Thank You Letter Received From TARA

The ride was operating as “Usual” until around noon
when we experienced the onset of thunderstorms.
High Winds, heavy down pours and cool temperatures began to take its toll on the riders
as these WX cells developed into more sever conditions.
The Half Ebbetts, Ebbetts, Hermit Valley, Sandy Meadows and Pacific grade sites had numerous riders with early on symptoms of hypothermia
and some later experiencing more severe symptoms as the storms continued.
Once again, our ham radio operators said to heck with the recommendations
and took the worst cases in to their vehicles, and RV’s to warm up.
I have NO DOUBT that some
VERY SERIOUS CONSEQUENCIES
were averted because of these actions.
This event involving Amateur Radio radio volunteers not only includes radio communications,
but show cases “Real World” examples of the compassion and responsibility
that provides the Reputaion we are all proud to be a part of!
I’m always proud to be associated with you in the communication center for the Death Ride.
Your quick and calm responses allow the NCS ops in the TARA communication van to relay your traffic
in an accurate and professional manner.

A SPECIAL THANK YOU
to the crew from the
Calaveras Amateur Radio Society, Inc.

Markleville Death Ride 2024

The day started out bright and calm then the fury of the storm arrived

The Death Ride 2024

A Successful Application Of Amateur Radio

Mike Fahmie WA6ZTY

Wow! Not your typical bike event. Out of 1400 registered riders, less than 900 made it to our side of Ebbetts Pass!

Things began as usual, with the exception of Hermit Valley, where the setup was on the wrong end of the clearing and the dumpster was mistakenly placed ¼ mile west of the checkpoint.

Soon after the beginning of the ride, we were hearing reports of thunderstorms along the Monitor Pass leg, it was still sunny along the CARS area of responsibility but we suspected that it wouldn’t be long before it reached us. When it came, it came with a vengeance, driving rain with occasional hail, the wind blew the spray past our awnings but fortunately not enough to dampen our equipment (or spirits)!

The early riders, pre dampened by their Monitor Pass experience, had dried by the time they reached our side of the pass, but began their return leg in the rain, the later arrivals had rain both ways! The riders had equipped themselves for 90° temperatures, not 50° rain and hail, their bikes had dubious traction on roads with running water, some types of brakes didn’t hold when wet. Hypothermia was setting in and growing numbers of riders were bailing out and requesting SAG rides back to Turtle Rock Park.

SAG requests were being radioed back to DR HQ, nearly an order of magnitude above expectations, and the SAG capacity was soon overwhelmed. Some riders managed to get rides in private cars, the CHP sent several cruisers to ferry riders, their bikes would come down later in a box truck. There was a long wait before everyone was transported, at Hermit, we had a group of very cold riders rotating through my trailer with the furnace turned up high. This scene was repeated at the other Ham sites.

I remained at Hermit Valley for several more days (and several more thunderstorms!), I spoke with Paul, WA6EWV, president of the TARA group via radio and he praised us for our expertise and dedication. He said that lives could have been lost.

All in all, it was a successful application of Amateur Radio, thanks to all of you who participated and I can’t wait until next year !!