The Real Deal This is dedicated my parents who made a memorable childhood for me in the High Desert and for all the Distrct 37 desert riders who where the icons of my youth, thanks for being around to remember these golden years. 1-13-08
Sunday noon after a good week of rain I figured this would be the best time to go out and ride the old Ponderosa Hare Scrambles course. Avenue J
and 145th Street East. coming from the east, the old rancho came into
view. Looking West................................................................................................................Looking East There isn't alot left of the old homestead I'm afraid, or anythging else for that matter.
All the trees are dead or gone. Prey???. Depressing. Time to get out on the course. The famous whoops seem to be pretty well blown down too. I
think I found the trail, lots of them out there. Jack Ross, the big
daddy that promoted the race and laid out The trail east is firm and you could make good time here. Then the
hard stuff started. Heading up towards the butte you cross an alluvial
fan, a good mile of short whoops. The closer you get to
the backside of the hill the steeper and deeper it gets...duh!
...then it got steeper... UP top it had a nice view....now to get der bearings.
....I am so proud of myself, yes... Down and up, piece-of cake. Did
I mention how everything seemed larger than life? Well some things
remained the same. View from the ridge: the water tank, and now cell site. Old dude, sweating profusely... From up here you can see forever...the trail down from the hill is direct and easy to see. Gee it's great to be back...after gulping water and telling myself I am one macho mofo', it's time to head down the steep sandy section... HEE HAW!!! The rest of the downhill is more cheating... flat un-touched sand is better than hero-whoops.
...and finally the trail smooths out to hardpan along the fence. ...and finally, coming into the home stretch going south where the whoops came at a lower frequency. Get your tank check
(correct color crayola please!) and head back out. Glad I did it, glad
it's over. That's the beauty of a dualsport. Surprise! The Big
9 Market has always been owned by Jewel, that's our buddy Daryl Ellis'
mom. It was giving him shit for
not having ridden since 1984...taking care of his parents and all...but
he had Bonus! Big D told me he had a two and a half hour VHS of Ponderosa footage...then he went and got it for me!
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