This was the 2nd year in a row that I was able to make it to the 12 Hour Cowbell Challenge as a spectator. The venue this year was in Davidson North Carolina at Fisher Farm Park 20 miles North of the Jar. Danger and I got there 2 minutes before the start and I must admit we were quite excited to see the Team Dicky, Dejay and Fuzzy show down south. Even though that turned out to be one of the funniest mountain bike leg pullings I have ever had the fortune to be affected by there was still so much to see and do. I had never been to Fisher Farm and from the perspective of someone who did not have to go around the course for 12 hours it was an excellent visual venue. There were lots of rolling and flat open fields lined with ribbons of single track wide trail rolling up and down and over. At a certain spot on the lower left field the vista was wide open and you could see 5 different sections of the course. I spent the first hew hours just walking backwards through the woods and fields taking pictures of the racers as they went on by. Occasionally I would recognize some familiar faces and give them some extra moral support by yelling, "HOP, HOP, HOP, HOP!", which means go in German. It was amazing to see how many people actually sped up when they heard me yelling that!
A bit later in the afternoon Bruce Dickman armed with Police style Mega Phone and I took bikes in and down to that crazy uphill switch back right log crossing. I had sort of met Bruce once before when Dicky came in top 10 overall and 1st SS at last year's ORAMM, he made me laugh then as he did in the now. Everyone took the friendly loud encouragement with a smile and a high five if you made it over. Tim K. cleared the log but then Bruce's huge high five 10 feet later knocked him over all the way to the floor. I took close to a hundred images at this one spot and as an added bonus I laughed hard most of that time at what Bruce was saying to the riders. Heckling is so much more fun than actually riding in one of these things because it is easy to bring a smile to the face of the one doing it, plus heckling is free without entry.
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