Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

Mark Crandall (1.1and Stacy McKenna (r.1fondle and/or drool on their new toys . Picky-picky trail . You had to be creative to get in trouble. 2500eadure the eserl HOOK &LADDER ENDURO By Ron Schneiders CALIFORNIA CITY, CAL., AUG . 21 "By next Hook and the ' biggest said the year we expect the Ladder enduro to be event In the desert," enthusiastic firem an- organizer Dic k Paine. But, by any measure I can think of, he has already made it. Riders left th e line, seven to 10 pe r minute for 274 8 m inutes, startin g at seve n a. m . Th e last man left th e line at II :34 an d woul d have had plenty o f time to ride the co urse with an early num ber and th en ride it again on his own nu m be r . There we re 2 261 mail e n t ries, an d an estimate d 250 post en tri es. Th is makes it th e largest de sert even t by several h un dr ed entries. It was also th e m ost hassle-fre e even t to be run in recent times, th anks to clock-w ork o rgan ization an d unlim ited go o d will. There is good will on th e p ar t of every o ne from th e w or kers, rider s an d spo nso rs, t o the even tual be nefici aries; the Bum Ward of the County Gen eral Hospit al. Th e 110 0 k and Ladder is neith er a cI u b nor a co m me rcial ly o rganized eve n t. It was conc eive d tw o years ago . by abo ut six members of th e Pasa den a Fi r e D epartment, as a method of helpin g th eir Women 's Au xiliary with th eir chosen ch ar ity , the Bum Ward . The Au xili ary w as wo rking hard b ut not making a whole lot of money . The endu ro , grossing $8 .50 times 2000 p lus riders, has ch anged that situation for the better. Charitable appeals for good causes, of course , are not novel , so it is fair to ask why this particular effort fares so well. The riders are promised a good en d uro, o u ta -sight finishing p in s, and 20% trophies just like any other enduro. But there is more : On Saturday th ere . was a kiddy trial for the very small riders. Wham-O donated 400 Frisbees as prizes for th e event. Th en at o ne p .m. there was a parach ute exh ib iti o n by the C aliforn i a Aer ial Circus Parachute Team . The h igh point of th is ex hibiti on was a lOman st ar ( 10 sky divers holding hands to form a circle) while an I I th man , trailin g co lo re d sm o ke plunged through th e middle of th e st art at so meth ing over 100 m iles per h our. It was a spectacu lar sh ow . In th e eve ni ng, there was a mo vie, " On Any Sunday " natcherly . Th e m ovie w as donat ed by Yam ah a an d, beli eve it or not, there ar e st ill motorcy clist s who h ave n o t see n it even once , Th e en d uro was a great deal o f fun for most co n tes tants, bu t co u ld n ot be called brillian t or eve n very imaginative. Th e course was nearl y id en tical to th at o f the U RA's Fro sty Cactus , held in J anuary of th is year. Loo p o ne, abou t 25 miles lo n g, was des igned so th ..t wives an d kids could fin ish with" i t di fficult y. The loop was situated in " e plain area to th e southeast of R: .J l\1ou n t ai ns, roughly paralleling the _ Randsburg-Mojave Road. Lo op two used many of the same trails of both the Frosty Cactus and the Shamrocks ISDT trial . The course was a longish lo o p (30 m iles total), starting out in thc footh ills of the Rand Range, go ing north east. Near th e northernmost end of th e loop the trail ran in to the mountains proper for a while be fore c o mi ng b ack d own to flat , wh oo p -de-d ooed land fo r the run back. The schedules varied be tween 15 and 2 I mph on the first lo o p an d between 15 and 24 mph on the sec ond lo op . On ly one sp o t, a sandy uphill, abo u t e ig h t miles into th e sec ond loop, appeare d to give anyone tro uble. There Begin ners h ad- " chance to dem onstrate tech ni q ues, for getting into trou ble, that most riders have forgo tten fo r years. Exper t Dave Evans cam e out th is weekend to warm up for the District events. I asked him wh at he thought of th e technical aspects of th e ru n. It was like an enduro ri der's versi on of th e H ow 's y o ur lo ve life ," toothpaste commercial. "Most of th ose checks were r ea l I y a c c ur ate, " h e s ai d en th usiastically, "and the tie breaker agre ed with my instru men ts right to the second: ' I waited. "But I co uld n't make their clo c ks at the end of the loops agree with m ine , " h e said finally . Other riders told me the same thing abo ut th e final checks, but no protests were filed. U After the enduro there was the prize drawing. At this poin t the firemen were at th eir o rg an izational pea k. The amount of loot they had co llec ted was abso lu tely in cre di b le. Th e prize list th is year was headed by tw o motorcycles, one of th e kiddy Tri a ls b i kes a T Y8 0 , do nated by Yamaha, and a Suzuki 100, donated by Su zu ki. J oe McKenna was th e first winner on a ticket given to hi m by his f ri end (ex- frien ds } Paul Crown. He chose the Yam ah a fo r his daughter Stacy (n ow on e and one-h alf ye ar s o ld, bu t already a veteran , an d gro wing fast accordi ng to J oe.) Th e second bike was w on by Mar k Crandall, age I I. Th is was his fir st enduro an d he los t o ne po int. There is n o way to give credit to all th e co mp ani es who donated to this cause , but here's - a samp le. Ash land Checmial donated 2000 ca ns of pro duc ts from their Petro chem line , i n cl udi ng Chai n Life, ES P, Starting Fluid, engine cleaner and Cab le Lube (guaranteed to 40 be low.] The m ost personal touch came fro m Vera, of Vera's leathers, who carne out an d personally me asured th e winner o f her gift right on the spot, Small items were combined in bags so a winner go t several sm all items. A typical bag contained prod ucts fro m Malc ol m Smi th's shop, Sud co, Bill Wiste r and Nip pon Dense. 25 0 su ch bags were given awa y. In additio n th ere were all so rts of helmets, l e a th e rs, dozens of p airs of Scott goggles, ti res, Preston Petty gas tan ks an d fenders , and on and on. It was n o t only th e prizes that were do n a t e d . C o n c e ss i on st an ds were op erated by vo lun teers with profits go ing t o th e Bum Ward , (Th ey sold cold drin ks, t ee shi rts and watermelon! ) McDonaids 0 ffered th eir plush bus to transport fire men to the even t, Flan ders Compan y do nated ribbon (the course was marked extravagan tly ) and Webco donat ed arrows. The fire m en brought out their own am bulance and medi cal personnel, alon g wi th do zens of friends, wives , gir lfriends, an d kids to do all the work. Thanks to the co ntinuing efforts of Th e Pasa dena Fire Dep artment and their ladies, the Bum Ward at County Gen eral (s t a ffe d b y USC Medical Cen ter personnel) is among the most modem a nd well-equipped in th is country. Pro cee ds from thi s year 's event ar e earmarked for audio-visual monitori ng cquipm en t that will allow on e nurse to keep a co n tinual watch over several patients. . Rai sing fun ds in this manner IS a p ro motions game, en tieing peop le .to gi ve t im e , m anu f'ac turers to give merchandi se an d , ultimately, riders to do nate entry fees. Chief o rgan izer, Dick Pain e, is alr eady thinking of ways to ma ke next year's event bigger, better and ultimat ely more profitable. One , as y e t uncooperative source, is th e BLM, th e o nly gro up besides th e Bum Ward makin g a profi t on the operati on . Th ey ge t a $ 1 per head as always. Fo r ne?'t year Dick is lo o kin g for a new movie . m ore prizes an d more ex tra added a ttractions. Maybe fire wo rks, or as so mebody suggested, they could have the firs t totally d ust-free de ser t event. " All we 'd need," sai d one firem an sarcastically "is all th e hose in So uthern California and a lake fo r a source of wa ter:' It so unded impossible, but Dick Paine had kind of a gleam in his ey e. •

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