Having the slow pokey sidecar, I took the rear guard position in the group. When the nice pavement got twisty and awesome the sidecar definently slowed and was a little off the pace. I'll be the first to admit that some of this might have been my less then perfect job as hack pilot.
However, I was happy to find out that once on the dirt I had no problem keeping pace. Or at least keeping pace with the slow end of the group. Due to the dust I kept stopping a few times just to be sure I had plenty of space and a little less dust.
Caleb seemed to like the smooth fast dirt roads with the occasional water bars. He would laugh as we would get a little lift off of the suspension. He kept cheering me on to go faster till we actually started jumping them. This was fun at first till he started getting banged around a little too much in the chair. (Remember he is seat belted in and can't stand up).
Gary gave a good pace and great mix of dirt roads till we were all very ready for lunch. On our last dirt road the hack must have been running a good pace b/c Paul waved us ahead so we were no longer bringing up the rear. It was a fun fast road. I only had one terrifying experience. I came in too fast for a left hander that turned out to be a bit tighter then it originally looked. As I was sliding sideways with locked brakes approaching the drop off, I also noticed multiply dirt bike tracks also sliding up to the edge. Maybe Caleb and I would go over the edge and land on top of someone else...
I got off the brakes and put some power down and was able to ride out the slide and make the corner.
When we finally got to the end of the road, the rest of the group was waiting and as soon as they saw me coming down the hill they all took off. They hadn't realized Paul was still behind me. (The group was probably a little too big.)
Caleb and I waited for a while at the bottom for Paul. Caleb kept asking where Paul was and why were we waiting for him. I explained that we don't leave anybody behind. If we leave, then Paul wont know which way we turned. I also mention that he might of crashed and be hurt. Caleb instantly reminded me that we had a first aid kit (amongst the ton of other crap) packed behind the seat, and we should go back and help him.
So we turned around and started heading back looking for Paul. It turned he had wrecked out, but was up on his bike riding by the time we came across him. He was banged up but still able to ride. We all went to lunch together for a well needed break.
After lunch Caleb and I decided to go off on our own. Armed only with the vague map given to us by the event we only took a wrong turn once. But recognizing that we were close to Reddish Knob, I decided we might as well go to the top. Up there we were able to speak with the S500 guys working the communications relay station, (they set us straight w/ direction.)
