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/141023
an d a quic k lunch we star ted on th e shorter afternoon section. About 10 miles of desert-like trail eventually gave way t o a sh arply climbing tra il up to the Nike b ase. Th is tr ail was lin ed with Sprin g flo wers an d was quite beau tif ul to rid e . We h ad go ne th rough th e m ilitary base o n th e m orn in g lo op and we had to go throu gh it aga in on th e afternoon sec tio n . I t Was an e nforced 5 m ph speed limit with di squ alifi cat io n fo r anyone speedin g. This was o ne o f the Shamrock s' ma jor h assles. The gu ys who are pl aying so ld ie r up there didn't wan t us riding through , eve n th ough the Forest Service owns th e land! Afraid we mi gh t be spi es o r something, I guess. The Sh amro cks fi nallv found the co m m a n d ing o ffi cer an d 'go t p ermission to cross and sec u red th e kevs t o a co u p le of ga tes th a t th e mili tary keeps locked. After w e passed th ro ug h th e mi litary rese rvati o n, w e turn ed righ t in s tea d of left as w e had in the m o rni ng and h ad nine mil es o f good p avemen t up to Mill Cre ek Summit. An yb od y for ro ad rac ing on knobb y tir es ? Lets see n ow, 9 mil es at 24 mph sho u ld take 2 2." mi nu tes. How fast d o I have to go to m ak e up 10 minutes ? IImmm . The o bjec t in go ing t o Mill Creek Summit was to get on an aba ndo ne d p ow er line road th at p arall eled th e An geles Fo rest Hig hway ab ou t J OOO feet above it . Tha i roa d was \'\..ashe d o u t in sections. had logs across it. was strewn with roc ks and was scary as the d evil. Se ve ral riders wen t off of it an d fo und tb e firs t step was ten feet d own , an d th en it go t steep . O ne guy's bike slid d own abo u t 100 feet an d sin ce h e co u ld see the high way, he decided to ride it o ut . It d idn't tak e him long to find o u t th at there were several good cliffs between himself a nd th e h ighway, He 'll wind u p t akin g the bike apart and packing it out o n hi s b ac k. To ad d to the fun on th at trail th er e was a foot-high wate r bar eve ry 100 feet o r so . Super neat ! N oth ing like m otoc ros s jumps with nothin g bu t sp ac e under y o u r left handle b ar for half a mile . Makes y ou fee l like o ne of th o se ding-a-lin g ca ny on jumpers. Th e Shamro ck s had a co m p u ter a t M th e finish to compute the scores but th ey didn't get all of them finsihed, They did get some pretty low scores th ou gh. Carl Pri ce lo o ks like a p retty good bet for Sw eep st akes wit h a score of . J! C ur ti s Cr ivelli an d Way ne Kin g both h ave -2 an d are both Heavy wei gh t " ., '" C1. N .... Cl ,r; A riders so w e 'll have to wait on that. T om Pa tt on is in at -2 Ligh tw eigh t A . John No o r mi ght get the Li ghtweight B h on or s wi th -3 an d Ken Kledzik m igh t get Heav ywe igh t ll wi th ยท4. But there arc still a lot of cards to score so don't make a new shelf for y our trophies ye t, gu y s. The Shamro ck s had on e whale of a lot o f hassle puttin g on this ru n. Th ey had to fill o u t all so rts o f forms, atten d a bunch of m ee tin gs, fin d several land > ~ ::; '" w ;:: t ;~ J Z ur -' o >o r < o w ne rs wh o se proper ty they w ere go ing to cross brie fly . or pass near and they had to co n tact, thro ug h the Forest Se rvice, seve ra l lease h olders like th at military bunch. They also ha d to post a S3 ,OOO b ond and th ey'll have to do so me trail rep air w or k to ge t it bac k. One o f th ei r member s, J oh n Clausen, did m ost o f th e Iiason work p u tt in g in hours a nd h ours of work of the th ankless bu sin ess ty pe . Bu t th e y've opened th e way for o the r cl u bs to throw runs in the fo rest a n d fou nd the co n ta cts. I t will be much easier from now on. Th ey 've impr oved the sport an d we all owe th em a great d eal. A no ther fellow wh o neve r ge ts enough cred it is Shamr o ck Bob S teffan . I understan d tha t he \ \ "3 5 in charge of Pu bl ic Rela tio ns on this run. lI e' s taking lesson s from Spiro Agnew and has devel op ed a new news-media tec hni que called Dart-B oard d iploma cy . The Fore st Serv ice .h ere also d eserv es a w ord of than ks. T hey co opera ted to a far gre a te r ex ten t th an necesary . They suggested p ossible trail s an d spe n t man y hours with the Sh amrocks helpin g th em to chec k out the tr ai ls and plan routes th at w ould n ot d amage th e earth . They wer e on th e site today an d I heard rumor that th ey were even help in g the riders a t the gas ch ec k! Both th e Forest Service a nd th e Sh amro ck s seemed very pleased a t the wa y things worked o u t an d I fo r o ne hope th at th is kind of rel a tio nsh ip ca n con tinue a nd grow. It 'll me an b etter ridi ng fo r all o f u s. ,I I