S-Tree, KY was an old BWR stomping ground

May 20, 1999 on 6:47 pm | In Mountain |

We love S-Tree. BioWheels has been conducting Customer Appreciation Weekends there for years, as well as team training camps. S-Tree is located just outside of McKee, in Jackson County, Kentucky.

When Ben from Bike Magazine called Bio Wheels and asked us to show him an anomalous slice of KY, we knew just where to take him. Five Bio Wheels/Jamis racers took Ben, Bob and Astella for an epic all-day trailblaze to Turkeyfoot. Never before had any of them seen such fast trail so laden with air-catching humps. Ahh…heaven.

Unfortunately for them, each day of their KY sojourn greeted them with a new group boasting fresh legs. We did our part to provide them with base.

There are just some rides that never ever leave your mind. I’ve always wanted to write about some of the epic rides I’ve enjoyed, and this will be the first. In the spring of ’99, Bike Magazine’s east coast correspondent, Ben Hewitt, called us at Bio Wheels and told us that they were doing a story on Kentucky singletrack, and asked us to take his party out for a day of riding. He need not ask, for we’re always up for riding down in Daniel Boone. We choose S-Tree State Forest for it’s endless miles of undulating jumps and berms, and because we’ve held our customer appreciation weekend down there every year since we’ve opened. A simple day of posing for scenic shots in the Kentucky wilderness? Potentially it could have turned out that way I guess, but little did Ben and his party know about what they were in store for: a five hour epic with six Bio Wheels expert racers intent on only one thing – racing each other for the entire five hours and fifty miles.

In doing his research, Ben talked with a KYMBA (Kentucky Mountain Bike Assoc.) representative who gave him Bio Wheels’ name as being potential guides while they were in KY. We talked him into two rides, one in Harbin Park in Cincinnati for an urban park feature, and S-Tree, for the KY article. Bike Magazine hired Bob Allen on as photographer, and he brought along his wife Stella. Ben, Bob, and Stella were to spend one week visiting different places in KY each day, meeting new and fresh riders each day who were eager to show off their prowess to the famous photographer and editor.

Our first ride with them at Harbin was a fun, leisurely jaunt through the twisting turns of the park. The ensuing article on the park had Ben stating, “three miles never felt so good.” Quite a complement to Nick Sapp, the daddy of the Harbin trail system. They took some photos of everyone; we had some Mexican at the popular hot spot, Cancun Mexicana (where Ben sampled the “Kentucky Burrito”), and went our separate ways until next Saturday, when we would meet them once again down in Berea, KY.

A couple things happened in the week between our rides. Local riders hammered the Bike crew upon every day in small towns throughout the state. Bob Allen carried his camera gear in a backpack that fully loaded weighed 50 lbs., and rode like this every day for 3-4 hours a day during his stay in KY – what a honch! Ben, a very capable expert rider, showed up at S-Tree looking very worked over himself. On the Bio Wheels side of things, we were fixing to create quite an impression on the trio from Bike.

Matt called a couple of our expert racers who were residing at Lindsay Wilson College in Columbia, KY, to come and join us down at the photo shoot. Kevin Caldwell and Matt Hoyes are two guys who consistently place top five in the local expert races around the Tri-state. Our Cincinnati expert racer Bruce Pisarek was on board for the ride as well. Bruce recently posted the second fastest lap time overall at the past 24 hrs of Snowshoe, only 1 minute behind Trek pro Chris Eatough! When I heard about whom all was going to be at the ride, I started mentally preparing myself for what was to happen, the dream-training ride with teammates.

I don’t think Matt knew what he was in for when he invited Kevin, Matt, and Bruce along, because I’d been waiting for a team ride like this forever. After graduating from college, all used to organized team practices and meetings, I’ve always been bummed about how hard it is to get teammates together for training rides in the real world. Differing work schedules and commitments make team practices very rare after college and high school. I was literally twitching in the parking lot at S-Tree, ready to race off and put the hurt on my teammates. I was especially eager to see how I’d do against Kevin, who had been racing semi-pro class for a couple years. I’d had a great spring training period and was itching to try and earn my semi-pro license that summer. Ben and Matt were discussing with everyone how the ride was going to work. We would ride out to a scenic area with good lighting, pose for photographs, and then ride out to the next spot. I wasn’t paying attention to any of what they were saying; I was just focusing on beating up on Kevin and everyone else. I could tell I wasn’t the only person thinking that way, because Kevin, Matt Hoyes, and Bruce looked as nervous as I felt.

MJ (Matt Johnson) gave the word to roll out, and we were finally off! Kevin was the first to the singletrack, and I was following right behind him. For anyone who’s every ridden S-Tree, it’s impossible not to get caught up in the rhythm of the trail right out of the gates, i.e., go as fast as humanly possible. I was an example of bad group ride etiquette, riding right on Kevin’s rear wheel to force him into a faster pace. I even tried passing him a few times unsuccessfully. It didn’t take much of that before all of us were at full-on race pace. I looked back after awhile to see everyone right there; except the photographers that is. The whole team was spaced out each 10 yards apart, just rippin’ around the banked turns and skying off the endless jumps. Ben Hewitt, too much the competitor, was right there in the mix, racing alongside Bruce and MJ. We made it to the top before the first lengthy downhill in record time, and for some unknown reason we all eventually remembered the whole photo shoot thing. We pulled over before the downhill, everyone panting and communicating with their eyes how much fun they were having. Our eyes were beaming through shades and behind helmets, and not a word was spoken for what seemed an eternity. MJ finally broke the silence after some time, “Uh, gee guys, I think we left Bob and Stella way back there. Maybe we should take it a little easier.” Matt was right, for it took Bob and Stella at least ten minutes to get up to us, and we weren’t even 30 minutes into the ride! When Bob finally pulled up, I could tell how much he was cursing his camera equipment for not letting him in on the action. It was obvious that he was a rider very capable of hauling ass when not strapped down with gear. Stella rode up with the biggest smile on her face, and despite the fatigue that she felt, was having the best time on the trails.

But once we rolled out again, it was back to business. Matt finally gave up on keeping everyone under control and started passing everyone on the next downhill. Finally we got to our first scenic photo op and cooled off. For quite a while afterwards, we did some stop and go riding in order to get photos for the article. They had us navigate an incredibly scenic and huge switchback. We descended a gnarly spur trail over some roots and stuff. They also caught us riding by a pocketed sandstone outcropping. After getting the photo stuff out of the way, it was back to the festivities. From the last photo stop we raced all the way to the turnaround point, which was at a road crossing. The riding had evolved from smooth rolling terrain to long arduous climbs and descents. At the turnaround point after three hours, we sat and rested together for a while. It was at this point that Ben shared with us how much riding they’d done in the previous week with all their new KY friends. He was bonked, and was eating as many Cliff Bars as he could put down. Bob and Stella were also tired from the whole trip, and were going to leisurely ride back in. The picture-taking being over, we were free to haul as much ass as we wanted to the whole way back. And that’s what happened. We took off in a fury, and raced up and down the long climbs back to the cars. One by one, everyone blew-up. Kevin and I were the last two yet to bonk. On the last climb before the trail descended and leveled out, I passed a wasted Kevin midway up. My celebration was very short-lived, as I bonked just as I was finally cresting the top. I descended down the other side in a dizzying haze, twice scarcely missing flinging off the side of the foothill. With arms weak from fatigue, I got my chance at rest by sailing headfirst into a creek crossing. I was so tired that I sat in the hub-deep water for what seemed forever. I eventually looked over to see a tired Kevin summon up just enough energy to laugh at me as he rode through the creek, drenching me once again as I lay worthlessly there. The remaining hour and a half was a complete blur.

The scene at the parking lot was one of fatigue, silence and sadness. The ride was over, and it was time to say our good-byes and part our separate ways. Personal thanks go out to our new friends at Bike Mag, for putting up with what was to become a dream-training ride for us. Ben left for Vermont exhausted, and Stella and Bob returned to Montana similarly fatigued. The irony lies in the fact that after four months of waiting for the story to publish, not one word or photo from the S-Tree ride was put into the Kentucky article.

(One shot surfaced in Buzz a year later. I guess our group of racer boys could not compare to Ben’s pursuit of Kentucky Whiskey-mj)
Look for Bio Wheels/Jamis jerseys in the Sept. ‘99 issue of Bike Magazine.

Thanks Bike, for showing you care, just don’t tell the world how to find Kentucky.

Check out these sweet old pics.