It was two o’clock on Saturday March 27th when Shane Kelly and myself (D. Lee) finally rolled into Ken Evans culdesac. We were only 4 hours late which, giving the errands we had to run and parts we had to build to even get on the road, I thought wasn’t too bad. Shanes two place enclosed trailer had his sled, a 600 ski doo race sled for Randy to buy (or spare parts) that we picked up that morning 1hour out of the way, and all of Ken, D. Lee, Shane, and Siigs gear for a long road trip. To top it off we put Ken’s 154 xp in there too. Towing a two place enclosed with 3 sleds, a sled deck with a 146 xp and a 162 M7, all the gear and whatever else we had was a moving carnival. After loading all Kens Gear we were on the road to Jackson. We had 15 hours till the finals started and three of us to split the driving. Your thinking 3? “what about the 5 sleds?” Well Siig was in Vegas, he managed to book a flight into Salt Lake City, which was the closest he could get flying South West Airlines, on Sunday where Fuzzy Hall would pic him up and drive up to Wyoming to meet us. Randy was already there at the hill climbs capturing the action, and with Alpine Assassins Team rider Nate Zollinger having a shot at the King of Kings tittle, we were all fired up to see it go down.
We had slept in Pocatello and got an early start to make the drive and arrive in Jackson in the mid morning. In route there we saw a sign that said “no trailers over pass” which was tetton pass. With a full load we decided that we should go for it and maby the sign was posted for big rigs. It turned out not bad at all and was nothing we weren’t used to at home. We did get a chuckle about it tho and glad we didn’t see any 5-O. So we pulled into Jackson and it was jamming. Day of finals and people were everywhere. Looking up at the course we saw it was mostly dirt, rocks, and tree stumps. Wow, looked like some sleds would be taken out just from running the course. We contacted Randy, who was at the top of the run on the film platform. 
He saw us driving around town from up there and directed us to a sweet front row parking spot, and we didn’t have to pay which was a bonus. Shane, Ken, and I got our media passes and went to work. Seeing how it was finals we went straight to the hill and stationed ourselves to capture the run. It was carnage, with many racers not even making the finish due to the gigantic holes with rocks and boulders there to stop a sled instantly. 
Nate Zollinger was looking awesome and riding well until one of these big rocks stopped his sled and he was done. His last run of the day and no tittle. He put up a hard charge for it though and made it look easy. Good Job Nate, there is always next year. Another Alpine Assassin, Steve Martin, was racing and ready to lay down a fast time. He was coming up and hauling looking real good and steady in his final run. Then some sled failure threw him into his bars and that was it. He was pushing his machine so hard that he wore the teeth off the spline of his drive shaft. He was not happy with that but had made a valiant effort.
With Steve out and Nate done, the Tapio brothers were looking real good at taking the tittle. Thats when Shad Free stepped to the line and layed down the fastest time of the day! He came through all the gnarly rocks, holes, stumps, and dirt flying. Through the last gates in a wheelie and parked it on top with the tittle for open class! With this win he would be in the King of Kings run and was looking confident that he would walk away with bragging rights!
The day was coming to an end and the temp was dropping. The King of Kings was about to go down. The course was ripped up and looking gnarly, but when it came to it Shad Free took to it like just another hill and slaughtered it with confidence and speed. Not only did he win the open class but also the King of Kings and was the last rider of the day. A great way to end the Championships, congratulations Shad.
With the hill climbs over we went to help our friends at HMK pack up their displays. It was a long day and we were all tired. Then it dawned on us that Siig and Fuzzy had not made it there yet. We were wondering where they could be? At that point I got a call to find out they were in Alpine WY at a local bar. So they were good and close to meeting up with us. After watching all this riding we were jonesing to get some ourselves. Our plan was to head to Pinedale to ride with Steve Martin and Taylor Dyess the next day. So we loaded up after some grub and made the drive. Coming from the Sierra, where this season dumped a ton of snow, we noticed that there was a lot of dirt here in Wyoming without snow on it. We were very sceptical of the conditions for the next few days of riding.
When we rolled into Pinedale we met up with Fuzzy and Siig at motel, they seemed like they had been having a good time and a good drive. It was nice to have the Team together and on to the next stop of the trip. Which meant we got to do some riding. Pinedale is a snowmobile town, everyone owns one and there are tracks everywhere. This year there wasn’t much snow but Steve and Taylor know the area and were going to take us to horse creek. So we crashed out so we could be rested for a good day. That morning Ken had to find someone to sodder a relay for his 154, which to our surprise happened in only a few minutes. Some lawnmower shop hooked him up and did it proper. Then it was on to horse creek. We drove down the road and parked it in the middle. Taylor and Steve said no one would be coming this way so no big deal to take up the road with our rigs. The weather was nasty, a storm was blowing in and the light was super flat making it hard to see anything. Steve found a roller that looked super flat to the rest of us, but he seemed to like it and his xrs with an 800 was floating over it with ease. 
He sessioned it for a bit and then we went on to find some better terrain. The weather was getting worse and harder to see. Riding somewhere new is one thing, but riding somewhere new with out being able to see the terrain makes for some slow going. We were riding along a wind lipped ridge and Siig found a wall that put him into his bars pretty hard. Then there was a ravine/ creek that we had to navigate, again hard to tell what the snow does when it is all blank and no definition. After a few fun wheelies and finding the correct route we made it to a back bowl and Steve and Taylor were jumping their shorty’s over a small table top. The snow was somewhat soft and we all were just riding around due to the weather being so funky. But Steve threw some killer seat grabs and then Taylor decided to try to pull this small climb that was nothing but trees. I mean you couldn’t even see through them, but Taylor was all about it.
He pinned his race sled and went for it. It was classic, he ended up vertical with trees everywhere. Steve and their other buddy hiked up to help him. They did some slight limbing and then rolled Taylors sled back down the hill. Taylor wouldn’t give up tho. 
He talked Siig into letting him ride his 162 M7 to try it again. Which ended up in a very similar spot. While trying for this climb Taylor somehow worked his shoulder and was not doing good. We then decided that it would be a better idea to ride out and stop at the warming hut. 
It was fun to ride Horse Creek, but we wished it was better weather. It seemed like there could be lots to do their and some fun areas. Since it was a funky day and we had stopped at the fireworks store in Battle Mountain NV we thought we should go back to the trailers and have a fireworks war. So after a little warm up, we headed back. Ken and Shane had pinned it the whole way aback and set up an ambush. It was awesome and Shane was the only one who received any injuries due to fireworks. A great way to end a day of riding. The first day of riding on the trip was not what we were looking for so we decided to move on and try to stay in front of the storm that was about to hit the entire area. It was late so we went back to the motel we stayed at the night before to make a plan and be ready for the next day. We still had a week ahead of us and could end up anywhere………
