Chuck Sun showed up last week, just hours before I left for the annual Idaho State Ride. This years event was in northern Idaho and since I had not ridden this trail system, I wanted to see it. Chuck and I drove up to Elk City which is at the end of a 65 mile dead end road. Then 11 more miles of gravel road, I don’t think I have ever been this far from home in my life.We met up with the Magic Valley Trail Machine Association gang, which is just a fancy title for Jeff, Jim, Nick, Craig, Robin, Rose, Chase, Austin, Sis, and a herd of dogs. It was dusty, hot and there was a forest fire near by. You should have seen the fire fighter out fit down the road, it was a tent city with probably 200 fire fighters mingling around in their wool out fits. They had a giant helicopter and trucks galore and every thing they could possibly use to fight a fire in the mountains, pretty impressive.

The trails we rode were fantastic, I speculate they were built by the CCC back during the depression. Engineering marvels, there was one side hill trail that was scary as hell! I have not ridden any trail on this steep of side hill. I wanted to stop and cry, but was afraid to. Any mistake would have been potentially fatal, no kidding on this, any slip and your bike would have wound up in the river, some 500 feet below. I was so glad to be back on solid ground, but I did appreciate the amount of work it took to build this trail.

Now the ride was not with out problems, seems the environmentalist have been strong arming the new forest service manager into closing trails, and doing a reckless job of it. They would close the middle of a trail, so you were allowed to ride both ends but not connect them. They would close both ends of a trail so you could ride the middle of it but could not get to that section, legally. It is believed that most of these closings are illegal and the Blue Ribbon Coalition is already looking into righting this wrong.

The thing is these trails are so well constructed, they will last forever so all the closings are wrongfully done. Please join the fight to keep these trails and many others open by joining the good folks at the Blue Ribbon, go to www.sharetrails.com for more information, it’s easy to join and besides I’ve been contributing articles for their monthly magazine, so you know it’s a good organization, and a fine magazine…..

After a couple of days of riding, Chuck and I took off for Oregon to Washougal and the National Motocross. I went to the Tucker Rocky open house and had a good time seeing old friends and finding out about new products and such. After the show we went to Beaverton Honda to visit Gunny Claypoole, but he was gone, so we checked out the vintage bike display and headed down the road.

I was worn out and when it came time to go to the race, I had lost all interest, and besides they had taken the Chuck Sun jump out of the track and that’s all I wanted to see, so I pointed the old van home, where I visit you here on the interweb.

Sounds like we are going to update the Trail Rider web site in the next few days or week, so watch for that. Also Trail Rider signed on as a sponsor of the fabulous Enduro Cross. I’m hoping there will be enough budget to send me to all three rounds, so if you are looking for some excellent racing and good riding, better sign up now, I’m sure all three rounds will sell out.

Okay, all for now.

See ya,

Charlie