Ross County — An annual motocross event is coming up in a week that highlights vintage dirt bikes and benefits Camp Cattail.
The “Camp Cattail Weekend of Legends” will feature vintage motocross racing, modern cross-country team harescrambles, and motocross heroes, on September 14th and 15th, 2024.
Joe Uhrig was at his business instead of on his dirt bike when he explained the event and its history to me. He said it’s been going on for 16 to 18 years at Camp Cattail.
The recreational park is on Cattail Road, off Biers Run Road near County Road 550. Camp Cattail is open to the public in general, but is specifically geared to the DD community. It has 2.2 miles of paved paths in woods and meadow, with camping for the general public (but that was booked through November month ago.)
Uhrig is a member of the Chillicothe Enduro Riders, founded in 1972. “We’re not getting rich off of this. We’re tearing up our bodies and our dirt bikes to do what we love – but at the same time, to give back – and so it’s nice to be able to do that in Ross County, and that’s what Camp Cattail brings for us.” Tickets are $10.
He says Saturday will focus on the cross-country “enduro” races, including a gentler ride for restored vintage bikes – mostly late ’60s and early ’70s – that don’t have the stronger suspension of today’s dirt bikes.
Uhrig says those races will mostly be in the central meadow that is surrounded by a long paved loop path, which makes it easy for spectating. The enduro races are timed, with bikers needing to stay at 24 miles an hour regardless of terrain – which he says makes for an additional challenge that is losing popularity.
A Saturday dinner will honor “legends” of the hobby, some of them professional motocross bikers. Uhrig says the honorary meal happens every few years.
Sunday is entirely focused on “harescrable” races, a pell-mell race on trails through trees outside of the paved path. Uhrig said it takes much zig-zagging to get six miles of trail, with it even going under the entrance culvert. Several separate race events will allow all age groups to participate.
He says they make their own paths in the woods – gradually rerouting them, making them a little different each year, sometimes even reversing direction.
Uhrig says Southern Ohio is the epicenter of enduro riding, with Vinton County the center of it. Many national champions area from the region, and 15 or 20 clubs put on races here.
Hear much more in his own words in our long chat below.
