Shadetree > Shadetree's Blog Posts > Tunisia or Bust!

August 30, 2008 16:48

Ok, I got “bust,” but what a ride! The short version is that I didn’t make the cut. But there is a silver lining. The rest is history in the making. Imagine five men and a woman wrestling two 500 pound R1200GS’ through a pit. No. A pit would suggest some finite hole in the ground, something manageable that you could take in with nothing more than a look. And your task is to get the bikes through without breaking anything on either the motorcycle or any of your team mates. But in the flesh, this place really looks and smells more like a chunk of the Darien Gap, dug up and planted smack in the middle of South Carolina. A place where Yoda might hang out and lecture young Luke Skywalker. Or a place where a troll would hide after eating Billy Goat’s Gruff. You know, like the creek where we hunted bullfrogs as kids. Yellow tape marked the boundaries, making this element look more like a trials course, or as our one female team member commented, a crime scene. “I wonder what happened there?” Brienne asked as we pulled into the shade at the start of the test. Now imagine that after you and your friends successfully traversed the challenge, you are told to return by the same route and add another bike! Hang on. Don’t start yet. Only three per bike this time instead of all six. Ladies and gentlemen, stay hydrated and have a nice day. This pretty well describes the “Team” aspect of the tests we were asked to complete as part of the selection process for the three who would go on to Tunisia. It was our final test. Any way you slice it, memories would be made, and for the Spartanburg Six, indeed they were. Earlier that morning we were each issued our mounts and allowed to make simple adjustments to bars, levers and suspension. We soon found ourselves single file, following one of the instructor/judges through wooded single track, over natural and manmade obstacles, ultimately parking in fan formation at the entrance to a gravel based cone field. We were instructed to enter the cones, pass through each gate in succession, then exit without touching any cones, dabbing or stalling. Of course we would be penalized according to our infractions with a golf style scoring system. Low score wins. Piece of cake, we thought until half way through when we discovered the diabolical nature of whoever laid out the course. Doable, no doubt, but in our amped state of nerves, it took all the concentration we could muster to clean the ever tightening layout of this element. Only one rider made both passes with a zero still on his score card. And on we went through each element of increasing difficulty until we had all had more than enough opportunity to display our strengths and when they reared their ugly heads, our weaknesses. In the end, the judges were challenged with a much more difficult task than ours. As I type this, I can’t help but reflect upon the delicate and subjective nature of such an undertaking. But it is just that subjectivity that placed me among the “Spartanburg Six” in the first place. I have friends among you who are reading this who would have done as well and some would have done better. I am grateful for the opportunity to be among those who wrestled our motorcycles through places I honestly would not have considered taking them under most other circumstances. To those who react to that statement by thinking I am exaggerating the degree of difficulty, I can only say you just had to be there. I’ve done worse, as have some of you, but usually not on purpose, and usually on a smaller bike. And to the organizers of this event, Shahram, Laurence, and Todd who worked feverishly upon extremely short notice to provide us with an unforgettable experience, a heartfelt thank you. And thanks as well to our instructor/judges who were tasked not only with laying out a course capable of testing us near our limits, but with deciding who should sit down while three still stood as the final team to represent the United States in Tunisia. Their task was one I would rather wrestle a bear through hell…again, than to undertake. I must also thank my team mates, Jim Stoddard, Jason Adams, Brad Hendry, Kevan Harder and Brienne Thomson for sharing the misery so evenly. Each did their part and more to earn the respect of the others, if not their place on the GS Trophy Team. You represent the best of what we all want to be when we call ourselves “Adventure Riders.” As I said to some of you individually, I will say to you now collectively, I would ride with you anywhere…and I mean that.

Finally, congratulations and God’s Speed to Jim, Jason and Brad. You will soon have your own story to write. Bring us home a trophy! The silver lining? There is always next year and this time, I WILL be ready!

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