Wish I Were Riding....

Okay its sunny, breezy, and 70 degrees in Asheville right now, I can only sit in my office on my lunch break and look over the mountains and wish I were out riding on either my mtn bike, one my dirt bikes, or in my kayak down a river, any of these options would suffice. So in hopeful thoughts, I will share some pics....

Wheelies....






I so wish I could do this...



Boating or mtn biking would be nice too..

West Point National Enduro (Rad Dad Enduro) 2009

The West Point (Rad Dad) National Enduro was held April 26th, 2009 in West Point, TN on a perfect spring day. You couldn't ask for better conditions or more choice trails. The day before I rode around on my KTM 530 EXR to scope out some photo locations and decided to shoot from two locations. The woods of Section 3 and the start of Section 5. All photos will be posted at OffTheRoadPhotos.com by April 30th.

Below are some highlights:

Russell Bobbit charging it down the trail to 1st Place!

Lafferty sailing smooth as usual

KTM's lined up at the start (of course)!

Racing by the creek

Yeeehhhaaaaawwww!

Spring Dual-Sporting

There is nothing prettier than Western North Carolina in the spring on a sunny 70 degree day. Of course exploring new dirt and gravel on my bike is one of my favorite things to do at this time of year. Having just been reunited with my KTM 530 after its overhaul, I was itching to get out an poke around. I went down to the Cheoah River/Joyce Kilmer/Slick-Rock Wilderness area in Robbinsville, NC to see if I could find some choice dirt and gravel.

Luckily after 2 years of a terrible draught, we have had some Spring rains and wet weather springs and creeks are flowing and make for some Grade A scenery. I didn't lug my big camera around with me and only had my crappy camera phone, so I am sorry about these pics. However, I was so stoked about my ride, I am posting them anyway.

Slick-Rock Wilderness Trail Head


Goofy pic of me in front of a spring


Spring on the side of the road

Steele Creek GNCC

On a beautiful sunny March Sunday, hundreds of speed hungry dirt riders converged on the Blue Ridge mountains in Morganton, NC at Steele Creek to spread some dirt around a 12 mile rugged course. The GNCC series was started up the Appalachain mountain chain in Blackwater, West Virgina in the 1970s by the Coombs family and has continued to draw huge crowds since it inception.

I decided to stimulate the economy last week by purchasing a new 70-200mm, vibration reduction, f/2.8 Nikkor lens. The Steele Creek GNCC was the perfect venue to test this baby out, and the conditions were ideal.

Here is sample, more picture at Off The Road Photos.com

DIRT RIDER MAG BRAG

If you don't subscribe to Dirt Rider, you should, these guys rock. Not only I have bought several very useful tools form their reviews, Dirt Rider has provided me continued amusement with their sense of humor, dirt biking tips, and mechanical tricks.

Earlier this week I wrote in about an issue I was having with my KTM 530 EXCR, Karel Kramer responded within a few hours and not only did he provide some great information, he e-mailed me again later with more things I could do to improve my bike.



In this day of crappy customer service all around, is nice to know that these dudes have it going on!

Thanks Dirt Rider!

Cherokee National Enduro 2009

Wallace Palmer


Russell Bobbitt


Flying Down The Trail


The Cherokee Enudro Riders sure know how to put on a killer race. It was a beautiful clear, crisp day and the conditions were perfect for the bike to stick to to the trail and fly. More pictures to come at OFF THE ROAD PHOTOS.COM. A special thanks to Kenny K., whose pictures are always perfect and his great company and advice always welcome. His pictures are up at PBASE.COM/KENNYK.
Rob Beachman also took great pictures and shot many of the rows I missed due to camera failure photos. His photos are up here Passion4Dirt.

Sumter National Enduro 2009 Photos

More photos from Sumter National Enduro:

Bainon Coursey showing perfect form


Johnathan Hazinski


Anders Erickson


Michael Pugrab was super fast and was sporting great colors...