| Date | September 13, 2008 |
| Hosts | Karen and Cam Witt |
| Where | Burnt Mills Park; Somerset County |
| Who (else) | Brenda and Larry Isherwood, Susan Nicolich and Dave Snope |
Cam & Karen Witt hosted their first ever Dirty DOGS Ride mostly on the dirt roads of Somerset County with amazingly little use of asphalt roads. Cam & Karen and we (Larry & Brenda) recently purchased full-suspension mountain tandems made by Ventana. Dave & Susan made some conversions to their older first tandem, a Burley Soft Ride, by putting on fatter cyclocross tires. We rode 34 miles total, and at the half way point we stopped at the Pottersville General Store and had an early, much needed lunch and enjoyed the four-horse-drawn carriage passing by from the roads we were just riding on.
We also made a stop at the Lamington Black Cemetary for slaves and free blacks and 5 Civil War Vets. Nearer the end of the ride we all chose to venture off onto some VERY tandem friendly and moderately easy single track along the River. Dave & Susan managed amazingly well on their "hybrid" off-road tandem! We all easily survived some small log crossings and various root crossings, and, when Dave & Susan attempted a ditch-type water crossing and their front tire sank in the muck, they completed in style with an unintentional dismount and landed on their feet!
Very near the end we stopped at the ice cream store and were greeted by a very friendly and large chocolate lab who was welcoming everyone from the front porch of the store. We all enjoyed the quiet dirt roads and some childlike laughs while on the off-road single track. :-) The only "injuries" sustained were some minor sticker bush scraps when we encounted some tight overgrown areas on the single track.
We thank Cam and Karen in this very hectic time for still hosting such a great ride. We look forward to the club's next Dirty DOGS ride!