Video part 1 - https://youtu.be/DJu5sR09G9o
Video part 2 - https://youtu.be/sdXG5_XXo8c
In February I had the chance to do some riding and training with Mason Klein and Skyler Howes out in St George, Utah. Our group consisted of a bunch of really cool guys, I made some new friends and saw some old ones.
Massive shout out to Freedom Rally Racing who lent me a bike for one of the days! Top notch bike and amazing outfit. I am really excited to be working with Freedom on other races (watch this space).
Thanks also to Mason for making a bike available, as well as to Skyler for putting in the time and effort to coordinate everything.
Also massive thanks to everybody that let me stay over, or crash on a couch. In particular thanks Dave Pearson from American Rally Originals, for taking the risk of taking in a foreigner and letting me hitch a ride across the south western part of the US. Thanks Larry Klein for the bunk and good conversation, and Robert Mann for the bed and the ride to Vegas in Big Red.
Thursday Dave and I rode a route to check it before everybody arrived, before Dave had to head back home.
I arrived early Friday morning, disturbing the Klein’s sleep as I woke them up. I was the first to arrive, with most people slated to arrive late in the afternoon.
Friday afternoon had us do a short 70km loop that was pretty cool and quite fast with some dry river beds, a few twisty canyons, an old mineral mine and some single track, just to get the blood flowing.
Being South African, I had to have a fire, so after getting some wood and some beers, we kicked off the weekend with a lekker fire, as the Kansas Rally Team arrived, bringing with them a huge dust storm.
Saturday saw us doing the Rampage loop, about 210km of varied terrain, starting with sand dunes, transitioning to the site of the Red Bull Rampage, and then turning into fast, wide open roads, descending back down the famous Honeymoon Trail towards the Warner Valley staging area which was our base of operations..
The story goes that, with Utah being Mormon country, that the Honeymoon Trail used to be a primitive wagon road that was the principle travel route between the Mormon settlements in northeastern Arizona and southern Utah that since many people lived far from a church, young couples would travel to the temple in St George to get married, a trek that took weeks of hard and difficult traveling. So many newlyweds traveled the wagon road that it came to be known as “the Honeymoon Trail” We went down the Honeymoon Trail, and what an experience it was!
Saturday night we had a great barbeque under the stars, sharing stories of the great ride we had.
Sunday morning was beautiful and sunny, as we departed on a 130km stage with tricky navigation at the start.
I would characterize the Sunday stage as ROCKY, but, any mention of rocky trails, just had the locals laugh at me saying “that's not rocky”.
As people finished the stage, everybody packed up at their one leisure and departed for their respective destinations.
I hung on, not wanting the experience to end, helping Freedom Rally Team wrap up, and traveling with them to Vegas from where I caught my flight the next morning.
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