Moab Trail learning weekend

[Cheeseman]

Hello everybody,

I have been talking about a weekend in Moab just to learn more trails. This will be the weekend of Feb. 29 - March 2, Friday thru Sunday. Plan to get there Thursday if you can. Please let me know who is coming and when you will get there. I am looking mainly to those who will be going to Cruise Moab and becoming a trail leader or gunner.

The idea is for each new or veteran trail leader to run 4 to 5 trails over the time there. Those who come out later on Friday will run less. This will be a busy no frills weekend. We are going there to learn more trails as Rising Sun Cruise Moab trail leaders and gunners. We can use those of you who know various trails to teach others as well as taking the oppurtunity to learn new ones.

We will gather around 8:00am or so every morning for the days trails. I am working on a gathering place so that will come later. Slickrock says they don't open until the Saturday, but I am talking with them to see if they can move this up a couple of days.

We will not be running Pritchett Canyon, Behind the Rocks, Elephant Hill, or the Golden Spike.

We are all part of the Rising Sun reputation of being one of the best TLCA clubs in the United States. And that means all who come to Cruise Moab will have a great time because of your Trail leader expertise. So lets give it our best and travel this weekend to work on making that reputation even better.

Thank you,

Greg Luer
Trail Boss
Cruise Moab '08
________
ASS ****ING

 

[timmbuck2]

count me in.

T

 

[Crash]

Yup

Sounds like an RTT weekend to me!

 

[Hulk]

Please note: this is a weekend for trail leader learning. All who are willing to learn and lead trails are welcome.

If you're simply looking to go run trails in Moab with Rising Sun, please sign up for Cruise Moab.

 

[RockRunner]

Gregg, not sure if I can make it or not as I have a big project at work till the end of March. I will be really bummed if I can't make it, will there be another trip or is this it? I honestly thought that it would be closer to the end of March, a little warmer too ;-)

If I can go it will be a last minute decision and will most likely get there later on Friday if not Friday night.

 

[AxleIke]

Am I correct in assuming that, if you don't make this, you cannot be a leader?

I hope not, as I was really looking forward to leading a few trails.

 

[Uncle Ben]

Am I correct in assuming that, if you don't make this, you cannot be a leader?

I hope not, as I was really looking forward to leading a few trails.

No Isaac. It is only an option to make the club "Mo betta" Your willingness to lead will always be appreciated! A couple of us have been chatting about possibly doing some club clinics as we all can learn from each other but the more comfortable you are with the basics the higher your confidence level gets as well as the safety factor. There is a huge amount of collective knowledge in the club and if that is channeled together everyone will learn something!

 

[AxleIke]

I know how to get to and get from a great many trails in Moab.

What I really need is "Trail Leader Etiquette". By that I do not mean that I would be rude or what not, but I'd like tips, pointers, guidelines, etc to help me:

A) make the experience as enjoyable and fun as possible for ALL on my run
B) deal with any "problem children" should the need arise

I love Moab, and want to share my joy of the area with others. I feel that I can do that without difficulty. I just would like some "veteran" advice and guidance for the not-so-joyous parts.

 

[Hulk]

We could probably do some of that stuff at a regular RS meeting, or on a local trail run.

 

[Uncle Ben]

We could probably do some of that stuff at a regular RS meeting, or on a local trail run.

Absolutely!

 

[powderpig]

I am sure that there will be one more of these in Moab, As others are saying Greg and I will be posting a couple of other training sessions closer to here as well as Moab. So I would not worry a bunch if you can not make this. I know as it gets closer people do have less time as stuff comes up that take the place of time spent with the club(ie, working on truck, time with family, SO taking time,etc).
Hopefully we can continue some more training type of stuff, it seems like the club is on a roll to learn new stuff that make us all better 'wheelers. Later Robbie

 

[Groucho]

Leader pre-runs...

I have been on a couple, always with Cheeseman. I must say, for the folks who are going to lead, and especially for those who lead all three days at Moab, this is the time to have fun for you.

These pre-runs are geared at learning the trails, practicing trail-leader etiqutte, and what to do in case something goes wrong. While I always learned something new each time I went with Cheeseman, I must say I enjoyed it for myself in a way that benefited me more than anything.

As trail leaders and gunners, you have to keep in mind you are there as a representative of the event, and the well being of everyone involved on your run comes first. I have been a participant on Cruise Moab runs where the leader was more concerned with their own enjoyment of the run than my well being and safety which made the run awful, if not downright lousy, for me. Those are not the experiences that we as a club should be giving to the participants.

Official Cruise Moab trail runs are not the time for you to put your enjoyment on the run first. Sometimes it can be a lot of work. Keeping the group as a whole moving and enjoying themselves is easy with a good group and if it is maintained as a group. A breakdown, someone running out of gas, rigs with no communication, participants who want to stand up and hang out of the side of their no-top FJ40, alcohol on the trail and participants who refuse to follow our simple guidelines make for long days, frustrated and tired participants and the end of the road seem far away.

If anyone can go on pre-runs, whether they are during the one in March, or sometime the week of the event, they serve many purposes. If there are things done before hand to increase leaders skills and confort level, even better. Anything we can do to better prepare our leaders and gunners is effort well spent. Plus it gives us a chance to have a little fun for ourselves.

 

[AxleIke]

I would LOVE to go on the run with Cheeseman. Sorry if I came across like I didn't.

I just won't have a truck to go in. If there is another later on, maybe, but right now, no truck.

 

[Hants]

No can do this time... previous family commitments.

 

[subzali]

If you haven't been contacted yet about leading/gunning does that mean you're not, or just that you haven't been called yet? Haven't checked yet to see if I can make it or not, would love to!

 

[Groucho]

I would LOVE to go on the run with Cheeseman. Sorry if I came across like I didn't.

I just won't have a truck to go in. If there is another later on, maybe, but right now, no truck.

Hopefully it was not taken as such. I just know that many people are torn about the fact that even though we all want to participate in CM as participants, but being Leaders/Gunners and participants at the same time is not necessarily the best mix. The point I was trying to make was that these pre-run are a very good time for those who take part in facilitating the event(leaders/gunners/merch/registration) to actually enjoy doing Cruise Moab things, even though it is not during CM. I have spoken to a few people who were taken aback by the fact that they were actually going to have to "work" when leading trails.

The good thing about what Cheeseman is trying to do is make it so we all can have our cake and eat it too. Too often CM has had only a handful of regular trail leaders peppered with a few extras here and there. Those regulars carried the bulk of the job to make sure that trails could be run. If what Cheese is shooting for actually takes seed and comes about, then there will be a much larger pool of operators to pull from, so not just a few people carry the bulk of the work, but rather it is spread out more, effectively making it so that eveyone can enjoy the event more.

Cheese is a great teacher, and has the heart of a lion. He will make sure that no man(woman) is left behind, either in trail leaders or on the trail. Thanks, Cheeseman.

 

[Hulk]

I totally agree with Nathaniel. As a trail leader, I'm always concerned about my whole group:

• Is everyone driving safely?
• Is everyone keeping up?
• Are we making good time?
• Is everyone having a good time?
• Etc. etc.

I love the pre-runs. Even if you're there to learn the trail, you can usually lighten up and have a good time.

 

[Cheeseman]

Well as always alot gets discussed in the last 24 hours. That is why we like this forum so much. I thought I would try and clear up a few things.

The date for the trail weekend was picked by me. The last weekend in March is Easter. You don't want to be in Moab unless you want to be with "lots" of wheelers. The weekend of the 21st is my Mothers 80th birthday. Going to Tucson for that. The previous two weekends are taken up by high level adult scout leader training that I put on for Denver area council. So that left the weekend that has been posted. And April is getting to close to Moab for most folks.

I like the Trail leader etiquette. Hadn't thouhgt of calling it that. But it is quite appropriate. Besides it makes us sound so sophisticated. We are very good at what we do. Robbie and I have just about done putting together a class on this very subject. We will pick a couple of dates outside of the club meeting for this. There is not enough time at the RS meeting for this and all the other items we have to do. There has been talk of doing some training locally on trails but not quite sure how that will work out just yet.

As far as Cruisemoab trail leaders. I have been working on that a little. But now that registration is almost full we can now put that in place very soon. So I will be calling all of you who have done it in the past or have an interest as a result of our classes this spring. We should have a greater legion of trail leaders to help with this event so here we go.

We will do our best to make you as a trail leader and the Rising Sun look the best at Cruisemoab.

Thank you
________
Fisting Hardcore

 

[Inukshuk]

I'm a maybe.

 

[Red_Chili]

I don't think I can make it then...
But by all means I will try to make the class. I have always enjoyed gunning and helping.
The one time I led Metal Masher, not so much...
I have enjoyed informally leading Cliffhanger though.

It may be a dynamic of getting an out of town crew on Saturday who signed up all together and who were more interested in hitting the highway early than really running the trail.