Sawmill Enduro 2009
This is the second year that I volunteered my Amateur radio services along with several other Hams to provide the emergency communications for two races over the April 4+5 weekend.
The race is put on by the North Bay Motorcycle Club. It's actually two races. Saturday was the 50 mile Cross Cut Family Enduro.
The second one on Sunday was the 80 mile Sawmill Enduro. It's the first race of the season for these guys and there were about 300 riders in each race.
They hold the races at Cow Mountain in Northern California.
From what I hear Cow Mountain is a pretty rowdy place when open to the public and the two times I have been there I was impressed with both the beauty and the horrible stewardship by the users. There is litter everywhere.
We camped at the Red Mountain Campground and had it all to our selves since the whole area is closed to the public.
The campground would be really nice if it were properly taken care of by the locals who visit. It's really sad. But we cleaned it up a little and made it our home for a few days
Saturday was the Crosscut Family Enduro for everyone. Our checkpoint as always was hidden from the riders.
The riders come around the corner and stop to get their times recorded
The fun part about the Family race is all the kids on tiny bikes with their dads
There are also a bunch of female riders usually marked with a pink tail on their backs
My check point had the only injury report for the day with one person who crashed at the beginning of the race and hurt his knee and wrist.
He rode for about 30 miles with his wrist wrapped in Electrical tape. He finally stopped 12 miles short of the finish at my check point because he could not go on. I had to call in the medics to evaluate and transport him back to the medic tent way back at the starting line. I
felt bad for him because he had given it such a valiant try.
The next race on Sunday was for the more serious riders.
I had to wake up nice and early to get out to the check point.
Heading down to the secret check point
I just happened to be with Rob (in the blue) who I worked the check point with at last years race - Rob is a really cool dude who takes pride in running a tight and fair check point.
After the setup we waited for the riders to arrive
Riders heading out from our check point
The 80 mile race had a rest stop where you could get gas
Man, that is a lot of gas
There were a few injuries on Sunday, one was a broken collar bone and I think there was another minor injury that I can't remember.
The big drama for Sunday was that three or four un-registered riders appeared on the course and would not stop at any of the check points.
This was really dangerous because if they were to ride a trail that intersected with the course somebody could have got hurt bad. In the end at least three of them had been apprehended by the authorities and one of them even blew their motor and had to be towed out. It was pretty
lame but it did add some excitement.
When the race was over we headed back to break down the camp and head back to Clearlake and then home.
It was a great experience with the Ham radios and working with the other Amateur Radio operators. I learned a lot from the experienced Hams.
They have been doing this type of thing for years and are really good at it.
I also got to test out some of our camping gear for our Death Valley trip next week.
-m
This is the second year that I volunteered my Amateur radio services along with several other Hams to provide the emergency communications for two races over the April 4+5 weekend.
The race is put on by the North Bay Motorcycle Club. It's actually two races. Saturday was the 50 mile Cross Cut Family Enduro.
The second one on Sunday was the 80 mile Sawmill Enduro. It's the first race of the season for these guys and there were about 300 riders in each race.
They hold the races at Cow Mountain in Northern California.
From what I hear Cow Mountain is a pretty rowdy place when open to the public and the two times I have been there I was impressed with both the beauty and the horrible stewardship by the users. There is litter everywhere.
We camped at the Red Mountain Campground and had it all to our selves since the whole area is closed to the public.
The campground would be really nice if it were properly taken care of by the locals who visit. It's really sad. But we cleaned it up a little and made it our home for a few days
Saturday was the Crosscut Family Enduro for everyone. Our checkpoint as always was hidden from the riders.
The riders come around the corner and stop to get their times recorded
The fun part about the Family race is all the kids on tiny bikes with their dads
There are also a bunch of female riders usually marked with a pink tail on their backs
My check point had the only injury report for the day with one person who crashed at the beginning of the race and hurt his knee and wrist.
He rode for about 30 miles with his wrist wrapped in Electrical tape. He finally stopped 12 miles short of the finish at my check point because he could not go on. I had to call in the medics to evaluate and transport him back to the medic tent way back at the starting line. I
felt bad for him because he had given it such a valiant try.
The next race on Sunday was for the more serious riders.
I had to wake up nice and early to get out to the check point.
Heading down to the secret check point
I just happened to be with Rob (in the blue) who I worked the check point with at last years race - Rob is a really cool dude who takes pride in running a tight and fair check point.
After the setup we waited for the riders to arrive
Riders heading out from our check point
The 80 mile race had a rest stop where you could get gas
Man, that is a lot of gas
There were a few injuries on Sunday, one was a broken collar bone and I think there was another minor injury that I can't remember.
The big drama for Sunday was that three or four un-registered riders appeared on the course and would not stop at any of the check points.
This was really dangerous because if they were to ride a trail that intersected with the course somebody could have got hurt bad. In the end at least three of them had been apprehended by the authorities and one of them even blew their motor and had to be towed out. It was pretty
lame but it did add some excitement.
When the race was over we headed back to break down the camp and head back to Clearlake and then home.
It was a great experience with the Ham radios and working with the other Amateur Radio operators. I learned a lot from the experienced Hams.
They have been doing this type of thing for years and are really good at it.
I also got to test out some of our camping gear for our Death Valley trip next week.
-m
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