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Pigs in the Forest :: Annual Dirt Ride Slated for September 17

Photography by Matt Callaway

An estimated 300 dual sport and adventure motorcycles will make their way through the north Mississippi hill country September 17, rain or shine, in a weekend of camaraderie and love for backcountry riding. And there’s still time to get in on the event.

Shannon Smith of Byhalia, Mississippi, created the Pigs in the Forest North Mississippi Dual-Sport Ride in 2019 as an annual adventure event. It was designed to take riders from social media friendships to actual riding. Each year, he creates a new 160+ mile GPX track and releases it a week before the ride, which has grown from 21 riders in its first year, to an expected 300 in September. “We seem to triple attendance each year,” Shannon said.

pigs in the forest

The 80-percent dirt and gravel track starts in Waterford, Mississippi, and runs through Holly Springs National Forest. There are only a few connections on two-lane paved roads. “We all knew the ride was rain or shine, but looking at the weather the night before, no one was sure how this was going to work out,” said Matt Callaway, who chronicled the 2021 event on the group’s website, ridepitf.com. Huge thunderstorms had ripped through the area the night before. They looked at the radar the next morning and all they saw was yellow, orange, and red swaths headed in their direction. “Still 200 riders showed up to brave it,” Matt said.

The ride draws dual sport and adventure motorcyclists from around the Southeast; riders come from the Gulf Coast, Tennessee, Louisiana, South Carolina, and Texas and ride everything from BMW 1250 GSAs to antique scramblers. “We see KTMs, GSAs, 750 to 1250, KLRs. We had a couple of guys who rode Honda Dreams that they brought back to life from the junkyard. We had one guy who was 80 years old riding one of those,” Shannon said. “It’s crazy to see guys out on these 50-year-old bikes doing that.”

The ride starts in the morning and goes for about three hours. Riders break for lunch, then throw a leg over to finish another four to five hours. Afterward, dinner is provided while Shannon and his crew give away door prizes—everything from riding apparel to tire changes and gift certificates, goggles, gloves, and ramps. The riders then camp about a mile away at Wall Doxey State Park, he said.

pigs in the forestpigs in the forest

“We have a lot of hills and curvy, twisty roads, and a lot of nice overlooks because we are in the hill country,” Shannon said. “There are a lot of high points and a lot of low points with nice views. This is an old growth forest with big hardwoods and history. There are farm houses and old cemeteries, and an old store no longer in operation that makes for a scenic place to take a picture.”

Shannon said the ride is not intended as a race, but a chance to meet other riders. “All these guys know each other from the internet. Some have known each other for 10 years, and they’ve never met. Never talked.”

Getting to the event is nearly as much fun as the ride itself since the starting point is not far from the Natchez Trace and is only 30 miles from the Trans America Trail. This year, TAT creator Sam Correro plans to be in attendance, Shannon said.

The ride doesn’t require much of a skill level with most roads being deep gravel that’s well-graded. But, with weather being unpredictable in the hill country, mud is always a possibility. “That’s the way it is. Red clay is sticky and slippery but you can get through it. Green clay is impossible. You might as well get off and push. Average mud, the brown mud, is like skating on ice, but all in all it’s a lot of fun. Last year we had people sliding and falling over, sliding back down hills. But then the sun came out and everything dried up.The dust is an entirely different animal. It can be intense, but this is a rain or shine event.”

pigs in the forestpigs in the forest

“I grew up in this area, and my dad had an Army Jeep. He’d take us into the forests to ride and back then there were less rules, or at least there was less enforcement. We’d go through a gully or a bottom and by the time we came back out on another gravel road, we’d be 20 miles away.”

The area isn’t short on creek bottoms or tall hills, Shannon said. “That’s how I learned the roads here, and where I learned to ride my KLR, and I love them. I love this place.”

The event offers two support vehicles for emergencies, offering water, tools, and medical supplies.

Tickets are on order now at ridepitf.com for $30 and include the GPX route, a Pigs in the Forest t-shirt and sticker, and dinner. The price at the gate is $40.

pigs in the forest

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Read more: The Canyons of the Ancients by Marianne Todd

Marianne Todd has been a professional photojournalist and writer since 1987. Her career began in newspapers and rapidly spread into national news magazines. Her work has been featured on the pages of Time, Life, National Geographic, Newsweek, and the Wall Street Journal, where she was nominated for Photographer of the Year International. Todd became a publisher in 2009, creating titles reflecting the music, arts, and tourism industries of the South (she still sports the accent), and her work as the official photographer for Governor Haley Barbour led her to photograph everything from Hurricane Katrina to presidential visits. Since moving to New Mexico four years ago, she has left hard news coverage to travel on her trusty BMW F 750 GS, journeying the roads of America and beyond.