Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

~ " '" " .... '" '" '" '" .g 0.. Every year the Hi Mountain Enduro is a"must" on u. ~ w Z w -' U >- U Th ese fellows t ry to look serio us for th e camera , wh ich is rather difficult w ith a cigar in you r mouth . By Ron Schneid ers Photos b y Ellen Schneid ers SAN L UIS OBISPO, CAL., Feb. 13, 1972 - If t h ere is one run that is o n the "must" list of every d edi cated enduro rider in South ern Californ ia it is certain ly the Hi Mountain Endur o. Fo r 22 years the rid ers have b een making th e 200 mil e trek to San Luis and no one ever asked, "Is it r eally that good? Do I really wa nt to go t his y ear ?" The ans wer is to b oth questi on s an enthusiastic , "Yes " , is too obvio us to ne ed wo rds . Bu t un like most ru ns th at have achie ved great popu larity , the ap peal of the Hi Mo untain is no t in its d iffi cult y . It's no t regarded as a grea t achievem ent just to finis h, as are the Gr eenho rn an d th e Jackp ine. No, th e word mo st p eopl e use in describ ing th e Hi Moun tain, is "nice" . It's a nice run. The locatio n 01 t he Hi Moun tain ha d a lo t to d o with its popularity. It's in t he Los Padres Forest and all the desert rats ge t this chance o nce a year to ride t rees i , A no ther in amo ngst th e fo rt unate fact is th at w hile there is the forest and th e trees. it's is not the ro ugh . tough. nast y , wet , mudd y , slo ppy fo rest suc h as o ne finds up no rt h wh ere t he tr ees fight b ack with low han gin g branch es that clean rid ers righ t o ff the sad d le , and slippery bare roo ts, camo flagued with skit te rish leaves, to drop th e carele ss rid er flat in his tra cks . no , this is a nice forest. There was only o ne sm all lo g to cro ss an d a trail went around t hat if you didn't feel up to it. Bran ch es would occasiona lly slap at yo u , but they were so ft bran ches, and it wa s mo re p lay fu l th an killing . T h ere was some mud, but no t very much. In a good no rth ern en d uro yo u'd cle an more mud out of yo ur left ear. Som e years it rains an d get very muddy, so I understand, bu t it hasn 't happ en ed sinc e I'veb een riding. You might gather fro m what I've said, th at this is an easy en d uro . T ha t 's not so . First of all, it was 96 miles long and that's a fair rid e under an y conditions. But there's als o the fact that wh ile the forest per se is not much threat - more to provide atm o sph ere , y o u might say - the trails were fairly difficult to ride. There were lots and lots of downhills of the rock and rut variety to test your nerves and yo ur brakes. The uphills this year were pretty easy . Nothing to stop even my little overloaded 125 . Joining the trails were quite a few miles of dirt road and asphalt, some of which was pretty tr icky to rid e. One fire road in part icular had ab out 20 ' co nsecu tive off-camb er hairpin turns . It 's lik e wh en yo u were a kid cl imbing up the slide. Every time y ou rel ax for a moment yo u slide back d own. Only . o n th ose off cam ber turns as soon as you start sliding yo u' re in trouble, so you just don't rel ax mu ch . T h e aspha lt p art of t he run ca used a bit o f trouble. First it me ant th at all the bi kes had to be street legal and th e Cal Pol y Pen gu ins h eld a Tech Insp ection b efore th e event to mak e su re th at every o ne was lega l. What a collection of j unk was h an ging o n those mo to rcycles ! What a collectio n of j unk is n o w lit tering th e Hi Moun ta in t rail! T hey o ught to mak e eve ryone co me in wi th everyth ing he started wit h, o r be d isqualifi ed. T he Pen guins d id hold a second in sepctio n o ut o n t he second lo op and do cked p oin ts fo r non-working eq u ip me nt , which I th ough t was a great ide a, in sp ite of losin g five myself for a taillig ht bulb w ith a two-p iece filament. T he run did de mo nstrate th at any t hing ca n b e made at least minimally street legal. My frie nd Al Fox now has t h e only motocross-model stre et legal 370 AJ S in th e world. I wan t t o see him rid e it down the st ree ts of b eautiful downtown Burbank, now th at it's legal. Did yo u know that there act ua lly is a Hi Mountain mountain? T he re is. And according to the map th e Penguins procured for me , we act ua lly got qui te close to the summit o n the sec o nd lo op. Some riders will remember it as the spot wh er e th ey ran o ut of gas. Th e o p t imi sm of rid ers who st art a lo ng enduro with a o ne-ga llo n gas tan k n ever c eases to amaz e m e. The schedules th is year ca used a bit const ern atio n. The Penguins decided not to publish an y sched u les in advance and to let you know sp eed changes o n the spot with a card about two feet square. This cause d difficulty to some of the riders wh o were so intent on making up tim e that they missed the speed change. But it's the way it's generally done up north and mo st riders are b eco min g acclimated to the idea. It 's n ice from the club's point of view

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