Most people have never heard of Michaux State Park. It seems that outside of the mountain bike and dirt bike communities, this Pennsylvania State Park remains largely unnoticed. By the grace of God and through a lot of hard work, the powers that be open this state forest up twice a year for us off road riders. Michaux Dual Sport in August and Michaux Enduro in September have been, and continue to be, two of the best off-road events in the Mid Atlantic.
Michaux is a magical place. The landscape of this forest is downright gorgeous. Once a year that beautiful landscape becomes an Enduro rider’s dreamscape! This is a rocky, technical, challenging race with lots of single track and tons of elevation changes. No one, and I mean no one, incorporates time keeping into an Enduro the way the SPER crew does!
The rains held off until just after lunch and then it was just enough to make things a little more interesting. Three-mile trail is one thing in the morning when it dry, it’s a whole different animal in the afternoon when the rocks and roots are wet from the rain and your stomach is churning after eating lunch.
Michaux has rocks, lots and lots of big rocks. But they are huge imbedded rocks that don’t move when you hit them. Rapid elevation changes, tons of fun tight single track and even some off and on smooth flow mixed in. Combine all this trail with a master class in time keeping and you have Enduro Heaven.
Ed Emery (KTM) took the Overall Win Bryan Williams (KTM) placed second Kyle McDonal (Beta) finished in 3 rd Travis Nichols (KTM) took the overall in A class Chris Smith (KTM) took the overall in B class Tyler Kennedy (KTM) took the overall in C class Kerri Shank (KTM) took the overall in Women’s class. Steven Petchon (KTM) took the overall in A Masters Mike Lesniak (KTM) took the overall in B Masters
Sam Jones (KTM) took the overall in Legends Class.
We all know that hosting these Enduros in The PA State Forests is a very challenging and often frustrating experience for the clubs. Despite all that, SPER once again did an amazing job putting on this event. The time keeping challenge for Michaux is legendary and this year once again did not disappoint. Thank you SPER for all your hard work- you guys have an awesome club.
Well Folks, that wraps up 2023. Overall, 2023 was a great year for the ECEA. While we did have a few races cancelled, we also saw Pine Hill and Curly Fern gain miles of fresh new single track. Foggy Mountain is back to being a staple on the ECEA calendar and the rest of the Enduros were as good as ever. No, we will never get back all the land that we once had, that is a sad reality. But we still have a lot to feel optimistic about. Most of our Enduros sold out. Many of our clubs are now seeing a resurgence in membership. There are now more women riders participating in our clubs and races than we have seen in years- maybe ever. The ECEA remains strong and the future looks bright.
See you all at RORR dual sport next month and here is to Greenbriar 2024!!