RawHyde Adventure Rider Challenge

Where do I begin?

with a photo, of course! ;)
bmw rider crash mud pit

I’ll start by talking about what it was, I guess… RawHyde Adventures in Castaic, CA, hosted a competition called the Adventure Rider Challenge to fill 3 spots on a team to represent the US in the BMW International GS Trophy competition held in South Africa.

Here’s a snippet taken from the Adventure Rider Challenge page:

    “Every two years, BMW Motorrad hosts a 10 day, international skills competition for amateur riders, or in BMW’s own words, ‘Ambitious hobby riders’. Riding BMW F800GS’s and working as a team with your fellow countrymen, you will compete against amateur teams from countries spanning the globe. You’ll face ten days of river crossings, hill climbs, sand dunes, mechanical challenges, and cross county navigational tests designed to test your ingenuity, determination, and riding skills. This is not a race, but a journey to determine which country gets to claim the title of ‘World’s Toughest Adventure Riders’.”

I gotta say…I really didn’t know what to expect. I mean, I knew it was a skills competition with most everyone on BMWs…but I didn’t know exactly what this past weekend would entail. I was a little bit nervous. Luckily, I brought Toe with me. That dude is every bit as versatile as me, and can adapt to any situation quickly, skillfully, and without complaint (I hope he doesn’t read this! hehe).

Sooo…not too terribly long ago, Toe and I went to Rawhyde Adventures to shoot a BMW GS Challenge.

We showed up on Thursday evening. It was freezing balls cold. And windy. And really cold. With a lot of wind. And cold. Really cold. Super cold, in fact. Yeah, it was definately cold outside.

Lucky for us, we were in the trusty Element. As an aside, I really gotta throw props to Honda for making the Element. It’s such a bad ass, versatile little vehicle. It looks like a toaster, sure, but with everything inside being entirely designed for utilitarian purposes, it makes the ultimate camping vehicle. It’s even AWD and man, that thing has taken me places you’d never have thunk a toaster with wheels could go.

We immediately made camp before the sun had completely set. It was cold.

Friday was the qualifying competition. There was a large course set out that consisted of many different obstacles. Wooden step ups, sand, hill climbs, descents, tires, rocks, mud…. It was all there.

The objective was to get through the course as fast a possible with as few dabs as possible… Like a trials competition. The top 20 contestants would advance to Sunday.

Sunday was a much more intense version of Saturday.

All in all, the facilities at RawHyde were amazing. Complete with outdoor showers for the guys… Cause I love having any excuse to flail my junk in the wind.. :) Cordon Bleu chefs, amazing camping areas, everything. The people who ran RawHyde were super friendly. Service was amazing.

I felt like royalty when I was there. From what I’ve heard, famous movie stars and athletes and the likes are regulars at RawHyde. Sadly, Brad Pitt wasn’t there that weekend for me to oogle, but there were still tons of rad people there competing and spectating.

You need proof? Well, the proof is in the pics. And if you’d like to see all 56 of my favorite pictures that Toe and I took that weekend, click here.

bmw gs challenge rawhyde adventures castaic

bmw gs teeter totter

bmw gs jump jumping into water mud crossing

bmw gs making way over rockpile

bmw gs splashing through mud and water

bmw hp2 jump jumping

Yeah, there were a couple guys NOT on GS’s that were competing for the fun of it
ktm 990 super enduro crashing

bmw gs crashing going down hill

bmw gs jumpinh up step up railroad ties

bmw gs navigating tire course

bmw gs catching air

Scooter Doom doesn’t look too out of place amongst all the BMWs, does it? Hehehe!
scooter doom hides in pack of BMW gs

One of my favorite photographers ever was there on Sunday covering the event for BMW Motorrad: Jon Beck.
photog jon Beck takes pic

STOOOOP!!!! and wait for clear. ;)
cute girl

Part of the RawHyde Adventure camp down below
rawhyde adventure bmw training facility castaic, ca

And yes… Scooter Doom couldn’t handle the trip and we broke her. :( Alas, she is still broken and needs to be welded back together again.
scooter doom broken frame

Facebook Comments

5 Comments

  1. wtf did you do to your scooter?? that shit is pretty funny. Use JB weld next time, that shit is awesome.

Leave a Reply to Craig Mason Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *