POCONO BIKER NEWS ARCHIVES
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Dog’s Run
By Clanmother, July 29, 2001
A couple of years ago the bikers in Pennsylvania had a really active defender of their rights. This guy was active and vocal as a member of ABATE and as president of his local Republican Club. Besides all that he found time to be a father to two teen-aged girls and an active member of two clubs: The Lost Riders MC and the Southside MC. One day this guy, Perry Fogel (aka. Dog), got the really bad news that he was dying of cancer. He was only forty; it wasn’t right; it wasn’t the way things are supposed to happen; but never the less it was for real. Before Perry went off to meet his ancestors he met with his pals on this plane and told them “ I don’t want you to forget me and everything that I worked for”. They heard him.
Perry left this world two years ago but his friends, biking brothers and sisters and non-biking advocates of liberty and less restrictive government have kept up his cause. To keep his memory alive they created an annual event every third Saturday in July, Called the Perry Fogel Run. All the proceeds of the run get sent to the American Cancer Society. The clubs involved don’t make a dime for themselves. This July 21st saw it’s second running. All the participants met in the parking lot of the Bath Republican Club in Bath, Pa. Where Dog had been president. Both of Perry’s daughters Jolene and Collene rode on the run as passengers.
At 11 am sharp with an escort by the Colonial Regional Police the group of about sixty bikes rolled out of the parking lot and north on Chestnut Street out of Bath. The run first went slowly and nobly by the Fogel home in Chapman’s Quarry where Perry’s family members stood on the porch to watch the procession. Picking up speed the procession zigzagged from small town to small town throughout the Pocono foothill area known as ”the slate belt” which Dog considered his home turf. The double column of bikes snaked through towns like Klecknersville, Copella, Point Phllip, and Wind Gap, before crossing the first Pocono to Saylorsburg. The run continued on through Kunkletown, Little Gap, Danielsville, Cherryville, Petersville, Beersville, Seemsville, and finally back to Bath.
The run took us not only through many small towns but also along miles of scenic farm country as well as dense hardwood forests. It crossed a single lane bridge and a covered bridge. According to my odometer, it was fifty-nine miles long. While most of the participants were very safe and courteous riders, there was a small handful of young men along who really need to take a MSF Safe Rider course. Unfortunately those are probably the same young men who “think” they are the better riders. Cutting people off and recovering from near collisions at the last instant doesn’t however make them any better; it merely demonstrates fast reflexes, which someday may fail them. On the positive side for the organizers, none of the dangerous riders were wearing any club colors. In fact most wore no protective gear at all except their state mandated helmets.
As the riders arrived back at the Bath Republican Club, they were directed to the rear and across a bridge to a picnic grove owned by the Bath Area Fish Committee which is situated along the Monocacy Creek. There a DJ, food, beer and one lone vendor awaited them. The partying went on all afternoon. As twilight approached those who were still hanging around retired to the hall of the Bath Republican Club to swap a few more road yarns before calling it a day. All-in-all I’d think Dog would have approved.
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