post RCAA event site report

[RedBullJeep]

For those bitching at RCAA for their cleanup efforts...this report is for you.

Becca and I have taken a personal responsibility of staying after events to do our best to clean the sites where we compete. Lets face it...many events are run on the efforts of volunteers and after a long few days of teching and judging, the're pretty beat and might not feel like sticking around to clean...yet they do. The promoters also have a responsibility to leave the site cleaner than they found it.

For the RCAA Cedar event, Bec and I scheduled an extra day to come back and pack up our site as well as help clean the event site.

Sunday at noon we returned to Three Peaks to find EVERYONE gone. We were the only ones in the entire area and got really nervous thinking of all of the trash we were going to have to pick up. Sure enough, on the left as we came in the access road, we saw quite a bit of trash...Stay with me, I'll get to this.

We went to our camp and took about 2 hours to pack up and clean everything within a few hundred yards in all directions. It seems the other campsites around us we all longer-term camps for the event (3 days or more) and were all pretty tidy so most of the trash was either ours or old stuff that had been blowing around for months/years.
When this was done, we headed over to dump our trash bags in the provided large dumpster near competition central and headed over to the "B" courses with giant trash bags in hand...After walking all of the B courses, we headed over to the A courses and cleaned those as well. It is a good thing we took large trash bags as it took us over 1 hour to walk the courses and pick up the following: 1 plastic water bottle, 3 zip ties, two pink ribbons (5" long tree markers), 1 keystone Beer can, 1 busch beer can, 1 dirty rag. All of these items were stuffed between rocks and were not easily visable. Bec and I were really stoked to see how clean the courses were. Next, we headed out to the spectator parking area...here's where things were a mess...rocks and dirt everywhere...wait, it's a dirt parking lot so those don't count...No trash...I mean ZERO...KUDOS to RCAA for heir job of cleaning.
Finally, we walked back down the access raod and came to the area on the left I talked about in the beginning of this post. This area was before you get to the main competition area where they put the B courses (where UROC put all courses). Straight across the road from the A courses. We spent over an hour filling a 50 gallon bag full of trash. Rags, Bottles, at least three cases of Busch and Keystone cans, and a bunch of other misc. crap was left there...BY THE COMPETITORS. It is not the promoters responsibility to pick up after us and the only people we can blame is us. Spectators were not parking there and had no reason to be there as it was not a competition area or even in the walking path between competition areas...the promoters weren't there as they were all up about 150 yards in the main area. Competitors made this mess and then worse...LEFT THIS MESS. Bec and I cleaned it up but were disappointed to see the disrespect of others when we all know how enviornmentally sensitive our sport already is.

Finally, on the litter subject, I want to thank whoever picked up the Red Bull posters we left out for people at the car show after the event. We were meeting with a sponsor when the wind picked up and by the time we got over to the truck 15 minutes later, they were already picked up. This is a thanks to whoever did this. We were on our way to make sure they didn't fly everywhere but returned to see someone was generous enough to help out...I wish there were more people willing to pick up and be sure to present a good image of our sport...

[TEX]

Originally posted by RedBullJeep
two pink ribbons (5" long tree markers),

If those are the kind sold at most sporting goods stores, they're biodegradable (not that they shouldn't be picked up whenever possible).

Good to see that a few folks are willing to go above & beyond to ensure that the sport survives. I think there are too many competitors who feel that everything should be on the promoter's shoulders. But, they forget that everything they are willing to do FOR the promoters is going to make it easier for the promoters to continue to do these events.


TEX

[Dirty Harry]

Props to you Dustin (and Becca) for telling it like it is and going above and beyond what is required of you. Thank you for not letting this issue fall by the wayside either, it is going to make or break events on public lands in the future.

[Brawler]

Dustin & Becca,

This is Perry ( the guy with the scout ). I came back on mon. and was scouring the area for trash and crap and was able to fill one 33 gal. bag. Thanks for your devotion to the sport and i hope what you do rubs off on other people. Congrats!

[RedBullJeep]

PERRY...You are our HERO...
Bec and I are trying to find a way to repay you for helping her and Frank out.

Perry was cool enough to let us borrow the pitman off his rig and he has just there to watch the event...turns out that he was the reason Bec could continue. Also a big thanks to SkyJacker for loaning us their pitman puller.

[Brawler]

No thanks needed. I'm sure one day the favor will be mine to ask. Good luck in the future events. Are you coming to supercrawl?

[TrailKeeper]

Originally posted by RedBullJeep
....Rags, Bottles, at least three cases of Busch and Keystone cans, and a bunch of other misc. crap was left there...BY THE COMPETITORS. It is not the promoters responsibility to pick up after us and the only people we can blame is us. Spectators were not parking there and had no reason to be there as it was not a competition area or even in the walking path between competition areas...the promoters weren't there as they were all up about 150 yards in the main area. Competitors made this mess and then worse...LEFT THIS MESS.

Dustin,

So, when are you going to run ERoCC so you can help clean up afterwards? Great to see your support and hard work, good job!

I'm sorry to say it, but after our last ERoCC event, we too found the majority of the trash in the parking area that the competitors used exclusively. There wasn't a lot of trash, but there was enough that you could tell it was left there on purpose - it wasn't blown from another area, nor was it small items that someone would have not noticed. And the parking lot was clean before the event - we even striped spots with lime, so we covered every square foot of it.

[Go2Guy]

I know I keep bags and boxes in the trailer for trash. It's a difficult call on the last EROCC- the deluge of rain could have contributed to the mess with people hurrying etc. Would it not be fair to say that everyone that was at the event came and left through the parking lot where the teams were parked??

[TrailKeeper]

Originally posted by Go2Guy
I know I keep bags and boxes in the trailer for trash. It's a difficult call on the last EROCC- the deluge of rain could have contributed to the mess with people hurrying etc. Would it not be fair to say that everyone that was at the event came and left through the parking lot where the teams were parked??

Yes, people came and went through the same parking area, but if you remember, many competitors parked with their vehicles toward the edge of the lot, with their trailers toward the road that everyone passed through. Quite a lot of the trash was located at the edge of the lot, where the competitors would have parked their tow vehicles - and no spectators were wandering around that area. And the trash wasn't typical for the rest of the parking lot - the rest of the parking lot had beer cans and drink cans, the competitor area had fast food bags, boxes from parts, rags, and of course the bottles and cans.

I don't want to blow this out of proportion - it was a 15 minute endeaver to cleanup the area by the cleanup crew. But it is something they shouldn't have to do. The competitors just need to take an extra minute before they head out to check around their vehicle and make sure they got everything. And that goes for any event they might be at.

[slo-vic]

When I was in high school, The 1984 L.A. Olympic bicycle event was in my hometown. My football team received a big pizza feed and a donation was given for new sports equipment. In return we did parking control, program sales, and Tons of trash clean up. I am not exaggerating about the "Tons". We loved it. We got to watch some of the event, ate good, no football practice, and received some real nice sports equipment.
My suggestion is ask some of us Sponsors to donate a product, kind of like the annual Rubicon clean-up. Maybe RRCA can put up one banner for smaller companies who donate a prize and don't want full sponsorship. The products can be given to a local 4wd club for their services or raffle tickets could be sold with proceeds given to non-profit organizations like a high school football team.

[TrailKeeper]

Vic,

If your suggestion is directed toward ERoCC- our whole event is organized and run by Trail Keepers, which is a non-profit that spends money on trail maintenance for clubs, which is who makes up our volunteers. We also donate money to numerous charities - like the local football team that did crowd control at the last event, or the JROTC that handles our parking.

[big97redtj]

Originally posted by TrailKeeper
Vic,

If your suggestion is directed toward ERoCC- our whole event is organized and run by Trail Keepers, which is a non-profit that spends money on trail maintenance for clubs, which is who makes up our volunteers. We also donate money to numerous charities - like the local football team that did crowd control at the last event, or the JROTC that handles our parking.

And let me say that the trailkeepers absolutely kick ass. They are constantly picking up trash at obsticles so the problem doesn't get out of hand. Has anyone else ever notice that trash seems to multiply?

[SuperRanger]

Nice to hear about you helping out Dustin. I tried to make an effort during the event to grab trash that was blowing around.

I was pleased to see that the trash cans were not overflowing and buried in a pile of trash as they have been at past events. Every time I needed a trash can, I could find one that was reasonably close.

It has been 3 years since I have been to Cedar City and I was delighted to see the condition of 3 Peaks. Many thanks to the local club that has worked to open and maintain this area. You have created a national resource!

[UGET IT]

Originally posted by RedBullJeep
For those bitching at RCAA for their cleanup efforts...this report is for you.

Becca and I have taken a personal responsibility of staying after events to do our best to clean the sites where we compete. Lets face it...many events are run on the efforts of volunteers and after a long few days of teching and judging, the're pretty beat and might not feel like sticking around to clean...yet they do. The promoters also have a responsibility to leave the site cleaner than they found it.

For the RCAA Cedar event, Bec and I scheduled an extra day to come back and pack up our site as well as help clean the event site.

Sunday at noon we returned to Three Peaks to find EVERYONE gone. We were the only ones in the entire area and got really nervous thinking of all of the trash we were going to have to pick up. Sure enough, on the left as we came in the access road, we saw quite a bit of trash...Stay with me, I'll get to this.

We went to our camp and took about 2 hours to pack up and clean everything within a few hundred yards in all directions. It seems the other campsites around us we all longer-term camps for the event (3 days or more) and were all pretty tidy so most of the trash was either ours or old stuff that had been blowing around for months/years.
When this was done, we headed over to dump our trash bags in the provided large dumpster near competition central and headed over to the "B" courses with giant trash bags in hand...After walking all of the B courses, we headed over to the A courses and cleaned those as well. It is a good thing we took large trash bags as it took us over 1 hour to walk the courses and pick up the following: 1 plastic water bottle, 3 zip ties, two pink ribbons (5" long tree markers), 1 keystone Beer can, 1 busch beer can, 1 dirty rag. All of these items were stuffed between rocks and were not easily visable. Bec and I were really stoked to see how clean the courses were. Next, we headed out to the spectator parking area...here's where things were a mess...rocks and dirt everywhere...wait, it's a dirt parking lot so those don't count...No trash...I mean ZERO...KUDOS to RCAA for heir job of cleaning.
Finally, we walked back down the access raod and came to the area on the left I talked about in the beginning of this post. This area was before you get to the main competition area where they put the B courses (where UROC put all courses). Straight across the road from the A courses. We spent over an hour filling a 50 gallon bag full of trash. Rags, Bottles, at least three cases of Busch and Keystone cans, and a bunch of other misc. crap was left there...BY THE COMPETITORS. It is not the promoters responsibility to pick up after us and the only people we can blame is us. Spectators were not parking there and had no reason to be there as it was not a competition area or even in the walking path between competition areas...the promoters weren't there as they were all up about 150 yards in the main area. Competitors made this mess and then worse...LEFT THIS MESS. Bec and I cleaned it up but were disappointed to see the disrespect of others when we all know how enviornmentally sensitive our sport already is.

Finally, on the litter subject, I want to thank whoever picked up the Red Bull posters we left out for people at the car show after the event. We were meeting with a sponsor when the wind picked up and by the time we got over to the truck 15 minutes later, they were already picked up. This is a thanks to whoever did this. We were on our way to make sure they didn't fly everywhere but returned to see someone was generous enough to help out...I wish there were more people willing to pick up and be sure to present a good image of our sport...

I picked up the posters Dustin. I was just walking by your rig and the wind picked up. I ended up just picking them up and restacking them on the tire. I keept a few for the bar at home of course

Great job going back to the event site! You and Bec truly are a rarity. Again thanks and I hope to see you in Farmington with Mello.

[dumass]

Right on Dustin and Becca!

[Jeff Knoll]

The whole Red Bull team is a class act! Jody and his wife where always happy to stay and clean up at the CRCA events.

As I rolled up to the site one morning after an event The parking lot was the worst, Jody and his wife took the worst area and handled it. Thanks guys You Rule! They never left before it was clean all season!

Jeff