It is people like ALL of you who make my recovery time actually fun (ok, maybe not fun, but at least tolerable!).
You DRN/MTR riders make ol Woodsy one PROUD fellow rider!! As I read thru all of your responses I could actually feel the intensity of my nerves while riding along on some of the greatest trail known to mankind!
It certainly sounds like everyone (inspite of some bent bars, parts missing, bruised and bloodied bodys and a close encounter with the Local Authorities - I count EVERY encounter with the Authorities as close!!!) had a fabulous time! and FOR SURE, these reports prove that!!
Magoo, I cant even imagine the amount of work and detail that goes into something of this magnitude! My hat goes off to you and to everyone else who contributed to make such a REALLY neat event! Someday I will venture up there and take in the spills and thrills!!!
And yes KTMmike, I am officially satisfied! Oh wait a minute, summers not over and fall riding hasnt even started yet.... ok, OK, no more begging for now :thumb:
Of course, ANY MORE reports or pics will be GREATLY APPRECIATED!! This stuff is what my dreams are made of and Hey, the dreamin keeps me steamin (a Woodsy original :) )
Thanks again EVERYONE!!
Woodsy

 

[Fred T]

I loved the race. It was just as good as last year. I personally would like to see more technical stuff on the mountain. !

If you rode that last section I bet you wouldn't be saying that Tommy! :yikes:

 

[UP Magoo]

If you rode that last section I bet you wouldn't be saying that Tommy! :yikes:

LOL!! POTD!
Woodsy, there were quite a few MTR's there... hopefully more will share their ride reports! Our club does work hard to put on this event, and we're very proud that everyone enjoyed it! When you and Kadie are ready, I'll personally give you a private tour of the Loose Moose trails! Meanwhile, check out some photos from last years event at Sandstormers Photo Page. I hope we can get more photos from this years event up, too.
Meanwhile, a sneak peek of the MTR finishers (I know I missed a few; I don't know all their "real" names):

-edit- these finish places are unofficial, and might not be accurate!

Farmer Tom - 7th in 250B
barkbuster67 - 3rd OpenA
fatherandson - 4th OpenB
KTM Mike - 11th SrC
Smit-Dog - 18th SrC
INCA - 4th Masters
Loctite - 7th SrB
FredT - 11th SrB
michman - 2nd VetB
Don Marsh - 17th SrB
bbarel - 3nd VetB

Congrats to all that participated! :cool:

 

[UP Magoo]

--- UNOFFICIAL ---

Top 20 Overall 2004 Loose Moose National 18-Jul-04

FINISH LAST NAME FIRST NAME BIKE
1 LAFFERTY MIKE KTM
2 HAWKINS RANDY YAM
3 LYKKE DAVID KTM
4 HOESS FRED HSQ
5 LAFFERTY RICHARD KTM
6 PALMER WALLACE SUZ
7 STAVISH MATT HON
8 RUSSELL BILLY KTM
9 HYDE MARK KTM
10 BARBER JOHN GAS
11 REED STEPHAN GAS
12 KNIGHT NOLAN KAW
13 HOLASEK CRAIG KTM
14 HATCH STEVE KAW
15 FREDETTE JEFF KAW
16 KEEN LEONARD KTM
17 MATHWIG TODD KTM
18 MASTIN CODY YAM
19 SCHARPHORN RON KTM
20 BURLESON RICHARD KTM

 

[bbarel]

Thanks Magoo, When do you plan to have the results posted at upsandstormers.com?