Mt. Pleasant Harescramble

This past weekend was the Mt. Pleasant Harescramble. That’s right- we went! It was at the site of Greenhurst Farm and this beautiful barn was a part of the action as you’ll see later on.

Now, for your viewing pleasure, I recorded the start of Ben’s race. Ben chose to start his own bike instead of Dad doing it and that’s why he’s towards the end of the pack at the start.

But keep reading…

There are a couple of boys that show up at almost every race. In this race, Ben was battling Weston. He’d be just so close, we’d scream and cheer for Ben to pass him, watch him come around again, and hoot and holler some more. On the final lap, Ben passed him! It was good racing!

It was dusty on the trail. Nice ‘stache, Ben!

So, we’re all excited to hear how Ben placed. We head to the awards, listen to the different place winners and hear Ben’s name for 2nd place!!

He steps up to receive his award and what is it this time?

a mug.

That’s right, folks. While thoughtful and practical AND unusual, it is not exactly what an 8 year old looks forward to receiving. Hence, the lonely picture of the mug- no Ben.

On to Bill’s race. Here’s the start of the big bikes as so aptly named. You’ll notice four rows of riders. The first row is the AA class. These are the fastest. Usually the youngest, too. The next row are the A riders- the next fastest with multiple ages. Third row- B riders, multiple ages again. Fourth row- C riders- inexperienced racers, or those who aren’t competing in the same manner as the young guns with multiple ages. (a courtesy of harescramble 101)

Did you find Bill? Remember- all black helmet, orange bike, orange shirt, WHITE pants!

Now, where does the barn come in? At the end of a lap, the riders rode through the barn where the checkpoint was. Cool!

And then out for some more dust!

Don’t worry, honey, I’ll wash up for you…

Unfortunately for Bill, his throttle got stuck wide open on the 3rd lap. Not a good thing. On downhills, he’d kill the engine and then coast down, and start ‘er back up. This lost him a lot of time and in the end he didn’t place.

He also sustained some injuries during the race. I didn’t take pictures of his owies because I was doctoring him up. Nothing major that a few band-aids and ice packs and scabs and ibuprofen couldn’t help.

Aunt Denise was visiting from Seattle and Grandma Ward donned a lawn chair for the race.

Grandpa helped at the end of Ben’s race, taking off the scoring tags.

You can also find some shade and talk bikes with the other kids.

Play with the farm dog.

Or look at the cows in the farmyard.

If you went down to the creek crossing, well then, of course, you could play in the water!

It was a great day for racin’ and a great day for family to hang out.