Fallen Timber race Aug 17-18

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5Lgreenback
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Re: Fallen Timber race Aug 17-18

Post by 5Lgreenback »

350scott wrote:
5Lgreenback wrote:Thanks to everyone who helped put this race on, and to the sweepers who kindly delivered me some much needed fuel to get back to camp! :applause:

I found a red race fuel jug on the side of the hiway, it has a sticker 350A on it, anybody know who that belongs to? I also realized I forgot my 10 litre jerry can full of two stoke gas down at the start area. My loss, somebodies gain!
The fuel jug is Hendrix13's. He would probably like it back. And it would a good return of favour because your trail gas probably came from him. Almost everyone on here knows him so should be easy to get it too him.
I do plan to return it, that's why I posted it on here! I'm located in Canmorebut I'm sure I we can figure something out.

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Re: Fallen Timber race Aug 17-18

Post by Bark »

Golarge and I swept the first 30km, then leap frogged to the road crossing where anotheroldtrailrider was hanging out. While I didn't get to see the 2nd half of the course, the 1st half was super nice single track worthy of a song, nice course!

There were lots of folks struggling with fuel which seems really bizarre given the length of the course but I saw a bunch of smiles!

Cheers,
Aaron

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Re: Fallen Timber race Aug 17-18

Post by Hendrix13 »

5Lgreenback wrote:
350scott wrote:
5Lgreenback wrote:Thanks to everyone who helped put this race on, and to the sweepers who kindly delivered me some much needed fuel to get back to camp! :applause:

I found a red race fuel jug on the side of the hiway, it has a sticker 350A on it, anybody know who that belongs to? I also realized I forgot my 10 litre jerry can full of two stoke gas down at the start area. My loss, somebodies gain!
The fuel jug is Hendrix13's. He would probably like it back. And it would a good return of favour because your trail gas probably came from him. Almost everyone on here knows him so should be easy to get it too him.
I do plan to return it, that's why I posted it on here! I'm located in Canmorebut I'm sure I we can figure something out.
PM sent...
Thanks 5Lgreenback for picking it up :applause: :thumbsup:
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Re: Fallen Timber race Aug 17-18

Post by timbruce »

Had an awesome day, and enjoyed the course. Great job!! Thanks to all who voluntered and the select few that were voluntold :thumbsup:

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Re: Fallen Timber race Aug 17-18

Post by AJRJ »

5Lgreenback wrote:Thanks to everyone who helped put this race on, and to the sweepers who kindly delivered me some much needed fuel to get back to camp! :applause:

I found a red race fuel jug on the side of the hiway, it has a sticker 350A on it, anybody know who that belongs to? I also realized I forgot my 10 litre jerry can full of two stoke gas down at the start area. My loss, somebodies gain!
I have your gas can.

PM me, we can make arrangements.

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Re: Fallen Timber race Aug 17-18

Post by twitch13 »

I had a great time. Thanks for everyone who stayed late to check me in at the finish! Thanks to all the volunteers who made this race happen, a very big job to get everything flagged and organized!!

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Re: Fallen Timber race Aug 17-18

Post by kingrigger »

For sure takes a lot of effort to put on a race but that was one of the worst races I've ever done, haven't heard of to many bikes with stock tanks being able to go 60km, not sure why you'd use so much cut block, it doesn't make it tough to ride through, it makes a ride frustrating and boring, especially when there are so many trails that connect out there and flow nice, the flagging didn't make a lot of sense and still scratching my head at the dead check half way down a hill and turn right after it, never seen that before. The course had some strong points but I didn't find it enjoyable at all.

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Re: Fallen Timber race Aug 17-18

Post by Spinalguy »

i swept.
i arrived to do my duties but i guess i was on my own. i caught up to Golarge and Bark on the trail fixing Golarge's bike. Shortly thereafter, a rider came down towards us wanting 'out'.
Well, we could not send him on the course in the wrong direction as we thought pros would be coming soon to start their second loop. Ironically, no pro did a second loop so had we known this, it might have changed some decisions made from this point on (we were only 5kms in).
Anyways, Golarge aired down the riders tire which made a big difference. With some encouragement, off he went.
After the 3 of us provided a 2km escort, we agreed that the spirit of sweeping was to not babysit every rider. We were under the impression that at the 30km spot, there was a live check and a road for those that were 'done' to escape.
i went ahead form my two mates as i thought it was important to have one sweeper moving forward on the course to see if any injured riders were in need.
i came upon 2 more riders at the 10km mark. i encouraged them to make it to the 30km mark as it was a live check and a road escape. Off i went as i also knew the 2 sweepers were behind me and there were at least 2 more sweepers coming out after the pros went through.
i came upon another rider. He was moving along so i also encouraged him to make it to the 30km mark.
The reality is i honestly had no clue how to exit the course before the 30km mark. :lol:

i kept riding and i came down a hill into white ribbon and what was the 30km mark. It turned out to be a dead check and no road visible. :thinking:
Well, at least i knew there were 4 more sweepers behind me and as it turned out they took care of all those riders and got them to the road that was just out of sight at 30kms.

i then caught up to a gentleman that was puttin along with a big grin. He was ecstatic to have made it 5kms of which i now mentioned he was about 32kms in. He was pretty stoked. i went ahead and then started wondering if maybe make sure that this guy (a young 62 yrs old) keeps ploddin along as i thought for sure the other sweepers would have been close by now.
i sat and had lunch and here comes mr.smiley. He was out of water but still a big grin on his face. i gave him half of the water i had left and sent him on his way.

it was about 43kms in when i came to the first 'out of fuel' motocross bike. i gps'ed his co ordinates and carried on. i knew that the 2 other sweeps i was with momentarily had 2 strokes with big enough tanks to share. i continued and ran into another out of fuel motocross bike at about 43.5kms. i lent him some tools to fix his handlebars, gavce him the same spiel about other sweepers with gas coming. i continued on.

i then ran into Mark D (markvfr) coming the opposite way. He had 1/2 liter of gas he was bringing out for someone else he thought might have needed it. i told him of the two bikes i passed and we decided he would ride to the furthest bike and give him gas so that guy could ride up and stay together with the other guy.

i continued on and came upon my old friend, smiley. He was out of gas. i told him to stay put and marked his position on gps. i then ran into Aaron B and he went back on the quad trail to get his 300 with a full tank of gas and make sure those 3 riders were good to go and lead them out on a quad trail. i continued back onto the course. It was lonely. No one was on the course that i knew as per conversation with Mark (he had cleared the course from finish line to gas check.) i came to some very well traveled bogs and had a moment of chuckles thinking, how bad would this suck if i got buried and could not get my bike out? No one was coming my way. i choose wisely and made my way through everything.

at 50kms in, i saw a road through the woods. i also saw a sweeper go riding by on that road. Only one rider could possibly be on the trail between me and the gas check (per Mark and my conversation). i bushwhacked my way to the road and made my way to the gas stop. i asked about any rider that recently had come through and needed gas? Yes, one did. All were accounted for.

My only regret was not finishing the entire loop as a sweeper.

Racing that course? my hat is off to each and everyone of you that finished. :applause:
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Re: Fallen Timber race Aug 17-18

Post by AJRJ »

kingrigger wrote:For sure takes a lot of effort to put on a race but that was one of the worst races I've ever done, haven't heard of to many bikes with stock tanks being able to go 60km, not sure why you'd use so much cut block, it doesn't make it tough to ride through, it makes a ride frustrating and boring, especially when there are so many trails that connect out there and flow nice, the flagging didn't make a lot of sense and still scratching my head at the dead check half way down a hill and turn right after it, never seen that before. The course had some strong points but I didn't find it enjoyable at all.
Sorry you feel that way, hope it doesn't keep you from coming out again. I mentioned elsewhere that there are definitely things I would do differently next time. I take the blame for the loop being too long, but there was a method to what we were doing there. The only way to link up the singletrack (that I'm aware of) is to use the quad trail. Last year there was too much quad trail, and we heard about that. The flagging was definitely all there, I was the last sweeper on the course. I could tell by the tracks though that the "groove" went past at least 10 or so ribbons. We will try to put more effort into the cut blocks next year; This year we spent the majority of the time working on new singletrack, than we did linking those sections together.

The turn at the dead check was me as well. I thought at least if people were stopping to punch they wouldn't keep trail hounding their way down the hill. That whole loop could have been cut off quite easily, maybe that's what I should have done.

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Re: Fallen Timber race Aug 17-18

Post by AJRJ »

Spinalguy wrote:i swept.
Tom I forgot to thank you, Ken and Aaron for being the first round of sweepers. We got everyone back, I must have not been too far behind you.

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Re: Fallen Timber race Aug 17-18

Post by Spinalguy »

This is a pic at the 10km spot where i came upon the Blackfoot Direct guys. They had never raced and the comment that made me laugh was 'this sure isn't anything like riding kooc!' :lol:
Well done boys.
Image
This is my sweep mates Golarge and Bark
Image
And this was part of a wild horse i came upon but he moved before i could get a great shot :blush:
Image
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Re: Fallen Timber race Aug 17-18

Post by Spinalguy »

AJRJ wrote:
Spinalguy wrote:i swept.
Tom I forgot to thank you, Ken and Aaron for being the first round of sweepers. We got everyone back, I must have not been too far behind you.
no problemo.
As far as lessons learned, i too was thinking i had no idea what the heck i was doing. My first time sweeping and i think i can offer some suggestions that would make a great race tradition even greater for RMDRA.
If you did not step up to the plate Geoff, there is no race.
Thank YOU!!!!!
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Re: Fallen Timber race Aug 17-18

Post by thirtyseven »

Some interesting posts (some have been removed).
Lets get some things straight.....
1. Every riding area has its own character
2. Our riding area has been virtually shut down
3. The club has been using our race as a vehicle to potentially open old trail and build coherant sustainable loops that have the potential to become official.

Lets address point 1. Porkies has a wide network of fast flowy singletrack we dont. I suck there. Rivieres has an established loop and an endurocross track... I suck on it. Vega has really fast sandwhoops and new singletrack I suck at whoops. We have very technical terrain with constant abrupt elevation changes and virtually ALL "traditional" singletrack was wiped out by both GAMP and a large windstorm about 7 yrs ago.

Point 2 no need to explain... If you have been riding in the Calgary area and dont know this, there is no hope for you.

Finally point 3. In past years we, and other clubs have done a tremendous amount of work on the West side of fallen timber... Last year we started looking to the East side, using the race to build a sustainable foundation to extend the current legal trail there. It turns out that there are alot of low areas that MUST be avoided. The only way out and in is essentially quad trail. Last year we used it.... This year we found some sustainable routes and put effort into them, as well as adding about13k to an excellent ridge.

To address the critisism of the cutblock sections..... Be VERY VERY GRATEFULL we didnt flag the bush around the cutblock!! But yes cutblock sux!!!!! Its advantage is that the trees in it wont cause us blowdown issues for a very long time, and although the first race through them is difficult it quickly becomes a great trail.

As a final note. All riding in that area must be done under TFA. ESRD graciously provided those to us in June and we worked hard.... Then the floods came and all TFAs were cancelled we respected that and all wrk halted and our race was postponed.
There seems to be an idea that there is some great singletrack out there just waiting to be flaged.... My only question is where are the guys that know this stuff??? Come on out and help us build a sustainable network!!!

Our riding is tough, there is log after log, and ridge after ridge, our races reward those with technical finese and punishes those without... Problem is there is really nothing we can do about it... We cant fight mother nature nor the mandates of the club... Cheers (PS I thought this one has the beginnings of what will hopefully be a great loop for the future, I think that these kind of races will help the young guys dominated in the future, and just like Riviers tire wall of doom... Will make us all better riders)
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Re: Fallen Timber race Aug 17-18

Post by 350scott »

My opinions on the course and sweeping.

The bad
-Flagging obviously could have been better and we probably relied to much on old flagging from last year
-We should have known the exact course length before the race, let everyone know and planned the gas stop
-Maybe we should consider a shorter different course for the beginners

The good
-A bunch of fun new trail, that bypassed quad trail (more next time)
-It had a bit of everything, which I think is part of what makes an XC different than a HS. It had loamy sections (faster and slower), rocky hills, and short bits of fairly technical and sections that mandated you slow down and navigate.
-The replanted cut blocks could use a little cleaning but should not be turned into a highway. I think an XC should have sections that make you navigate, this is an integral part of off-road racing. To the best of my knowledge everyone found their way through the cut blocks.
-I thought the dead check was in good spot. It forced you to stop and not miss a crucial turn. It was also in the middle of the course which makes it easy to understand where people are if they need help (lots of people miss the pie plates). It also had the bonus of being an "easy out" location. A flatter spot would have been nice.
-Minimal wet spots and no skeg fields. This is huge win and exceptionally hard to do on a 60km+ loop.

Sweeping
-The sweepers need to be capable riders (technical skills are more important than speed). I think we passed here.
-There should be a minimum of 3 sets (4 would be nice) of 2 sweepers. 2 sets of main sweepers and a reserve set that can be put into action if things start to go a little wrong. The reserve sweepers should be the strongest sweepers. The race organizer should not be a sweeper. I think we generally passed here except the last point.
-Organizing sweepers:someone needs to be clearly responsible for organizing the sweepers. This person needs to understand the course and make sure the sweepers understand their roles. I think we failed here.
-The sweepers should understand the course and very important, know where the key "easy outs" are. I think we were 50/50 on this.
-Communication:the club has Spots, we should make sure the sweepers have them. We should also consider making sure sweepers have GPS's and radios. Obviously sweepers need to know how to use these. I think we failed here. WRT the radios, we had them while working on Friday and when on ridge tops we were able to communicate when up to 10km apart.
-Packs and tools:sweepers pack should be large enough to carry repair tools, gas if needed (or siphon hose), water and some food. Sweeper teams can split the load.
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Re: Fallen Timber race Aug 17-18

Post by axel99 »

Shout out to Geoff and all the volunteers for putting on a successful race. :applause: I have no serious complaints about the race organization or the course.
Flagging was a little sparse in spots and I got turned around, as did others, no big deal and will happen again. Part of racing is bike prep and fuel range planning, It was clear at the riders meeting the loop was 60km.

It was a challenging course, weather and conditions were awesome... enjoyed it all. Also, had a great time trying to keep up with PrimeRib :thumbsup:
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