Three strikes and you're out, Akeley National Enduro 99

Jim Cox 7/99

Akeley 99 may have been my third strike. I have ridden Minnesota's Paul Bunyan National all three years and I have yet to finish it. In '97 I hurt my knee, in' 98 the A/AA section just kicked my butt, and now in '99 the heat got me. My only hope is that, unlike baseball, we will have another Minnesota national sometime.

My trouble started early on Friday, when the shop working on our truck screwed it up. My wife Kaari and I had to make last minute hotel plans and figure out a way to stuff all our gear, the dog, and friend Kurt Schwie into our Explorer.

When we arrived at the Kramer ranch, it was abuzz with the usual national happenings. Ty Davis had showed for the first time in three years, but without a bike. There was lots of talk about what would happen if his bike didn't make it. I joked with Mike Larson that it was his duty (being a Yamaha dealer) to get in his van and drive back to the cities to get a shiny new YZ250 for Ty! The bike could then be sold as a "Ty Davis signature model" for a handsome profit ; )

Based on my previous years' efforts at the Akeley National Enduro, I had decided on a ride-to-finish strategy. I thought this might be the last national I have a legitimate chance to finish since the Norsemen are thinking of not doing the national for at least next year. I didn't care about my class position I just wanted to finish. My first look at the route sheet seemed encouraging. We don't normally have speed changes around here; everything is usually run at 24 MPH. When the Akeley route sheet included some long 18 MPH sections, I thought it might help my chances of finishing. First, though, I had to learn some new computer functions. Unfortunately, I was still trying to figure it out as my minute was leaving the start and I made a fundamental error. I wasn't paying attention to the starter since I was frantically trying to fix my programming, and thus didn't start my computer or back-up watch on time. This mental error would later cost me a burnt check and multiple points due to leaving a reset late.

When I finally did get started, it was immediately obvious that the Norsemen had done a lot of work cutting logs. I say this from my experiences working the Grand Rapids enduro. A couple of particularly bad years, Kaari and I have spent days doing non-stop chainsawing just in our 10 mile section. When we're done, you can hardly tell we did much because most of the debris has been thrown off the trail. In all the years of working, I think only one person has said, "looks like you had to cut a few trees, huh?" So when I saw all the fresh saw cuts along the Akeley trail, I knew the Norsemen had been very hard at work. Good job folks, and thanks.

Some of the downed lumber took its toll, though. Kurt Schwie got his carb harpooned right off the cylinder of his WR400. Turk Dahl was hobbling around on crutches with two very broken toes. But since Turk learned to ride with Chuck Koshiol (the only man in Minnesota who can wheelie into a check with a flat tire and a broken bone and still yell 'whoopee' as he's leaving), he was still smiling and probably having more fun with the broken toes than I was riding the race. We saw two pairs of handlebars bent 90 degrees at "the trench" community crash site (more on this later). Kurt found a KTM with a radiator impaled by a tree limb. The clean-up crew had to point me in the general direction of the shortcut out and let me fend for myself, because they had to go help some guy who had hit something so hard he broke the complete side cases clean off one side of the motor. I'm sure there was more carnage out there we didn't see.

Overall, the course was difficult, but I didn't think there were any "gottcha" obstacles, just relentless but rideable woods. Just the way a National should be. In my humble opinion, if it weren't for the extreme heat it probably would have been a near perfect layout. Kaari said she enjoyed the C course--there were only a few tough obstacles for her, and the combination of 18 mph sections and generous resets meant that she actually had time to rest between sections.

The nastiest obstacle I remember was "the trench". It was really strange. It was just an innocent little erosion ditch across a two track trail. It really didn't look like much. I should have known something was up when I saw the four guys standing on the other side looking dazed. I was on time here so I wasn't even riding hard when I hit this thing, but whatever was in there violently pitched me sideways. I bounced off one of the guys, ricocheted right into another, and left only two standing. I finally came to rest on top of a YZ250. Had I been bowling, this probably would have been a great expert move, but in an enduro, this was not the case. I got up apologizing profusely and feeling really stupid. One of the guys said not to worry about it, they all crashed there also and that I was lucky since he had just gone over the bars, bending the throttle side of the handle bars on his WR400 into a perfect "L" shape.

I felt good until the very end of the A-section. I was cranking away thinking "This isn't so bad. It's not that hot (yet), I'm on minute five, I haven't crashed hard or gotten stuck yet, life is pretty good." Then I started passing guys sitting in the woods in various stages of undress. At first I thought this was good since I was passing some guys that I would never normally be able to pass. Heat has never stopped me in an enduro before, but I'd never done a butt-kicking national in near 100 degree heat before either. Eventually I started feeling dizzy and sick and my pace dropped way off. I pressed on to the end of the section.

At the reset, I ignored my clock and took as much time as I needed to feel a little better. I wasn't about to risk my life on heatstroke for I race I wasn't going to win anyway. Val Schalaben poured some cold water down my neck (thanks Val!) and I decided to continue on. I left the reset very late, hoping I hadn't blown too much time.

There was some odd "hot" check placement out there. There seemed to be no attempt made to conceal many of the hot check locations. One check-in could even be seen from the reset! I don't remember much of this section, except that the national AA's passed me in there. Even in my stupor, that was so cool! Just to be out there roosting with Randy, dicing with Davis, and motoring with Mike and Matt was worth the price of admission. Hawkins seemed to be riding hardest, with the YZ400 crackling against the rev limiter even in the tightest of woods, and the smell of cooked brakes in his wake. Stavish and Lafferty were charging almost as hard, with Davis looking a little smoother. Todd Mathwig was also looking particularly strong as he went by. I, on the other hand, got through by going as slow as needed so as not to puke, and scored an unimpressive 56 at the checkout. Norseman Al Mathwig said "hit it Jim" to which I responded "I think I already have".

At the third and final gas stop, I stumbled around in a daze. I remember seeing Mike Larson jogging! He was probably doing it just to psych out the competition. Gregg Rychly, eventual winner of senior C, was saying that the c-course was easy. I didn't have enough energy to punch him, or I would have considered it.

I almost quit at that 3rd gas stop. Kaari was worried about my health are tried to talk me out of riding. But I promised to take it easy, loaded a fresh cool camelback and wobbled off down the trail.

The check-in was about 4 miles out and I think I dropped about 47 points there, but Floyd Martineau had promised that the remaining trail was easy, and since it was at 18 MPH, I figured I might make it out of there within my hour so I pressed on. But this section was an incredible thirty miles long, and since I was so late, I needed to ride fairly hard if I didn't want to hour out at the check-out. Part way through this big section I started getting sick again and could not physically continue. I wobbled off the trail and poured myself onto the ground, I took off my helmet, then rolled onto my back to pressurize the water in my camelback so I could squirt cold water on my forehead and neck. I calculated that I could take 1-2 of these breaks in this section and maybe make it out in my hour if I kept the rests to 5 min or less. After a few minutes I scaled my bike and took off again. Another five miles in I needed another collapse break. While staring at the sky, I noticed that the clouds were really moving fast and getting darker. I wished it would rain. I reluctantly got back on the bike and made it few more miles before succumbing once again. This time I knew it was over--I couldn't take three breaks and make the checkout within my hour at the pace I was riding, but I was spent and had no choice. I was also worried that I wasn't feeling as hot anymore (symptom of heat stroke). My final quitting spot was a nice clearcut with a bit of a breeze, a good place to fall off my bike, and Mike Adams of the Northern Lites doubled over his handlebars. I said "mmpppfgghh" to Mike, rolled over with a nice log for a pillow, sprayed my head with my camelback again, and fell asleep/passed out. I don't know how much time went by, but I vaguely remember the sound of bikes going by. Eventually one bike came to a stop. It was my wife, riding on minute 58 and thrilled to still be in the race, hoping I wasn't dead. She decided to do the decent thing and wait for cleanup with me, and then follow me out. A few minutes later cleanup (Mike Freeman?) came by and showed us the short way home. Many miles of highway later, we were approaching the start when it started to rain HARD. You know, when the raindrops hurt it's raining so hard. Then the thunder and lightning stated up big-time. Bikes left sitting on their kick stands were tipping over, motor homes were rocking, and EZ-ups were blowing away.

Eight hours after starting, I had returned to the truck. I crawled in the back of the Explorer with Kaari and the terrified dog, and laid there trying not to hurl until about 6:00. Before I fell asleep, I remember hearing the mini race start at the peak of the thunderstorm and thought… I'm glad I'm not in change of deciding whether or not to cancel the mini race right now… At some point, Kaari came back and reported that she'd won women's and I'd gotten fifth out of twelve in 200A and only one Minnesotan had beaten me, so I went back to sleep with a smile on my face. I remember hearing parts of the trophy presentation. Good job Norsemen for having a PA system that can be heard while lying near death in a closed vehicle 100 yards away. I listened to who won the various classes, and drifted back to sleep.

Lafferty won the overall with a score of 15. Hawkins beat local hero Matt Stavish on tie-breaker points after they both carded 17s for the day. Ty Davis was fourth.

I felt a little bad for Matt. He's devoted so many years to pursuing the national enduro series and he's come close but never quite won one. I really want him to win a National some day, and Akeley had to be one of the best chances for him to do it since he's familiar with the area and it seems to play to his strengths.

Eric Slominski was overall B. Watch out for this guy. He's only 16 and he's already a smart rider with natural speed and a fast dad (Bill Slominski) to practice with. There are some fast kids coming up now. It's fun to watch, except that they're going to kick my butt when they get to 200A. You guys would really rather ride a 250, wouldn't you ? ; )

Some dude from Washington won overall C, with a 17! Remember that the C-class didn't ride the whole event but still, that's an awfully good score. This guy beat the other C-classers by a wide margin. I hope he is a natural talent that will quickly work his may through A and B class to become the next enduro god, and not a sandbagger who rides A or B class in WA.

The intense rain continued most of the way home, making a long drive even longer. Visibility was really bad. We passed many cars stopped beside the road and one on its roof in the median. Once home, I checked the Weather Channel's website and saw it had hit 99 in the cities, with a heat index of 110. A new record high. Yipee.

Back to Jim & Kaari's Dirt Bike Page

Back to Jim & Kaari's Home Page