With the vendors (Touratech, Galfer Brakes, BMW Motorrad, Kawasaki, Happy Trails, to name but a few..) set up 3-days of wonderful camaraderie, awesome back country riding; heart pounding challenges, great food & wonderful company kicked off.

The perfect weather adding to the stunning rides. We 'swear to God' we didn't stop grinning for 3-days straight. 88 officially contestants entered the competition on a mixture from Suzuki DLR's to BMW HP2's, it didn't matter what you rode as long as you had fun.

Day one kicked off with a fun group ride through some of the spectacular countryside Jim's place nestles in. Back at Rawhyde the caterers had cooked up a storm. A few hundred hungry riders descended quickly on the feast, we were all excited and interested as to what the first afternoon of competition would bring.

Slow controlled riding around hay bails started the competition and then things sped up. A tight winding course through the tree's dropped into river bed washouts and then we're scored points as we race through the sand pit.

...it's not over yet as we take turns to scream up the long 'hill climb' to the top of signal hill. You know what they say 'if it goes up it has to come down' and so did we as we're scored again on control as we ease our way down the slippery descent. Great fun.

A bar, beer, spectacular food and new friends is one hell of a cool way to end what had been truly wonderful 'first' day'.

The 'Arena'

With some great riding on day 2 the event finished up with a spectacular "Roman Arena" type show-down among the finalists on Saturday June 9th. We faced a series of logs, telephone pole jumps, mud pits balance beam, and a 40 foot "teeter totter" exiting into a mud-pit as our final tasks. You just knew that everyone was waiting to see who'd take the biggest mud-bath...so funny

A track of rough cut logs was the first easy task and then up and onto a line of semi-burried tires needed to be cleared before the first 'pole jump'. It's worth mentioning that each obstacle had two route options marked with different coloured paint. One was the shallower and easier and of course the other a little more technical and testing. The more technical route accumulated the rider more points. What really impressed us was the fact that although there was a competition element to the whole event, this never 'took-over'; the spirit of fun prevailed. The support we all gave each other was was fantastic.

The focus of all the events was "total control" and the competition was very tough. It's hard to concentrate with a grin the size of Mars smeared across your face.