"Ride the Raccoon" Southeast Munifest, May 19-20, 2012

General
1

This is a new event to celebrate the incredible riding opprtunities in the Southeastern United States.

Planning for the event is still in the early stages, but a website is now available for event details:

Ride the Raccoon Muni Fest, May 19-20, 2012.

Festival to be held on the 20 mile + trail system at Raccoon Mountain. This unique venue was built by volunteers from the Chattanooga chapter of the Southern Off-Road Bicycle Association (SORBA), in conjunction with the the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), Outdoor Chattanooga and the National Park Service Rivers Trails and Conservation Assistance (RTCA) office.

Tentative schedule of events:
•Downhill/Freeride Challenge (Megawatt)
•Trials Competition (Chunky)
•XC Trail Ride (Laurel Point)
•Time Trial Road Ride (Resevoir Loop Road)

Event Format:
•No fee for attendance
•All riders are expected to be self supported
•Insurance coverage TBD, participation may require USA membership.
•Food and snacks will be potluck style, no alcohol or illegal substances please, as this is a Federal facility and consequences for possession are quite serious.
•White elephant gift exchange: So much fun!

Raccoon Mountain is conveniently located just fifteen minutes West of Chattanooga. The city of Chattanooga offers a multitude of lodging options and is a great place to shop or enjoy a good meal. For the more adventurous and thrifty, camping is available less then ten miles from the event area at Raccoon Mountain Campground.

Look for updates as things come together!

2

excited about Ride the Raccoon

Nurse Ben-

Many thanks for organizing this event! Although I’m not yet skilled in muni, I’ll bring my 36er for the Reservoir Ride. I’d also like to watch some muni to see what it’s all about. My wife and I like the restaurants and brew pubs in Chattanooga, but we’ll bring pot luck too. Any more details on the white elephant? My wife really enjoys those.

Best regards,
Jeff

3

White elephant gift exchange: bring something silly, uni related, regifting is okay, nothing too spendy, nothing to risque, nothing illegal, etc, etc…

This event is an everyone plays sorta deal, so bring the kids, grandparents, neighbors, anyone with even the slightest interest in unicycling. If they can’t uni, we’ll teach them to uni!

Josh from Unicycle.Com is planning to attend, I bet he’ll bring some unis for demos, I’ll have some uni demos, and if all the riders being an extra uni we’ll have an army of unis!! Don’t forget the giraffes, minibikes, and other odds and ends that make unicycling so dang wierd :smiley:

I’m working on permitting and insurance, cross your fingers for free coverage, otherwise all riders will need to join the USA ($20 per person) to participate in the event. But hey, that’s a small price to pay for an otherwise free event, yeah!

I’m heading down there tomorrow to ride Small Intestine, assuming the freeze thaw warnings are over, otherwise it’s riding Enterprise. Seriously, Chattanooga has some of the best riding on the East Coast!

4

Nice! Am penciling it in on my calendar. Would really like to come but will have to see where I am with my race training and if I’m still even riding MUni by then. My transition back to riding after my heel stress fracture has been a slow one so I’m not confident I’ll even be able to or want to ride the rough stuff anymore. Sad but true. My running is much more important to me than MUni; not willing to risk major injury like that again. But we’ll see, bought some beefier riding shoes that should offer more protection. I can at least come up and do some of the road rides…

5

Munisano, for sure, come for the road riding, even the connecting trails are not much more than beginner MTB trails so pretty safe.

I’m working on the flier this weekend for UDC to send out in packaging, then I’ll start promoting it to bike shops and outdoor clubs.

I don’t imagine it’ll be some huge gathering, but a dozen to two dozen riders would be a nice start.

What shoes did you buy?

6

I’d love to do this, but not sure I can swing it. The drive is over 9 hours for me. Virginia just doesn’t seem to have many UNI riders. I haven’t met a single rider in my area, so I’d really like to do an event like this and actually meet another rider (for the first time)! I might have to wait for the NC event, which is much closer in proximity.

7

What part of Virginia do you live in? I am in Germantown, MD which is not too far from the Northern Virginia DC suburbs.

8

just asked for time off :smiley: riding the motorcycle up with both unis :sunglasses:

9

about 2.5 hours South of you in the Richmond area…

10

The timing is right so I’ll probably be able to make it; thinking of getting out and running some this and other trail systems while I’m in Chattanooga; wonderful place to run in the woods!

We’ll see how my heel is doing by then. Right now it’s tough to ride much as all the local trails are muddy messes and our system doesn’t drain very well; too much clay and limestone. So probably not a whole lot of riding until Spring anyways. But I’ll break out the old 36er soon and put the road slick back on the GUni and at least get back out there for some cross-training.

BTW, I took a number of folk’s advice and bought a pair of Five-Ten Skarvers. Haven’t tried them out other than just walking around in. They seem much beefier and protective than any other riding shoe I’ve ever worn so there is hope still!

All the best!

Rob

11

Pricey… :smiley:
I’m sure they are great, although I’ve never tried them. I love my Etnies (Wraith Skate shoe) at less than half the price, though. Different strokes for different folks… :wink:

12

Yeah well I had a shoe of that level, SixSixOne BMX shoes and I didn’t feel like it provided near enough protection for the type of battering I was putting myself through. Still sustained a stress fracture to my heel out in Moab. When you’ve run nearly 50,000 miles over 20 years (a lot of which on very gnarly terrain) and been involved in impact action sports (skateboarding, snowboarding, skiing, BMX, Mountain biking and now MUni) for nearly your entire life you body gets wrecked like mine so you don’t waste time on what’s “cheap.” Besides I got a deal on the Skarvers so didn’t pay near retail, more like half. So why not?

But like you say, we all have different backgrounds and necessities. To each their own. :slight_smile:

13

Yeah, I’ve done the same impact sports and a few others for the last 25 years, too. Until a few years ago, I raced Motocross, and paid a lot of money for SIDI boots to protect myself. However, “so far” my Muni experience has been much tamer than Moab. I can see why you would want a shoe like that for extremely rocky terrain. But, I also don’t consider Etnies cheap. They are durable, well-made quality shoes, just built for a different purpose than what you need. I’ve been doing more beginner flatland/street than Muni lately, and I’d say Etnies are close to perfect for that and the light Muni trails I ride.

14

Agreed. It all depends on what you ride. When I do ride (did ride) MUni I was really into fairly long distance on pretty difficult terrain. So I come off the MUni A LOT! So I need a very buff shoe. I agree that Etnies are adequate for the type of riding you do, heck I’ve similar that I use for my road riding. But since I could get a buff shoe at a good price, why not? I’m not as concerned as much about how durable or well made (it is important) but I’m looking for something that can take a lot of impact. So I think the thicker soles and sidewalls of the Five-Ten Skarvers should suit me fine for the type of riding I do (and hope to return to!).

15

I asked about this at the uni club in Dallas. There are several people interested. I might be able to get a group together to drive out there. We’ll see what everyone’s schedule is like when it’s closer to May.

16

The more the merrier!

So how does the webt site work for everyone?

I have not pit a bunch of time into it, in fact I have not touched it since I made it last weekend :stuck_out_tongue:

Has anyone tried to contact me through the website?

17

The website is nice - good information. I can’t commit since it is a 10 hour drive for me, but I am going to try to make it.

20

Ok so I am comeing going to try to bring a 36er and my MUni and trials and some people :stuck_out_tongue:
do you need any help with anything ben?

21

really confused i have heard a lot of good info concerning this event but where is it located(state). i dont travel much so this is getting me pretty excited cosidering its in the south east, and i am kinda new to the sport just looking to get involved:D does anyone know about the southeast munifest?

22

The more the merrier for sure! This is a great venue, worth the drive if you can manage it, maybe carpool with another forum member? Better yet, meet people along the way and get in some rides as you go, make it a real riding vacation!

As we get closer I’ll start putting the activities together and asking for volunteers. Here the basics and where we stand for the “events”:

Trials: I don’t do trials, so that is one area that a volunteer(s) could really work up. Lower and Upper Chunky have a lot of rock outcroppings, but it’s a “natural” area, so it’ll take some scouting to put together anything more than a “follow the leader” sort of format. There is a lot of stuff out there, drops, boulders, enough to keep you busy.

Road ride: This one is bit simpler because all you need is a start/finish line and someone keeping track of time, but we’ll need to come up with a format, maybe a time trial one day and a multi lap ride/tour the next. I rode with Robert today, he is a big time road rider and he is planning to attend, so maybe I can tap him to organize the road ride. The road loop around the resevoir is ~7 miles of mostly flat riding, very smooth asphalt, and halpf of the route is one way traffic only.

Downhill challenge: this can be done as a timed ride or we can do it as a group ride. Megawatt trail starts at the control center, so we need to shuttle folks to the start, but you end at Laurel Point so that will be an easy one to arrange. It’s really not to hairy, some steeps, big rocks, some drops that can be ridden or walked, best part is that it’s a downhill all the way.

XC freeride: There are a ton of choices here, so we can ride a diffent trail each day, out and back or point to point. The trails are not that hard, so something like Small Intestine can be done by beginner and experienced muni riders, slower riders can walk across loops and shortcut, so we could all finish together

Instruction and new to muni: this can be managed at Laurel Point on the easy trails and asphalt, there is a ton of space for this kind of riding and we should have a bunch of demo unis and anyone can pitch in to help teach.

I’m heading down there tomorrow to ride, so I’ll do some more scouting and see if I can get some pictures together to show the quality of trails.