2001
Caprock Canyon Enduro
by
Marshall Valentino
For those of you who missed this years Caprock Canyon enduro it was an interesting event. Evidently popular with the Colorado riders, the PEA had a huge turnout. I did not hear an official count, but Eddie Phelps was on row 102!!! We had asked for our usual row 5 but imagine my surprise when the sign-in folks told us row 80! At least we would have time to enjoy the Sunday Post Tattler with our coffee in the morning. That is of course if Brooks Blair would learn how to set his alarm. Hmmmmm…didn’t Gary Webb have the same problem at Concho this year? It must have something to do with age!
There is a light mist in the air and it’s fairly cool…35 degrees according to the highly accurate thermometer in Brooks’ well-lit and plush motor home. Our group decides to accessorize our outfits with plastic trash bags. They will fend off both the cold and rain on the long fast ride out to the canyons. Joe Morris and I have our Hefty knee-length formal gowns and the rest of the gang are resplendent in their Glad mini-skirts. Gary complains that we don’t have a size 39 gallons for him. Frank Olson sported a cute yellow windbreaker, making him easy to spot throughout the day and the sexiest rider in his class.
I am at the start with fellow rider Lance Crawford. Missing are the rest of our row, Krash Kranck and Smoker Russell. I tell the workers that we’re missing two guys and to be on the lookout for them - they’ll show up like they’re headed to a fire in a match factory. But for now, they are MIA and we head out as our minute comes up. I’ll bet they have an interesting story.
The PEA did something a little different this year. Lots of the Colorado guys don’t have any time-keeping equipment, so instead of making the test section length a mystery, they posted a sign after the check-in displaying the duration of the test. Lo and behold, after the check-in at 5.5 is a sign that says; 5.2 miles or something like that. I head down the trail and do some quick math…10.7 should be the check-out. With a speed average of 26 mph I knew this would be a challenge….time keeping would be unnecessary, so I ‘got on the gas’ the best I could, arriving at the tie-breaker check-out four minutes late. Pretty sad, Marshall. You should be ashamed. From there we trail-rode 0.4 miles to the gas at 21.1. Smoker and Krash join us there and our B-challenge team is now complete!
The next check in comes after the gas at 24.5 and the speed is now 30 mph. The sign says the test length is 7.4 (I think) and here we go again! We’ve got a course split at 31.0 and we go left. Well, where the hell is the check? It’s supposed to be somewhere around 31.9 and I’m past that. Was there anything else written on that sign? It’s starting to mist a lot heavier now and my goggles are just about worthless. I can’t read my odometer so I just press on, trying to concentrate on the trail. Mercifully, I stumble into the check-out and a pretty lady wipes my goggles clear. The mileage sign says 40.0. A 15.5 mile test section and I’m fourteen minutes late! We’re getting better, aren’t we? There might have been a sign indicating the test-section length for the B-riders but I didn’t see it. No biggie!
We trail-ride another 15 miles or so and we’re back on the road to town for the GP course and the finish. Unwittingly, I have burned a lot more fuel than I thought and was about to learn a lesson. Our minute comes up and we’re off on the grass track. I told Lance and Kranck to go ahead since I know they’re faster than me but I stayed on their butts anyway. Going into the third turn my motor hesitates and goes dead. I grind to a halt in the sand, thinking “it must be the gas”. I fight with that little dinky petcock lever that KTM is so famous for and twist it up to the reserve setting. Hit the button and the engine spins for a few turns before it fires to life! You gotta love that magic button! Now I’m riding waay over my head trying to catch the other guys when we come to the old cotton gin or warehouse or whatever it is. I hit the concrete pad with too much throttle and the bike spins out and slides away from me. I’m thinking….crap. If I fall off this ledge, how am I gonna get back on the track? However, fortune smiles upon me. The bike stays on the concrete, the motor keeps running and I pick it. I get to the finish 1+35 late - still in the same minute as my teammates. Wheew! Lesson learned: Go to reserve when the distance between a gas stop and the finish is longer than 30 miles.
I would like to have seen a couple more test sections. We did a lot of sightseeing instead of racing. Not that it was bad! In spite of the weather we had God’s great outdoors, His beautiful scenery, fellowship, and a lot of laughs. Mark Rogers tells me about a dozen or more rows of A-riders lost the trail somewhere after the split at 47.37, of which he was one. That cost him a few minutes ouch!
Thank you PEA for your efforts. The check workers were great, the sign-in folks and scoring were polite and smiling. You couldn’t ask for more. Thank you fellow Trailblazers for being the misfits you are. Saw Gary Webb and his row 79 lunatics make the big U-turn going into the check at 24.5! Picture Frank Olson in that bright yellow rain jacket, trying his best to conceal himself behind a cedar bush. Too funny! I love you guys!