HUMM 2010 and Beyond

[tendays]

OK so here's my wee TR for the 2010 Horizons Unlimited Mountain Madness event in La Molina, and my journey home along the Pyrenees. Hopefully we will get some contributions from the others involved when they get a chance.

Here's my DRZ400S ready for the off.



And an overview of the whole route I followed


So day 1 I headed straight from work to Folkestone, got turned away from one campsite but then found this nice one just before dark, called Little Switzerland set right in the cliffs.


Next morning I met up with Dysan (KTM 950 Adventure) at the channel tunnel but we crossed on separate trains and had to rv again on the other side. Dysan was heavily loaded with spare tyre, some climbing gear and camping gear for 2 people for after the event. We headed to a cafe just outside Calais to await Ashley (KTM 950) & John (Yam 660 Tenere). We were to ride to the event as a group but make up separate teams for the HUMM. Ashley led off but had probs seeing his GPS through his new visor ! so I went in front on the slowest bike to set the pace. I was a bit anxious not to slow the others down so I pushed on at a good rate and we made it as far as Chartres before we decided to call it a day.


We set up camp in the municipal campsite and headed into town for some trough. We found a spot with a menu including snails with garlic and 'persil' - no idea but it tasted good.




This was an old water mill in Chartres with OTT illumination.

[tendays]

Day 3 was a blat down through France as far as the Lot valley where Philinfrance was kind enough to not just put us up for the night but generously provided garage, food, a Lot of red wine (har har) and a wee snifter of the local spirit, smoother than I expected. And not to mention proper tea, just what the doctor ordered.

Thanks Phil and Jaquie!

We chewed the fat for a few hours and I even tried to play the guitar a bit, lucky it was not an electric or someone would have hit me. He has built a beautiful place in a beautiful part of the world, if you get an offer to visit you should deffo head down there. The local roads are fantastic sweeping bends on hills with good visibility so it felt like safe riding and the location perfect for us to make it to La Molina in reasonable time the next day. Which was fortunate, because my teammate was somewhat delayed due to a bad head the next morning so we headed off a couple of hours behind Ashley & John. There was some rain about but we avoided it with our late start.

We didn't hang about much on the day4 leg but our GPS settings took us on a brilliant route totally avoiding Toulouse and the normal pass into Spain, instead climbing up on endless switchbacks and over via the Formuigeres ski area from where we crossed into Spain and headed up to La Molina.



We checked into the Hotel HG La Molina, unpacked the bikes and configured them for the trails. Dermot the Marmot decided to stay behind and guard the hotel room with his windshield. We'd arrived a bit late for food so resorted to a few drinks in the bar and some pasta cooked messily in my hotel room microwave. There was quite a session on in the bar when we got there.

We picked up a few wise words of advice from experienced competitors. Navigation would be tricky. The riding could be testing but mostly would be straightforward trails. Bigger bikes can do pretty much anything but must be ridden with confidence. And did I say navigation would be tricky?

[PHILinFRANCE]

Cheers for the Plug T/D great to see all you guys and looking forward to the rest of the pics/report !!! hows your DRZ doing???,
We both realy enjoyed your company and as you said !!!!! it,s an open house to all XRVers
Phil X Jax

[tendays]

So this was day 5 of my trip and day 1 of the HUMM proper. Briefing from Grant and Susan in the morning, get the maps and checkpoint info, do a bit of planning and at 1pm we're allowed to head off and start finding checkpoints. There are fairly stiff penalties for being back after 6pm.



This year there is a trail rescue man - Tim from LocoForMotos who was very helpful to everyone throughout the event. In my case a bit of cam chain slap on the overrun was diagnosed as non-terminal and could be fixed at home.

Today was to be a day of making stupid mistakes and learning from them. It was a 1 to 2-hour ride to the trails with the checkpoints from La Molina, either down to the valley and through a 5km tunnel (9 euros each way!) or over the mountain and down via Pobla. We tried the tunnel route the first day, 'cos we didn't know the price and we were pushed for time. On subsequent days we went over the mountain, a really fun but quite long liaison to the trails. So using the tunnel was one mistake.

Another, stupider mistake was for me to check my oil and in my haste set off with my dipstick still sitting on my tailpack. We were through the tunnel fueling up when I realised, so I phoned Grant who said he'd ask Tim to have a look around for it. No joy, but after returning that night myself and dysan had the luck to find it by the roadside about a mile away from the hotel car park. So back in it went, replacing a wad of plastic gloves from the fuel station. Thanks Tim for looking, and Dysan who actually spotted it.

Ok so how did we get on with planning our route and finding checkpoints? We were provided with a brand new 1-50000 scale map of the trails area (around Berga), very small-scale colour photocopies of marked-up maps with rideable trails added in red, and a book of checkpoint info with an A5 page showing each checkpoint on a small map cutout with a short description of how to find it and sometimes how or how NOT to approach it. So route planning consisted of transferring checkpoints onto the large map in clusters which we thought we could link up. We knew it would take time to get there and back so our time on the trails would be maybe 2-3 hours on day1, so we didn't try doing all the planning in one go. Just plotted a cluster of checkpoints and went for it.

So we'd had all this expert advice on how to navigate carefully, but until you get out there and actually get yourself lost, you are always going to have some faith in your own navigational abilities and take that advice with a pinch of salt. So we decided to get ourselves lost. Typical sequence on day 1 was - stop at roadside where we think trail starts, check map for checkpoint location, follow trail in that direction. Get to a junction, don' t bother to check map, contrinue on trail in what you reckon is correct direction. Get to another junction. Check map. Check route book for CP details. Don't recognise where you are. Or how far you've come from road. Now you realise you're not sure where you are on the map. Maybe look for some landmarks, terrain features, take compass bearings, try to match up with possible map locations. If this works, replan how to get to your target CP. Else retrace steps to previous known position. Whatever happens, we are losing time. After about 4 wrong turns, we 'happen upon' (I wouldn't be so bold as to say say 'find') our first CP.



We note down the clue, usually some of the digits on a stamped metal plate attached to a tree or signpost. Then have a good look at the map and head off towards next CP. We totally failed to find the next one however, despite trying to measure distances and being sure we were within 100 yards of it. It was time to turn back and get home before we got a big time penalty.

We did in fact get back a bit late but picked up 57 points for the one CP. Team scores were not published on day 1 but we knew this was not good. Fortunately for us, a lot of other teams had also been 'learning from their mistakes'.

So that night we reflected on our performance and considered how we could improve. Number one was obviously much more careful navigation. So this time our planned CP's were connected on the map with a highlighter pen. So long as we followed our planned route we wouldn't have to make any routing decisions on the fly. We could then concentrate on using dysan's trip meter (which was switchable to kms, mine allowed me to switch just the speedo but not the tripmeter to kms) to progress between trail junctions, then carefully checking map one or no more than 2 trail sections ahead towards next CP. We'd also plan to get to some of the more distant CP's which were worth over 100 points each. But would it work? Only tomorrow would tell...

[tendays]

OK so it's day 2 of the HUMM, the first whole day of trail riding. Breakfast at 7, check out at 8am to return for 6pm.

We put our recovery plan into action and head out at 0810 over the mountain road, down to Pobla, Berga and on to the C-26 to reach the furthest SW CPs. We get into a rough system where I do most of the map reading, dysan does most of the distance tripping and CP hunting. It starts to work and we start racking up proper points. We still get lost once or twice, wasting more time, but at least the scorecard won't be so pitiful tonight.





Mistakes made on day 2 were:
simply following black lines on the map instead of using the recommended trails transferrable from the other map.
ignoring all the extra information in the checkpoint notes pages.

(We didn't learn much from these mistakes and got badly lost again a couple of times on day 3.)

Anyway, Team Marmot made it back with 10 mins to spare, having found 9 new CPs and a total of 971 points. This much we knew, but we couldn't believe our overall position when the score sheet was posted- we were now 3rd in the over-645cc class (of 16 teams) and 5th overall, of 32 teams!! The leaders, garagenight boys Mushmen were on about 1700 pts so out of reach already. Noone else was more than about 50 pts ahead of us so we were in a race for 2nd place overall.

Some teams were having bad luck. One guy dropped his bike in the car park, the handlebar boring a plug out of his leg. This was repaired by Tim who also has medical qualifications. Ambulance was called. A fella on a SuperTen put a rock through his crankcase and wasn't in a position to do a field repair so he had to abandon and return to pick up the bike next day. DNF. Another team had an inexperienced member with a heavy bike and the wrong tyres, not making much progress - they decided to follow the road-riding team the next day.

We were not so confident we'd score highly on day 3 as we'd already picked up the most valuable CPs and other teams would no doubt be heading that way the next day, time would tell.

[phil w]

Great stuff Alistar Sounds a bit of a ball acher havin to do such a long run to the checkpoints on this years area. The gettin lost is all good as long as you dont go there to win and your still riding great trails. Tis for sure a beautiful place to trail ride
What gearing did you use to travel on the DRZ???

[tendays]

Now day 3 of the HUMM and we've got it all to play for. We have again planned to go for the highest value clusters of CPs, instead of like some teams (Mr Ledbitter) going to play up the mountain behind the hotel to the suppressed fury of your teammate! They gave it away, I'm sure Ashley and John would have trounced us if they'd tried...

So it was a good start again. We headed back to where we'd finished on day 2, picking up an easy CP that had foxed us when approached from the S in boiling temperatures the day before. Then a couple more easy ones and a road liaison a bit further N to this one, which took hours to find. First we rode straight past it without recognising the CP. We ended up at a blocked trail. Instead of realising we'd come too far, we thought we would need to find another way round to progress up the hill to the CP. This led to some convolutions and more blocked trails but eventually we found a way round to the CP from higher ground.





We were annoyed to have lost time trying to get somewhere we'd already been. But we returned to the ridge and progressed rapidly N where we would attempt something a bit harder - a direct descent to CP 225 down a long, steep marblefield trail of loose, fist-sized smooth rocks. This would be a tricky climb so we opted to continue downhill to a big lake and use an easier doubletrack ascent. Mistake. The doubletrack turned into a maze of steep forest fire roads. We just kept trying to turn uphill to reach our col but eventually the trails ran out and we were lost for a good hour looking for bearings to distant mountain tops, eventually working out we were close to and as high as the col and making it across. We continue in a SE direction picking up 1 or 2 more CPs before getting lost again, stuck on a footpath trying to approach CP245. OK the notes warned us about this one but it seemed silly to ride past and miss it. Anyway we found a farm track that took us to the road and back over the mountain to La Molina just in time.

Team Marmot are now on 1616 points. We scrub up for dinner and get on the beers in anticipation. The food is a big buffet, good stuff.

It turns out when the scores are totaled that The Mushman Candidates win with well over 2000 pts but we have finished 2nd in class and 4th overall. We gather that the field is a lot smaller and less competitive than in previous years but I can't wipe the huge grin off my face all night. The Spirit of the HUMM award goes to an Irish team who stopped to help their fellow-countrymen with a punctured water pump on a KLE. Reports of how helpful they were differ....

Not a bad result for Team Marmot's first outing. Nice one dysan!

[tendays]

OK so the HUMM is over, I seem to have a bit of a headache. Susan helps me sort out a return ferry crossing from Santander. I've now got a week to meander along the Pyrenees taking in some trails as I go.

We pack the bikes and head to the cafe for some absorbent stodge. But they make us eat proper food instead. This is stephen and arthur, Irish lads on a TA600!!!! and the KLE with water pump repaired with a bit of attempted welding, a bolt and a couple of o-rings. And Hans from Copenhagen ON A XRV!!!! who is resting after hurting his back in a hard landing the day before.


Here's a hastily-snatched shot of Susan and Grant as they set off to their next international extravaganza.


We are eagerly anticipating next year's event already, get your deposits in early. This might be the last one in Europe, there is talk of a 2012 HUMM in Morocco!

I buy a michelin road map and head down the hill to camp in Quiexans, meeting a couple more UK HUMMers from notts, sorry fellas didn't get your names. We discuss onward plans. I'm looking for info about the "smugglers' trail" into Andorra. They can't help with this but they drop hints about a good trailriding area called Bardenas Reale further W, TOP TIP! Fortunately the campsite has wifi so I find out what I need about the andorra trail. Swim in the pool, dinner in the good campsite restaurant with dysan and his gf, then tomorrow I'm on my way west. More to follow, with better photos!

[tendays]

Yes PhilW I was on standard S gearing i.e. 15/44. Longer would definitely have been better for the ride down, she did use some oil. But it was perfect for the mountain roads and fine if a touch high on the trails.

I've got 15/46 sprockets and new chain waiting to go on but I didn't really want to reduce the gearing before the run down. Anyway after the return trip my chain is looking rather unhealthy, I'll post a photo when I get to that bit!

[dazzerrtw]

Excellent write up and photo's Thank you.

Anyone wanting to Have a go at this event will love the are that will be used in 2011

I was lucky this year to team up with Jenny Morgan ,we were both riding XR400's

The route is set out by Austin and some friend's, and they do a great job.

This event is run over two 12 hour day's ,starting at 8am and ending at 8pm,with point's being lost if your late back.
you can use any size bike and team size is between 2 and 4.

There were 42 check point's this year spread over the largest area that we have used.

Jenny was brillent at map reading.

we rode for all 12 hour's each day with out a break and managed to get 40 of the 42 check point's and covering almost 800 km in 2 day's ,of which 90% was off road.

At the prize giving it was close because I made a mistake writing down one of the check point's { sorry Jenny } so we were very lucky to win the event by only 5 point's

This year was the 5 th P-up event and it was the first time that the team leading on day one ,came through in the second day still in first place to win the event.

Photo's of Jenny and I after the win.

Don't miss the HUMM in 2011. it will be Fantastic.