Last summer I tried my first hare scramble race at Bear Hollow in Livingston, TN. It was a test to my ability to survive. It was near 100 degrees and I tried to maintain a DH race level of output for 1.5 hours. You can figure it out from there.

Skip ahead to this weekend. The winter series stop at Bear Hollow was this past Sunday and Devin, Ben, and I headed over early Sunday morning. We woke up to 2″ of snow and sub freezing temps/ Ben has chronicled the event well HERE, but I’d like to add…

That I learned a lot after the first race and was much better prepared to pace myself this race. I tried to just ride within myself and have fun. At times I was running on empty and had no hope, but I seemed to make it and did okay within my class. To add, I have a nice plaque to hang on the wall for my third place. I think my overall place was like 81st, so its no great achievement.

Chris Kring and a couple of his buddies am down to ride since it was still nasty winter up in Michigan. We hit Duncans and Browns on Friday in almost perfect conditions and Lake City on Saturday. It was cooler and much wetter on Saturday but these guys rode just fine and could have fooled me that they don’t ride in the rocks back home.

Kring at Lake City from Doug Ferguson on Vimeo.

Sorry for the vid being turned on its side. I’ll remember videos can’t be rotated next time.

Goat Trail from Doug Ferguson on Vimeo.

We packed early on Sunday morning and got home early enough to get some things done around the house and still get on the trails. I met up with Scott Wilson and we started to tackle Duncan’s Loop. This would be Scott’s inaugural loop. Not so. About a mile into the loop, he took a digger and broke his handlebar in 2 pieces. We got a little industrial with zip-ties and a strap off my CamelBak. Luckily he didn’t get hurt and we still had a good time.

After limping back to the truck, I jumped back on the trail with some B riders and was drug around the loop faster than I had ever gone before. It was awesome. I want more.