Bogtrotters Anonymous - Never Say Die!

The day 17 top UK & Irish riders nearly died...
... for those that may not know; The 'Bogtrotters' is an unofficial event that occurs but once a year in mid winter. The only people who get an invite to ride this event, is a very select group indeed. Only the very best dirt bike riders in the British Isles get asked, be they Trials, Enduro, MX or SX stars. But they are the best - believe me!

The following true tale is from the year 2000 Bogtrotters, when things went badly wrong, - and the UK + Ireland nearly had almost ALL of its dirt bike heroes wiped out - in one horrendous day!

Below is an extract from an actual letter sent by one young Brit superstar to a buddy shortly afterwards, BUT all names have been removed or changed - to protect the guilty - and sorry guys - hence no photos either!!!

Yo Benji

I am not feeling so good at the moment because I did an event this weekend called bogtrotters.

It is not a competition, it is more a fun weekend out for the best championship and invited riders to meet up at the end of the season. However this year it did not go as planned. Half an hour into the deep Welsh boggy, snowy, icy moor I got stuck up to my waist.

They dragged me out and got my bike going, but within 20 minutes someone else had done the same. It took a lot longer to get their bike going and a lot of the riders got bored and went off for a play, but as they were doing this the fog came down seriously quick. It took us an hour to meet up with the other group and the guide who supposedly knew where we were going. It turned out he only knew his way by landmarks which is a bit of a problem when it is snowy and foggy.

We tried to get off the moor four times but each time it was the wrong way. The temperature was about -4c and although we were all in gore-tex waterproof clothing we were seriously cold and wet. - I had ice forming on my gloves.

Whilst trying to get another way off the moor we started running out of fuel. We managed to share fuel between riders who still had some, but everybody was very low. We eventually found our way to the edge of a forest by which time it was getting dark as well as snowing and still foggy. 3 riders on 4 strokes left the rest of us to try and find their way out and to find the van which had all our fuel in, which we should have met four hours ago.

All 17 remaining riders were seriously cold and some were quite scared. We ended up making a fire using a drop of petrol on a rag and lit it with a spark off a plug. It looked as if the bike was going to burn for a few seconds, and most of us thought that it would be a quick way to warm up. We were just hoping someone would come back with some fuel. 3 hours later two riders came back with a jerry can of fuel each - which was sod all to put in 17 bikes.

We eventually rode off the moor to the van which had fuel. I was so cold riding along I thought I was going to die. About 7 of the 17 riders had lights and it was now pitch black. We eventually made it to the van and filled our bikes up.

We then had to ride about 5 miles along the road to find a pub which had a roast dinner by a log fire waiting for us, the trouble was though - Jim Star and Terry Superstar took a wrong turn, but Jim assured us he knew where he was going. 40 miles later at appox 9:30 at night we ran out of fuel so we pushed our bikes to the nearest town and phoned for help.

It took a van about 40 minutes to get to us. We were lucky the petrol station let us stay inside in the warm as we were shit high with mud. When the van got to us he could only carry two bikes, so Terry volunteered to follow the van back as his bike had lights. He rode like a complete twat and seemed to be on a suicide mission. When we asked him what the hell he was playing at he just said he knew he wouldn't make it if he rode sensible, so he decided to do it on adrenaline !!

Oh yeh - while we were lost, Jim pulled out in front of a coach and stalled. As he was in black waterproofs and on a muddy bike with no lights, the coach only just saw him and skidded to a stop about 4 foot away. From where I was watching it looked like it had hit him. that's about it really!!!

We then went out when we got back to our mates house and got absolutely lashed. I am now a red neck who drinks JD and coke.

So there you go guys - 17 of our VERY best riders nearly died of hypothermia that day - and they only went out playing!

I wonder what they'll get up to this year?

Article copyright - I can not say - my lips are sealed! (biggest bribe/offers anyone?)

Photos - Yeh Right - you think I wanna be hung or something?

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