Race Horse Creek
Race Horse Creek
One of the best race venues of the year...
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cerealkiller
- 2024 RMDRA Member
- Posts: 564
- Joined: Fri Apr 06, 2012 9:02 pm
Re: Race Horse Creek
Anyone have a google maps link? The QR codes don't seem to be working.
-Jared
#44b
#44b
Re: Race Horse Creek
Hwy 22 South to Maycroft exit. (1st right after going over Oldman River bridge).
Take this road all the way to the end (T-intersection).
Turn Left.
Follow for about 12 kms but you will start gaining elevation and as you climb, you will see your first right from the right that comes at an angle to the road you are on.
Turn right and follow this road into the valley and it ends at the race site.
Take this road all the way to the end (T-intersection).
Turn Left.
Follow for about 12 kms but you will start gaining elevation and as you climb, you will see your first right from the right that comes at an angle to the road you are on.
Turn right and follow this road into the valley and it ends at the race site.
Last edited by Spinalguy on Fri Aug 22, 2014 8:30 am, edited 1 time in total.
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cerealkiller
- 2024 RMDRA Member
- Posts: 564
- Joined: Fri Apr 06, 2012 9:02 pm
Re: Race Horse Creek
Cool. Thanks.
From the map I gather it's only a bit south from where the Shale Shaker race is held?
From the map I gather it's only a bit south from where the Shale Shaker race is held?
-Jared
#44b
#44b
Re: Race Horse Creek
Yes, although for shale shaker you would have turned right at T-int.
Re: Race Horse Creek
Pending my knee isn't football sized.... I am pumped!!
2012 250XC
"If you can't be good, be good at it"
"If you can't be good, be good at it"
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Dakota_c69
- 2024 RMDRA Member
- Posts: 777
- Joined: Thu Feb 10, 2005 2:49 pm
- Location: Buying more Dilly Bars!
Re: Race Horse Creek
The approximate coordinates for the race site are 49.848609, -114.477999
You can use those to find it on Google Maps or your GPS.
You can use those to find it on Google Maps or your GPS.
_______
Glenn.
2018 KTM 250 XC
2015 Beta 300RR
2013 KTM 450XC-W
"Never run out of real estate, traction & ideas at the same time"
Glenn.
2018 KTM 250 XC
2015 Beta 300RR
2013 KTM 450XC-W
"Never run out of real estate, traction & ideas at the same time"
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malcolmzilla
- 2024 RMDRA Member
- Posts: 879
- Joined: Fri Jun 26, 2009 11:14 am
Re: Race Horse Creek
Anyone want to car pool tomorrow am?
2012 250XC
"If you can't be good, be good at it"
"If you can't be good, be good at it"
Re: Race Horse Creek
Last race of the season.
As i climbed a mountain i had never seen or been to before i thought, damn, i really should have brought me camera. But, stopping to take pics while racing is not really conducive to finishing well. As it turned out, i really should have captured this adventure on film. In a word, this race? TUFF!!!
After getting to the top of the first mountain, we got to ride down the avalanche shoot on the back side full of rocks and scree. It was a controlled slide to the bottom. Next up?
The Waterfall. i laugh now as thinking of riding down a waterfall promotes an image of a short descent of rocks that when wet would be a waterfall. But this was nowhere near the case. It is the runoff creek for snow melt and heavy storms i guess. It is a dry riverbed with nothing but boulders and the odd tree. It also is downhill and seemed like it was 1 if not more kms. It was unrelenting and physically exhausting. The bike and i got beat up badly along the way.
You see the end and the 'trail' turns back onto terra firma...for a short time until you are back on a flat dry riverbed. Ugghhh, it never ends!
Finally, that section is done and you come to a tree across the trail, no problems as we often ride over dead trees but this one tricks you into trying the easier way around it only to meet the base of the trunk that is at the wrong angle for my talent.
i get the front over and as i have broken my tugstrap for the rear and bent the tailpipe as well in the waterfall, i just can not lift the damn bike over.
i hear a rider coming and i strike up a bargain, you help me, i will help you. Gord becomes my riding buddy for the next section awaiting us.
The next section...
We are going up the spine the opposite way that i have always ridden it. Ironically, i rode it just 4 weeks ago and when we got to the bottom of the never ending singletrack downhill through the forest, through the cutblock and mixed skeg sections, we all laughed at how insane it would be to go ride that up instead of down.
i aint laughing now, up we go. One section forces Gord and i to help each other out. After that it is smooth sailing until my bike quits, just dies. i shout to Gord to continue.
i am near the top of the mountain in a forest and deflated. Very few bikes go by suggesting that many may not have even made it this far or today i just sucked. ha
It is lonely and of course the mind starts to think about bears perhaps. ha.
In the riders meeting we are told to never leave the bike and trail if you are hurt or broken down. As time ticks by, i start thinking about walking out. But, i do not as it would mess up the guys that 'sweep' the course to attend to injured and/or broken down bikes and riders.
2.5 hours later i see the wonderful bright green vests of the sweeping team. i get a lesson from John Bader and Allan ??? on how to clean a fuel filter. Thank God the bike fires up and i get to at least finish the first loop. 51kms later i am back at the transition to the next loop. Unfortunately and obviously i do not make cutoff.
Last race for David French and his crew. They have had some of the best and meanest races i have ever had the pleasure of riding.
i remember way back when i began racing that my goal was to get a t shirt for finishing a race of Dave's. Dave gave me a t shirt for this one and even missing cut off, i feel i earned it.
As i climbed a mountain i had never seen or been to before i thought, damn, i really should have brought me camera. But, stopping to take pics while racing is not really conducive to finishing well. As it turned out, i really should have captured this adventure on film. In a word, this race? TUFF!!!
After getting to the top of the first mountain, we got to ride down the avalanche shoot on the back side full of rocks and scree. It was a controlled slide to the bottom. Next up?
The Waterfall. i laugh now as thinking of riding down a waterfall promotes an image of a short descent of rocks that when wet would be a waterfall. But this was nowhere near the case. It is the runoff creek for snow melt and heavy storms i guess. It is a dry riverbed with nothing but boulders and the odd tree. It also is downhill and seemed like it was 1 if not more kms. It was unrelenting and physically exhausting. The bike and i got beat up badly along the way.
You see the end and the 'trail' turns back onto terra firma...for a short time until you are back on a flat dry riverbed. Ugghhh, it never ends!
Finally, that section is done and you come to a tree across the trail, no problems as we often ride over dead trees but this one tricks you into trying the easier way around it only to meet the base of the trunk that is at the wrong angle for my talent.
i get the front over and as i have broken my tugstrap for the rear and bent the tailpipe as well in the waterfall, i just can not lift the damn bike over.
i hear a rider coming and i strike up a bargain, you help me, i will help you. Gord becomes my riding buddy for the next section awaiting us.
The next section...
We are going up the spine the opposite way that i have always ridden it. Ironically, i rode it just 4 weeks ago and when we got to the bottom of the never ending singletrack downhill through the forest, through the cutblock and mixed skeg sections, we all laughed at how insane it would be to go ride that up instead of down.
i aint laughing now, up we go. One section forces Gord and i to help each other out. After that it is smooth sailing until my bike quits, just dies. i shout to Gord to continue.
i am near the top of the mountain in a forest and deflated. Very few bikes go by suggesting that many may not have even made it this far or today i just sucked. ha
It is lonely and of course the mind starts to think about bears perhaps. ha.
In the riders meeting we are told to never leave the bike and trail if you are hurt or broken down. As time ticks by, i start thinking about walking out. But, i do not as it would mess up the guys that 'sweep' the course to attend to injured and/or broken down bikes and riders.
2.5 hours later i see the wonderful bright green vests of the sweeping team. i get a lesson from John Bader and Allan ??? on how to clean a fuel filter. Thank God the bike fires up and i get to at least finish the first loop. 51kms later i am back at the transition to the next loop. Unfortunately and obviously i do not make cutoff.
Last race for David French and his crew. They have had some of the best and meanest races i have ever had the pleasure of riding.
i remember way back when i began racing that my goal was to get a t shirt for finishing a race of Dave's. Dave gave me a t shirt for this one and even missing cut off, i feel i earned it.
Re: Race Horse Creek
Love your story Tom!!!
Great Race. I will miss it, I am sad it defeated me slightly (I missed cut off by 9 minutes...) but thankful for the many years of terror that race instilled in me!
At least I won the after party...
See ya'll in May!
Great Race. I will miss it, I am sad it defeated me slightly (I missed cut off by 9 minutes...) but thankful for the many years of terror that race instilled in me!
At least I won the after party...
See ya'll in May!
2012 250XC
"If you can't be good, be good at it"
"If you can't be good, be good at it"
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malcolmzilla
- 2024 RMDRA Member
- Posts: 879
- Joined: Fri Jun 26, 2009 11:14 am
Re: Race Horse Creek
Great write up Tom.
1st time racing B, didn't make cut off either, and certainly didn't feel like a capable "B" rider at times!
Tons of challenge and variety, from some nice 6th gear cutlines, to WFO commit over the bar climbs, OMG I hope i can keep it pointed there off the rear fender descents, relentless boulder and log strewn waterfall descent and a similar river bed, uphill skeg pits, to a baby head strewn rock outcropping ride along a 100' cliff, it had it all.
And some great "rec rides", awesome panoramas, and camping with the usual suspects, and meeting new folks with a common passion.
Looking west towards Racehorse Pass, to the right of which the south end of the B Loop ascended above the trees to the rock face "University Drive" (so named as it tends to "school" many riders... I know I got some hard learning there!)
On top of the lower saddle of the Seven Sisters.
Looking up to the saddle, from which you could see into BC, past Coleman.
1st time racing B, didn't make cut off either, and certainly didn't feel like a capable "B" rider at times!
Tons of challenge and variety, from some nice 6th gear cutlines, to WFO commit over the bar climbs, OMG I hope i can keep it pointed there off the rear fender descents, relentless boulder and log strewn waterfall descent and a similar river bed, uphill skeg pits, to a baby head strewn rock outcropping ride along a 100' cliff, it had it all.
And some great "rec rides", awesome panoramas, and camping with the usual suspects, and meeting new folks with a common passion.
Looking west towards Racehorse Pass, to the right of which the south end of the B Loop ascended above the trees to the rock face "University Drive" (so named as it tends to "school" many riders... I know I got some hard learning there!)