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Originally Posted by kevlar
Where do I start....
I guess I want to first say I had the time of my life. Moab is my new favorite place to ride. I think the event as a whole went off pretty darn good. Chris, Kyle, & Michelle should be congratulated on a job well done.
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Thanks Kevin!
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Day one
The easy route on day one (later dubbed the Donner Party ride) to the White Wash dunes was given to me, Jon (Crowdog), and Rob (Explorer). We discussed the trail rules, what to expect, and what to bring prior to leaving. I was given a map the night before the ride with little guidance. I made several wrong turns that were quickly rectified. I'm sure the group was getting uneasy everytime I pulled over to consult the map. We made it to the dunes in about 3 hours having gone about 40 miles. Our group of about 15 machines rode the dunes for an hour or so and we made it back to Archview with no mechanical or other issues. Total distance was about 75 miles and it took us around 7 hours.
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We will have very specific, accurate maps for next year, but it's likely that we might be in a different area possibly, maybe not. It all depends on what happens with the street legal thing.
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One of the things we quickly realized was that the group size was too large. At 15 machines the distance between the leader and the sweeper is too great to have effective communication. I think group size should be kept to a max of 8 machines to better manage. Color coded flags also would've been a great idea. We had two in our group that thought they were on the moderate route. Another suggestion that definitely would've helped is providing a gps track that pre-runners could make or failing that, detailed gps coordinates at key trail intersections. The map provided to me had general gps grid coords that weren’t quite detailed enough.
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Good points Kevin...smaller groups would be nice for sure...need more trail guides essentially.
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Day two,
Jon, Rob and I led the moderate ride around 7 mile rim, parts of the M&M trail, and Miller & Tuscher Canyons. Our group had around 12 UTV's, more manageable than the previous day but still too big. This trail definitely was more interesting and more challenging. The ATV TV crew leap frogged us several times but seemed to not go far enough ahead for the next shoot. This caused a slow going pace. At about the half way point, half of our group failed to show at a rest stop. After waiting 15 minutes I decided to double back and see what was up. I was impressed with two of our group; Pete of “Got Sand” and a Cub Cadet driver whose name escapes me had followed the rules and stopped at intersections waiting for their follower to show. I kept going further back and found that half of our group had found an interesting obstacle and were hamming it up for the camera crew. I informed them that the other half was waiting on them and we had to keep moving. They decided to split from our group assuring me they knew the way.
This caused a dilemma in that I wasn’t sure of the rules here. I decided that I couldn’t force them to follow us so we pressed on.
We did about 16 miles in about the same time as the previous days ride. After getting back to camp I located the riders who split off and found they had made it back ok.
The suggestion I have here is that the filming crew needs to do there own ride. Especially since most of us weren’t riding with helmets anyway and were slowed down for nothing. I also again suggest a limit of 8 machines per group. .
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Next year we will be more structured on the media rides, definitely separate from the other rides for sure and most likely a big group of the sponsors with the media, essentially.
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Day 3
Our little group that had formed the day before decided to head to the Gold Bar Rim and ride to the crack on Gold Spike. I did not lead this ride; instead we picked up Wally of Rhinoworld.net who had done the trail the day before. Wally was a welcome addition to our group of 8, the perfect size group. The Gold Bar Rim is what Moab is all about. I will always remember this trail as where I became personally aware of just what a UTV can do. Without Wally, I never would’ve made it to the “crack”, let alone back. That trail is insane.
My suggestion from day 3 is to have more experienced trail guides who have done the trails before. An experienced guide will push you to try things you didn’t think you could do.
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Very true! Wally said he had a blast leading you guys around on the last day.
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A general suggestion is printing an event program complete with all the information that is necessary including; a schedule of events, trail ride descriptions with maps and start times, trail ride rules and etiquette, etc.
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I totally agree, and after I got there I felt like a total idiot not having it, especially since I couldn't pull it up online.
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Well this post has gotten too long. I just want to add a personal note that I had a great time meeting and riding with Jon, Terry & Vicky, Pete & Randy, Aaron & family, Wally, and of course the Rogers.
See you next year.
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I'm thinking about establishing the dates right away...what do you guys think about the 2nd weekend in May?
Chris
06-11-2007, 11:53 PM
I enjoyed every minute of working with you guys, even with some of the discussions we had. 
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