-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
February 28, 2005
Weekend Report
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Saturday morning I worked the entrance for 8:00 to 9:30, letting people know that the BRC lawyers had filed a motion to intervene in the lawsuit filed by the radical environmental community. It was good to be able to give the riders some good news for a change. Traffic was slow initially and I had a chance to talk one-on-one to a few people. Then the rush started around 9AM. One minute all is quiet and you can hear the noise of the rushing river. Next thing you know there are ten vehicles lined up. I was surprised by the number of people driving alone and tried to keep some statistics until the rush really hit.
Went out by myself to clean course around 10:30 as everyone else had already left camp. On the way I came across a group of guys that post on Thumpertalk. A couple were struggling to get up a little muddy hill at the top of T115. I stopped to watch and then blasted up to the big group at the top to say hello to a friend. I heard someone say that this was one of the hardest hills in Clear Creek. I had to restrain myself from laughter and told them that I could show them something harder. No takers.
Spent the next 6 hours cleaning about 16 miles of the second loop. This is tiring work and my ass hurt from sitting all day. (if I stood, the back pach which was now a front pack would slip down my arms). Hit the sack a little after 8PM but not before I got double leg cramps - the ones that run from the groin down the inside of your leg and hurt like hell. I guess I worked hard!
Sunday we had to retrieve a dead Kawasaki 400. It died at the bottom of a ravine on the first loop. No easy way out. First we towed it with a bike and two people pushing until we got to a barren hill where we had a 4WD quad waiting to pull it up. Then we had to push the bike behind the quad to get it up a whooped out uphill. I'm getting too old for this kind of stuff. After we got the bike onto wide fire roads, I took off and resumed my course cleaning, doing another three miles of special test trails. I can not remember ever cleaning up so much ribbon, ever. A blind rider could have followed this route. We definitely will need to ration ribbon to this marking group next year.
While rain was forecast for Sunday, it turned out to be a beautiful day. Didn't rain until I was unloading the truck at home.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
February 27, 2005
Sick of the Quicksilver
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Boy, have I been busy the past week, updating the web site with results, answering e-mails about the event, writing a report on the protest that my mistake caused, and now two days of cleaning the course. I have to say that I am sick of the Quicksilver and am glad that it is over. It wasn't always this way. In the early days I was out on my bike the day after thinking up new ideas for the next event. Of course that was back when we could go out and cut new trail. I actually found one of the best little trails in the Creek the day after one Quicksilver back in the mid-80's.
Don't get me wrong. I'm not sick of Clear Creek, just the 90 or so miles of trails that make up the Quicksilver route. Maybe it is because the BLM made us use most of last year's course again this year. Whatever, I plan to steer away from these routes whenever I go riding this Spring.
I have burnt out a bunch of people over the years and now I fear that I have burnt myself out. I announced my retirement from active involvement in the enduro a couple years ago and became just an enduro consultant. Next thing I know, the trail boss breaks his wrist and I am thrust right back into the thick of things. Sometimes I find myself envying those club members who show up for the weekend, work a check and then go home. Unfortunately, that isn't me. So, to re-energize myself, I have come up with a new idea - to build an endurocross course on the property, run all of the contestants through it and give the spectators a glimpse of what the riders are about to face. Anyone one know where I can get a bunch of used telephone poles?
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
February 21, 2005
Quicksilver Report
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Another Quicksilver is in the record books. Seems like every year presents a new challenge and to date we have been able to overcome almost all of them. One year, because of snow, we had to lay out a whole new event on the Thursday before, plowing through snow drifts two feet deep. Another time I created a new enduro at 7:30 on Sunday morning because of heavy overnight snow. This year the stress level was really high because of the radical environmentalist lawsuit to close the Creek and because of the non-stop rain.
Many years ago, 1986 if I remember correctly, we had a very similar situation with wave after wave of rain pounding central CA. That year we had a remote gas stop that was cut off when White Creek road washed out. We also had zero miles of routes marked in advance of the enduro weekend. We learned from that experience, redesigned the course and moved the gas stops onto Rambler property. We also started to mark the course in advance. This year several members took vacation the week before the event to mark their sections so that we would not have a repeat of the 1986 cancellation. We also decided to make some adjustments to the course to protect some of the high quality single track routes and we redirected a part of the first loop onto the paved road to eliminate two crossings of the San Benito River.
I think I jinxed myself by writing the February 18 entry because, while redoing the mileage on part of the second loop after we eliminated some trail, I apparently made a mistake that resulted in the elimination of two checks after a protest. This was the first protest I had lost over course mileage in 27 years and I am truly embarrassed. I could blame my ICO that I bought used many years ago for $50, but I won't because I should have double checked the mileage reset before we posted it. So shame on me! And to those riders who protested and were correct, please accept my apology for acting like a righteous, arrogant bastard who couldn't be wrong. Guess I am just human (right, Joe?)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
February 18, 2005
Reflections on the Quicksilver
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As I was packing the truck this evening I occurred to me that this was the 27th Quicksilver that I have had a hand in creating. As I am 54 years old, this means that I have been doing this each winter for half my life (and most of my adult life).
The Quicksilver had been around for a few years before I got intimately involved. It was started in 1973 by the Salinas Dirt Riders (SDR), an off-road only club from Salinas that I joined in 1974 after being stationed by the Army at Fort Ord. Because the event was held near Coalinga, the Club was chartered by the AMA as a District 35 club. Ever heard of District 35? Didn't think so. D35 was established by the AMA for the central valley counties. It may have existed sometime in the past but there was no viable district organization when I joined the SDR. I am not sure when the Quicksilver became associated with AMA District 36 but I suspect it was when the SDR disbanded and its members joined the Salinas Ramblers en mass in 1976.
As a club member, I did the usual enduro work, marking trails and manning check points. In the 1977-1979 timeframe I was a dedicated but struggling C-enduro rider. I really enjoyed racing off-road and, along with my brother-in-law Brian, tried to hit all of the enduros. At this time, the Quicksilver was laid out by a couple of club members who were well meaning but really lacking in the knowledge of how to put together an enduro course. In fact, in 1978 the District did not pay points to riders who participated in the Quicksilver because we had over half of our checkpoints thrown out because of protests. I guess you could say that this was the low point in Quicksilver Enduro history.
For the 1979 event, I volunteered to lay out half of the enduro while Bob and Dick did the other half. My half was perfect but we lost a couple checks on their loop because of layout or marking errors. Now it may seem hard for a present day enduro rider to understand how this could happen what with route sheets, ICOs and checks accurate to two hundredths of a mile. Well, back in the old days there were no computers or route sheets, just mechanical odometers and pocket watches. Speed changes and resets were posted on pie plates along the course and you had to do the math in your head as you rode. Much like learning your times tables as a child (do they still do that today?) 1970's enduro riders memorized a mileage conversion chart (6 MPH = .1 mile per minute; 12 MPH = .2; 20 MPH = 1 mile every 3 minutes, etc) and then calculate possibles on the fly. But I digress.
In order to resurrect the image of the Quicksilver, I volunteered to layout the entire enduro in 1980. For the first time in a couple of years we did not have any checks thrown out. The 1981 and 1982 events were repeats of 1980. While the quality of the event had increased dramatically, participation was still low. I recommended to the Club that we host a National Enduro in order to boost the number of entries. The rest, as they say, is history.
I was fortunate to have a great team of club members get behind the National Enduro concept and help pull it together. While I will take credit for the original idea, it took a total effort by a great group of people who love motorcycling to made the Quicksilver National Enduro not only a reality but also one of the best off-road events in the United States. That legacy lives on today with the current generation of Ramblers, some of whom were not even born when I first laid out the enduro in 1979.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
February 15, 2005
Quicksilver Weather
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
When I first moved to the Monterey Peninsula back in 1973, the talk this time of year was about Crosby weather, of course referring the Bing Crosby Pro-Am golf tournament. Well it appears that they only got a small dose of Crosby weather for the AT&T golf tournament this past weekend but now we are getting a good dose of Quicksilver weather this week.
Last year we had perfect weather for the Quicksilver after three years of terrible weather. Looks like last year was an aberration and that we are back to normal. Unfortunately, with new BLM rules in place regarding wet weather closures, there appears to be a very good chance that the event could be cancelled. I am not being pessimistic, just realistic. The gauges are showing over an inch of rain today and more is forecast on Thursday into Friday. Time will tell.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
February 11, 2005
More Air Sampling by the EPA
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
When I got home from the Creek last weekend I had a notice in the mail from the EPA about air sampling, this time allegedly in conjunction with the Quicksilver National Enduro. On the cover is a picture of an EPA worker in a white protective suit and face mask, hardly the type of gear you are going to wear to ride a motorcycle. I guess the EPA has a very limited photo collection from which to choose.
The EPA continues to do air sampling in the Clear Creek Management Area supposedly to create a risk assessment to better inform the public as to the risk we face by recreating there. My theory is that they are looking for that "one fiber that will kill you". They hate the fact that there has been no proven incident of disease associated with Clear Creek asbestos. It goes against everything they have been taught to believe. They will be failures in the eyes of their colleagues if they can't prove the industry scientists wrong and they seem to go about it with a religious type fervor. Islamic terrorists should wish they had their level of zeal.
They were down at Clear Creek today. I had thought about going down to keep an eye on them but something came up at work that prevented this. It was raining lightly this morning at the Creek. I think about a tenth of an inch fell early in the morning. I understand that the EPA thought it was "too wet" to air sample. According to William, conditions were perfect for riding. The EPA was all for calling it a day, I expect, because they were going to get an unfavorable sample. That "one fiber" was going to be too wet to be airborne. William insisted that they sample because these were the ideal conditions for riding. The EPA boss finally relented, equipped their riders with the samplers and sent them out on the same course that they have used in the two other samples, not the enduro course. It will be interesting to see the results.
It is truly unfortunate that our government continues to waste our tax dollars on projects like this. President Bush, take notice! Here is an area ripe for cost cutting.
Is there asbestos in Clear Creek? Yes. Has it proved harmful to anyone over the many years of exposure due to mining and recreation? No. Case Closed.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
February 9, 2005
Weekend Report
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Saturday I worked the entrance greeting people and meeting with Brian White to go over final details of the enduro planning. I was at the entrance from 8:15 to about 9:30 and did not see that many vehicles. A fellow club member, Bob, and I went out that morning and cleared 8 deadfalls that were littering the enduro course and some major trails. Later in the day I took him by his check location in the Clear Creek drainage and then swung down through the canyon, counting vehicles. I found 99 vehicles parked throughout the canyon or in motion. From Staging Area Two through SA6 there were only 13 vehicles, all pick-ups. From SA1 to Oak Flat, I found another 86 vehicles, twenty of which were either motorhomes or towing trailers. Based on this observation, I estimate there were approximately 300 people in the canyon. Add to this the 30 or so Ramblers and friends and an unknown number of people camping above New Idria.
Sunday was slow at the entrance, I expect because of the Super Bowl. I spent another hour and forty-five and didn't see fifty people drive in. Worked with Manuel and his son Jamie marking part of the second loop and checking turn mileages the rest of the day. Manuel has been a loop leader for years. It was the first time I had ridden with his son. Jamie was on a 85cc Yamaha and he blasted his way around Manuel's portion of the course. It kind of reminded me of riding with Jordan Brandt when he was a teenager (Jordan just won both the D36 enduro and hare scrambles series last year). Jamie rode almost the entire loop and when he didn't make it up something, he tried until he did. Very impressive! We also had Jacob T, along with us until a broken throttle cable ended his day. Fortunately it happened just as we came back into camp to refuel the little bikes. Jacob is another talented kid (12y.o. I think) who rides the creek very well, but then he should since his uncle is the enduro trail boss and his dad is president of the club.
Riding with these kids really makes me feel OLD, and slow, which I am.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
February 7, 2005
Pig Hunting
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As I am sure most of you are aware, Clear Creek is a very popular pig hunting spot. In fact it has been written up in numerous hunting magazines and guides. Well, I got me one on Friday night. Up close too with my 45. No, not a 45 caliber pistol, ...my 45 MPH Ford Ranger!
Actually, I was probably doing closer to 50. With two bikes in the truck, the low beams on my Ranger act like high beams and the high beams light up the trees. It was about 9:45 and I was cruising, listening to Bulldog baseball on KMJ (the only thing I could pick up with the radio). Fresno state was in the process of losing their home opener to UCLA. I came across a small rise in the road about a mile south of the Clear Creek entrance and the next thing I know, BAM!
In retrospect, I am glad that I had no time to react as my choices would have been to swerve right into a dirt bank and possible roll the truck or swerve to the left and nail an oak tree or roll off the road down an embankment towards the river. Neither choice would have been very desirable, so I guess it is best the I just center punched the pig with my front bumper. Good thing I got my wings in the Army as we got a little airborne for a second as we rolled over the pig. Fortunately I stayed on the road and didn't hit anything else. Naturally I stopped, checked out the truck and found some (understatement) damage to the front bumper and driver side front fender. Fortunately no fluid leaks and she drives straight.
Can't say the same for the pig. He had a red fluid leak and was down for the count. With some help from another club member, the pig was moved to the side of the road where it rested until someone took it sometime between Saturday morning and Sunday morning. I am sure that people traveling the road on Saturday saw the pig (you couldn't miss it as it was about 4+ foot long and probably weighs in at 250 pounds) and wonder what hit it and what happened to the vehicle. Well, here are some pictures of the victim. I forgot to take a picture during daylight of my weapon but you can see at at the entrance to Clear Creek next weekend.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
February 4, 2005
It's Friday!
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TGIF! Thank Goodness. It has been a long week at work and with enduro stuff. Two weeks to go. Things are falling into place as they usually do. Now if the weather will just cooperate. More mileaging this weekend to finish the route sheet and then my job is done when I throw it over the wall to JART.
Will be at the entrance tomorrow to hook up with Brian White, the CC Project Manager to go over event details. May sleep in on Sunday and get the boys to greet. Have a great weekend!
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
February 1, 2005
Enduro Month
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The blog is going to be hit and miss this month because of the Quicksilver National Enduro. In fact, I just barely remembered it tonight after I spent two hours keying in the route sheet for the enduro.
I heard from a Clear Creek addict, Billy R. today. He wrote to tell me that conditions yesterday, Monday, were perfect and that there were 10 similar addicts staging out of Oak Flat. I thanked him for the report and for rubbing it in. He brings up a good topic - weekday riding. If you want to avoid the crowds and you have the luxury of being able to take time off during the week, you can almost have the creek to yourself Monday through Friday. Wouldn't it be nice to be able to blast around the fire roads without the fear of on-coming traffic? Maybe I need to look into early retirement!
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Archives - More good stuff!
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------