Single Track Sunday
Event: Michaux Off-Road Weekend
Place: Michaux State Forest, Shippensburg, PA
Ridden: March 2015
Click on Video to Play
Michaux Off-Road Weekend in Michaux State Forest, PA, was the recent adventure. In summary, the weekend went like this: racing, dogs playing, hanging out around the campfire, sleeping in the van, more racing, and then home to clean the layers and layers of mud off of EVERYTHING.
Micahux Off-Road Weekend is a two-day event put on by Fast Forward Racing Productions (Zach Adams). Saturday is a Super-D and Sunday is an endurance/marathon race. Camping is provided at the race site both Friday and Saturday night, with Zach and his crew building a camp fire Saturday night. After the race on Sunday post race food is provided- grilled chicken, coleslaw, fruit and veggies, bean salad- are just a few things on the menu. The weekend is just as much about hanging out with your friends as it is racing mountain bikes.
To set the stage for the weekend, let's describe the weather. The week preceding the race gave hope that winter was finally gone. It was sunny, dry, and temps were consistent with Spring- highs in the mid 40s. Almost all of the winter snow had melted. The day before the race weekend a winter storm came through, yup, a winter storm at the end of March dumping a few inches of snow on the race location.
Luckily the Super-D didn't start until the afternoon, some time for the snow to melt. When pre-riding the course there were still a few inches of ice and snow; by the time the race was happening most of the snow had melted but it was instead a muddy mess. The 3.2 mile course was primarily downhill, with a few short, punchy climbs. Moderately technical but nothing outrageous. The mud added to the challenge- making the corners slippery and the descents a bit more sketchy.
After the Super-D, we headed up to the camping spot. But this was after taking what seemed like ages to clean the mud off of everything. Multiple towels, washrags, baby wipes, garden sprayer, and even a near-by stream were needed. By the end both of us, our bikes, and Cliff still had mud, but at a minimum clean enough to sleep in the van overnight.
Once at the camping location, we caught up with the Fast Forward Racing production crew for some hanging out time around the campfire. Cliff played with his other dog friends while we ate, relaxed, and stayed warm next to the fire.
Sunday morning we woke up to below freezing temps. It was a struggle to push away the thoughts of just packing up and going home; who wants to race for 4-5 hours in cold temps on a course that is partially snow covered, muddy, and technically challenging? Well, we raced. At times we questioned what we were doing, why were we out there; but we then quickly pushed those thoughts aside and rode on. The course was part snow, part mud, and part rocks- all made for an interesting day and a job well done when the race was over.
So how did the weekend go for us? I was 2nd Cat1/Pro Super-D and 3rd Endurance. Joël was 4th Cat1/Pro Super-D and 9th Endurance. Both of us were content with our races but yet we also realize we have a lot of work to do before the next race!
- words by Jess
- video by Joël
- fun in the mud by Clifford