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Fools Gold Enduro 2 - By: Steve Schow
By: Steve Schow
Fools Gold 2000
A C-rider's story
by Steve Schow
What a perfect name for this race....because only a "Fool" woulda' been o
ut
there on a day like it was. From what I can tell, all us fools still
managed to have a great time though. I know I certainly did. Here's an
explanation of what its like after the A and B guys tear up the mud and
leave a trail of destruction for us poor C riders to navigate through...
We arrived at the Mace Mill staging area at around 5:00pm. Normally, tha
t
would have been plenty of time to get registered, get prepped, etc.. Prob
lem
is it started raining right as we got there. After I got my van parked,
I
tried to ride my bike up to the signup desk...in the rain. They were clo
sed
for dinner and I was already soaked in my only pair of dry street clothes.
After that I decided to just wait until morning when the rain was suppose
dly
forecasted to "let up". We holed up into the van and waited for a drier
morning to come around.
Next morning it was still drizzling and I couldn't hear any commotion fro
m
other campers. I thought to myself "they must have canceled it". Me and
my
buddies agreed, they probably canceled and even if they didn't....who wan
ts
to ride in the rain? Around 8:00 I finally got out of bed and walked ove
r
in the drizzle to Alan Plumbridge's trailer to see if the race was on or
not. Everyone was suiting up. I didn't need to ask, but I did anyway.
Everyone looked at me like.... "Of course its on, you're ridin' right?!?!
?"
I responded "uh...oh yea....of course we are!". No wimps here.
Needless to say....my buddies and I had exactly 60 minutes to signup, get
ready and get to the starting line. We were absolutely the last people t
o
sign up, putting us on line 78. We didn't really do a great job of getti
ng
ready. Barely time to squirt a little Fog-X on the inside of my goggles.
A
slew of things I normally would like to do but didn't....(like duct tape
the
tops of my boots for example or eat breakfast). But what the hell....We
were still 5 minutes late to the starting line. Not to worry (I was told
),
big reset right after mile 2.9 should put us back on schedule again.
Okidok!
Took off down the trail. Within 1 mile I was having to hold my head back
and look through a little clear slit near the bottom of my goggle lense t
hat
wasn't fogged up. I couldn't see squat! After bailing in the first 2 mi
les
due to lack of vision I pulled over and cleaned my goggles inside and out.
AH...at last...I could see! For about 3 more miles anyway......when I
finally figured out it made no sense at all to use goggles at all. Goggl
es
came off. Without goggles I could see pretty well, but I got whip lashed
in
the eyes at least 25 times during the ride by branches and stuff.
On the first loop I must have come upon at least half a dozen major
bottlenecks. In most cases I made a valiant attempt at riding around the
blockage....However in all but 1 or 2 cases...I just became part of the
bottleneck myself. I bailed a few more times. I'm sure I must have pass
ed
15 or so riders that were flailing around in the muck. What was left for
us
poor C-riders was a huge mess of ruts, roots, rocks and churned up mud.
Near the end I finally figured out I could do better in the hard places b
y
going through the trees on the side....but I didn't figure that out until
late in the game. The hardest thing was all the exposed roots and rocks
with mud all around. If you lost your momentum...you were screwed.
I dropped 5 points at first check and 37 more points at the 2nd check. T
he
guys working the 2nd check weren't even bothering to stick around much
longer in the rain. I can't say as I blame them. My buddy came up 5
minutes behind me and they just waved him on through. I never saw any 3r
d
check. I guess we must have been houred out by then. Wouldn't have
surprised me...
It started really raining now....before it was just drizzling...
I crawled into the 1st gas stop... I was soaked to the bone.....wasn't co
ld
though. Sweating like a pig actually. But thoroughly soaked to the bone.
Reggie was squatting there in front of his lunch bucket eating something,
rain pouring over the sides of his helmet visor. I wish I had a camera.
His sandwhich looked good! But wait...I HAD A POWER BAR! Thank god. I
ate
it.
They had already closed off loop 2. Apparantly enough B riders had limpe
d
into the 2nd gas stop houred out already. They knew better than to send
C
riders up there. So they closed it off. I guess we were houred out
already, but I didn't wanna stop riding yet. I was sorta having fun! I
know...sick aren't I?
So we headed up the 3rd loop, more or less back on schedule I think. A
couple miles into the 3rd loop I passed some B riders that were coming ba
ck
the opposite direction. What the heck. I talked to one of them. Some k
ind
of gnarly bottleneck up ahead. Hmm..... I continued on. Bailed a few m
ore
times in the snot. Then I hit the hill that was causing the bottleneck.
It
was deserted now. I made it 80% of the way and then came to the last lit
tle
part that was obviously causing the bottleneck and didn't make it. Too
tired to try again I said "screw it" and headed backwards in the directio
n
of the other B riders that gave up too. Going down was no problem.
The guy at gas said it was 14 miles down the remainder of the 3rd loop fr
om
there. Just follow the signs......."its all easy", he said. Sounds good
to
me. I screamed off down the fireroad.... It weren't no 14 miles. 25 or
30
maybe. Seemed like 50. Bailed a few more times. Even the simplest littl
e
obstacles were majorly technical in the mud and rain. Any resemblance to
a
nice Georgetown trail was completely gone. Nothing but ruts, rocks, root
s
and more churned up mud. But it was easier than the 1st loop. I finally
started getting a handle on riding in the mud. WEIGHT THE FRONT WHEEL!
What a concept.
I hit a few checks that were still out. There were still checks out?!?!?
They checked me even though I had loads of empty lines on my score card.
What the heck. I wanted proof that I was foolish enough to keep riding i
n
this stuff!
Sheez, wasn't I like the very last guy by this point. It sure seemed lon
ely
out there. Never saw a Sweeper once though. I passed a few more guys an
d
bailed a few more times. When I came to the river crossing a couple guys
were parked there with their water logged bikes. One of them was lucky
enough to have a rain poncho (made a mental note for fanny pack).
By now the rain was coming down pretty good. The trail was one long endl
ess
stream of water puddles.....I found that the best traction was right down
the middle where the water was streaming in the bottom of the main rut.
Puddles were best near the sides when possible. But they were everywhere.
My boots were making sloshing sounds as I rocked around on my footpegs.
I
was totally soaked to the bone. I came into the finish...nobody was ther
e.
Went to the sign up desk and threw my score card on the table, getting
empathetic looks from the CERA folks behind the table....and big grins!
My clothes were totally drenched. Even my underwear were dark brown from
the mud and water. I ended up just throwing them away along with my sock
s.
The only part of my body that wasn't tinted brown was the 2 or 3 dark red
bruises I had from all the crashing I was doing. What a day.
Did I have fun? Hell ya! Would I do it again? Hell no!
NOTE - I do have to say, however, that if hadn't been raining the cours
e
would have been absolutely awesome, especially for C riders. CERA always
does a fantastic job of putting on events and this year's was no
exception other than Mother Nature's intervention. Can't wait for nex
t
year!
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