Sunday, May 1, 2011
LC-11 Rally
I rode down to Yuma on Friday for the LC-11 Rally. Bonus hunting rallies are like scavenger hunts - the rally master comes up with a bunch of bonus locations, and assigns a point value to each bonus. To claim the bonus (and earn the points), you have to ride to the location, and do something to prove you were there - take a photo, write down some info you could only know by being there, get a receipt, etc. There's either a fixed ending time, or a time limit based on your individual start time, with penalties for finishing late. The goal is to collect the most points.
Here's a link to a Google Maps page showing the bonus locations. You can click on the push-pin at each location to get complete details on that bonus. Off-road/dirt bonuses are red, and on-road bonuses (including ones just off a paved road on a dirt or gravel parking area) are in blue :
LowCal 250/LC-11 Bonus Locations Map
On Friday night we had a nice pre-rally dinner at Penny's Diner in Yuma. Afterward I rode back to my motel.
Start time on Saturday morning was 5:30am, so I set my phone for 4:40am, and also asked for a backup wake-up call at 4:45am in case the phone didn't work. I woke up on my own at 4:15am, so it was all good. I geared up, packed up the bike, grabbed a McMuffin next door, and headed to the starting spot at the Chevron across the street. I bought a gallon jug of water (only 10 cents more than a 1 liter bottle), and filled up my tank-bag hydration sack and my external water jug. I also got a couple of Nature Valley granola bars, which wound up being my lunch for the day.
You had to start between 5:30am and 6:00am, with an 11-hour limit based on your start time. Point values for each bonus ranged from 79 to 4000, and there was a 100-point per minute penalty for exceeding the time limit, so it was critical to make it to the finish in time. At 5:37am, I was the first to gas up and get my receipt; the time stamp was my "official" start time.
Part of the fun of a rally like this is analyzing the bonus locations and developing a route that: a) gets you lots of points (obviously); and b) lets you finish on time. I had come up with a route that I felt good about. It was a little aggressive, but I had planned for alternate cut-outs at various points throughout the day. At last year's LowCal 250, my initial route was too weak, and I had problems finding the best way to add more bonuses when I found I had more time/mileage to use, so this year I decided to be more aggressive and then skip bonuses as needed to make it to the finish within the time limit.
A lot of the riders came up with close to the same opening set of bonuses that I had planned. My first stop was a bridge near Laguna Dam, northeast of Yuma. Back in the 1900's, long before it became a symbol of Nazism, this bridge had been built with swastikas as a design feature.
From here, the next logical stop was Yuma Duster, a collection of tanks and field artillery associated with the nearby Yuma Proving Grounds Army Base. There's two ways to get from the bridge to the tanks: continue up the dirt/gravel road for 6 miles or so, or backtrack to real roads and ride around to the other side. I chose the gravel roads, and must say I chose poorly. It would have been faster, and much less stressful on the rider and the equipment, to have avoided the unimproved road. But, hey - life's an adventure, right?
After Yuma Duster, I headed up to Blythe on US-95. (A couple of times I saw the big '95' on the signs and wished it was the speed limit and not the highway number...) At Quartzsite, I headed west on I-10 into Blythe, then up US-95 again to the Blythe Intaglios, a group of gigantic pictographs scraped into the ground by ancient Indians. The largest figure is over 170 feet long. This required more dirt and gravel riding, with an off-trail hike to get the picture of the sign needed for the bonus.
From there, I went down US-95 almost back to Blythe, then cut over for the Torque Trestle railroad bridge bonus. This trestle bridge was featured in some of the motorcycle action scenes in the bad movie Torque from 1994. This bonus had two choices: a) park on the road and hike 250-300 yards to the bridge, or b) ride off-road to within 10 yards of the bridge. I chose option (b), but when I met up with other riders I told them to consider parking and hiking instead. The deep sand was not great on my heavier bike.
Next was the Inca Ore Silo, just a mile or so down the road from the trestle. More dirt riding, and a cool looking silo. Then back into Blythe for Gateway Park, which has a monument to all the various branches in the U.S. armed forces. The bonus required a photo of the entire monument with your helmet resting on one of the pillars, and I chose the Merchant Marines for no apparent reason.
The headwinds and the "headwinds" were doing a number of my gas mileage, so I stopped to refuel before heading down to the Cibola sign-post. The bridge over the Colorado River was sketchy, but safe. I met up with my buddy Peter Perrin at this bonus. I headed back of out of town the same way I came in, but it turns out there's an undocumented bridge on the other side of town that would have saved me 10-15 minutes. It doesn't appear on any electronic maps, and you can only see it on satellite view, and I missed it in my pre-ride research. In the end I could have really used those 15 minutes.
The road to Brawley was buffeted by high winds that really tired me out physically. I got sand blasted going through the dunes at Glamis, but made it to the Whistler Mud Pots without a problem. The Mud Pots were cool - geothermal activity pushes up mud into 8-12 foot high "pots". On the way in from SR-111 I took Schrempf, a dirt/mud/gravel road that isn't in the best condition. On the way out, I took MacDonald just to the north, and it was in far better shape.
It was only a few miles north and east to Salvation Mountain, and a couple of rally riders were leaving just as I was pulling in. It's a cool old folk-art display built into a hillside.
Salvation Mountain was worth 4000 points, so anyone wanting to do well in the rally had to visit this location. This was where I had to decide on the route for the rest of the day.
In my pre-ride planning, I had come up with three alternatives from this point, depending on the time I had left. Option 1, in case I was already short of time, was to head south to the Pacific Crest Trailhead south of Campo, then back into the San Diego area for whatever smaller bonuses I could find there. Option 2 was to go up to Mecca, then over for the group of bonuses around Julian. Option 3 was to go up to Mecca, then over to Pine View, Santa Rosa and Scenic Road. If I had enough time, option 3 was the best route, but if I was a little short option 2 was a good alternative.
Based on the time, I decided to go all-in for option 3. If all went well, it was the best option, but everything depended on making a fairly quick up-and-back on the Santa Rosa truck trail. I knew it was in so-so condition, but still thought I could average 20mph.
I made a quick run to the Gracie Salazar bonus in Mecca, got more gas, and headed through Palm Springs to SR-74. My route had me going to Santa Rosa first, and then Pine View, but I saw the Pine View turn-off a mile or so before Santa Rosa, so I turned in to grab it first.
The first section of the Santa Rosa truck trail wasn't too bad, and I was feeling okay about my time, but the road got progressively worse, and it was slow going. I grabbed my photos at the spring, and headed back down. I made better time on the way back, but it still took too much time, and I knew I couldn't even consider getting the Scenic Road bonus. I decided to try to make up some time on the way back to San Diego: if I could save enough I could go to the Aztec Cafe for a combination bonus, and otherwise I'd go straight to the finish at San Diego BMW Motorcycles.
When I made it back to SR-74, I was about 94 miles from the dealer. Traffic in the mountains on the way to I-15 was too heavy to let me make up a lot of time, but it wasn't until I had done 5 miles or so on I-15 that I gave up on grabbing any more bonuses. The GPS said a side-trip to Aztec Cafe would get me back to the dealer at 4:40pm, and I didn't have enough miles to be able to make up the necessary time, no matter how fast I rode. I briefly considered visiting the Liberty Tobacco bonus location, which didn't come with points but instead added 15 minutes to your time limit, but I didn't think it would work, and the penalty for being over time was too harsh.
I got back at 4:20pm, with 17 minutes to spare. My odometer showed 510 miles for the day, and my GPS showed 501. It was a good, long day of riding, and except for the wind I had a fantastic time.
Back at the dealer, I chatted briefly with some of the other riders, and then started in on my final scoresheet. I initially forgot to put down the Cibola bonus, but caught it just in time, with the help of a kind soul who pointed out my omission.
Rallymaster Craig and his great wife Lisa had the scoring process down to a science, and his method of verifying the bonuses that required photos was very efficient. Afterwards, I grabbed some chips and salsa -- graciously provided by the dealership -- and chatted with some of the other riders.
Before the standings were announced, we were all treated to a steak and hamburger dinner, again courtesy of the dealer. They really know how to make everyone feel like family.
While we ate our ice cream for dessert, Craig announced the standings, and I was happily surprised to come in second place. (Or, as Gary, the owner of the dealership jokingly said, "first loser".) My buddy Peter Perrin came in first on his BMW RT, and Chad Smith came in third on his ST1300. The podium finishers got great wooden boxes with an inlay of the LowCal gasket in the image of San Diego County, along with very generous gift cards from the BMW dealer.
It turns out Peter had chosen something very close to my option #2: from Mecca, he headed inland to the bonuses near Julian, which wound up being the best choice. My route to the north might have prevailed, but only if I could have navigated Santa Rosa fast enough to still have time for Scenic Road and the Aztec Cafe, but the roadway did not allow it. A beginner's mistake, but a valuable learning experience.
In the end, everyone had a great time - again, except for the wind, which affected everyone.
Craig will likely go back to the single, 8-hour LowCal 250 rally next year, and I'll certainly be there. He goes to a lot of effort to come up with interesting, challenging, and fun bonuses each year, and the riding in and around San Diego County is first rate. I had a lot of fun helping out with the LowCal, and even more fun riding the LC-11. Thanks, Craig!
I had a SPOT Personal Tracker mounted on my bike for the ride. In tracking mode, this device relays my GPS coordinates to a satellite every ten minutes (or so), and let's my family and friends keep track of my progress on long rides. There's two ways to view the map:
Posted by bnc at May 1, 2011 12:05 PM