Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

... District 37 , th ere would' ve been no event. " The road the Fores t Service closed to d ua l sporters remained open to the p ublic, however. "I wa s up t here a n d watched rangers wave two fou r-wheeld rive jeeps onto the road," said Trippet. " If those guys see a muddy section, they rush in and try to spin their tires. Two of them will do more damage to the roa d than all of us." Larry Langley, who laid out the first day' s tra il, describ ed the clos ure as "a joke." " If there's a legitim ate closu re, that's okay, but this stuff is inexcusable," sa id Lan gley. "I rod e that section this morn- up near Big Bear and I know the trails up th ere rea lly w ell, so 1 took the r id e rs w ith m e o n a littl e side tour." The tra il spli t in tw o a fte r th e lu nc h stop .and the Forest Service closure forced r id e rs who selecte d the easy op tion to follow pa vem ent a ll the way to the desert floor at Lucerne . The option w as popular despite the p avement, thanks ... Lf) rl H Q) ~ Q) U Q) o (Above) Most people ·associate Thanksgiving with turkey, but at the LAto-B-to-V, riders were "goosed " d uring tech . inspection. (Left) Some particip ants were prepared for th e worst, including this BMW rider. He carried tw o "suitcases" th e entire way. (Below) What could be better th an spending Thanksgiving week end pa rticipating in a wo rld-fa mous dual-sp ort ride? Doing it with a frien d! ing. There are three small places where it's wet but the rest is so dry it's almost dusty. I think the Forest Service is just using it for an excuse and they're not treating us fairly ." Riders began leaving the start a t 7 a.m. and with the temperature hovering just above 40 degrees, it was a cold ride for the first 20 miles of pavement. The 12-mile dirt section that followed barely gave the dual sporters time to warm up before they were back on Highway 38, for the Forest Service d etour that took . them all the way to Big Bear for a very early lunch. "The h ighwa y w as no fun at all . 1 didn't really come prepared for it and my finger s and throat were really cold," said Honda XR650L rider Richard Jackson. Despite the cold and th eir obv io us disap po intment, the ride rs made the best of the abb reviated rou te. " It was too bad a lot of the trail was closed . That mad e the first part way too r- uch street, bu t we made it interesting," ., id Lar ry McPherson. "1 have a cabin to the route ·in s t ru ction s with a dire warning about the hard option: " No buddy up, no two-cylinder bikes, no big bikes, no inexperi enced riders. You ca n n o t tum back! You cannot take the easy sections! " "They weren't kidding," said Bob Tartter, who opted for the rocky, 20-mile hard way that incl uded a helterskel ter run down the John Bull Trail. "I've done th a t section before but it se em s like I' ve go tten older since last time. It wa s a good hard way - lots of big boulders, and lots of up, up, up, then down, down, down. My ears pop ped several times and I w as brea th ing pretty hard beca use of the altitude." The fron t of the pack had clea red the g as stop at Lu cerne by 10:30 a.m . and headed down Camp Rock Road to tackle the sand and whoops of one of Southern California's most popular desert riding areas. Ex-deser t racers were in their element. "That sec tion was like old, old-time desert racing," sai d Richard Jackson. "It bro ught bac k so me mem ories . My first desert race in 1972 was rig ht there." Novice dirt ri d ers like Karl Ziegler we re almos t as enthusiastic. "I d idn't want to take the sissy wa y o u t and take pa vement a ll the wa y. Tha t's not w h at dual sp ort rides are a b ou t, so 1 follo w ed the crowd and h oped fo r th e best," said the Yamaha pilo t. "The bike went through it just fine. It's a littl e heavy and I dumped it twice when it washed out, but you just have to read the terrain and pick your rou te." Reading the desert terrain was di ffi- 11

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