By Peter Fazio on Unrecorded Date: Edit

Hi folks,

Below is a copy of an email I sent to Brad Dunn about the Madera Poker Run that we attended on Aug. 12, 2001. Brad suggested that I post it here. The following are my personal observations and feelings about this Poker Run. This was our first time participating in any such event and were not sure what to expect.

Hi Brad,


Speaking of riding, this past weekend, Aug 12, the family and I went to Madera, PA for a poker run w/ our Max. The ride was a 30 mile loop through some really cool trails. Lot's of mud/water holes, creeks to cross and a few technical rock sections (I'm well experienced on the rocks from Tower City, you know ! ) and a bunch of fun dirt woods trails. The trails were great, we really got to show off the Max's mud and water slogging abilities. I was really surprised how easy the max goes through all kinds of deep slop. As you might expect, we were the only AATV anywhere in sight and were constantly gawked at like we were a UFO or something. Everything else was the "insert standard brand" quad or a dirtbike. Also, as you might expect, once on the trail, quads would go zooming around us or be riding right on our rear because we were too slow. I didn't mind, I'd pull over let them blaze past and then it happened. Further, up the trail we caught up to a "traffic jam" of quads. I asked "what was the holdup ? " A quad guy responded "a giant mud/water hole". That's all I had to hear, so I crawled out of line, because a quad was stuck in some "minor" ruts in front of us, clambered over some ditches and got in front of some other quads that were looking pretty helpless, then turned to be confronted by a big black water hole about 200 ft across ! The traffic jam was because none of the quads were going through the water hole, they were all trying to squeeze through a narrow "dirtbike" bypass in the woods. So I said to the wife, "what do ya' think ?", she said "go for it ! " So I gave Max the gas and w/ a giant bow wave that splashed almost up onto the windshield we were in and just kept movin' right along and climbed out the other side. Piece o' cake !!! The quad guys were all cheering us and hootin' up a storm. They were indeed impressed by that "weird little bathtub machine" ! So it went the whole rest of the ride, we would get passed constantly during the day because whenever the trail turned "nasty" we would pass scores of quads at a time as they tried to find an easier route around the mud and water or the nasty big rocks. Then after we got ahead, they would catch up and want to pass us again. After a while the routine got pretty old. We got tired of having to pull over and wait as 100 or so (I kid you not) quads would go screaming past raising a massive dust storm for us to breathe. We noticed that the quad guys seem to stop alot and take rest breaks and then we would wind up passing them again. Coninued on next post.