Issue link: http://trailridermagazine.uberflip.com/i/1345276
January 2021 13 We rolled into Hollytree at 8 a.m. for the 10 a.m. star ng me. The weather had shi ed to a snowy drizzle combo. We had plenty of rain leading up to the race so the course promised to be extra brutal. I learned that we had about 175 riders divided up between the Gold through Iron classes. Time to do a li le recon for the best spots to find the ac on. I checked with a few sources. I was basically told to go up two creek beds and one gulley. That sounded too easy. To watch the start or head up into the gnar? I was told I could do both, and that I would be able to walk past riders to get to the top of the first really gnarly sec on called Nico's Valley (named a er a SEER team dog who loves to par cipate in the trail cu ng pro- cess). For some reason I could not bring myself to wait for the start (I learned later that they were correct; I should have done that) so I just started walking up a road. I ran into Joe Hogan from Jas- per, Tennessee who hangs out at the Trials Train- ing Center. He wanted to go see the goods too. We hiked up the road thinking that we needed to pick up the pace or we would get passed by bikes at some point. Then we looked into a micro gorge off to the le of the trail. Oh yeah, there it was — the infamous Nico's Valley. We immediately got the message. This was going to be a slug fest. The valley featured some world-class gnar. Dang, the terrain was awesome! It was one of the coolest stair-step- ping creek beds that led into u er mayhem. We could have literally walked down to the star ng line and come back, but the terrain was too en- cing to leave. Time to look for vantage points. In short order, we began to hear riders ap- proaching. The familiar sounds of bikes crash- ing over rocks with the smell of two stroke oil wa ing through the air came into play. This was going to be good. Other than a few at the front, this part of the ride was going to be a group effort to get up this gorge. A long group effort at that. Such a long group effort that I was able to go over to the hill next door to watch the Bronze/Iron class do a climb, take some beat- ings and then return to see more carnage at Nico's. The whole canyon was a virtual social event. This was turning out to be one neat race. I literally spent the first hour on that side. It was me to explore.