First time on the dirt (with a little snow thrown in for fun) Oct 2008

The co-founders (my brother and I) of Sibling Rivalry Racing© (SRR), left early Saturday morning for the mountains.  The following adventures occurred in only six hours:

A herd of deer caused immediate and opposite reactions from the members of SRR.  I cautiously slowed down.  My brother sped up and attempted to tap a deer on its bum.  This is the difference between my brother and I. 

We saw several large (bull?) elk.  I didn’t realize how large an elk was, particularly the antlers.  Surprisingly, my brother didn’t attempt to tap an elk.

Once again, I incorrectly predicted the weather.  Unfortunately, Joe had asked my opinion on the temperature and had dressed accordingly (I bet he doesn’t make that mistake again.)  It turns out that there are mountains between Denver and Fairplay and the highway goes Over the mountains. 

Before leaving, I thought the mountains look so beautiful. 

Now I know that they are cold and slippery.

1.     

      Joe took the lead when we finally reached my very first dirt road. He was kind enough to show me (multiple times how a motorcycle could bounce and spinout and do all sorts of things my mother always warned me about. I tried valiantly to keep up and rode over the first patch of snow before my brain had a chance to compute Snow Slippery Hurt. Pepe did just fine, as he always does as long as I don’t interfere too much.

 Here I am!!!  First pic of me and Pepe.

SRR went over larger and larger patches of snow/mud/ice until Joe was stopped by the limited traction of his street tires and I was stopped by my limited skills.  This occurred nearly simultaneously.  Of course, Joe stopped with his feet and tires neatly positioned on the ground.  And I stopped with all feet and tires pointed straight towards the sky.  Luckily, Joe didn’t know where I kept the camera. 

Here is the snow that stopped me. 

Joe and Pepe went on a scouting mission further up the trail.

Going down is actually trickier than going up as gravity gets bored and tries to speed things up a bit.  I was completely frozen from fear and so Pepe took over and we got down the trail safely.  I don’t remember any of it, but Joe said it was pretty quick.