Stampede 2003
March 28-30th, 2003
(Trip Report by Dean Hathaway)
It took two years (thanks to the wildfires last year) but we finally managed to put on another Stampede, and it was a great one! We did things a new way this time, and while not everything was perfect, it was a great event and a learning experience that should help us get even better next time. You will notice totally different trails and terrain from past Stampede reports. That's because we moved the event to the Florence Junction trails area east of Phoenix. No cinders.
Click an Image Above To See It Larger. Then use BACK button to Return Here. |
I didn't get out on any of the trail runs and I didn't take any pictures at all (I do have an excuse, I was Stampede Chairman and stayed in camp the entire time). We do have pictures that other people took, so enjoy!
Click an Image Above To See It Larger. Then use BACK button to Return Here.
Instead of having everyone pre-register for trails on their sign-up form, we just published a list of trail runs that we wanted to offer. The idea was that we would run the trails people really wanted to do and nobody would be forced to take some other run because what they wanted was already filled. We would keep adding runs as needed and staggering them as necessary to them going the best we could. The gamble here was, would we really have enough trail leaders to meet this demand? It was tough, and didn't work prefectly, but in general it was a good move. The concept was proven and has been picked up by others since.
Click an Image Above To See It Larger. Then use BACK button to Return Here.
Reacting (or overreacting) to past experience, we did the opposite with respect to food service and went Gestapo. We served steaks, hamburgers hotdogs, drinks, snacks, and all the fixins' at the Saturday night feast. We included some meal tickets in the registration price and sold a carefully calculated amount of extra meal tickets on site. When serving, we enforced them until the ticket holders had been fed. This slowed down the food lines a bit and made some people grumpy. But the idea was to avoid running out of food before everyone who had it coming got served. It did that beautifully.
Click an Image Above To See It Larger. Then use BACK button to Return Here.
Once ticket holders had been served, we opened it up to anyone who could still eat. Rick Bedsworth did a great job supplying the food. I stand by the ticket system idea and I think we should do something similar in the future. We'll probably find ways to streamline it though, like issueing colored plates for different meals, etc.
Click an Image Above To See It Larger. Then use BACK button to Return Here.
Another thing we hope to improve on is the timing of starting food cooking and delivering it to the hungry people who have just been herded through the ticket lines. We had some overcooked meat out there for the first wave, but it got better and everybody had the chance for fresher stuff later.
Click an Image Above To See It Larger. Then use BACK button to Return Here.
Likewise, the big prize raffle after dinner was great, but suffered some timing glitches. Thanks to Randy Harral for being Master of Ceremonies and Joe Cayer and Dwight Smith for working with so many vendors to provide a huge haul of prizes. The suppliers who ponied up $250.00 or more in products or services were listed on the event T-Shirt.
Click an Image Above To See It Larger. Then use BACK button to Return Here.
Thanks very much to these fine people:
Advance Adapters Affordable Powdercoat AMA Air Conditioning Audio Express B.C. Broncos Bed Time Bill's Radiator Bob's Massage Therapy Checker Complete Offroad Copperstate Nut & Bolt Custom Data Engineering Ron Davis Radiators Daystar Dick's Drive Shaft Driven Auto Parts James Duff Fly-N-Hi 4 Wheelers Supply Hughes Performance Jeff's Bronco Graveyard Premier Power Welder Proto Fab Tom's Bronco Parts Turbo City W.C. Fields Towing West Coast Differential Wild Child Wild Horses
Click an Image Above To See It Larger. Then use BACK button to Return Here.
Next time we'll make sure we aren't drawing registration raffle ticket numbers for people who didn't show up. That slowed things down unnecessarily.
Click an Image Above To See It Larger. Then use BACK button to Return Here.
The most exciting thing that happened at camp was pretty scary for a while, but turned out okay. I was sitting aound Brownie's camp fire long after dark B.S.ing and trying to keep warm, when one of our attendees drove up, very distraught, and said that his young son was missing! The man had taken a short Bronco drive and upon returning to his camp found his boy nowhere to be seen. We soon roused the camps and starting alerting everyone and searching in all directions.
Click an Image Above To See It Larger. Then use BACK button to Return Here.
A night run had left camp about the time the boy disappeared and, when nobody could find the missing child anywhere around camp, or the surrounding desert, the father wondered if he might somehow have gotten into a vehicle and left along with the night run (unlikely as he thought this was). We tried to contact the run, but they were far enough out into the hills that no communications were possible. Someone volunteered to go out and catch them to check for the boy.
Click an Image Above To See It Larger. Then use BACK button to Return Here.
I stayed busy for a while trying to contact anyone and everyone to make sure we all had the latest information. After a while there was nothing left to do but worry and wait.
Click an Image Above To See It Larger. Then use BACK button to Return Here.
A while later the father drove up again, this time with his son by his side! He explained that the boy had climbed in the back of their truck and fallen asleep, and they had missed him during the search several times before they really started digging frantically into every conceivable (or inconceivable) place and found him.
Click an Image Above To See It Larger. Then use BACK button to Return Here.
A happy ending and an illustration that a full day of Bronco fun can sometimes render even an energetic young man totally inert.
Click an Image Above To See It Larger. Then use BACK button to Return Here.
Financially it was a success too, which means we can keep publishing our newsletter and we will try to hold the line on dues increases again in spite of increased per-member costs to belong to the state associaton.
Click an Image Above To See It Larger. Then use BACK button to Return Here.
All things considered, we should hope that all future events go so well!
-deano
