.Mostly, they are old and fat or young and lazy. Walking into a blind or tree stand from the truck...that's a short hike!
Maybe I will set up the NOS Cinelli as a Cyclocross bike and hit the biathlon circuit. In PA, state game lands are financed through the sale of hunting licenses. The hunters want ATVs so they are welcome on game lands. They don't want mtbs or dirtbikes so we get kicked off or harassed even when we are riding out of season. If you check out this month's Bicycling, there is an article about a NM bow hunter who goes after Elk on his mtb. Very cool.
I do represent some major players in the firearms industry so I try and be careful commenting on a public forum about anything gun related. Without breaking that rule, I am somewhat distressed that our citizen "militia" and sportsmen don't spend equal time working on their fitness and cardio, as they do shooting paper targets at the range and pontificating about imaginary and unlikely scenarios where a 350 pound Type 2 diabetic hypertensive who can't jog a mile in under 20 minutes, and struggles getting in and out of his pick up, saves the day with his AR 15. The military spends a lot more time in boot camp/basic, running, marching, and exercising guys than shooting. I'd hate to see how our citizen shooters would perform if their heart rates were even slightly elevated from a little walking or exercising. The nordic countries have the right idea in terms of training citizens.
Hiking out to where the game actually is and tracking them weeks before the season opens is why the same group of hunters harvest deer every year, and the other group drinks lots of beer, rides around on ATVs to their stands, and admires each other's pick ups at the local convenience store while talking about the deer they almost got. I will get off my soap box but in a SHTF scenario, It would take a lot less time to train an already fit person to shoot reasonably well under pressure, than train said 350 pound Type 2 Diabetic hypertensive to jog a few miles in the woods without being heard or seen. I commend your gun club for holding this type of biathlon event. My wife and I were at the Lake Placid biathlon range a few summers ago, and the instructor got her shooting 20/20 (10 prone/10 standing) after mtb riding around the xcountry skiing course for a few hours. She had never picked up a rifle in her life. (For some reason, the instructor spent a lot more time with my attractive wife than me--my training consisted of, "ever shoot a bolt action rifle before, OK shoot ten prone and ten standing until you're getting at least 18/20") It doesn't surprise me at all that the skinny guy at a machine gun shoot stands out like a sore thumb. Ok, now I will step down from the soapbox about the general physical state of so-called "sportsmen."
That's another reason I gave up on the dirt bikes. I can roll out of my house and ride for 3 hours on a roadie or cyclo before I can even load trailers, ride up to the better areas, gear up, unload bikes and get moving. Anything close to the metro areas have been closed off to dirt bikes. I'm about 20 minutes away from good mtb trails. You need at least an 8 hour stretch to get a few hours of dirt bike riding in; or a weekend to throw some camping in. Some day, I will have my cabin in the sticks where I can just start them up and ride door to door. For now, I am happy cycling out to my daughters and wife's horse show, or getting a cyclocross race in before they've even unloaded the horses and started schooling.
