Issue link: http://trailridermagazine.uberflip.com/i/1545615
AHRMA National Cross Country AHRMA National Cross Country Ridge Runner - Bybee, TN Ridge Runner - Bybee, TN Rippin' the Ridges Rippin' the Ridges By Suzy Moody By Suzy Moody Photos By Action Shots Photos By Action Shots Wow! What a great me we had in the woods of East Tennessee. For me, coming from a western state but being a southeasterner my whole life, I missed the roots, rocks, darker soil, and green stuff. As we know, the woods anywhere in the Southeast early spring are woolly, just lush and green, and full of Mother Nature's grandeur. She also likes to take back the trails that have been made. Fallen trees and face slappers, vines and rollie rocks. The amount of work that goes into ge ng the trails ready for Vintage and Post-Vintage bikes is astronomical. Luckily, we have folks like Clint, Mark and Team Hawk, the local Vol- unteer Riders Club, and the John Strange family for cleaning, prepping, and pu ng up over 400 arrows for our riding pleasure. The staging area was deep in the hollers of East Tennessee, a bit northeast of Knoxville. The course was 5.6 miles long, and the start was, as you would guess, up on a ridge, in a nice open field and a finely ribboned grass track. Mark Hawk did a great job of flagging off the riders from the start as we barreled into the grass track first before we were turned off the track into some great ATV-type wide trails that flowed up and down and around, then there was plenty of single track, some a bit open and some totally bar-banging stop and wiggle through ght. Which to me is just perfect. There seemed to be two sec ons. One before the grass track and one a er. A er about 3.5, we popped back onto a very winding, dry, and slick grass track. I have to say, the team did a great job of u lizing every inch of that field. Finishing the grass track, whew!, there was more fun trail! A water breaked downhill led us up a super fun, wide-open uphill I always looked forward to. A er that, more fun single-track woods, two kinda rocky; "you'd be er watch out" downhills and into the greasy bo oms, and a sprint down a creek bed into the finish line. I mean, what else could you ask for? This area got some much-needed rain in the days and weeks pri- or, but on race day, the soil was perfect!! No dust, just great trac on in most places, gooky black mud in the bo oms just to make it interes ng and hot, but not unbearable temps. 22 Trail Rider www.TrailRider.com Fred Hoess Fred Hoess