Trail Rider Magazine

Yankee Fork Rendezvous Yankee Fork Rendezvous Challis, Idaho Challis, Idaho By Darrell Diamond By Darrell Diamond Photos By Jubal Brown Photos By Jubal Brown 16 Trail Rider www.TrailRider.com The second annual 3-day Yankee Fork Rendezvous trail ride in Challis, Idaho. Base camp was at 6000 feet in the town of Challis, a four-hour drive north of Boise. The town is known as "The gateway to the wilderness." A true statement, as Idaho is the most wilderness state in our lower 48. The three-day trail ride was sponsored by the AMA, Beta, 100%, Red- line, Rocky Mountain ATV, Mo on Pro, Klim, Seat Concepts, InnTeck, Bridgestone, Rugged Radios, and Taco Moto. Two AMA Hall of Fame off-road racers, Scot Harden and Rodney Smith, were the trail bosses and laid out an excellent, rideable but challenging course. Day one was the shortest day, with 35 miles of local flowing singletrack on the opposite side of the mountain range, just enough mileage to wet your whistle and get your mind and body ready for the two longer days. I started day two by mee ng up with Beta USA Brand Ambassador Rodney Smith to pick up the 2026 Beta 250 X-PRO I would be using for the ride. I can't thank Rodney enough; he had the bike set up with a Seat Concepts comfortable seat, FMF silenc- er, and Enduro Engineering hand guards. Once I got on the bike, I met up with another group of riders on the AA loop. Among them were AMA HOF riders Chuck Sun, the former MX 500cc Na onal championship and team member of the 1981 USA first MX of Na ons winning team, Kevin Schwartz, 500cc world road race champion, Damon Bradshaw, 19 SX main wins, along with two ISDE female riders Annell Allen and Jamie Brown and current ISDE team USA member Clay- ton Grestner. A er breakfast, Scot Harden starts the 15-minute riders mee ng countdown. Scot likes to stay on me, so any future riders a end- ing this event, please don't be late for the riders mee ng; you might get a surprise at the evening award banquet. During the riders' mee ng, we took a team pic- ture, then Scot talked about the two courses, a 70-mile AA loop, and the slightly shorter 60-mile B/C loop. I had concerns about riding the AA loop on a new bike that was eventually going to my son once the event was over. During the mee ng, I learned the AA designa on is not for any crazy hill climbs, white-knuckle downhills, or nev- er-ending rock/root sec ons; it's more to let you know it's a lot of single-track trail, all passable,

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