This past weekend with the help of many club members the Rhody Rovers were able to re-introduce our annual Penguin Rally. The Penguin Rally has been around since the 1970’s and did in fact run the day before the 1978 blizzard. There has been alot of history around this event. Thanks to everyone for making this a great success. Below is a small portion of our post ride report to the state agencies that allowed this ride to take place.
Good Morning Gentlemen,
I would like to give you just a quick report from our “special use permit” ride yesterday. Upon the recommendations from your dept. our club gathered at the Fire House starting a 7 AM. We were able to perform all of our bike and rider safety checks by 8 AM. We also gave a riders meeting speech at 8:00 am. During the riders meeting we emphasized the importance of keeping speeds down in any areas that appeared to be thawing. We also briefed the riders on courteous trail etiquette. The riders left directly after the meeting.
We had 4 small groups of riders leaving the fire house 5 minutes apart. We had a group of 2 pre-riders that would check arrows and advise me of site conditions, they left at 7:30am. Then we sent the slowest C-riders out first followed by B level riders and then A riders. Lastly we had a sweep crew of 3 riders that were instructed to remove all directional arrows and take note of trail conditions. The last riders completed the 23 mile loop by 10:30 and the sweep crew completed their work by 11:00.
After 11:00 I was the only rider within BRMA. I did inspections of trails at a number of places and found little or no impact. Starting early only created a small issue with our lunch service; however, Exeter/WG fire dept. stepped up and had lunch ready by 12:00. The Rhody Rover’s raised $477.00 in cash donations and an additional estimated $450.00 in food service revenue. During lunch we had many club member’s spouses and children in attendance. All of this money; an estimated $927.00, was presented directly to the Fire Dept. during our sit down lunch service. They were elated by the club’s generosity. During the presentation, I personally reminded everyone that this event would not have been possible without the help and support from both the RIWRB and the RIDEM.
Paul Clough; President
Rhody Rovers M/C