Coop's Corner: FIM Trials - Duluth, MN

Sunday, January 17, 2016

FIM Trials - Duluth, MN - 06/05/2005

We 3 drove up to spectate, a wet, cool day down here in southern MN and conditions were not that much different up on Lake Superior. The Trials event was held at Spirit Mountain Ski Resort, the same place that Andy's Very Boring Rally is held. This is a MN rally that I've not attended yet but will get another chance in 2018.

I have seen some of the indoor "trick" riding but I was astounded with what these talented riders were accomplishing on ground many of us would have been unable to stand on let alone ride over. Mossy, wet rocks and mud.......challenging enough on the level.

There were quite a few new and vintage, non-competitive bikes on the grounds being used as transport between sections by the spectators.

Parking spots......

We had to either walk between sections .....

or ride the chair lift. As so often happens along Lake Superior, fog was present and thick in places.

They were riding and able to use those upper gears in their transmissions.

This was the talented young Spanish woman.....with a vocabulary that put maritime laborers to shame once she was nailed with a couple of points here for dabbing. It was probably OK, I doubt the judge on this one knew the language.

10 comments:

redlegsridesJanuary 17, 2016 at 10:54 AM
Incredible skills in the videos I've watched of this kind of trials riding....I just keep imagining though, doing a faceplant in such terrain...yikes.
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RichardMJanuary 17, 2016 at 9:02 PM
I'm always impressed with the skills trial riders have. Incredible!
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CanajunJanuary 18, 2016 at 9:00 AM
Brings me back to the days when I rode vintage trials - nowhere near this level of course. To any of you readers who have an opportunity to try it I say, go for it. You'll have a blast.
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David MasseJanuary 19, 2016 at 5:24 AM
Makes you feel like you are not taking enough chances, doesn't it? There's a Red Bull channel on our Apple TV where you can watch extreme motocross like this. It simply boggles the mind.
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VStar LadyJanuary 20, 2016 at 7:40 PM
Yup - that looked a little too intense for me but looks like it was fun to watch!
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The Man straightened stiffly above the block of salt fixed to the stake and looked at the young cattle ringed about him. The pasture was holding out well and the stock was looking good. This bunch would be ready to sell in another month, maybe sooner if the market was right.

A stir among the cattle down near the river brought him round to face the swinging bridge he'd built years before. Someone was coming toward him from the bridge. Someone in breeches, but it didn't look like a man, somehow. What was a woman doing in his pasture this time of night?

He bent over the salt again; maybe if he paid her no heed she'd go on past and let him mind his own business. He heard her footsteps come nearer and stop. "Good evening," she said.

Her voice was smooth with book learning but friendlier than most, and somehow almost shy. When he made no answer she went on, "I've been sitting on your swinging bridge....I thought I'd like to say thank-you...." Her voice stumbled a little, then she tried once more.

"You are Mr. ____". His name sounded strange in her voice, but she went on to tell her own.

"That's what they've called me the last sixty-eight years," he said, looking past her face to the hills fast darkening under a single star. "I reckon the woods are free for those that like to walk there."

The unfamiliar voice laughed a little. "That's what Emerson said: the grove belongs to the man who walks in it with an open heart....On that basis I guess I've owned part of your woods for a good many years.....". She made a final effort. "I've always wanted to thank you....."

Something deeply hidden stirred in him. "There's a stump up there, in the notch of the woods", he said slowly, "that before the timber grew so tall you could stand on it and see all over this country."

He kept still a minute, remembering, then, "I used to stand up there an' look at things, an' wonder how they come to be like they was, an' how the hills was created, an' all the things in Nature.... I told my wife I guessed all the religion I ever had I got standin' on that old stump, a-wonderin'..." He turned his face away from her.

She helped him out. "I know about that, a little. This afternoon I saw......." Her account of a thing she had really taken time to look at eased him, and he answered with telling of the badger den at the foot of the swinging bridge.

When she had gone, he turned to watch her. After a moment she stood clear and unmoving against the sky. You could hear the sounds of the river where she stood. She was one that could stand still long enough, he thought, really to hear what a body was saying, or a river.

Then she walked down the farther side of the slope and was gone. ------Margaret Snyder from A Chosen Valley

Fall was the end of harvest, end of the growing season, a burst of color and sun-warmth before killing frost turned the land gray and cold. Fall was a moody time, full of both life and death, a time when we were reminded of the power outside of us, reminded that the seasons happen to us. We do not invite the change to come.-------Ben Logan, from The Land Remembers

When you get those rare moments of clarity, those flashes when the universe makes sense, you try desperately to hold onto them. They are the lifeboats for the darker times, when the vastness of it all, the incomprehensible nature of life is completely elusive. So the question becomes or should have been all along, what would you do if you knew you only had one day, or one week, or one month to live. What lifeboat would you grab onto? What secret would you tell? What band would you see? What person would you declare your love to? What wish would you fulfill? What exotic locale would you fly to for coffee? What book would you write? ------- Ben Tyler

We were also cautioned about journeying far from home. As an example of the dangers, the town had a badly crippled lady named Lucy, who as a girl had traveled to New York City. As she traveled along a sidewalk, sightseeing, she was struck by the outstretched hand of a suicide who had leapt from high above. Her spine had been shattered and for the rest of her life, she was to walk bent forward at the waist, tapping the sidewalk with two black canes. Whenever the subject of travel to a big city was raised, someone would say, "Just remember what happened to Miss Tripp." ---- Ted Kooser, from Local Wonders

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"It's not about having lots of money, it's about having lots of options......." -----Chris Rock

As the very proud father of three former ponytail wearers, hopefully I can get away with this....."For the past few years it's been fashionable for young women to wear ball caps and to snap the strap on the back under their ponytails. I like the looks of that, their shiny ponytails jauntily swinging, but it's hard not to think of the rear ends of horses. There's a piece of harness called the crupper that goes just under a horse's tail to keep its nose down. If the horse lifts its head to look for a way out of whatever predicament it's in, the crupper tightens and hurts the horse. But it's foolish for parents to think that a ball cap might keep a young woman from running away. Anybody can see they're made for running." ------Ted Kooser, Local Wonders

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