NEMBAFest--Day 1

Mud.

Mud was the theme for day one of NEMBAFest 2017 in East Burke, Vermont.

The morning started out dry, as Dave Tufts, Glen Gollrad (both BMX brothers from the '80s) and I hit the road early from the Boston area, but skies turned darker and wetter as we traveled north...

That rain created quite a few headaches for campers in the RV area on Darling Hill.

There was a huge area of grass that was deceptively deep, slick, and squishy and many people got stuck.

Fortunately, I didn't, but there was one huge travel trailer that was "camped" in the middle because you could tell that there was no way he was moving until it was dry. And several others fell victim to the mud too!

 They provided entertainment for the rest of us as we were waiting for trail conditions to improve.

This tractor (pic stolen from Glen Gollrad!) shows how people actually got pulled out. The tractor was pretty amazing...

Anyway, after watching the tractor pull, setting up our site, and walking around the Expo area, it was time to head out for a ride.

The trails handled the rain amazingly well, and were in excellent condition. Our ride was short but sweet, and we got back to our camp site to hang out with my brother and about 100 riders from North Conway, NH.

The first day really was all about getting up to VT, getting set up, getting a short ride and and then chilling out.

If you look again at this pic, imagine another car with a small trailer parked next to me just about in line with the edge of my awning. Yeah, he was a little close... As more of us started coalescing on the area, I think he realized that it was going to be a busy--and likely loud--area. He moved to the another spot and I think that was the right thing to do. To be honest, at about 1:30am on Saturday as we were all kept awake by the ramblings of one of the NC crew, I was jealous, but I'm getting ahead of myself.

As I sift through all the pics (and video) from the rest of the weekend, more details will emerge...

Wanna buy some land in East Burke?