My Off Road Adventure or Yee Haaaaaaaaaaaaaa! Way More Than My Money's Worth!

The day dawned with the promise of sunshine and fair weather. I was up at 6 knowing I had to be at the S.M.A.R.T. Adventures Rider Training area at 8:30. My lunch packed, my 'official photographer' and I headed to the dirt lot, thoughts of "What the hell am I doing here?" still flashing in and out of my mind.
First things first, fill out the waiver. The statements on the waiver alone were strong enough to almost make me change my mind before the adventure began. They are a very friendly, open and inviting group of people at SMART and Clinton Smout was on deck to greet everyone as we arrived, assuring us all we were going to have fun. His love of adventure riding and his dedication to teaching riders of all levels to ride off road well and safely was clear and evident. Both Clinton's sons are also certified instructors.

Next, gearing up. SMART provides all of the gear needed for riding...

and helpful instructors for the newbies who can't figure out how to fasten the darn boots.

Before hitting the dirt there was a short classroom lesson about the basics of dirt riding, the possible dangers and the safety record. Clinton's lesson included a graphic demonstration comparing old bones and young bones and used past accidents as very good examples of what not to do if you want to avoid an ambulance ride.

In the end he offered a gentle escape route to anyone who wanted to change their minds, no face or cash lost. I darn near took it! (Clearly there was fear in my eyes.)

All riders were fitted with a bike (SMART is sponsored by Yamaha,) this one felt right to me ... the instructions kept coming... and there we were, the only three gals, ready to go with two instructors.

Not yet, do not start your engines ladies. "First, we'll push you just to make sure you can find the REAR brake." The break and shifter are quite different and much smaller on this Yamaha compared to the Star and a bit more work to find with the big boots on. After sufficient pushes, enough to satisfy our instructors that all three of us could stop it was time to try some sand...

and a gentle little mogul.

Let's step back to the last post. Remember I looked at this little dirt track with fear. Hey, it wasn't so bad after all. You can really feel the rear tire slide around in the soft sand but with a few loops, knobby tires and such a light bike - I was gaining confidence. "Great, now we're going to the real course." What? This wasn't it? There's dirt, hills, mud. What more do we want? (If I had known the night before what lay ahead, I probably wouldn't have gotten out of bed!) "Follow me ladies ..."

 

Crossing the 3 Line Road we head toward the "Farm," "The motocross track" and to the "Trails." (The photos stop here since it isn't safe to have unexpected pedestrians, cameras in hand walking along the trails but check out this link to Google Maps for a satellite look. From the satellite image you can see the farm loops and the motocross track. What you can't see are the actual mountainside trails looping up and down for many kilometers through the deep forest.
Our first trail lesson, standing up. Yahoo ... never expected I'd be standing up riding a bike, doing moguls having a ball.  Of course there has to be that first crash. Before we started the stand up circuit the rider behind me let the clutch out (abruptly) with the bike in gear. Her bike leapt forward taking mine out, ripping the chain off her bike. (Lesson learned, stay behind that rider.) She felt terrible and it really coloured the rest of her experience ... I actually had to thank her. My biggest fear had been going down; check, I survived.
Next trail lesson: the log. The SMART training scaffolds your skills, building on each skill. Having sufficiently mastered stand up riding, now came using that skill in a real experience. Ride over an 8" log across the trail (many times.) Apparently logs are no problem but short turns at the bottom of the mud hill can be and along with that first turn came my first nap in the mud. And still I'm thinking, hey this is no big deal. Easy peasy right? Then I hear the words, "Ok ladies we're ready for some real riding!" What, this hasn't been it? It's 11:30, aren't we heading back for lunch?
Yee Haaaaaaaaaaaaa, this ride gave me way more than my money's worth and way more than I had expected. An hour of slinging dirt bikes through logged out, washed out, mud hole packed, rock infested, tree root covered up and down hair pin trails all enshrouded under a tree canopy so dense that Google's satellites can't find them and always prepared for an emergency stop (remember the rider I vowed to stay behind!) Mud was flying from front tires, back tires and every stop was a sideways stop. What an adrenalin trip. The sweep following behind me was always encouraging, "Nice stop (again)," and my personal favorite ... "magnificent save, thought I was going to have to go searching in the bushes for you after that last one." (Actually, I was just as surprised as you were buddy!) That one was the talk of the club house when we got back, and I couldn't describe it to you if I wanted to other than a nano second of sheer maddness, slinging a bike sideways one way, back the other, rear end up an embankment, mud flying, heart pounding, hanging on, focusing ahead, out of the corner.
Then came the lunch stop, where we were all given the opportunity to bail on the second part of the day (with no loss of face or cash again.) And when it was time for part two, I was the last gal standing. My instructors were off to take over a large half day group of newbies and I had a personal trainer for another hour and a half of off road trail riding. She knew I was getting a bit tired. It's dam hard work controlling the bike 99% with clutch and throttle, standing up most of the time! After two more (shall I say, impressive) mud slinging corners and one more little nap in the mud on an easy corner (isn't that always the way!) We stopped for a bit of break then headed over to the motocross track for some easy riding to end the day.

Yee Haaaaaaaaaaaa again! Here I am at the end of the day ripping up some sand on that training track that looked so scary the day before. Will I be ripping up the trails again soon? Not likely since I can barely stand up or sit down today (what a workout for your upper legs, holy crap! Maybe I shouldn't have gone for the hike and the swim after the trail riding adventure, 'nother lesson learned!) Will I have more confidence riding the Star through construction? Most likely. And best of all - nothing broken, very little bruised ...

and only one minor flesh wound.

 

Thanks Clinton and your crew for an excellent day.
Thanks Ron for taking the photos. Next time bring the GoPro. Who knew you had a GoPro and would leave it at home?