Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

-fIJ iii Ili:lI ' ;iii!: Losing-your Ili:lI head at the Chicken - Enduro ...:lI g ;... g o:::r r- O"l ...... c<") C\l :... 0.. «t: By Ron Schne iders CL EAR CR E EK, CAL., MARCH 3 1 Somehow you had th e feeling that you were ba ck in the fift ies. T he enduro poster was not an ar tsy thing expensively printed , just typed and mimeod . Highw ay Five was still half de serted be cause o f a modern . phenomenon, but \ther e's no wa y you .can see a gas shortage on an em p ty hi ghway . It just looks em p ty. We ca me into t he to wn o f Coalinga and had d inner a t. Lace y 's, th e town's m aj or eatery, co mp lete wi th friend ly wa itresses, o ld wagon wh eel s o n the wa lls , and faded ph otos of suited dudes with their ladies in S unday clot hes sta ndi ng in fro nt of the plac e. T hey w er e close c ro p ped a nd pro sperous loo kin g. The di nne r was like all o ur m oms used to m a ke, no spice , lots of starch a nd m eat, m ixed wi th som ethi ng t o "stretch" it. Bu t there was homemade ap p lesa uc e. . Accor d in g t o the p os ter, the ru n was to be lim ed from Highw ay Five a nd Coalinga. We we re to be prep ared t o go one hour's driving tim e be yond Coalinga. Only the re wasn 't an y lime o n the m ain ro ad o ut of town. But we drove 20 miles o r so an ywa y, then we cam e b ack a nd drove o u t of town on th e sec on dary road. Then we wen t back t o Highw ay Five. Then we asked around town . Nothing. Fina lly, we ca lle d a Club Information Number. A ni ce. y oung lady on the o t he r en d told us sh e th ou gh t th e run w a s nea r th e inter section o f 19 8 an d 25 . "W hich wa y do we go wh en we ge t t he re ?" 1 asked. She didn 't kn ow, hut she was co n fiden t t hat I could find it from there. Ne ar th e int ers ection . there w as a farm with a few ligh ts. My partn er went up to it, only tr embling a lillie. Dogs and shotguns ar e sometimes th e gree t ing of 11 p.rn, visit ors at farms . There wer e several gu ys there, but only one co uld speak an y English. He assu red us th at, yes, th e re would be a m otorcycle ra c e .. . ne xt mon th ! 1 told m y 21 -year-old fri end th at, ye s, we used to go through this so rt of thing regul ar ly back about th e time he was strugglin g to m ast er a bi cycle. At ab o u t 12 :30 we quit for th e even ing . We j us t parked alo ngs ide the road, pull ed th e bikes out of th e van and tu ck ed ourselves in. The alar m wa s set for six a.m, but it was so co ld and dark we didn't ge t up un til seven. A car Pick a path through the puddles. ~46 Rain ra ised the creek level as trail t im e rs foll ow t he rib bon. ca me along low in g a tr ai ler wi th so me bikes on it , th e very first b ikes we had see n! H e, t oo, was lo st, but he had some frie nd s co m ing b ehind him wh o knew wh er e the eve nt was. Another 40 minutes drivin g an d we were the re. At th e s ig n - u p b o oth a n accom modating guy ch anged a numbe r fo r us so th at m y friend an d I co uld ride on th e sa m e m inute . T he n he explaine d th at t he reason th er e wasn' t any lim e was because it had ra ine d so hard on Friday. Some how it see me d like it would be e xceedi ng ly ga uc he to as k wh y som ebod y hadn't rel im ed it o n Saturda y, w hich was clear. su n ny , and beautiful. T hen he ex plaine d t ha t we mi ght have a little trouble w ith th e schedu le because som e how, he sa id , the guy who had done the sched ule started wit h a key time of 7 :0 1. I figun'd , wh at th e he ll, tom orrow's Ap ril Fo o l' s d a y so th ey're having an early jo ke'. I d on 't mind. I go t a sense o f humor. I o nly had a bo u t ten minutes before I was due t o sta r t , but th at was lo ng eno ugh to figure ou t tha t starti ng ke y time a minu te late w as the least o f th e guy's prob lems. The firs t sect io n was I II MPH according to thei r sch edule, but d ep ending upon wh ether yo u chose ke y ti m e to be 7: 00 o r 7: 01 th e act ua l speed was t 6.6 M PH o r 17.7 MPH. Hav ing di scovered that interesting bit I wen t o n to discover th at a 2 0 MPH sch edule wa s act ual ly 20.6 MPH, th at a 15 MPH sc he d ule was actua lly 14 , th at a 2 0 M I'H sche d ule was actuall y 2 1, an d fin al ly th a t a n I II MPH sch edule was Ill . I was so surprised t o find o ne right th at I double-ch eck ed th e resul t. The second loop was a repeat o f th e first loop, with identical mil eages and spe ed averages, e xc e p t th at i t w a s a m inut e shorter .. . Figure th at one out. By the time I go t o n th e st arting lin e I was wo nderi ng (A) how 400 or so riders had man aged to find .t he place, and (B) wh y they had bothered. A frie n d from Santa Mar ia ans w er ed th e fi rst question, so rt of, by te lling me, "Oh, t hey do this every year. Yo u ca n ' t ever find the ir ru n un less you know where it is." H is buddy chim ed in to tell a tal e of his six -hour jo urn ey from San Lu is Obispo, less than 100 mi les away . Maybe a Tao ist approach was nccded: Kn ow in y o u r mind's eye that it is there but mak e no effo rt t o find it a nd yo u w ill arr ive . . . II o n ly look le ss tha n len m inute s o f riding to discover w h y a ll the ri ders came . We star ted o ff splish-sp lashing ac ross a c ree k seve ral times, (hen a f ter a . hit go t on to a mudd y trai l th a t wo und thro ug h live o aks. T h en we crossed After a creek crossing , a Sui becomes a wa ter pump b riefly. • m or e water , as we cl imbe d up a bi~ hill or little mountain . On th e o the r sid e we bumped-bum ped-bumped d o wn so m e of t he bi ggest water b ars I have eve r seen. There was more mud dy trail , the fun kind , th at's just slippe ry enough to get you r wheel b ro ke lo os e an d m ovin g aro und a lillie . A h ill every o nce in a whil e, s o me t i mes w ith a sign an nou nci ng it, ad d ed sti ll m or e vari ety, but th ey were n ice hill s. You had to work a bit to ge t up o r d own. but there was n' t any body st uck o n th em m ak in g a bott lenec k. With th e area sti ll having that rain -washed lo ok and sme ll le ft o ver from Fr id ay ' s soaki ng, bri ght , be autiful weather j us t coo l e noug h for a light jack et, the rid ing was j us t great . Did anyone care thaI th e sched ule was a little funn y ? Did anyone remember? The hard part of th e end uro ca m e near th e end of the loop, with one of those vaguely indica ted trails t hrough thick manzanita, where yo u had to alm o st tu rn y o ur bike in side out every ten or fifteen feet. With your whee l cra n ke d over 117 degrees and st ill not qui te getting aroun d th e t u rn, yo u won dered wha tever m ad e yo u t h ink you r b ike had a sho rt t urning radius. T he frust rating pa rt was tha t hal f the time yo u we re on the wrong: t ra il so you r turn didn't co u n t ; you had to go bac k and do it righ t. And th en to add ins ult to mult ip le a brasi o ns su ffe red from in n u m era h le co n tac ts w ith sp ri ngy b ut uny ie ldi ng m a zan it a , th ere wa s thi s sig n : "'1'0 r id e an e nd uro yo u had a n itc h . . . Y ou n ev e r knew it co u ld b e suc h a bitc h." Clever little rascals. T he second lo op was th e sa me as- the first, only better for some people a nd a little worse fo r others, namel y the o nes a t the e nd. Some o f those neat little muddy trail s that I m entioned ea rlier now had a slo t in them that put you r knees up in close proximity to yo ur ears, o r a t least so th ey told me . I did a super crash in one of those neat little cree k s an d tur ned m y Bul into a water pump . • . Just lik e th e fift ies, an end u ro no one co uld find, a club that wasn 't even e mb arrasse d th at its a verages were all wr ong, and that nothing even c hec ked out o n pap er, le t alo ne on the trail , be ca use they had su ch a neat ride set up for you . As th e kids say , "That's co o l. " T he BLM co n trois the land that the Pathfinders used, and they were very co o p er a tive. I'm sure th is was close to the very be st piece of ground that the BLM "owns" so we should ap preciate the fa ct that they were willing to let us use it . A nice camping area wi th tr ees, water, a nd atmosphe re was provid ed by Mr. Willard Fisher, one of the loc al ran chers, wi th w hom the Pa th find ers have good re lations. A nice r un. Nex t year I'll be one of th e o nes w ho knows where it is. • Results 4 0 0 starter~l 184 finishers. R obert Mal ey ( Su z) · 5 . 2 5 0 A : 1. K en Marecak ( Bul ) - 7. 2. John T r o u tt (vam) - 1 2. 3 . Pau l 0 111985 ( Bu l ) · ] 3 . 1 25A : 1. Jim Ha ire (Pen) -13. 2 _ D ic k Sa ng alli (Hu s) · 1 3 . 3 . Phil H aszard ( Pen ) - 14. OPEN A : 1. C ar l Adams (Hus) -7 . 2. G eo r ge H endri x (Ya m) -8. 3 . Cal Bott um ( Han) -8. 2S0 B : 1. Joh n Fontai ne (055) -8 . 2 . D av id O w (Hus) · 10 . 3 . C u rtis Sim o n (Kaw) -1 1. 1 2 5B : 1. Le o nard La w r e nce (O K W ) - 14. 2 . J im C o n w ay ( B u l ) - 1 5 . 3. Vance seaman ( SU L) · 1 6 . OPEN 8 : 1. Robe r l M al ery ( SUZ) · S. 2 . Bi ll Blackfor d (Hu s) - 7. 3 . D ale Ma son (SU Z) . 10. ,

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