Wednesday, January 14, 2009

See you at the smoke bomb!

When I was but a wee lad, my dad raced motorcycles out on the Mojave desert. Called Hare and Hound scrambles, the races started en masse by lining up, sometimes 200 abreast, and then blasting off across the desert, all heading for "The Smoke Bomb." A large bon fire with a couple of tires thrown on it, the smoke was usually a mile or two from the start. Once there the riders would funnel down to find the course proper, a large loop that brought the riders back around through the start area about every 30- 45 minutes. Of course after about 10 years worth of desert scrambles, someone finally realized what an environmental disaster the sport was and started shutting it down. But I still think that some form of the Hare and Hound could be raced, on bicycles.

1 comment:

littlejim said...

Sounds great; but were would we get the gas to light a signal fire when we get lost and ultimately burn up our bike?