Trail Rider Magazine

I did know the first order of business was to add air to my res! Late Thursday evening, cell phones were out, and the weather radar forecast was the hot topic as canopies and awnings were quickly brought down. By 9:00 pm that night, there was a crazy good storm that passed right over the parched race site, dropping ¾" of much-needed rain! By key me Friday morn- ing, the skies were s ll a bit gloomy, and the soil was perfect. With temps forecasted into the high 90s, we were all happy to see the cloud cover. Race wise, and in keeping with original ISDT/ISDE format the promoters planned two, 25-mile loops for Friday with seven med tests and one accelera on test. Saturday would be one 25-mile loop with four tests and a final moto. The 25-mile loop was really well laid out with endless single track, fun, clear cuts, and loamy, deep hardwood terrain. Always nice to see the course workers out with bright orange vests and cheering smiles and waves. Needless to say, for me, riding my li le IT at the end of our hot 50-mile day on Friday, I was pre y toasted, but you know? It felt good. I've not been racing much this past year, and having to dig down and finish out felt really, really good. It also felt good to run into some of my old SE&TRA friends like Mike Grizzle, Mitch McCree, and Travis Stauble. It was a pleasure mee ng 2015 ISDE vets Jubal and Jamie Brown and also visi ng with 2010-2011 ISDE Vet Kerri Swartz at the banquet. It is always good to see the Razor- back crew of Zahn and Tamara Lewis, Rick Davis, Danielle Ballard, and Steve VanZant, who shared a roll-on-the-floor hilarious ISDE jury story at the banquet. Also, it was good to catch up with June and Billy Hoffman, who seemed to be every- where and were super helpful to our group. There were over 100 entries for the ISDE reunion event, which was truly exci ng for an enthusiast like me to be able to ride in the same vicinity as notable ISDE Vets Brian Storrie, Chris Graber, Fred Hoess, Rodney Smith, Guy Cooper, Rick Em- erson, Ron Ribolzi, Paul Krause, Kevin Hutchinson and Terry Cunningham who injured his foot on the first day, but toughed it out both days and including ISDE icon Jeff Frede e, who has been to a whopping 33 ISDE's and has been support team manager for 12 years since. 32 Trail Rider www.TrailRider.com Guy Cooper Guy Cooper

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