Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

I NORTHERN DATEU E E! t so ~ ...-i 26th Hi Mountain: If God were an enduro rider By Larry Langley LOS PADRES NAT IO NA L FOREST, CAL. , FE B. 15 Years ago the Hi Mountain Endu ro, sponsored by the Cal Poly Penguins (a student club), was one of California's premier enduro s. Well over 1000 riders would try to make the 500 rider limit. However, in the last couple of years, the enduro has fallen upon some 20 hard times. There are a number of reasons for the decline, land closures being a major factor. Last year's run was just over 80 miles with a lot of repeat mileage. Entries were down to 250 riders and t he enduro was in dire danger of dying out. This year, with the coo perat io n of the local Forest Service and many of the local land owners, the Penguins laid out a nice long 130 mile enduro. Some trails were repeated but many trails whi ch haven't been used in years were opened up for the enduro. Friday night it rained and the club was jittery; too much rain and the enduro might be can celled. God must be an enduro rider however, as the rain subsided and left th e trails with no dust, minimum mud and primo traction. It was an en duro rider's dream. Hills wh ich would have be en a bi tch dry were just absolute fun tacky. First riders left at 7 a.rn, in the snappy co ld , four to a minute. The Penguins told all who showed up for the 6:30 a.m, riders meeting to be sure and foUow red arrows on the first loop, green on the second. Many riders were appa ren tly still in bed, as getting los t became th e thing to do. The first and s e cond loops r an to gether f or approximately 16 m iles begore splitting. A number of riders decided to try th e second loop instead of finishin g the first. The arrows were there ; the riders weren't paying enough atten tion. The averages o n the 42-mile loo p were high enough to keep you boogying right along. It was extremely difficult to make up time if you fell behind for any reason. The terrain wasn"t terribly hard and at times afforded some spectacular scenery of the surrounding area. Did I forget to mention the five mile check? Or should I say the 4 .7 m ile check. Most riders came up very short on mileage at the speedometer check and then found th e error wasn 't as much on the rest of the loop. Most riders felt the speedometer check was mislocated. Made things interesting, though. After a mandatory 30 minute break (which meant if you came into th e lunch stop late, you had to leave on the second loop the same amount of time late) the riders headed out onto the long se c 0 n d loop which i n clu d e d a n emergency gas stop. This time out, people were read y for the co urse . splitting. Averag es were a little slo wer in co mparison t o the firs t lcop, allo wing for rel axed riding and enjoying the coun tr ys ide. The Pen guins h ad designated two parts of the loop as mandatory maintaining of the average as the cours e passed through hard-to-obtain private property . . It was agreed that if permission was to be granted to use the land, speeds would be held down to avoid dist urbing the owners. Good idea and good public relations. At one poin t after a free section and a mandatory slow section, the course came a u t near the Pozo Saloon. With len minutes to spare, many of the riders took the time to buy a soft drink and candy and chat with the owner. The saloon was o ut of the past complete with authentic bar and a genuine pot be lly stove keeping things warm and toasty. Next year the Pen guins should have a layover at the Saloon and make it official. Some folks had all the traction they could handle ... After a ten minute gas stop, riders who left early were surprised to find a check just one half mile down the trail. The check was originally supposed 10 be a secret check but th e club was unaware when they plotted it in of the MIA rule which reads something like this: No checks closer than two miles going in , and three miles go ing o u t. They mad e it an observation chec k instead bu t wasted so me needed manpower o n a lac k o f rules knowledge. Th e second loop go t up into th e p ine trees at (yo u guessed it) Pine Moun tain and after 100 mile s o r so, wandered over around Black Mountain which co ntained the new trail s. The ridge running was really fun . Up one hill and down another. Some ruts were giving riders fits but generally the trails were just fun. Coming down one mo un tain , the brush kept getting thicker and thicker un ti l a sign warned of two foo l clearance. They weren 't kidding! The brush was so t hick you co uldn ' t see anything, just crash your way down. At 18 MPH it was to ugh. Sure enough, there was a check waiting. That chec k was the best of the enduro in many riders' opinions. (Missed it by four seconds. Arhhhhg.) Finally it was less th an five miles to go and the race was on for home. I had the pleasure of riding with Bruce Powell of San Jose , riding his Champion frame XL-410 while I was on my XL-350. We were really cooking when we lo oked ahead ' just a short distance from th e fin ish and there was a big crowd gathered at th e top of a choppy ro cky uphill. Now th at's all o ne needs is spectators to ge l his blood pumping. T wo righ t hands put two t h ro tt les to the stops and up th at hill we flew. We were bo th determined to hit th e top first an d neither would give an inc h. At th e top the co urse turned righ t and so did we, in unison . A drag ra ce to th e finis h and Bruce 's 4 10 had a sligh t advantage as we pulled in laughing . We had enjoyed ourselves fully, which is • wh at it's all about. Sportsman riders shine at Pioneer By Ann Carr O AKDALE, CAL. , FEB. 8 Threatening sprinkles did not deter dieh ard racer s to da y as 197 rid ers practi ced over a slippery track a t Pioneer Aren a. While Experts pla yed fo llow-the-leader (excep t in a wild 125 Main ), No vices put o n t he sho w. Topping to day 's races fo r excitemen t was th e 10 0 Novice event where perennial win ner Ken Forbes of Modesto (he can 'I be a Novice much longer ) got a poor sta rt but took only a few lap s to regain th e lead . Real actio n was for the two-th ree: spots where Man teca 's . J ohn J aco bs diced wi th Modesto 's Mar k Howard fo r nine laps . Howard re lented to the p ressure on the whi te flag lap and Jacobs took a hard earned second . Thirt y 125 Novices jousted for four trophies with Pacif ic Grove' s Dan Ros e the eventual victor, Heats in this class wer e especially tou gh and o nly Ro se an d Mode st o 's J o e Tomao co u ld foll ow heat wins with tr oph y spo ts. J im Ho lland , Lodi 's mud ace , and Brian Thompson came fro m Se mi transfers to the third and fourth spo ts respectively as Holland u sed his expertise to out-fo x Brian o n the number fo ur turn. T ed Davidson and Mike Mon tgomery staged the o nly cl ose Expert race as Teddy cha sed Mike for nine lap s and then stu ffed th e B1endzall Special inside o ver the bumps in the specta to r tum , almost highsided, and topped Mike for a co n t ro versial pass. Montgomery fell o ff two turns lat er play ing ca tc h-up, so Jeff

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