DoJoe

Riding up early

the 8th DoJoe was Sunday. I need to do this event every year. The last time I did it was at least 4 years ago. What a total blast! Great people and a very well put on event to celebrate snow, skiing, and just being alive in the mountains. The event was created for Joe who lost his life in an avalanche in the nearby hills in 2001.

Seeing as it was my last real "training" day before the Grand Traverse, I decided to go big. I rode up on the Hunter with my boots and skis attached to my pack, then nordic skied for an hour (I had stashed the black skis in the woods the day before), then took a couple of runs on the teles before the race started at 1pm. It was a true spring day with a high predicted at 61.

The lineup for the women's race

Everyone was in costume...EVERYONE. The Redneck, DV8 and I were all sporting our respective Pilot suits and we were ready to rock. DV8 on AT gear, me on the Karhu Guides with no skins (it has scales), and the Redneck on our skinny-ass nordic setup we're using for the Grand Traverse. Everyone thought he was crazy for using those skis as the downhill is very steep and has very large moguls. We all weren't too surprised when the Redneck gapped us on the climb. He just plain dropped us! I thought to myself, "we'll catch him on the downhill." Well, we didn't. Or at least I didn't.

Up and over the top of the hill with no skins was very sweet. This is the Dojoe setup. I went past the skin-drop off point 700 vert up and traversed right out onto West Ridge. I started down and didn't see the Redneck anywhere! First I got worried he had shot off into the woods on those narrow-ass skis and knocked himself out! Right about then, the "Aspen ski patroller" in the race passed me on his lightweight AT gear flying down the mogul run. Apparently he narrowly beat the Redneck passing him in the last 50 yards of the race!

Not knowing this, and thinking the Redneck was out cold in the woods somewhere, I thought I was going to get first in the tele class until i saw the Redneck in the finishing straight already done! Holy Shit! He was a bit beaten up from the downhill - literally - bloody fingers, bloody lip, and scraped up forearms...but all in one piece. He has slid down from the top on his ass switching sides of his ass to "turn." We were all jaw-dropped impressed. A stellar performance indeed. Especially after having pounded a Dale's Pale immediately beforehand. Then me and then DV8 rounded out the top 4 finishers - three of the top 5 were Pilots!!

Upon returning to the lodge, we had a couple o pints and met up with the rest of the racers on the sun deck. Great raffle prizes and awards followed. They made a new "Green award" for me because I rode up. Very appreciated, but I really wasn't looking for anything like that. It's not the reason I do that kinda stuff, as I hope you readers know. I just love riding my bike everywhere!

Until next year. I highly recommend this event y'all.

Here's some pictures.