The Crazy Hills of Carnegie on a TE511.

[jerbear610]

Had plans to go riding with my CRF450 buddy Saturday at Carnegie. He had contacted me earlier
in the week inviting me to go along with him. I call him Sat. morning and he ended up flaking on
his own planned ride. Said he had to work.... Anyway, I was all prepared and excited for a day
of crazy hill climbing so I went anyway by myself.
Got there late approx. 2:00 pm and the sun was blinding. You'd get half way up a hill then all
of a sudden the sun is glaring in your eyes and it was literally like riding blind. Just hope you don't
hit a rock or go into a rut. We had some rain a few days ago but you wouldn't know it riding here.
Dry, hard pack dirt for the most part. A couple puddles here and there but very dry overall.
I saw a guy on a newer 449 when I was packing it up for the day and again when I was driving
out. Would've liked to stop and talk with him but I was on my way out and had to get home. Wonder
if he's on here.

View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhjTTrJmB3s&feature=youtu.be

 

[richard kersten]

Nice ! I wear Pro Grip goggles , they have ultra sensitive lenses in them and they work great , the brighter it gets the darker they get the darker the lighter. How would a te 310 do in them hills , haven t tried any big climbs with this bike and I am sure the video didn t do them any justice sure they were steeper than they looked. Thanks again awesome video !

 

[ghte]

Interesting terrain in them thar hills Richard. Looking at your silhouete it looks like you might need some bar risers (you appear a tad bent and stretched). Thanks for sharing

 

[oneal]

Nice place to ride makes me jealous almost

 

[ray_ray]

I still have only seen the start of some of those vids but wowo, that looks like one cool place to practice hill climbing ... After that place, every thing will look small except maybe dunes. Dunes are the only thing I have ever climbed straight up and were pretty tall, but not as tall as those things ... Looks very intimidating to me ... I'd want my 250cc 2t machine there ... Not that my 250cc 4t bikes would not climb them but that load on the engine will make that 2t try to climb to the moon.

 

[Big Timmy]

Jerbear 610,
I grew up in the bay area, (Castro Valley) in 66' when my folks divorced when I was about 7 years old, my Dad moved to San Ramon. He used to pick us up for the weekends and we would go shooting at Carnegie. 22LR shells were cheap back then about $5 or $6 bucks a brick at Montgomery Wards. On the Cement pad aways left of the main entrance gates. There was this big old peppercorn tree growing out of the middle of the old cement foundation. It was the old Carnegie brick factory. It had a dirt rail car service mound running right behind it we used to shoot into and a creek bed right behind that. Which was the source of water for the brick works that was torn down about 80 years earlier. There still should be a Stone and brass or bronze monument plaque from the Carnegie brick factory out on the edge of the road there, Is it still there?

Back then there wasn't even a fence along Corral Hollow road. We quit shooting there after myself and my 2 brothers made a few minibike trails ourselves that my Dad traded a couple 22cal. rifles for. He used to throw the mini bike in the trunk of my Stepmoms 65' Olds. Then one day we were there shooting into that same mound of dirt and over the top popped a 67" Yamaha DT trail 125 with a white tank and low mounted front fender. I think it was the first real dirt bike I ever saw riding. Certainly there. That was the end of our shooting there any more, to many risks. It got fenced off along the road and become privately owned and turned into Carnegie motorcycle park. That front of the mound has been roped off to not be ridden on since the late 80's. The rangers thought it was from erosion. I told 1 of them riding there 1 time we used to shoot into that hill and he freaked out saying you can't shoot here on a off road park. I had to explain I was talking about shooting there 20 years earlier. If he didn't believe me take his shovel out of his truck and go over to the hill and dig into it and you will find a hand full of Lead and copper jacketed bullet remnants. He did exactly that with me and couldn't believe it.

Back in the days when I was a younger teen, Carnegie used to host the World GP motocross races back up in the hills and they used old school busses to get the spectators up the winding dirt main road to the GP track. It was great to see the GP Factory teams on the open track from all over the world, I watched Roger Decoster myself snap a frame in half right at the steering head flying about 80+ ft. over the high speed jump on a Suzuki in about 74' or 75'. All the Major Factory teams like CZ, Maico, Ossa, Bultaco, Montesa, Can-Am, Husqvarna, Honda, Yamaha, Suzuki, Kawasaki, Carabela from Mexico, Penton etc. They were all represented there and all the great riders too, I still remember many of there names. Thats how I got into Maico's back in the day. I used to drool looking at all of the trick parts and works expansion chambers on all the factory race bikes. Back then they were all made out of hand rolled cones. Thats how I got into doing dirt bike pipes in high school. I made quite a few sets of chambers for Kawasaki triples, 750 H2s and 500s and quite a few RD and R5 Yamaha twins back then also. I copied the specs from the Denco chambers back then for the street bikes. No stamped section pipes were done back then. I used to ride there at Carnegie for years on my Maico's and later when I got into Quads in about 86' I was still making pipes for Quad Dynamics and private customers as well back before I moved to AZ in 91'. It has to be 1 of the top 5 places to ride in CA.

Unfortunately back then at one years World GP in about 76' or 77' during the GP races a guy in his Chevy 4 wheel truck took off from the pits and climbed a hill between heat races and his spare tire rolled out of his truck bed and rolled and skipped down the hill and it took about 3 jumps and cleared the pits completely in those 3 hops at high speed and hit some kid and paralyzed him and put him into a wheel chair for the rest of his life. I met this person later in life while living with my Dad, the guy lived in San Ramon himself. I was about 20 maybe 21 at that time.

Due to the lawsuits that was the result of this unfortunate accident as you could imagine.
The State of CA. park system took over Carnegie Off road park and has run it ever since. They used to have the widow Maker hill climb there and many smaller tracks down in the flats along the frontage road ( Corral Hollow Road) it runs between Livermore, CA. And comes out in Tracy, CA.

It's as epic a place to ride as you can go to. The video's don't even begin to do the place justice. I've snuck out of some of those mountain canyons on Quads that the only way out was going out between the bottom of the hills them selves with a lot of lifting basically strattling a rut as some of the hills stand so close together. There was no other way out on a quad as the wetgrass on the hill sides prevented getting back up to the tops of the hills to ride back down from the top. Some of my Quad buddies were afraid to go back there riding with me from when I lived in Stockton for about 8 years. I watched a few of my Quads take ghost rides down a few hills myself and paid the price believe me and many others I had seen have the same thing happen to them as well. The hillclimbs there are awesome.

Try riding up in Wilseyville, West point, Shads, Mokulumee hills area. All areas South east of you in Sacramento and a bit North east of Stockton. Great forestry service area and Westpoint holds a National level Enduro every year thats about a 32 mile loop I believe.

If you go North we used to go up to Lake Pillsbury and ride up there and take the ski boats as well. It was listed as one of the top 10 places to ride in CA. also.

I like your Carnegie Video's, it really brings back old times of making those first few minibike trails over 47 years ago.

 

[jerbear610]

Thanks for sharing that Big Timmy. That is good stuff. My first ever ride there was in 08' and I remember going down Corral Hollow after you cross the freeway towards those mountains and saying to my buddy "look at those hills, wouldn't that be a cool place to ride". All of a sudden you see Carnegie and you're there. It
can be a little intimidating at first but once you get on the bike it's all about the climb. See what you're made of. Separated my shoulder there on my 610 a few years
ago going down a hill. Keep going back though. It's awesome.

 

[Motosportz]

I have ridden there a ton... in a video game :>) Looks kinda like the hills at Clear creek, fun HP hills. Fun thread.

 

[Big Timmy]

Thanks for sharing that Big Timmy. That is good stuff. My first ever ride there was in 08' and I remember going down Corral Hollow after you cross the freeway towards those mountains and saying to my buddy "look at those hills, wouldn't that be a cool place to ride". All of a sudden you see Carnegie and you're there. It
can be a little intimidating at first but once you get on the bike it's all about the climb. See what you're made of. Separated my shoulder there on my 610 a few years
ago going down a hill. Keep going back though. It's awesome.

I know that sucked I just had shoulder Surgery on the 2nd of Oct. (Work dislocation). Not fun. My Capsule is more screwed up now than anything else. Still doing Physical therapy.

Do you come in from the Tracy side of the 580 or is it the 680 I forget. its one or the other. There used to be a small nuclear test sight there on the left side that was part of the "Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory" I welded for the Lawrence Lab years ago. I think the small test site on the East end of Corral Hollow road was part of "White sands missile sight" or "Los Alamos test site" or something I can't remember.

At one time years ago "The national wildlife service" had introduced Arizona Roadrunner birds back into that area of the East end of Corral Hollow road and they flourished for years. You would see them running around all over the place all the time 35 years ago. Only place in Northern CA. you would see them.

Where I live now in S.E. AZ, I see hundreds of the darned Roadrunners all over the place everyday. They eat anything, turtles, snakes, lizards you name it. One of the most destructive birds I think there is. They truly are a feathered dinosaur.

Before we ever went shooting at Carnegie itself and my parents got divorced my Dad would go Dove hunting with us and a former student he had taught shop to years earlier from Oakland out Corral Hollow road. On the end in the creek beds closer to the Tracy end and we would literaly shoot Burlap Gunnysacks full of Dove back then. There was no limit back in like 1964 on shooting dove like there is now. I'm talking about 200 or more a day. My brothers and myself had to clean and snap there necks like we were hunting dogs. I was about 5 back then.

 

[Darkside]

It looks like Carnegie may open more riding areas. A nice change from our favorite places being closed. We need to support this!

Carnegie Forever
Keep Carnegie SVRA open!
Tuesday 10, December 2013

Carnegie Forever Supports State OHV’s “Preferred Concept”

It is time for Carnegie Forever members to give our park a Christmas Present.
The State OHV division has proposed a “Preferred Concept” and is gathering our final suggestions and votes for opening 3,500 more acres for additional OHV opportunities. Carnegie Forever’s Board of Directors endorses this plan and is asking its members to also endorse this plan and add their own comments.
To do so:

1. click on this link or go to http://www.carnegiegeneralplan.com/contact-us
2. a new page will open with a comment form
3. type “we support the preferred concept” in the comment box
4. add other ideas or comments
5. type in name, phone number and email address
6. type the verification code at the bottom
7. if you have any problems, grab a nearby 13 year old to help

The last day to submit your view is December 13th
So, will you all wrap up this very simple AND IMPORTANT present for Carnegie?
The park and all of us need your gift.
Warm Christmas Greetings from Carnegie Forever’s Board of Directors,
Dave Duffin

 

[ray_ray]

Its my first time seeing that area but what else could it be good for except riding on (at your own risk) and risking limb and bone? An area like that could be ridden 1k yrs ..

 

[Big Timmy]

You could ride there all day "ray-ray" and never even leave the lower area frontage section of the place. You could spend all day riding and stay on the flat areas for a quite a few miles just messing around on the tracks and never even go back up and hit the high areas. Seriously never even climb anything more than about a 100 ft ascent. some of these short little trails though are some of the most difficult short climbs because they are hardly used. It's that big. Whats the fun of that though. Its been years but I have ridden all the way back against the then boundary fences though and you can't possibly cover the whole place in a day.

There's plenty of main access fire roads bulldozed into this place that are plenty big enough for large trucks that will allow you ride up them if you like to take you up to the upper areas of the mountains. They will take you off the fire roads and allow you to pick any trail off in any direction everywear. It's not all knarly hill climbs as it appears in the videos. It has most of the main trails marked and named and to the level of difficulty like a ski resort I suppose would do.

I've never snow skied in my life but they use about the same procedure for labeling the difficulty of the trails ahead to keep people from getting into deep or riding into areas of great difficulty that are clearly marked for skill levels required ahead.

I myself haven't ridden there since living in Arizona. The last time was probably about 1989 and it's bigger now than ever before. I have looked it up many times on google earth in the past many years to show it's immense size to guys I ride with down here in AZ. though. If you get Google Earth service back in the Philippines check it out!

 

[Darkside]

Its my first time seeing that area but what else could it be good for except riding on

the land owners next to it have been trying to get it closed for years. Last year they nearly succeeded, claiming heavy metals were getting into the rain runoff or something like that. That's why I'm really surprised at this latest development.

 

[WoodsChick]

I've been enjoying this thread and Big Timmy's contributions to it
I learned to ride at Carnegie almost 30 years ago. Yeah, it's full of big hill climbs but there is also some pretty hairy single track there if you know where to look. There's a roped-off kiln tucked away in the back from when it was a brick factory. When the rains would be heavy bricks would sometimes wash down out of the hills and collect in the seasonal creek that runs along the front. I have a few in my backyard

This is me getting a big fat ticket at Carnegie in...1985 or 1986, maybe?

 

[Big Timmy]

Oh yes WoodsChick,

The old Carnegie Bricks were all stamped CARNEGIE in an indentation and had a weird tan color if I remember. They are probably collector items now. We used to have a bunch of them.

My Brothers and I once caught an Albino bullfrog tadpole with small legs and still had a tail out of that creek behind the old brick factory slab. We took it down to Lake Merritt to the little zoo and donated it to the Amphibians Dept. where they had all the aquariums and we got to go see it for years after that whenever we were in the area. The Zoo traded us a few baby ducks and before we could build a pen for them they drowned in the bathtub. We had put them in there in just a few inches of water in plastic little boats like they used to serve fish and chips in and they stepped out and tried to swim and sunk because they didn't have the mothers oil from her feathers to keep them affloat. We learned a valuable lesson at an early age. I was about 7 or 8. Baby ducks can't float without their mom's help.

We used to go back towards Livermore out Corral Hollow road and park at the edge of the road. Just before you start up the hill and explored the canyon on foot back into the left of the road. There was mines with open shafts up in the hills back in that canyon but we got runout of there a few times as teen agers.

Interesting to talk to people from up in that area. ( great picture ) It looks like you have a smile on your face!

My Dad and Stepmom taught school in Oakland for 35 years.

 

[WoodsChick]

Interesting to talk to people from up in that area. ( great picture ) It looks like you have a smile on your face!

Well, of course I was smiling...I hadn't gotten the $1000 ticket with mandatory court appearance yet!


Where did your folks teach school?

 

[Big Timmy]

My Dad taught at Weslake Jr. High, King Jr. High and Bret Hart Jr. High. My Stepmom taught at Bret Hart the whole time for 33 years, she was primarily a math teacher but also taught Physical Education for many years early in her carreer. Here name was Connie Lindner. My Dad name is Tom Lindner, he taught just about everthing at one time or another as he has a General education masters degree along with 3 others all in education. The General Education credential is no longer available in California and probably for good reason. This would allow him to teach any subject at any grade level in California. He taught School Administration at Cal State in Fullerton in the beginning. Then later moved back to the Oakland area when I was born and worked at Weslake Jr High until I was about 3 or 4. We moved to Castro Valley when I was 5. He taught classes including PE and Shop at Kings Jr High along the Macarther freeway then mostly woodshop and metalshop and leathercraft at Bret Hart until they both retired in about 96'. It took many years for the district to allow spouses to teach at the same school. So commuting together was a pain for them for many years from Alcosta blvd. in Dublin/San Ramon.

 

[Rob578]

I've been enjoying this thread and Big Timmy's contributions to it
I learned to ride at Carnegie almost 30 years ago. Yeah, it's full of big hill climbs but there is also some pretty hairy single track there if you know where to look. There's a roped-off kiln tucked away in the back from when it was a brick factory. When the rains would be heavy bricks would sometimes wash down out of the hills and collect in the seasonal creek that runs along the front. I have a few in my backyard

This is me getting a big fat ticket at Carnegie in...1985 or 1986, maybe?

View attachment 35792

That is hilarious!!

 

[ray_ray]

This is me getting a big fat ticket at Carnegie in...1985 or 1986, maybe?

View attachment 35792

Hard to believe an outlaw would wear white gloves ... Maybe you were framed?

--
With a closer look, I can see a couple items that look like you today

 

[WoodsChick]

That is hilarious!!

Yeah, it's funny now, I guess I got written up for 35 in a 15. More than twice the speed limit, mandatory court appearance in Tracy. I was on a borrowed RM80. It didn't have a spark arrester. I can't remember how much of the fine was for that, but it was steep. I look at that photo and I see dollar signs and my empty purse.

Hard to believe an outlaw would wear white gloves ... Maybe you were framed?

--
With a closer look, I can see a couple items that look like you today

White gloves! Those were brand new Fox Dirt Paws. White with light blue accents. My friend took them out of my hands when I proudly showed them to him and he threw them on the ground and stepped on them. "There, you're ready to hit the trails now!" Damn it!