East Coast Adventurin’ Part Two

The Platekill Mtn. Base Lodge

Fresh off a rough outing at Highland Bike Park in New Hampshire we headed to my parents place in the hills of Cabot Vermont to rest up before we departed to third Pro Grt Race in Roxbury, NY at Platekill Mtn the second portion of our east coast adventure. Between relaxing and resting we found a little time to do some digging on a trail on the back 30 of my parents land. Rested and fueled up on Cabot cheese and Moms delicious home cookin’ we made the long winding drive down the western edge of Vermont on Rte 7 into New York. We rolled into Platekill Mtn thursday afternoon with enough time to get registered and make a couple laps on the race course. After a solid afternoon of riding we headed down to the lower parking lot and set up camp for the weekend. Being the second team their we scored a plush spot on high ground in the back of the parking lot neighboring Team Geronimo/Banshee Bikes. We also scored the last spot with a fire pit, a sure necessity when camping at the races. The next couple days we spent dialing in the race course, which took both of us down numerous times. It was a super fun course that was technical from top to bottom. It claimed most riders at some point over the weekend. Thankfully the weather held off during the days which provided for a some what dry course, but it still got hammered and developed some gnarly loose breaking bumps. The vibe at Platekill was one of the best outa all the races we’ve been to. The lifities tipped us off on a killer fire wood stash which allowed us to have a raging fire every night rain or shine. We also met alot of new friends chilling in the lower parking lot around the campfire in the evenings after riding.

A salamander we came across in the woods

Trail building.

Bandaging up my arm. Thanks Adventure Medical Kits.

Mid-night power snack.

By the time race day rolled around on sunday both our bikes and ourselves were battered, but we were amped up on the course and the clear weather for race day. After taking a few practice runs in the morning to dial in our lines and get our blood moving we headed down to camp to relax before our race runs. With a couple hours between practice and our race runs we stretched out and fueled up before racing. Even though Travis was racing on a slightly injured wrist from practice he still killed it finishing 15th out of 35 racers in the Cat 1 class. Myself on the other hand crashed in my race run and finished in the bottom of the pack. We were both stoked to walk away from a gnarly east coast race course with smiles on our faces and no major injuries. With a plane to catch back to Idaho monday, we packed up camp and headed back to Vermont to get some rest before our journey back west. It was a great experiance racing out east and we’re already plannin our next trip to shred the right coast on bikes.

The lower parking lot camp.

Enjoying the campfire.

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Pro qualifying.

More pro qualifying.