"The Hi-Point Chronicles..."
By Fred Pittman

The Mississippi Hi-Point Enduro Riders, Inc. has a long and colorful history of off-road race promotion in South Mississippi. Originally incorporated as 'The Indian Mound Enduro Team of Mississippi' in 1971, the club organized enduros (prior to the formation of the Southern Enduro Riders Association) under the guidance of Ronald T. Burks near Picayune, Mississippi in the swamps surrounding NASA'a Stennis Space Center.

In 1975, the name was officially changed to 'Mississippi Hi-Point Enduro Riders' when the club's "headquarters" was moved to Hattiesburg. The late David McGowen assumed the duties of President and the club (consisting now mostly of members of the old Dixie Riders club from the Hattiesburg area) began a long string of S.E.R.A./AMA-Sanctioned enduros held in the Camp Shelby Military Training Site area of the Desoto National Forest southeast of Hattiesburg.

Hundreds (possibly thousands) of enduro riders (and riders who have never entered an enduro) have experienced countless hours of off-road recreation on the hundreds (literally) of miles of trails that were originally laid out and cut as part of enduro courses that snaked through Forrest & Perry County throughout the '70's & '80's. The surge in popularity of 4-wheelers in the mid~late '80's led to the temporary name-changed to 'Mississippi Off-Road Riders' to include several local 4-wheeler riders who were heavily involved with the tasks involved with organizing races. However, due to legal and liability concerns, the name was changed back prior to the 1989 enduro. By the end of the decade, lagging membership and interest resulted in a decline in organized events by the club, with the 1989 'Camp Shelby Enduro' (the last event to traverse the gnarly "Shut-Eye Swamp" loop of trail which wound south from Camp Shelby's 'Drop-Zone" {a paratrooper training area} to the Forest Service's 'Paret Fire Tower' & back) becoming, for all practical purposes, the final installment in the long list of 'Mississippi Hi-Point' enduros at Camp Shelby.

The club sort of unceremoniously drifted apart following the 1989 enduro.

As a result of the formation of the 'Southern Hare-Scramble Association' (the 'prototype' for today's 'SERA Hare-Scramble Series' and pet-project of then-SERA Chairman Jonny Kemp), the opportunity to put together a hare-scramble as a part of the 1989 Series added a few months to the life of the club when a loosely organized group of four old club members got together to put on the first (and last) 'Beaver Dam Hare-Scramble' near Stafford Springs in Clarke County. This experience would lay the groundwork for what would eventually develop into the 'Mississippi Hi-Point Enduro Riders' of the final decade of the Twentieth Century.

Sadly, there was no formal activity during 1990 and, from all appearances, the club was "but a memory" with no apparent hope of ever being restored to its prior glory.

Then in the spring of 1991, a couple of rescheduled enduros left the month of May void of any S.E.R.A. events. The thought of holding a hare-scramble at Camp Shelby had been running through my mind for a while and suddenly, the timing seemed perfect. The problem was that, when we approached the Forest Service and the National Guard in mid-April, we discovered that obtaining a Special-Use Permit for a race on National Forestland is not a short and simple process.

Originally, the plan was to just throw together a fun race that would give the impression of a semi-organized event and maybe generate some interest in racing at Camp Shelby again. It became quite clear rather quickly that the Forest service prefers working with "organizations" who can present documents demonstrating that they are "responsible" citizens and worthy of consideration.

Some calls were made, a few favors were called in and suddenly the 'Mississippi Hi-Point Enduro Riders' were "back in the saddle" and working hard to make a showing in the off-road race-promotion world. {I felt sort of like the Blues Brothers when they were "putting the band back together..."}

Ten of us joined ranks to form the group that would launch the club into its latest incarnation. Once again, the 'Mississippi Hi-Point Enduro Riders' was a functioning club. All that remained was to work through the mountain of details required to secure the Permit so we could have our hare-scramble. It was about this time that "just having a race" began to take a back-seat to the more titanic task of building an organization that might actually achieve a level of prominence in the off-road community. We continued to work with the Forest Service through the summer and eventually had the 'Blazing Saddles Hare-Scramble', a non-sanctioned event in September, 1991. Thirty-two riders participated.

However, the seed had been planted. As soon as we finished the post-race trail rehabilitation, we immediately began working to set up our next race. On a rather nippy sunny morning the following February, Round 1 of the '1992 SERA Hare-Scramble Series' took its place in the annals of recorded history. This race would go on to win us our first SERA Hare-Scramble of the Year Award. With this monumental achievement, we set about the task of preparing for our first enduro of the new decade.

Just as out first attempt at a hare-scramble in the National Forest had turned into a bigger challenge than originally anticipated, our initial shot at putting together an enduro proved to be just as frustrating. We were scheduled for May 17, 1992, a date that fit nicely into the National Guard Annual Summer Training Program. However, the minute that we submitted a map of the 'Proposed Enduro Course' to the Forest Ranger, we got a lesson in how much things had changed in the last few years. We had planned to use trail which had existed and had been used for enduros throughout the '80's (it seemed already "impacted"), but, for various reasons, much of the old trail was not 'acceptable' by modern standards. After spending most of the summer putting in new trail, we held our first enduro on September 13 on a course that practically "encircled" the route that we had originally planned. The work paid off, though, in that we proved to ourselves, the Forest Service and our Fellow enduro riders that we (by some stroke of luck) had the ability to put together a successful enduro.

It was about this time that we began serious negotiations with the Forest Service regarding a "permanent riding area" or, as it came to be called, the "Designated Trail."