Issue link: http://trailridermagazine.uberflip.com/i/1534665
16 Trail Rider www.TrailRider.com Times Flies: Evolutions Elevation at the 86th Times Flies: Evolutions Elevation at the 86th Sandy Lane Enduro Sandy Lane Enduro By Greg Adomaitis By Greg Adomaitis Photos By Jason A Craig Photos By Jason A Craig On the march toward the big one, trying to diffuse a cking me bomb in the era of passive preserva on and a conserva onist counterpoint. In 91 years, the Sandy Lane Enduro has missed its minute just a handful of mes. All the while, the key me clock has cked away like a me bomb toward the big one. World War II meant pressing pause between 1942 and '45. The COVID-19 pan- demic claimed both the original spring date and the proposed fall rescheduling. So what about 2024? Well, the grinding gears of government at first and when that got pulled from the clutches, it failed to rain for more than a month and le behind dangerously dry condi ons. Making up for lost me then, north of 300 en- trants, some 60 rows deep, were champing at the bit come a cloud-free sunny Sunday morning in the shadow of Batsto to get the 86th edi on of Sandy Lane underway. Ahead of them lay the grand tour through Wharton State Forest's 124,000 acres comprised of roughly 60 ground miles of single track, fire cuts, sand roads and blacktop. The Meteor Motorcycle Club's annual event, part of the 17-stop East Coast Enduro Associa on's (ECEA) 2025 schedule, went into the history books hitch-free on March 23. The thing is, it's one of the season's earliest me-keeping compe ons in a year where the state Department of Environmental Protec on's (DEP) new map of off-limits off-roading areas in Wharton is officially in full effect – and that's a par c- ularly polarizing premise for dirt bikes. On Taxa on and Representa on Inside the confines of the Interboro Gun Club, where members sling sandwiches to put mutually beneficial micro-economics into ac on, Meteor President Frank Kaminski explains that recent history has been quite hec c for ECEA clubs. In dealings with New Jersey, there were proposals the larger associa on managed to get tossed (example: if an enduro entrant was caught riding illegally in Wharton at any point up to one year a er a race they a ended, that event would be denied its next permit), while others were s ll in early phases of tes ng (six par cipants carrying GPS devices to show state officials that the laid-out loop as approved is indeed what was run.)