Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/126244
A rrttle snow here, a little mud there, a bit of reverse-pucker from time to ti me - scenes from UEA's Silver Dollar Enduro near Red Mountain. UEA Silver Dollar : MudandSnow cometothe California Desert By Lane Campbell RED MOUNTAIN. CAL. .JAN. 16 The combination of gentle warming and mounds _ week-old snow added something of unique to the California fam ily enduro , scene-short stretches of slippy-slidey mud 14 mixed in spots with a little snow and ice . Because of good course layout. the United Enduro Association (UEA) Silver Dolla r Enduro came off as a standout example of good clean dirty fun with motorcycles, instead of turning into a disaster. About 600 people showed up at the campsite and pits. which co mmands a sweeping view toward California City O ve r 100 ri de rs attended Larry La ng ley 's t im ekeep in g schoo l on Sat u rday , Little did they know tha t the cl u b wou ld mix terrain and checkpoints such th a t they'd need to exe rcise thei r new know ledge very well . It was as if the orgainizers had set the run up to pound in the vital lesson - when you 're supposed to be on your minute. be on it! It started off deceptively enough, as . the course serpentined over gentle terrain away from the start on the first loop. climbing nort hwest and criss crossing numberless trails in this heavily-used area , After the mileage check, the ground got more in teresting. then they popped riders up on a ridge for a spectacular overlook (signed "Scen ic Rou te") of Koehn Lake with the sno w-cove red Sierras in t he backdrop. T hen it was really fine ridgerunning. . littl e or no d ust, a few wet spots to mark the whoopdies , and finally int o W ilson's Gully - the first really tight trail of the run . There was a check at the bottom. The rest of the first loop stayed fun , scenic. and relatively easy with good dangermarking as long as you were kee ing to enduro speeds. There was one really neat slick -snowy downhill through mounds of whi te stuff. then all too soo n back to camp over fast whoopdie trail for a short b reak. T he Under-I f Cs and Wo mens' BI C riders stopped here , For the res t, the second loop aw aited . and it was reall y fine . There was " No Guts Gorge" with patches of ice still left in spots where the sun never shi nes - -a nd of course, a check ' at the bottom . There was " Pooch's Magnanimous Massage Parlor ," which was either named after that big black cave in the side of the mountain or the gnarly old u ph ill that followed. Then there was the downhill where the sign said " Ap p ly for Flight I nsu r a nce . " It had a really muddy down-up righ t in the middle wit h two turns and no place to go for the unfortunates whose wheels lost the groove. If you got off. it was either lift the bike back onto the trail or throw it off a cliff. T hen another short pucker downhill for the survivors and a gentle wash where you were tempted to rest a nd ca tch your breath. But of course. right around th e next blind bend in the wash . . .was a check. Gotchal There were other neat little touches like the speed change sign in the m iddle of a dow nhi ll sufficient ly co bby th a t you were rea lly too busy to rea d the sign. Clever. The~e was more good gully running, lots of H . a nd one memorab le ridgeline downhill . There was the "Ski Lift" up to Government Peak - mud skis on both boots required . Finally there was t he fork in th e trai l that went " Ha rd Way - Easy Way" . T he Cs co uld go th e easy wa y; As and Bs had no choice. The ha rd way was rea l end uro rider s' enduroing - plenty of sna rly cli m bs, dropaways, tight gu llies a nd m u d m ixed with patches of melting snow, At the end there was the dow n hill left over fro m last year's Little T uffy within sight of the finish. Nobody's mistakes went un noticed . With a ll the cobby ground a nd unexpected wetness, there was some worry for the kids and the playriders here and there (and some dodgy moments when lost souls from the nearby District 37 race got on the course headed backwards) . but no injuries were reponed to the contestants, The one injury of the weekend was to cl ub president Bob Ashlock. who crashed while riding near camp and suffered a compound fracture of the collarbone. Unofficially , there was a three -way winner tie among the one-loopers. Donna McMahan (Womens B. 200cc) , Lenny Ru sso (Under-If C , 125cc) a nd Tony Eu lo (Under-If C , 125cc) all ha d zeroes, No one zeroed the second loop . T he unofficial overa ll win ner was Kenn y Lew is, Jr. (400 Ya m ) with one point and 42 seconds at t he two tieb rea ker c hecks. There were a multitude of ot her "ones" , most of whi ch came at the check whic h decided t he enduro , in a 30 m ph section located after that diabolica l downhill speed change sign mentioned earlier. It was also a tiebreaker check. Official results when ava ilable.