Re: Oakland Hills Ride

["RONALD SANCHES" <ronbarbara@thegrid.net>]

----------
> From: Gary Fend <garyfend@pacbell.net>
> To: Rides 2 Far <rides2far@juno.com>
> Cc: Endurance List <ridecamp@endurance.net>
> Subject: RC:    Oakland Hills Ride
> Date: Monday, June 28, 1999 2:11 PM
> 
> It would be nice if we could put up signs but have found that they seem
to
> disappear soon after their placement.  We even send out a point rider to
make
> sure that at least 10% of the ribbons are still there from the day
before.
> The spotter has been doing the same spot for at least 10 years -- except
he
> was not there last year--the year we changed the direction.  He probably
> asked, "Same as before?"  And someone answered, "Yes."
> 
> 
> Rides 2 Far wrote:
> 
> >  the spotter that sent all the
> > >riders the wrong way on Sat morning.
> >
> > It's been my experience that signs are more dependable than spotters.
> 
> 
> =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
> Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net.    
> Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/RideCamp   
> =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
> 

Many thanks to Gary and Laura Fend who hosted the Oakland Hills 50 mile
ride.
This is a very beautiful ride with varying trails, held within local parks
- meaning,
the trails are always open to hikers, bikers and horses.  Therefore, these
wonderful
ride managers take extra care to insure that trail sabotage is held to a
minimum... a very difficult task indeed.  A point rider (Teresa Cross)
leaves base camp at 
5:00 a.m. and rides to the lst vet check, looking for missing ribbons,
trail markers, etc.  This year, she found trees down and galloped into the
checkpoint to alert ride management, who fixed the problem.  This is one of
the problems that occurred prior to riders even beginning to tack up for
the 6 a.m. start.  A spotter made an error,
but within no time, we were all directed on the right trail, ribbons were
changed,
and voila!  I am relating this as the majority of folks who ride rides are
just that -
RIDERS,  and have no clue as to the many things that can, and usually do,
go wrong when one is a ride manager, and it takes many volunteers to help
pull it all together
to have as successful and safe a day as possible.  As fellow rider
managers,
our hats are off to you, Gary and Laura, for all your hard work and
willingness to
"do it again" and thanks to your many great volunteers who gave up their
respective
weekends to help us all have a great time.  I would like to suggest that
for those folks who use this forum to complain about rides, be it getting
their refund, trail markings,
getting pulled, whatever -  put on a ride yourself and give back a little
to the sport that gives us all so much pleasure, or at the very least,
volunteer to help out ride management with the many, many tasks that are
required.  Thanks again, Gary
and Laura.  Ron & Barbara Sanches, Lakeside Classic, Pacific Southwest
Region.


=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net.    
Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/RideCamp   
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=