“I gave up. I let all of my club memberships lapse and absolutely quit volunteering on anything motorcycle related”
What were some of the highlights during your time of running the Boogie? Something happened in 1993. I retired from GMC and became a partner in Blair Sharpless Trail Tours and Dirt Bike School. As a result of this I was slowly drawn back into the volunteer stuff again. The numbers of customers through the DB school had us thinking that there should be venues other than competition for these people to take part in. Hence the drive to host some trail rides. During this time I brought Blair to Calabogie for a ride and he became as enthusiastic as I had been previously. So, with Blair’s enthusiasm, a steadily growing data base of Trail Tour customers and a growing OFTR environment we decided to resurrect the Calabogie Boogie. A highlight might be about the last year Blair and I did the ride out of Barryvale with over two hundred riders. Some things are memorable, like Blair doing the riders meeting in the pouring rain and having the rain stop at the completion of the meeting. The sun came out and the weekend was great, except for Blair’s new girlfriend breaking her leg! Oh well, he married her.
Where do you think the sport is headed? Is there a future for this kind of ride in Ontario/ Canada? Interesting question. Recently a lot of organizers have bought into the concept as an easy money maker. Some organizers are more enthusiastic than others and therefore some events are better. Some events not so good, usually a result of the effort put into them. I think trail rides are here to stay, but there may be a trend to incorporate a competition element into some. I think this is good if it is well done but very bad if poorly done. I believe there is a slight negative effect to our Ontario trail rides in that we are not breeding good competition riders with our easy well groomed trails. I just got back from Alberta where I went for a three hour ride that reinforces that fact. The western riders ride much tougher terrain and the BC people don’t remove ANYTHING off the trail. If a rider can get over, through or around an obstacle it’s good enough!! Traction Traction