| Georgetown (Rock Creek OHV) is located
in central California on the East side near Auburn (45 min.) off Hwy. 103.
Four ATV drivers showed up at the Mace Mill campground at Georgetown on
June 21, 1999. Carol Christopher and Don Strom arrived there first
with bad news because their truck's transmission oil was leaking right
at the campground, which was very lucky, instead of being stuck in the
middle of the road. We found that the area had plenty of mosquitoes
that drove us crazy. We put the mosquito spray over all our bodies
and still got some bites. While dining that evening, Pam Kovash,
her friend Debbie, and Robert stopped for a couple of hours, joining us
at dinner. Robert brought Don to the store to buy 11 quarts of transmission
oil. Carol and Don asked Pam a favor -- to call the Ranger to show
up to see if it is more of a problem. Next morning, Don poured the
oil in the transmission and tested it. It ran fine, which puzzled
him a lot. He suspected that it is something to do with air pressure
that made the oil escape. He will find out why later when he gets
home and will see a transmission worker to find out what was wrong.
On Tuesday we had a long run. One area was so rough it made Sergio go back to the campground, leaving us to continue ATVing. Boy, the area of Georgetown was so big for us to ride on. I brought a map to be sure that we could go back to the campground, but the map was not so good and hard to figure out how to get back. Sergio was waiting for us to return; he expected us back around 4:00 to 5:00 p.m. But we were lost for a couple of hours, finally finding a trail to return back. Sergio felt we were lost and decided to drive to Ranger station for help at 7:30 p.m. The Ranger told him the Rangers would start to search at 9:00 p.m. We arrived at the campground at 7:30 p.m. Sergio was happy to see us and we waited for the Ranger to show up. It was good that the Ranger showed up, a Sheriff showed up, and a map manager showed up and found us before they started to search. Sergio was so happy how efficient they were. They were in a good mood to see us and went off. We planned to stay at Georgetown for three nights, but the mosquitoes made us move out one day earlier, to Forest Hill, about 50 miles East, were we found no mosquitoes! We were happy about that and Sergio fell in love with the place because of several accesses, water faucets, lakes, and very nice areas. It was interesting to learn about "Caution." CAUTION. The West end of the area (Trail 8-1) borders an equine (horse) riding area and at times the riders use the OHV trails. If you encounter horses, do the following: stop and turn your engine off; take off your helmet (horses may not recognize you as human with the helmet on; move off the trail and let the horses by. Not doing this could endanger the rider, the horse and yourself by causing the horse to panic. Being considerate to others helps dirtbikers keep a good name. We stayed at Forest Hill until Monday. We found out that the trails were very dusty because of the dry climate. We managed it all right. We enjoyed riding all the trails and they were mostly easy for us. One trail is uphill for us to ride; we made it very well. Our concern about Sergio is that he is 71 years old doing this. He improved a lot during that week. Carol, Don and I are good at ATVing. Every day, after we finished using ATV, we went to the lake and cleaned ourselves up from too much dust on our bodies and we felt so fresh afterward. Every evening we chatted under the 16-foot pole light by my truck shell, run by generator. The usual time we went to bed was 10:30 p.m. |