Can an east coast rider survive RawHyde's Next Step ??

About 8 months ago I thought I had the system gamed…. Shawn and Lance from RawHyde Adventures were hosting an Adventure Night at the Ruddy Duck Restraunt/Brewery in Solomans Maryland.
I had met the guys back in March of 2012 when they gave a RawHyde presentation at Bob’s BMW and attended one of the Adventure Riding Clinics they presented. Interesting duo to say the least
Anyhow it seemed like a fun night out and the Mrs. (Philygal) was up for the ride and wanted to go as well. I had also heard that in an effort to promote the event, they said they would be giving away a free class to RawHyde Adventures to whomever traveled the furthest to their gathering …
As luck would have it, my job had me on travel in Virginia Beach till day of the event. I figured this was great. I could ride up from Virginia Beach, pick up Philygal and continue on to Southern Maryland, at just over 200 miles, I figured I would be a shoe-in. Who would ride farther than that for a couple hours at a local micro brewery?
I arrived at the event after a beautiful day riding to find out some nut case had ridden all the way from Chicago….WTF…dammit

Oh well, it had been a great day riding, we got dinner out away from the kids and met up with a few of our friends.

The RawHyde group had a few door prizes to give out at the event, maybe I would get lucky and win a T-shirt or something…
It appears that my luck held out…but it wasn’t a T-shirt I won, it was their “grand prize”
They were giving away a second RawHyde Class.

Now, as much as I find RawHyde Adventures interesting…It was not something I would have taken on my own.
Between the cost of getting there, riding a bike cross country and back or renting one and the class itself…going there didn’t fit my budget. But winning a paid class….that put it in reach.

Even the wife was happy I won….

Man up! Ride out there and do it. Tell us about it. You have an obligation.

Shawn said he would be emailing me the details in a day or two.....

I felt like a damn kid at christmas...I wouldn't believe I had actually won the class till I saw it in writing...the waiting was killing me....

When I finally got his email and the email from Barbara at RawHyde with the application information...I was like.."Holy Crap, I'm actually going"

I had looked at the RawHyde website and saw they were giving two levels of classes...Intro to Adventure and The Next Step.

I've been riding bikes since I was a kid and have owned quite a few over the years and have really gotten into Adventure Riding in the last few years. With a group of friends, we have done quite a few multiday dual sport rides through the Shenandoah Valley. Some trips went better then others...



In an effort to be a better rider, when there was a Shane Watts DirtWise class in the area I signed up for that... (March 2011)

Great two day class held at the local ATV park...Shane does a great job building on basics and your confidence. At the time, I and the group I rode with were mostly forest road and trail riders...We really didn't care how fast we got there, just that we got there. DirtWise provided at lot of great information for any offroad rider, but it still had a racing feel to it.





Quite a few of the skills learned in that class have really helped both on the road and off...

Reading the details of the Intro to Adventure class, I kinda felt like I had already done a lot of what they planned to discuss.

The group I ride with is a great bunch. Always helpful, patient and yet ready to challenge you. Together we have all become better riders...

We have done quite a few long distance trip together...

West Virginia




Virginia


We even headed out west to ride the Continental Divide
(Due to fuel filters issues with the KTM...I only made the first day of the Divide part )





Lately, I've been riding a lot more single track trails as well. mostly with the DRZ picked up earlier this year, but also with the KLR...




So looking at the descriptions of RawHyde's classes...I began to wonder if I might be able to take "The Next Step" class instead of the intro class...

Barbara said not a problem...after she explained to me it was not a beginner class and that if you don't have the fundamentals down...it could be a brutal course :huh

So I went for it...

Fly out next Friday (22nd) for class....

Following buddy. Good luck and safe travels.

All I can say is have fun and that I wish I could have recovered early enough to go with you! Can't wait for the report!!!!

Sounds like your ready....Have a Great time!!!

Something tells me this week is going to just drag on until Friday..

Ride On!

IN! GO Dave GO!!!

Sounds like a sweet deal and a hell of a good time !! Have fun!

EOD3MC often rides sweep in the back of the pack. Not because he is the slowest, but because he seems to enjoy cleaning up the wake of carnage of previous riders. I was always on "Team Turtle".

EOD3MC is always on the "Recovery team". And so it was is was born:



Even named his latest steed TTRU!


Always nice to know recovery team is getting more training. I am sure that I will continue to put my bike in unnatural places, and that EOD3MC will need this training

Your parking locations are always interesting...


At least I haven't needed a winch.......yet

Have fun dude!

Gear packed up and ready to go...Long day tomorrow

More gloves!

You think?...I thought three pairs would be enough

At the airport waiting for my flight west...guessing the RawHyde crew is still sound asleep

Long day traveling today, but it made it to the compound.

Flight out wasn't too bad and the view at times was amazing...
so many places to ride down there



Got my bunk assignment, did introductions and had a great salmon dinner.



Looks like a full house for all classes....tomorrow the fun begins

Dang! They kept you up way late. I think you should get up spry at 0500 EDT and wake up camp