Monthly Archives: April 2011
April 27, 2011
LowCal 250
I rode in the LowCal 250 rally last year in San Diego. It's a great introduction to bonus-hunting rallying, and I had a great time. The rules last year placed a hard limit of 250 miles, and I came in a very credible fourth. (I misread the details of a combination bonus, or I might have finished as high as second.)
This year, Craig the Rallymaster™ added a new twist - the traditional LowCal 250 format on one weekend, and a longer rally he calls LC-11 on the following weekend. The 250 has a firm 8 hour time limit, and starts and ends at San Diego BMW Motorcycles. The LC-11 has an 11 hour time limit, starting in Yuma and ending at the BMW dealer in San Diego. Both rallies share the same set of bonus locations, but there are a lot of bonuses that are only practical for the LC-11.
I rode down on Saturday to help out with logistics on the 250, and other than the 4:45am departure I had a great time.
My job on Saturday morning was to help the LowCal 250 riders load the bonus location waypoints onto their GPS's, and except for one older hand-held Garmin unit, everyone was accommodated. At the finish, Craig verified each scorecard by checking receipts and/or photos, and I entered the bonuses into the computer for scoring.
I'm packing up on Thursday night for the LC-11. On Friday, I'll ride to work, and then leave around 3:00pm to head straight down to Yuma. There's a pre-ride meeting/dinner Friday night, and then an early 5:30am start on Saturday. I've planned an aggressive main route, but have a bunch of alternatives and cut-outs already loaded into my GPS. I spent lunchtime today doing a Streetview/Satellite pre-ride, and printed out a binder full of photos, maps, coordinates, rally packets, spreadsheets, and tank-bag inserts. All that's left is to actually ride the ride.