Trail Rider Magazine

21st Leroy Winters/Pete Cooper Memorial ISDT Reunion Ride By Jeff DeBell Oct 21-22, 2017 The Acadiana Dirt Riders, led by ISDE veteran Kevin Hutchinson, hosted the 21st running of the ISDT Reunion in Sicily Island, LA. The event was named the Leroy Winters/Pete Cooper Memorial in honor of Reunion founder Leroy Winters and long- me Acadiana member Pete Cooper. Pete recently passed away and the event was held almost en rely on property that Pete owned and allowed the club to use. The Acadiana club spent many hours laying out a vintage- friendly course and rolled out the red carpet for AHRMA compe tors, star ng Friday night with a huge pot of authen c and delicious Cajun- style gumbo. Even fi rst- me visitors to the area were immediately welcomed like family and the Acadiana club made everyone feel at home. As is the norm at any AHRMA cross country event, the bikes and camaraderie are a big part of the weekend. It's fun visi ng friends you haven't seen for a long me and to check out all the great vintage iron we all remember and raced "back in the day." Thanks to our aging popula on, it's ge ng harder to fi nd premier class bikes at these events as many riders have switched to the plusher suspension of the post-vintage model — Can-Ams, Huskies, ITs, etc. as a concession to our aching knees and backs. There are s ll some brave souls a acking the trails on classic bikes though, and the Hodaka's, Ossa's, Rokon's, etc. get plenty of a en on from the folks checking out the pits. Saturday morning dawned with about 50 riders prepared to challenge the course. Trail boss Kevin Hutchinson laid out the plans for the day. The course would be two loops of the same 20-mile course. There were four test sec ons; however, the fi rst lap would be used as a sigh ng lap for three of the four tests. This was an excellent idea on the part of the club, and any organiza ons hos ng future mul -lap events would do well to incorporate this concept. It gives everyone me to warm up, get their bike in order, and when test me comes on the second lap, there are no surprises. Even the most die-hard compe tors loved it. The club also added a couple of "hero sec ons," and Hutchinson explained how they were marked; that they were op onal, and that the me schedule was relaxed so that if a rider did opt for the hero sec ons, they would not fi nd themselves running late when they got to the med control points. Most folks think of Louisiana as rela vely fl at Mississippi delta terrain, but the hero sec ons threw that no on out the window. I bet even the Arkansas guys were surprised at how hilly this part of Louisiana is. The main trail ran across a ridge with the two hero sec ons diving down off each side of the trail into steep ravines. There were some wheel-dragging descents, plenty of off -camber work, and challenging climbs back to the main trail — nothing insurmountable, but certainly a workout for man and machine. Good stuff ! Riders le three to a minute and entered the fi rst six-mile transfer sec on right out of the camping area. This was a fairly easy warm-up sec on of mostly single track trail. About half way through, there was a power-robbing half mile of deep sand that had been well churned by a side-by-side event a couple of weeks prior to the Reunion. This was a challenge to the small bore bikes and riders who weren't used to riding in the stuff , but it was over soon enough and back to single track to the fi rst med check. The next sec on was a mile and half called "God's Country" that was used as a med test on the second lap. It was a fl owing trail and generated plenty of smiles. "God's Country" checked out next to a paved road, and because one of Pete Cooper's rela ves was the local sheriff and gave the nod, the club was able to run the course a half mile or so down the paved road to a three-plus mile grass track sec on that would also be med on the second loop. The grass track started out running around and through a nice pasture and then into an adjoining overgrown fi eld where the club had brush-hogged a twis ng 16 Trail Rider www.TrailRider.com

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