MotoVermont Class & Tour

Annick: Hello, my beautiful motorheads. I am back in the shop because I am getting ready to head up to Vermont to go to Moto Vermont's Intro to Adventure. In episode 16, I had Eric Milano, who's the founder of Moto Vermont, which is a touring company, in an interview. And as a result, I am now going to go take their Intro to Adventure, which I'm super excited about.

But first, there was a few things that needed to happen. Number one is that I actually need to go to Americade first because I am doing a Women's Coffee Hour there FÉROCE is hosting that, which is, uh, super exciting. And then two, I'm going to be giving a seminar and I'm also going to be doing a live interview, so that's happening before I go to Vermont.

in order to get ready to go to Vermont, there was a bunch of work that needed to happen this week, and one of which was that I had, uh, street tires on this. Well, 50 50, right. So if you could take a look, I had. 50 50 tires on this, which is just not gonna work for full off-road. And when I read the instructions for the intro to adventure, they suggest off-road tires.

So I have made the mistake in the past of when I did another event that I showed up on. 50 50 or like 60 40 tires, and it was a disaster. I ended up having my tires full of mud and I had to bush whack down the side of a mountain. So in order to not do that again, I had to swap out these tires, but I, it wasn't that simple because I had a free set of wheels that I had gotten and.

They were disgusting. Uh, nothing is truly free, right? So I had to, well, I chose to remove the paint and to make the wheels look good. 'cause I just, I couldn't, I couldn't, I just couldn't aesthetically do it. So I spent, uh, a good like, probably 10 to 15 hours on this project, and I ended up cleaning the wheels up, ended up buying new tubes, and then the BFF donated knobbies For me to, to use during the weekend, which is fine. They don't need to be brand spanking, new knobbies. I don't do full dirt or uh, off-road all that often. So super thankful for that 'cause that saved me a ton of money. But there was a couple of things that, arose because we swapped out the wheels. So the knobbies are actually have a higher profile and this is the stock mudguard.

But because the knobbies are so much higher than the, tires that this bike comes with, we had to make a modification.

So If you look here, uh, this was rubbing, this was too far down. the BFF made a standoff because it ends up that nothing on the market works very well. Some people modify this and they will screw this portion up here. Into this area, but, it, it doesn't look very good. came up with this solution, which was to make these standoffs and look at that beautiful hardware.

I think it looks great. I think it came out fantastic. I'm super excited about that modification because there's no reason not to also look good while we're out there. Right. Now, the other thing that I'm a little bit worried about is that I got a U-Haul van because this is a two 50 motorcycle and it's just, it's too small to take on a five hour road ride.

But also now that I have the knobbies on, it would just be a. Horrific journey on knobbies. And by the time I got up there in, uh, in the five hours that it would, they would be worn out. So that's just silly. So we're not gonna do that. But I am concerned that they gave me the smaller van and I'm not sure if the motorcycle's gonna fit in the van.

And then as I was driving over here, I was like, I don't have an option. I have to make it fit all part of the adventure.

 * INTRO *

 Uh, I really, I don't know if this is actually going to fit, and I have to say, oh God, the…..

…… Yes. Oh God. All right. I was not sure about that. That's very stressful. I'm really sweating now.

It's really hard sometimes to like do this stuff by yourself. I also forgot that I had these really nice hooks, these gator straps that go up and over. They're really nice I also found I was missing one of these, and it ends up that they were actually in the shop, so that's cool.

 So I just finished up Americade and I was here to do a seminar, test ride bikes, do a ladies coffee hour, which FÉROCE sponsored, which was super cool. And we also did a live interview with Bill Dutcher who is. The founder of Americade, I'm in the U-Haul rental and I'm about to head up to Vermont to get ready for intro to Adventure riding.

The weather looks terrible. Uh. Which is a bit of a bummer, uh, obviously with offered riding, you never know if you're gonna get good weather, bad weather, or uh, you don't know what you're gonna get. I'm super happy that I made the decision to put the full set of knobbies on the XT two 50, so we'll see how it goes.

And, you know, intro to Adventure, they weren't kidding. We will, we'll see what happens.

So I made it and I'm here. I just arrived and we're gotten this set up trying to put everything together and also got the bike out and ready and then people are now starting to show up. And tonight we are just going to basically get set up for the weekend and I think there's gonna be a little bit of class.

I've already met Eric Milano, who was in episode 16. He is the, uh, founder of Moto Vermont, and it is absolutely gorgeous. I'm going to show you what the view is like, so I'm pretty excited to be able to wake up to this tomorrow. So take a look at this beautiful view. I mean, welcome to Vermont, huh. And behind me there is a beautiful babbling brook, that is just absolutely just lovely.

The riders are starting to show up and set up camp. People have some really cool rigs going on here.

These are the fancy camping digs because I don't really own camping gear anymore and I don't really love camping.

 After everybody set up camp, we met around the fire to get to know each other and see who we would be taking the class with. They also provided us with an incredible meal, uh, that was just so good it is the morning of day two and it's raining. We will see everybody's starting to wake up and uh, we're gonna just see how the day goes. It's supposed to rain all day, so I don't know. It's always an adventure. And I have allergies for some reason. I don't know why, but, uh, yeah. Gotta get ready for the rain. It has been raining so hard. You can kind of get a sense a little bit, but it's, uh, we're, we're just drenched. I'm in. Whatever, however many layers you could possibly like try to keep on to stay dry and, uh. So far it's been wonderful, really have learned a lot, and especially trying to do all these exercises in the morning where they're really trying to build our skillset so that when the weather is perfect, we'll be amazing riders.

That's the hope at least. But believe me, after this weekend, I'm gonna have so much to practice and, um, it's gonna be fun. I'm really looking forward to like putting these skills into play, uh, on a much nicer sunnier day.

So Vicki, today, what was the high point of the day for you? Like what do you think you learned that was special? I think the hill would dump in the clutch, installing the bike and trying to slowly let the clutch out so you don't slide down the hill and turn it and try to reapproach the downhill with it, turning the wheel and everything.

That was really cool. I'm glad I tried that. And do you think it'll apply to your normal adventure? Totally. Yeah. Yeah. And the rut was good. I really had a hard time on the left turn. Staying in that rut, I kept popping on. Yeah, but it's good. It's all has to do with that. Leaning on the bike and remember leaning the bike.

Yeah, it's a good thing. Uh, I think weight placement was, you know, the best part in the small figure eights off road and throwing your weight around to, uh, manage the, uh, control of the bike in slow speeds and, and maneuverability. I think that was probably the best. And also running through the rut, uh, the emergency downhill descent was downhill.

This sentence is probably the best one for me. Um, being able to understand how to work the bike, uh, with the clutch going backwards down the hill and then turning the bike around. You guys did awesome.

 What's going up? Poncho girl. Few questions for you. Oh yeah, God. All right. So how did today go? I thought it was, given the circumstances for the weather. Yeah, I thought it went really well. And the cool thing, now that it's over and we're kind of in dry clothes. That's a really, really amazing learning experience when you're, you know, working in weather like that, because basically I was explaining to some of the other folks that there's no cheating allowed because you can't, you have to do the procedure, the, the, um, the obstacle or the, um, exercise correctly, because if you don't, it's, you fall because the conditions are so poor.

So if you're not putting your weight in the right spot. Then the bike's gonna fall over. It's, it's kind of that easy. So, so what do you, what do you think, like, especially consist is the intro to adventure? Yeah. Like what, what's the number one thing that most people need to really work on at this level?

Well, and I, I, it's kind of two things. It's, um. It's working on your controls and, and nice smooth inputs on your throttle and your clutch, and then also working on your balance and your side to side When that bike weighs one way, you need to know where to put your weight the other way. Yeah. So those two things and, and if you can master those two kind of skills, then uh, you'll do very well at adventure riding.

And what do you have in store tomorrow? Tomorrow we're gonna do a couple more drills on the, uh, on the course here. Yep. And then, uh, mostly fun stuff. And then we will get out onto, uh, onto the forest roads and we're gonna, um, do this awesome little forest road and that's got some learning elements to it first, and then we're gonna get into like an unmaintained road for a trail.

And uh, and it's a great little learning trail because it kind of amps up in difficulty as we ride along it, and it's a dead end, so we can just, you know, we're not gonna have a lot of traffic on it. When we get to the end, we'll just turn around, we'll be able to do everything in reverse and then. We'll jump back on some dirt roads and then we'll do, um, we'll be on the NEBDR route a little bit where we, we were today too.

Um, and then we're gonna do one of the hero sections of the NEBDR or people will have the o opportunity to, of course, everything's like challenge by choice, right? What do, what does hero mean? Uh, hero section, section. So. A a lot of routes, uh, they're, they're laid out. And some of the more challenging or difficult sections are called hero sections.

Okay. Uh, so, so yeah, it could just be a more difficult route or something like, that's awesome. 

In good news this morning, the weather is starting to clear up.

Looks like we will actually, it's not gonna be dry, but at least it'll be a lot better weather-wise to, uh, to ride today. It's definitely gonna be muddy, but boy doesn't feel good just to see that sky clearing up. The show goes on.

So we're out now riding around and uh, the roads are fantastic and we're going to also get into, uh, some really unmaintained roads. But the weather finally turned, it's beautiful out today and we are just so fortunate that it's not raining. And here we are getting some fresh spring water and we're gonna be heading back out.

I really wish I had an onboard camera because there was just so many awesome roads, trails, everything that we went on, and I wasn't able to capture it. So I just had these photos and videos from when we were stopped and, uh, maybe you just have to take the class and see it

all for yourself.

After riding all day. We ended the weekend with a class on how to change a tire on the trail. While I hope I never have to do that, it was a great lesson to be learned afterwards. We all packed up, helped each other load our bikes and headed off. What a great, great weekend.

Annick: So I'm back from MotoVermont. I dropped off the U-Haul, unloaded the bike. I've got laundry going, and I'm just trying to take care of all my gear and everything because as you guys saw previously that the weekend was incredibly wet, like exponentially wet. And since I just got back, I really want to go over my thoughts about MotoVermont and my personal experience with taking the class tour.

While it's fresh in my mind and I can just share with you what I really thought about the whole experience. So first off, I wanna say like what the structure of the class was and then how it impacted me and my riding abilities. So it's a class and tour. So basically the first part [00:13:00] of it is instruction, and then you go out and you do a ride, that is off road.

And a little bit of pavement, but mostly it ends up that the tour was in Vermont, hence the name MotoVermont. But they do do tours and classes in other areas of the United States. I was not prepared for, uh, Vermont having so many dirt roads. It just never occurred to me that that was a thing. But apparently there's something like 60 to 70% of Vermont roads are dirt.

Go figure. Who knew? So the class you arrive on a Friday night and you. Set up camp, most people camped on site. There are rooms and hotels available and you, you could do that. I ended up camping in the van that I rented the U-Haul van to bring this up, which ended up. Being a good choice for me because I don't own that much camping gear and it was torrential downpour.

Lemme tell you, some people have some really sweet camping setups that was very inspiring to see with the other people who were in the class. So you, you get there, you have dinner. Friday night, everybody. It's kinda like a meet and greet, set up camp, and then get ready for the following morning, there's a group breakfast.

And then from there we had instruction. And Eric Milano, who was in episode 16, he's the head guy. And then he also brought on Mike, who was the secondary guide and teacher. Saturday morning you end up doing the instruction.

And I have to say it was incredibly humbling because some of the drills, they look easy and then you realize how hard they are. And one thing that quickly came to light for me personally was that I had been riding ADV, let's just say, um, dual sport, on and off. Uh, probably for the last six to eight years, probably no more than that.

So the, the majority of my riding career has been on the street and offroad is a completely different beast. And I can, like, I can get on enough, like fumble enough through doing. Uh, you know, women's events and leading some off-road events or, you know, acting as sweep. But I was relying on my just sheer determination to keep up and just make it happen versus really working on my technique and avoiding getting into hairy situations.

And what had been happening over the years was that because I. Didn't have the technical skills. I would get into situations that would scare me and therefore cut down on my confidence level of riding. So I wouldn't take the risks because I didn't feel confident that I would be able to get through that risk or be able to do a certain hill climb or, uh, some water crossings, particularly if they're in mud and you couldn't see the bottom.

So they start you off with the basic basics. And our class had a nice range. There were altogether, uh, 10 of us, and typically they try to do eight to 10 people. And it makes sense because you get a lot of one-on-one time as you go through and they give you feed, they watch you do the, they set up the. Um, the task they have you go through and then they provide feedback for you, which was fantastic.

And the people in my class, we all ranged in age, I would say between like 40 and 60. within the group there was a range of like people who had a ton of experience and people who were brand new to riding. And it worked out great. There were no issues with the different levels. Uh, it all worked out fine.

And I have to say that with some of those beginning. Basics. I would even say that some of the, uh, the riders who had no skills, like, you know, had very little experience. They almost did better because they weren't trying to correct bad habits. And for me, I felt fumbly, I felt really outta my element, especially on the first day Saturday morning because.

It was really hard to change what I was doing typically, and I wanna get into that because I, I, I wanna share specifically what those things were in case somebody who is listening or watching this has had the same experience or maybe hadn't thought about these things when they're moving from street riding to dirt.

Then that afternoon we rode out into town and we got lunch. Uh, at a general store, which was just lovely. And again, between the, the, the roads being mainly dirt, just, just riding around was beautiful. I mean, Vermont, this is where I'm kicking myself. Like, I need to buy an action camera. And I know that some of you have asked me, you know, don't, why are you not doing any onboard cameras?

And a lot of that just has to do with costs. And I, you know, I just, I film everything right now on an iPhone and that's going to change. I'm definitely. Uh, especially after this weekend, because I really wish I could have shared with you how glorious everything was, even despite the inclement weather and.

Even as you drive around, they're actually, you know, they always talk about people in Vermont being homesteaders. The, we pass a lot of people who were home setting and that was really inspiring. And then of course there was like, you know, the million dollar homes with the, although I guess million dollars these days is not that much.

So let's just say like the $5 million homes with the epic views and the remote locations. But it was just, uh, it's just such a beautiful area to ride and it really is inspiring me to wanna go back and just explore. Eric Milano. The lead is also, uh, the person who designed the Vermont portion of the BDR, which is the off route.

And I, I will, I'll write below what that actually is 'cause I always forget what the BDR actually stands for. But it's these off-road routes that connect basically Maine, all the way down to Florida. And they are currently working on adding onto that BDR or nb any BDR or the South B, like they all have, they all have their acronyms.

They're adding on a portion in the Adirondacks, which they are scouting right now. And it, uh, it takes a lot of effort to make these things happen because some of the properties or some of the land is either, you know. State owned, uh, federally owned or also privately owned. So you need to get certain permissions.

And also there's a lot of environmentalists that, you know, don't look kindly upon motorized vehicles. So there's a lot that goes into making sure that these ro Able to work and connect and you know, these people, I believe are mostly volunteers who are doing this. So like really hats off. And a thank you to anybody who works on making these trail systems because it is a gift that we are able to, to do this, lemme tell you because I have been on properties illegally and it's not fun and you shouldn't do that.

And sometimes you end up in these situations by accident anyway. So going back to, uh, learning the skill sets, one of the things that I had been, you know, and I said like fumbling through and like, I'm just able to, to get through some things, which is she sheer determination. But in the end, it, you can only grow so much in your skillset before that counter, uh, counteract anything that you've learned.

So the big thing that I had been doing, which was wrong, is that I was actually, I had been using the brake too much and in particular I've been using the front brake too much. Now I know in the dirt, like I, I, you know, mostly use the rear and all that. But when I was getting into hairy situations where I necess couldn't necessarily like reach the ground well or anything, I was pulling in the front brake, which ends up as like, of course, a huge no-no.

Because you lose traction and the bike doesn't really stop. It ends up sliding backwards down a hill and then you start to freak out that you are losing control of the bike and then you drop it and you're in an awkward situation. So they really worked on the skillset of combining clutch control and acceleration.

And I also found that I was not giving the, the bike nearly enough gas like I have been. Like, I'm always on that verge of sputtering out and. Learning how that all of this in the dirt is. Clutch control was really a mind blowing. I, I don't even know how to say like, I, it changed everything. It was aha moment.

It changed everything for me because on the street you, you would maybe feather the clutch to get a good start and to take off. But for primarily when you are riding street, you are accelerating braking, accelerating braking. And I don't even use my clutch on upshifts. I sometime, you know, like I'll use the clutch on downshifts, depends on what kind of bike you are, how modern is all that kind of stuff.

But I typically would, you know, I don't U just don't use the clutch that much on the street except for starting and stopping and it ends up that this is all clutch. And now it like again, light bulb moment, it completely changed my ability to control the motorcycle. And I know some of you are shaking your head and giggling 'cause you're like, oh, come on girl.

How'd you not know that? Well, I realized that in all my time riding and I have gotten great feedback. I ride with a lot of ace, excellent pro riders. I'm very fortunate for that. But that also has been a problem because I had been spending so much time just trying to keep up with them versus really working on just becoming a better rider.

And then if I was riding with people that had less experience than me, like that was easy. You just, you because you, you know, you're just better than them and it, you don't really think about like, you know what, what's, why or why not? So nobody could ever give me the feedback that I was. Doing this incorrectly, not using the clutch enough and not, uh, winding the bike out enough.

Because an experienced rider, dirt rider, we typically, it, it's natural to them, right? It's just the way that they ride and, and it's just the way that they ride. And they might say like, oh, you know, they could give you advice on like how to go over a log or, uh, you know, maybe body positioning, like, you know, grip to tank with your thighs to relieve pressure on your arms and all that.

But nobody could ever say to me, Annick, take your hand off the front brake. You don't need to be covering, you know, it's, it's good habit to cover with the two fingers, but I was just using the front brake all the time, so that was worth the price of entry. The class alone, figuring that out made me by the end of day one, completely different now.

We also, because it rained so much, and uh, Eric got into this, is that we were learning all these skills in the worst possible scenario. Standing water, uh, mud. We were on slick, wet grass. There was, uh, because the water was coming up so much, the field was getting torn up. So it was just becoming this muddy, slick.

Another thing that helped me, that was a tremendous advantage is that I have always run on this bike, and I did mention it earlier, that it's always been like 50 50 or like. Maybe at most 80 20 tires, but for the most part, 50 50, 60 40. So I, I've never experienced on the XT two 50 here, full knobbies and Wow.

Like you typically wouldn't, uh, if you're doing more door, uh, dual sport at a longer range, like say I was doing all of Vermont and I was doing the Vermont, the BDR portion, I would not run something so aggressive because. If I was doing more on the street, these are DOT approved, but I probably would want something that was maybe a little bit more comfortable also on regular roads.

Uh, it wasn't, you know, as squirrely as this, but these improved my confidence so much because there were also things that I had just been struggling with, which was. The bike would just get squirrely if the, if I was going through a little bit of mud or I was going through a, a river crossing and it, I, I always just felt like I was a little bit out of control with the bike.

Tires were part of that and a lot of it. Tires were a big part of that, but a lot of it was this like slipping the clutch in, uh, maintaining my speed or momentum via the clutch and not accelerating on and off and like braking, which was causing me to be herky jerky and not have control. So we ended the day with a beautiful dinner.

That was made there. I have to say they are excellent cooks. I was not expecting the food to be as good as it was because you never know, right? You're camping and everything was so, it was so delicious. And it wasn't just 'cause we were, you know, cold and hungry. It was 'cause the food was generally really good.

So hats off to the chef really appreciated that., They also incorporated some medical wilderness training, which was absolutely fascinating. They did a basic of, um, you know, describing like how you, we take a helmet off, which I've never gotten that training and always wanted to do it. So it was nice to, to have that.

what was really great was Mike, who ran that portion of the event and he, teaches wilderness rescue and medical training, and I might be missing a few other things. This guy has a very impressive background. He went into how do you assess In a remote situation where you, you could be 50 miles from civilization and not have cell reception.

Like most people, the whole time we were up there had no cell reception. Their carriers just had no reception. So, so what do you do? he went into how do you assess at what state is a person like are they. In complete distress, uh, are they semi hurt where they could be taken out, uh, reasonably, or are you going to have to get extra special medical help to come in?

And because you're remote once you can get in touch, whether that's via satellite, uh, phone service or apparently the new, iPhone fifteens and newer have a, uh, a remote sensor. I'll have to look up what the, uh. The technical term for it, but they have a special feature where you could send out an SOS or be able to get, uh, satellite service in certain situations.

So that's good to know. Uh, unfortunately, I think probably most of us have older phones that maybe wouldn't be able to do that. So being introduced to what's out there tech-wise, to keep yourself safe and also what to carry on board. I'm kind of bad about that. I don't, I don't have a medical kit or anything like that, and.

Having that information really made me rethink, like, what am I bringing with me when I, when I ride out? And for the most part, I, I haven't done an overnight in the woods, so I haven't had to have something like that. But one of the points that they were bringing up is, you know, as, as we know, things happen and sometimes the worst accidents happen in the parking lot when you're goofing around and like, you know, semi dressed or not wearing your helmet or whatnot, where you slip and you just.

Drop the bike and you break your ankle. These things do happen, unfortunately. So that was really fascinating to get his take on how to again, assess the situations. And he gave some great key points of what to look for when you do come across. Uh, 'cause it's not only maybe for your group, but also for if you're on the trail and you come across somebody who maybe could, could possibly be unconscious on, you know, on a trail.

Things happen. I mean, I just feel like, I feel like I learned so much so that night, uh, we all slept really well, I think. And I also want to, you know, give my hats off to the group that I was with despite the circumstance of the weather. Not a single person complained.

Everybody was so enthusiastic and so happy to be there. And it, I, you know, I always go back to motorcyclists are just the best people, right? We, we have, even if we come from different walks of life, the whole group was pretty much from the Northeast, So we had that as a commonality, but. One guy rode up from, I think it was either Virginia or West Virginia. He rode over 500 miles on Friday to make it to the event. And he rode up on his Harley and then camped the whole week. And that was impressive. And then we had a second guy, who rode his own, rode the bike that he rode for the class, over 300 miles from Rhode Island.

So, hats off to both of them for the long mileage. And then doing the class, because I have to say, like you, you think you're doing these simple skills and you're out in the field and. It was hard work. I mean, I think we were all, I could speak for everyone and say that we were tired at the end of the night and it, and it's the good tired, the good tired where you feel accomplished and you sleep really well and you feel invigorated.

So everybody was excellent. And there again, there was a range in skill levels, but mostly most of us had, had not had, even if we had a lot of street experience, we didn't have that much dirt experience. And, and then we had newbies. And everybody was open to learning. There were no, it was just a great group of people.

I, I just can't speak highly enough for everybody. And that made the weekend all the more fun. And typically, I would say outta 90% of the motorcycle events that I go to, whether it is a rally or a class or a camp, or, uh, it tends to be like that. 10%. I had been at some places where it was a, a complete demise for various reasons, but let's not focus on those because the majority of all these events are really good and.

Not a single person got hurt and sometimes these things happen by accident or anything like that, but they provided such a safe environment for us and such great instruction that yeah, we did drop the bike. You know, people dropped the bike, fell off, uh, went into the woods a little bit, slipped out on sticks and all that.

But because of the training that we received. Nothing happened. Like every, everybody was good and it was great. And that always makes a weekend a lot more fun when nobody got hurt, right? So that was super cool and great. And then on the Sunday we did a couple more sessions in the morning where we, you know, we did the typical going over a lot, uh, a log, which is [00:30:00] always psychologically hard to get your mind over the fact that like, you can do that.

But the thing about this being humbling in that. changing your skillset is also trusting that these bikes are way more capable than we will ever be. Even if you're a pro rider, like these top, I mean, you have to be so. Like 0.0, zero, zero 1% that will break a bike because you've out ridden it because you're that talented.

For the most part, these, these we're not even tapping into the potential and something like this, like of course I was on the smallest bike. Big surprise there. This bike is so capable, The, the biggest bike there was the Teneres. There's 2 700 Teneres, and then there was a KTM, and I'm not sure if it was a 7 0 1 or if it was 7 99.

But we had a range, and for the most part, most people were on three hundreds to 400. So whether that was a KLX 300, A DRZ 400 a DR six 50. A Honda 300, uh, CRF 300 l and. I think that covers all the, the bikes that were there.

So it was a nice range and it was really nice to see people's experiences. And there was a range in years on those bikes. So some were carbureated, some were, you know, liquid cooled and to see what people were struggling with or not struggling with, and how they had adjust their riding styles to. The make and model of the bike.

That was really interesting and I didn't try to ride any other bike that weekend. I, I had mentioned earlier that Honda was gonna let me ride the CRF 300 LS, I'm going to ride that bike and I would've been very happy to ride it, but I was really adamant that I wanted to get to know my personal bike because I really want to.

I just become really one with this bike and figure it out. the absolute pinnacle of the whole weekend was the actual tour that we went on, and again, they have the weekend so dialed in the way they started us off was they incrementally through the day increased the difficulty of the ride, and that was great because they explained to us what we were getting into and more.

So what you really found out was we would do a section, they would explain it to us and be like, all right, we're gonna go in and it's, it's gonna be like this. This is what you might encounter. Think about the skill sets that you learned yesterday and let's apply 'em, like in this particular situation, you would apply, you know, slipping the clutch.

If you get into, uh, a situation where you need to abandon the bike, remember what you learned, and then we would go do it, and we all made it through. it built up on this confidence. So throughout the day, we just kept building up keep in mind because there was so much rain, even though the next day, Sunday, yesterday was drier, it did start raining in the middle of the day.

But we were, we didn't know what we were coming upon, which meant that there could be a washout in the roads, there could have been down trees on the trails or any, any such thing based on the heavy rains. Everybody did great. I mean, every time you accomplished a section you.

Just increased in confidence. And then you do the next section. Next section. And then they took us on the portion of the BDR, which they call the heroic section, and it's called the heroic section because it's one of the more difficult ones. So that sounded incredibly intimidating. I'm not gonna lie, when he was describing it and it had a bunch of water crossings, and I really have always been hesitant with water crossings.

'cause I always felt like the lochness monster's gonna come up and suck me into the mud and I'm gonna disappear. My whole day's gonna be ruined because I'm gonna be just completely soaked head to toe. So we, we had to get okay with being wet, which. Based on the day before we learned you're not gonna melt in the rain.

Big surprise, not gonna melt in the rain. And then I just agreeing like, okay, just gonna be wet. Like once you come to peace with it, it was totally fine. And the water crossings based on the new skills and these tires and slipping the clutch was a complete new experience instead of fearing it by the end of the day.

I was enjoying it. I was looking forward to going through all these muddy crossings. I mean, I couldn't believe it. I had never in my life felt that way, and coming outta the class feeling that way, it just, it felt so good and just made me so excited about like the other riding opportunities that I'm, I'm going to have base on this.

and then we ended the day, with a softer, pleasant ride up into a, uh, uh, what do they call it? A sugar. A sugar brush. 'cause this particular part of Vermont is known for their maple trees and making maple syrup.

So that was really lovely. And it was an old logging road and you know, it had its difficulties. But after doing the heroic section of the BDR, it felt like a walk in the park and it really. Was just so wonderful and everybody was in such high spirits and so felt like, so accomplished that to end the day on.

That high note was great and we went back to camp and then they ended the, the whole series after we kind of, uh, broke down our camps and packed up by showing us how to change a tire. on the trail, which I've never had to do, knock on wood. I don't really wanna do it. But, uh, it was really nice to learn that I've always been able to, you know, have the experience of witnessing or helping somebody change my tire with a tire machine in, uh, in a controlled environment.

So that was really helpful to just see like what, you know, what his technique was and, uh, get some good pointers. 'cause I'm, like I said, there's so much to learn no matter how long you have been doing this. And no matter what type of riding, there's always something to learn. You always, you know, take from the best and then discard, like, what just doesn't work for you or doesn't interest you.

I have to say, uh, I am so impressed with this whole thing and I, I also have to say I'm not sponsored by them and. I think that, you know, so if you sign up for their class, you know, do let 'em know that you found out about through FÉROCE. But, it's more for their knowledge just to know like how people know about the class.

It's like when people ask me, or tell me that they follow the podcast, I'm like, oh, how'd you hear about it? 'cause it's always interesting. You never know, uh, where people come from. if you are looking to just change your environment and change where you ride and meet cool new people, like they ended up that there were three people in the class that they, they live like three miles from each other and they didn't even know one was a couple.

And then, another woman, and it ends up, they all live near each other. So that's pretty cool. So now they have new riding buddies and you know, as we know, we're always looking for new people to ride with. And how do you, how do you find that? Well, through classes and every time that I become good friends with somebody, motorcycling wise has been that I've either asked them to go do an event with me or they've invited me to go do an event.

And then after that, we're long time motorcycle friends. So it's a great way to meet people. For me, it felt good. Like I, I have to say like over the past, you know, probably since the pandemic, I really haven't traveled a whole ton in general. So it was really nice to go to a different part of our beautiful country and check it out.

It'd been a long time since I'd been up in Vermont and I just kind of forgot how beautiful it was. It's, you know. Everywhere in the Northeast, you just think it's all the same, but it, it's a little bit different. Everywhere's a little bit different, and I'm very excited about knowing that all these dirt roads exist because if you, have a long day doing the BDR, then you can kind of relax and some of these dirt roads, but some of those dirt roads are part of the BDR.

You know, there are, there are the access roads and all that. So I just highly, I again, cannot say enough, go take a class, you know, figure out what's around you. Ask, ask people, you know, like what they've done. Of course do a Google search on tours and classes, but this one that I did was called the Intro to Adventure.

And then they have an intermediate class. And then you could, you know, adapt these skills to any, any tour that you take, whether it's, uh, in the northeast part of part of them, or like even another tour group. But I have to say that these guys are just such lovely people. I mean like, just really, really good people.

And they put together a well organized. Knowledge filled experience. And I know that I'm completely a better rider for it. And honestly, I have so much work to do right now and I am, I'm half dressed, I'm trying to break in my, uh, tech sevens that I didn't wear that I've had for like six years. And I haven't even, and I'm half dressed, like I said, I'm wearing jeans and trying to break in these boots 'cause I think that I could use something boot wise a little bit more, heavy duty.

And oh, that was also the great thing was with everybody being there. Talking gear and figuring out like, what, what works for you? What works for you? What brand do you like? Oh, I don't like them anymore. You know, I had, I bought a bunch of their stuff. It didn't work well. Oh, you're short. You know, this worked for me.

Oh, you're tall. Oh, you know, this is, this is a better fit Spread the love and share the knowledge. It's super helpful and. Take a class. And it was one of, it was one of my goals for 2025 was to, take a class. And I'm very happy that I can check that off the box.

If you like what you heard and you saw. Please subscribe and like the video because it helps spread the word out and show people and let people know, well, what the classes are like. So you kind of know what you're getting into and you can be inspired to go on your own adventure. If there's anything that you wanna learn more about these tours, I will have all the links below. Again, like I said, I'm not sponsored by them. This is just my own personal experience with them and I cannot speak more highly of the whole experience. So all the information below, and as usual, Ride Smart Ciao!

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