Snowshoe - GNCC June 2021

Snowshoe & GNCC Racing!? This sounds awesome.. everything that we love..360 Degree Mountains views.. Staying in the village with shopping & restaurants.. swimming.. and racing all in 1 trip! Snowshoe is a new track for us as they don’t race micros here; due to COVID regulations it wasn’t raced at all last year.

It‘s now the end of June as we are off to Snowshoe, WV for round 9 of the 2021 GNCC series!!

We know it is expensive area to stay/eat..well any area is for us as the kids want everything they see!.. and they are always hungry, but never eat the food you order 🤷🏼‍♀️😒! Our hotel room has a 2 burner electric stove top and a small fridge.. we got the grill for some burgers and hot dogs. We packed the cooler full of simple breakfast and lunches for the weekend! We will enjoy some restaurants in the evenings for dinner..some Starbucks.. and desserts of coarse.. it is partly a vaca to right!? Let’s go GNCC racing!!

We are checking in on Wednesday this week so that Hayden can attend the Yamaha GNCC University! That consist of packing a little extra.. the stock bike for the university.. extra riding gear.. the trailer is loaded down again!

---

Wednesday

Wednesday morning we are on the road wanting to get there around 12-1:00pm. About a 4 hour drive from home so not too bad! What a pretty drive the last 1-2 hours were 😍 mountains … mountains… and more mountains!

We decided to stop in Elkins, WV for lunch .. about 1.5 hours of driving left.. almost there!!

Snowshoe Mountain

We made it!! We have no idea where to go..it looks like GNCC is setting up the gate at the bottom of the mountain, but the gates are not open yet? We drive on up the mountain to see where to go and check in. We are staying at the Expedition Station, but our check in is at Allegheny Springs (it did specify this in an email). As we are driving through everything is reserved for GNCC, pro pits, vendors, racer TV.. yea the parking lot we thought we had at our hotel is reserved for racer TV! We knew GNCC took over the mountain but where do people park!? 🤔

That was really our only issue .. they originally told us we had to park our truck/trailer at the Top of the World.. about a mile down the road!? 😳 With a baby? no bicycles, stroller, or anything in the trailer would be with us..our room isn't big enough to completely unpack! Not even to keep the stroller with us?!? We don’t have cell service here to text each other if one does leave .. this really wasn’t a good set up for us. We had no idea how parking worked as we had never been here. Thinking we were there early for the University we would have parking without a problem. However, the camp director was super helpful and without question offered to get us closer parking. It took a few to get it together, but we were very thankful they were able to help us out.

Our hotel was in the best spot! The GNCC University is on the left side in the Big Top, the start isn't too far in front, the finish is behind the hotel, and to the right is the village! When we booked the GNCC University they gave us a couple of options for lodging; we picked the Expedition Station.. it is an older hotel that has been updated. Very nice and clean! We had room #315 BRIGHAM JUNIOR STUDIO CONDO

Inside room photos are copied from the hotel website. (click on Expedition station above for the link).. by the time we got to the room there was no photo ops!

Click the link below to explore

The Village

Ok y’all know we love the Smoky Mountains..but the views and all the evergreens at Snowshoe ❤️

AND then you add GNCC RACING!! 🏁

While we were blundering around checking out the mountain we took a walk through pro pits.. Hayden wants a picture with WFR‘s trailer; he can’t wait to get GNCC U started!

6:00pm It’s time to head to the Big Top for the start of the Yamaha GNCC University!!

We are all super excited as none of us have experienced anything like this before. The ATV instructors: Walker Fowler, Johnny Gallagher, Jeff and Traci Pickens, Josh Merritt, Mark Notmam, and Danny Fowler

Tonight they explained what would be happening over the next day and a half. There are ATV riders, dirt bike riders, males, females, and all ages!

Time for a good night rest as GNCC U is an all day event tomorrow!! GOODNIGHT 💤

---

THURSDAY

8:00am Hayden is dressed in his gear ready for GNCC U!! We are all at the Big Top to send Hayden off for some training!! 8:00am-9:00am is breakfast for the riders and making sure everyone is ready to go!

9:00AM they are headed off with the instructors on their quads .. riding a few miles out to an open field where they will start training! David is on the e-bike following along to see how this goes!

Luke, Lynlee, and I are free to venture around! We walked around the Village to check out some shops. Then we walked about a mile down the paved walking trail to visit our friends camper in the Top of the World parking. Luke was mad he didn't have his Stacyc bike to cruise on..dad took the trailer keys with him so we are locked out.

It is almost noon, we head down the ski lift to the lake area to meet David and Hayden for lunch at the Boat House. (All of Hayden’s meals were included with the GNCC U) Others are allowed to pay and eat as well, either the same food as riders or just order off of the menu.

Hayden ate lunch with some race buddies and Traci Pickens! He had a good lunch as he didn’t eat breakfast .. just some water! I think his belly was to nervous, now he’s having a blast and ready to keep going!!

Some photos from the morning session of GNCC U :

Hayden is good to go so David is coming back to the village with us. Luke is wanting to go swim! Admission to Split Rock Pools were included with our stay! There’s an indoor pool, outdoor pool, and hot tub with mountain views!! 😍

We relaxed poolside for a little bit.. it wasn’t too long before Luke was bored!

1:00pm - 5:00pm Hayden will be out training in the mountains.. this time they were taking them to practice riding over rocks. Hayden says this is when he got to work with Walker! He was excited that Walker gave him 2 thumbs up after riding across the rocks.. Hayden said, "I just went right over them without getting stuck!"

5:00PM they get back to the Big Top. They announced riders have an hour to get cleaned up to head back to the Big Top for dinner and stations until 8:00pm. All of us enjoyed dinner together and then parents did the stations with the kids which was helpful for us as well!

First was mechanical - Mark Notman, Danny Fowler, and Jeff Pickens were answering questions about bike set ups and anything else parents/riders had questions about!

Next, was a station on nutrition (THANKS Walker for telling the riders what you eat on race day, this encouraged Hayden to eat more eggs/bacon! 🤗 MOM Win!).. I enjoyed listening to this session! Traci Pickens and Rachel Archer did a great job explaining how fresh food is important and avoid processed foods; this was another MOM win!!

Then we were off to learning about social media, how it can be beneficial, pointers for whats good to share and what to avoid. Hayden doesn’t have his own social media yet as we manage his race page, but it was nice to let him here all the pointers from Johnny Gallagher, Becca Sheets, and Randy Hawkins! All of these instructors are awesome, every instructor was helpful and taught or improved Hayden skills and techniques!

8:00PM they are having a fire with s’mores and corn hole to finish off the evening!! Luke’s been waiting all day for this 🔥

Its been a fun filled day, and we are all ready for a good nights rest as everyday is an early morning!! 💤

---

FRIDAY

8:00AM Hayden is dressed in his gear and off to breakfast with the GNCC U! Hayden ate scrambled eggs and bacon today 😉 (Thanks nutrition crew) David is taking the e-bike out with Hayden today. Luke, Lynlee, and I are staying in the room resting this morning, then going to check out some shops. We’ll meet up with them around noon for the completion ceremony of the University.

Friday Morning GNCC U

Hayden practicing...

and then riding with Walker..

11:30am Time to head over to the Big Top for the completion ceremony!! Hayden has a few minutes to get cleaned up for lunch. After lunch they will start the ceremony. At the beginning of the University each of the ProATV racers explained to riders they would be giving out gold star awards at the end to the rider that stood out the most to them!

We can‘t describe how excited we were when Walker Fowler (6 time national champion working on 7) chose Hayden for riding buttery smooth!! 🤩

After the ceremony Hayden and I ask Walker for a picture with the Jersey. Little did I know Walker was going to carry on a conversation with me about how good he thought Hayden was riding on a 125. We talked about Hayden’s previous racing and riding experience, and the boys making trails in the field at home. We talked for a few mins before David joined us.. and then Walker‘s dad Danny had good things to say about Hayden‘s riding as well! That conversation alone was worth the money we paid for the University!

At least to us.. I really do this for family fun to have money spent on lasting memories rather than “things” .. but sometimes you do feel like your tossing money around like like you would never run out 🤑😳😬..and quickly see your bank accounts going down down! What another $40 part ..yea and we needed these $60 plastic circles !? and more of that SC1 .. how much is that a bottle 😳 but maybe Hayden’s spending some of his college fund now preparing for his future career!? 🤷🏼‍♀️ And if not.. it’s still worth every penny for the friendships made, memories, and time spent together.

We are all just learning as we go! We are THANKFUL and BLESSED to have the opportunity to have this awesome experience. Thank you Walker and Danny for all the positive comments!!

Hayden loved the University and can’t wait to try it again!! Hopefully we will see some improvements on race day!

It’s Friday afternoon and race day is tomorrow!! We head back to the hotel room to rest a bit and make some pizza grilled cheese 😋 .. yea GNCC U just had lunch but lunch meat sandwiches isn’t on Hayden’s list 5-10 items that he will eat!😂🤷🏼‍♀️

We all rode bikes up to the Shafer‘s camper to visit for a bit before the boys take off to check out the track.

David, Hayden, and Logan took off on bikes to check out the track.. Luke wanted to go back to the lake to play at the playground. They have a nice playground beside the Boat House restaurant that I neglected getting any pics of x2!

Down the ski lift we go.. (unlimited use of Ski lift was also included in our stay)

While the boys were finishing up their track we happened to soar over them returning from the lake to the village & David had to check out his picture taking skills!

The Shafer’s head back to their campsite for the evening and we went to the hotel to freshen up for dinner.

Tonight it is the FoxFire Grill in the Village! We had great seats on the patio listening to Live music playing in the Village center.

After dinner we head back to the hotel to rest up for race day!!

---

Saturday

Rise and Shine it’s race day!! ☀️🏁

6:00AM Time to get up and ready! Today we race at 8:00AM!

It’s looking like a beautiful sunny day.. the view this morning 😍

I found my spot here just around turn 1 to watch the start! I'm super nervous as they are starting on the main road on pavement here today!!

I love the motivation of the music they always have playing before the race..

They are starting in rows of 5 today, the current top 5 in points get the front row of their class, and after that numbers are drawn. Hayden is in row 22, the last row of 5 in his class. This race is scored differently, and I don't completely know how to explain that! (I believe there are 4 rows for his class today).

Surprise!! Traci Pickens stopped by before the race!! Goodluck!

Ok it's that time ... there's the National Anthem and Ricky with the prayer, "keep all of the kids safe and let them have fun out there today!" 🙏🏻 and then... Teeeeeeennnn SECONDS!!!!

My view of the start:

YAY!! A good start taking off first in his row of 5!!

and… Hayden‘s view of the start…

David takes off on his bike, and I have Luke and Lynlee in the bicycle trailer stroller.. trying to get around to the finish - through the parking lot and down steps! I know it will be a few before he comes through, but doesn't matter.. your mom adrenaline kicks in and you want to get where you are going! David rides right up and down the steps on his bike like nothing...he did stop and help me with the bike trailer. There we are carrying it up and then back down steps. I could of waited for all of the quads to start then walked right down the road over to the finish.. but what fun would that be!?

This is what I get to see of the race..

Luke is in the stroller covered up with his blanket pouting because it is cold and he don't like to watch Hayden race..never really has liked watching, but he loves everything else about it! You don’t want to talk to him on race mornings! Especially when they are this early! 😳

Lynlee is in the carrier strapped to me as she is back to sleep and keeping warm.

Hayden should be coming: I walk over below the finish banner to snap some pics when he comes through and cheer him on!!

There he is... checking in 10th for lap 1 what is that ..sounds like a tractor running.. 😳🤯oh man that is not good.. I'm thinking to myself as Hayden sees me and pulls over to the side of the track.. "Mom, my bike isn’t running good, doesn't have power and this sounds really bad!" We both look down to see a lot of oil splashed around and it is dripping. He gets off the track and shuts it down within seconds. There is a few other dads around that offer to help.. (that is how true GNCC nation works!) we made sure the oil cap was tight in case that was the issue (happened on another race earlier in the year).. oil cap was good.. darn I was hoping that would be an easy fix! I'm trying to look for David.. we don't have any cell service to text or call. We have walkie talkies that are at home in the camper AGAIN..Someday we will get it all together..maybe!

Hayden is all flustered mad telling me about this other rider running into the back of him, he is asking if that did something to his bike. Hayden says he was cruising down a straight when another rider rear-ended him running his tire up into the back of Hayden's bike. They were stuck together and a guy standing by helped them get untangled. He said once they were pulled apart his bike started right back up and he took off, but not long after that he thought it didn't seem to have as much power. He says it didn't sound like it did at the finish, but he knew it wasn’t right.. he was just riding easy looking for his dad or Josh to check it out. I've learned a lot about his quad and try to learn things that I could do to help save a race if needed, but yea I have no idea when it comes to someone hitting you in the back end and I see oil leaking out.. I wouldn't know the first thing to fix at that point!

We don't see anything else that could be fixed .. oil is still dripping.. I'm looking for Josh, Heidi, David ... anyone around!??!? David speeds around on his bike so he can be from one end to the other who would know! He knows I am at the finish today so once he doesn't see Hayden come around he will be through to see if I have seen him.. eventually he'll show up.

About 5 minutes later (felt like 20) here he comes with a look of what!??? as he sees Hayden pulled off the track with me, and I'm yelling all about the oil probably looking like an crazy lady with a baby sleeping in the carrier..as I’m thinking his bike has likely blown up ..I don't even know how Lynlee is still sleeping at this point!?!? She is a RACE BABY.. the sounds of motors running is like a sound machine for her. She‘s not grumpy like Luke yet 🤨

David checks out the bike, there's no way he can go back out on the track to finish. Unfortunately, the bike needs towed back to the trailer. The case that holds the motor is cracked across it. David is off to find BNR Motorsports trailer to let then know we will need the bike looked at/worked on once again. See what I mean 💰💸 just put some wings on it and toss it!

This is a lot to us as I know it happens, but we were fortunate with the DRR the past 2 years we did a refresh at the beginning of the year, maintenance it after every race and it never broke down on the track, it finished EVERY race. Breaking was bound to happen eventually.. but we liked our record of finishing every race!

And here is a clip from his GoPro of when he was hit from behind and stopped:

Once the race is over the GNCC guys tow the bike to a trailer for us, thankfully there was a guy that lived in the area of BNR that offered to haul it back to their shop for us. We were so excited to see how Hayden finished this race after going through the GNCC U, but we are thankful no one was hurt! This has been an awesome trip so far so we will shake it off and enjoy the rest of our weekend!

Stacy Mundy Photography had a chance to snap a few awesome photos this morning!

And the final results… he wasn’t last! Finishing 16 out of 18.

Results copied from GNCC Racing

We head back to the trailer to drop off gear and then to our room to freshen up, get something to eat. Hayden had been working hard this trip so he's ready to relax and enjoy all the fun activities we have access to. His buddy Logan is meeting up with us to rock wall climb and head to the Split Rock Pools!

First we are off to rock wall climbing and the trampoline jump!! Hayden and Logan make it to the top.. Luke is impressive to, look at him go!

Next, we are off to swim and watch the Pro ATV race. David and I got great seats beside the hot tub with an awesome view! Hopefully Lynlee is ready for a nap!

We think it's a little chilly for us to swim.. the kids they don't mind! They can warm up in the hot tub.

We were able to see Fowler stop by his pit during the race..

The boys are done swimming, Logan needs to rest up for his race tomorrow and Luke has his Stacyc race later tonight!

On the way from Split Rock pools to our hotel we stop at the Yamaha tent for Luke to try out some dirt bikes. He's starting to mention he would like a dirt bike to ride.. he doesn't like the little 50 Polaris quad we have at home. We'll see if he gets a little more serious about it .. he might find a PW50 beside the Christmas tree this year. 🤔

We need a snack to hold us over until dinner so we stopped by the Waffle Cabin... YUMM!! Waffles with ice cream and chocolate syrup in the middle 😋

Dinner tonight is at the Old Spruce! We really wanted to eat at the Junction or Cheat Mountain Pizza, but the lines tonight were crazy long. We didn't make reservations like we had planned.. We knew Saturday night would be crazy busy!?!? Dinner was quick and good at the Old Spruce! The lime Margarita was strong! 😜

Now we are off to get Luke ready for the Stacyc race! He is so excited, he loves that he gets his time to shine. He knows he has Carl & Linda, Josh, Heidi and the boys, and many other race friends all here cheering him on!!

Now we are off to find dessert.. well some have decided they are too tired to walk around anymore today... So David, Hayden, and Lynlee take off to the room, and Luke and I are off to find dessert. Hayden wanted strawberry shortcake from a food trailer parked in the village center.. They JUST sold out.. 😟so we move on.. every dinner place is pretty busy still, people are starting to get their party faces on! We are beside the Old Spruce and we knew they had cheesecake... so The Old Spruce it is.. Cheesecake for David and Hayden.. and Luke gets a chocolate chip cookie with vanilla ice cream! YumYum!! I already had my dessert before dinner 😋

We are all exhausted after a long day.. we are off to bed early as we want to avoid the party crew tonight!! We’ve heard it can get a little wild & crazy🤪. Tomorrow morning we will be up early to watch the Shafer boys race then head home.

GOODNIGHT

---

SUNDAY

8am we are at the starting line to see Logan off ... and then 10am Conner is off!!

David hasn‘t had the chance to ride the ski lift yet this weekend.. so we decided to take one more ride with him! Lynlee loves it!

We are all packed up and ready to head out as soon as Conner is finished as the road will be blocked off for the 1PM PRO race start. We are ready to head home and clean up so we can enjoy the rest of SUMMER!! BECAUSE if you didn't notice from the pics, even in June... SNOWSHOE is not my kinda summer! BRR!! 🥶

We are on the road again ... heading back home!! We will return in September with 4 more rounds off GNCC racing to go for 2021!!

SUMMER BREAK IS HERE!! But stay tuned as we will be out on camping adventures, and then to our resort in the Smoky Mountains for VACATION..no cleaning up mudd...no racing.. no cooking.. just a week of whatever we want to do on our time kind of vacation! ⛰ The mountains are calling!! ⛰

Thanks for Reading!!

Disclaimer: My full throttle blogs are for entertainment purposes only. These are my families stories to share for fun, and our opinions only. I am not giving professional advise or recommendations. Thank you for reading!