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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!

LowCal 250/LC-11 Standings

My LC-11 Photos

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 1 May 2011 @ 12.05 PM

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 Rallymasterâ„¢ 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.

LowCal 250 Photos

Posted 27 Apr 2011 @ 12.11 PM

Because We Can 2010

I rode to Guadalupe for the 2010 edition of Because We Can. 26 riders met at the Far Western Tavern for lunch to celebrate the all-year riding weather in California.

Posted 29 Dec 2010 @ 9.08 PM

Winter Solstice SS1K

My buddy Doug and I rode the last of our four-ride set on a very rainy Winter Solstice.

Posted 21 Dec 2010 @ 9.06 PM

Fall Equinox SS1K

Doug and I did the third of our four-ride set.

Posted 21 Sep 2010 @ 9.03 PM

BBG packet is here

Back in May, I rode a Bun Burner Gold ride — 1530 miles in 23 hours. I submitted the required paperwork to the Iron Butt Association a few days later.

The IBA packet arrived today - a nice certificate, a special BBG license plate backer, a pin - the works. I'm offiical.

The ride included a 16 mile detour along Badwater Road in Death Valley National Park that cannot be documented with a computerized receipt. When I submitted my documentation, I noted this, and included photos I took of the FJR at Lake Manly and at Badwater Point, along with links to my Spotwalla map. The IBA credited me with the whole 1530 miles.

Still to come this year are the Fall Equinox and Winter Solstice SaddleSores with Doug to complete our Four Seasons. Next year, I want to do a B2Bi — Mexico to Canada in 24 hours. After that, we'll have to see...

Posted 27 Jul 2010 @ 1.21 PM

WFO-9

I left Wednesday for WFO-9 in Eureka. Justin rode with me on the 101 as far as Las Posas, and I kept going to CA-154 in Santa Barbara. Foxen Canyon was cool — as always — and I stopped at Pappy's for Tri-Tip and Enchilladas, with a scoop of vanilla ice cream for dessert.

Originally I planned to ride between the lakes from Paso, up the Jolon road to King City, then west on Carmel Valley Road and up PCH all the way into The City. I got a late start, and had already missed the cancellation time on my motel in Petaluma, so I adjust the route to only Jolon Road, then a quick blast up to Petaluma. The GPS routed me up I-280, and it seemed fast. It was really cold once I got onto surface streets. The Golden Gate Bridge was really cool in the dusk and fog.

I left Petaluma early Thursday, and broiled up the 101. I rashly decided to ride the Lost Coast, which was scenic and all, but the road surface made it a little too much of a chore. The short section right along the coast is a great ride, and almost made up for the 85 other miles of crappy conditions.

Fairlaner teased me about my Subway dinner, but I was tired and just wanted to chill in the room with my book.

Friday was an off day, and I walked around Old Town Eureka all morning. There are a couple of nice used book stores, and I found an Anne Perry that I'd been missing at the smaller of the two. When I got back to the hotel, my room still hadn't been made up, so I walked east and found a big new Target. I bought some granola bars for breakfast and on-bike snacking, some medical tape to help protect Dr. Voron's stitches on my right fore-arm, and the latest Jack Reacher novel, 61 Hours - my only one of the series in hardback.

Friday's dinner highlight was a talk by the Forum's James Burleigh - which worked out great.

On Saturday, my buddy Doug and I rode over to the Samoa Cookhouse for the Vintage Riders Breakfast. Afterwards we decided to ride a big loop of famous roads - CA-299 to Weaverville, then south on CA-3, then west again on CA-36 back to Eureka — about 245 miles total. The ride was really fun. We stopped for lunch at the Burger Barn on CA-36.

Saturday's dinner included a preview of Hard Miles II, a video about the 2009 Iron Butt Rally, with an introduction by Dean Tanji himself. I sat with Terry/Tel at dinner, and we talked a lot about rallying, riding, and English football — very cool stuff.

I had to get back to work on Monday, so Sunday meant the long ride home. Doug joined me, and we drove quickly down to the Bay Area to meet up with Justin, who had ridden up to see his friends in the south Bay. Justin and I made quick plans to meet at a logical landmark, which turned out to be the Motel 6 in Fremont. (It was something we could both find easily on our GPS's...)

We met Justin in the motel parking lot. Doug graciously bought all of us lunch at a surprisingly good Mexican restaurant next door, and we gassed up and hit the road. Justin had come up I-5 on Saturday, and said the heat was close to unbearable, so we decided to stay close to the coast, at the cost of some extra miles.

Terry had told me on Saturday that he was going to take CA-25, as a fun compromise between the heat of I-5 and the traffic of US-101, due to the MotoGP race at Laguna Seca and the Garlic Festival in Gilroy. At lunch the three of us decided to use his advice, and we found some great riding from Hollister down to King City.

From there, we took US-101 to CA-154. An accident at the south end of the 154 stopped us for 5-10 minutes, but we made it to the gas station at State and La Cumbre unscathed. Doug was going to peel off down the 405 to head home to El Segundo, so we said our goodbyes in Santa Barbara, and hit the road. Traffic was bad, and we lane-shared into Carpinteria before it broke up.

Doug headed south at the 405, and Justin and I slogged the rest of the way home, tired but happy.

Posted 26 Jul 2010 @ 9.58 AM

Four Seasons - Summer Solstice Saddlesore 1000

Doug and I did the second of our Four Seasons rides today, a Saddlesore 1000 trip starting and ending in El Segundo, with stops in Mojave, Merced, Williams, Gilroy, and Santa Maria.

Posted 21 Jun 2010 @ 11.13 AM

FJR Forum Post on the BBG

I've wanted to do a BBG for quite a while. Toecutter and I talked about an in-state California route many years ago, but something always came up. Maybe three years ago, I mapped out a route from Southern California, up through central Nevada, and down through eastern Nevada back to So. Cal. On the map it looked like a big lollipop. I run a stock fuel tank, so my route choices are limited by having to stop every 200 miles or so.

Over time, I made plans to actually do the ride, but, again, something always came up. Earlier this year, after talking it over with my friend Doug, I decided this had to be the year. Doug has a lot of big rides planned this year -- the IBR5000, LOE, and a bunch of others -- so we decided to do some training rides together to prep. Back in March we did a California In-State SS1K, and in April we did the LowCal 250 Rally down in San Diego. (A great half-day rally, by the way).

A couple of days before the LowCal, I sent Doug an e-mail asking his opinion: is it better to ride through Las Vegas late on a Sunday night, or late on a Monday night? He drafted some well-known riders from SoCal and Nevada to get their opinions, and opinions I got. The early consensus was that my route was less than ideal -- too many back-country miles after dark, with iffy gas options if it got too late.

Reno John dove in, and came up with great suggestions on improving the route. Specifically, he recommended an early start, timed so that I left the Interstate right at sunrise, followed by a scenic early morning ride through Death Valley, then the back-country roads through central Nevada. The finish was a long final stretch on Interstates -- easier when fatigued, and less problems with wildlife. After some back-and-forth, we made a final refinement by taking out a long slog on I-80 into Salt Lake City, and substituting the ET Highway.

I was very happy that the final route had more back-road highway mileage than Interstate mileage - not by much, but still more than half of the total.

I brought some print outs of the various routes to the pre-dinner for the LowCal to show Doug, and wound up sharing with the whole group -- including my friends Peter Perrin and Craig Chaddock, and the esteemed Ken Meese. Everyone agreed that the new route was better than the original lollipop route.

Here's the route:



A good route is one thing -- you still have to do the ride. Some last minute light-hearted reverse psychology from Reno John motivated me to set an actual date -- Monday, May 17th -- and I started prepping for the ride in earnest. The tires were okay, and I did an oil change the week before the ride, made all the necessary arrangements with family and work, and slowly adjusted my sleep schedule to wake up earlier. (It annoyed my wife that I'd wake up at 4:00 for no apparent reason, but she adapted...)

On the night before the ride, I packed the bike, mounted the V-1 and the SPOT, set out my gear, and got to sleep early. On the morning of the ride, I woke up at 3:00am, and did the final prep work -- call the witnesses, get a quick breakfast, fill the thermos with coffee, don the riding gear (including the Widders), last minute packing -- and I left the driveway at 3:30am. The starting receipt was from a gas station about a mile from my house, with a start time of 3:41am.

The first stint was I-210 and I-15 to Baker. The only drama was dense fog over the Cajon Pass, from the I-215 junction to Victorville. I found a well-lit SUV in the adjacent lane, and we made it through with only minor puckering. As planned, I hit Baker right at sunrise. (Click on any photo for a full-size view)



I had planned a quick splash-and-go, but the pump receipt had no time stamp - only the date. I went inside, and the shift manager wrote the time and her contact info on the receipt for me.

CA-127 up into Death Valley was a blast. I had two options for the Death Valley section - the fast, efficient route to the east, and the fun but longer Badwater Road to the west, which adds 18 miles, and can't be documented with printed receipts. I was feeling good on the bike, and it was such a nice morning, so I turned off onto Badwater. I stopped at a couple of places along the way to get some photos to show I was there.

Lake Manly:



Badwater Basin, the lowest point in North America at 282ft (86m) below sea level:




I stopped for fuel and a receipt in Furnace Creek, took off my cold weather gear, and made my way to Beatty, then on to Tonopah.

About 10 miles south of Tonopah, the winds started up from the south, and they grew stronger as I got closer to Tonopah. After gassing up in Tonopah, I gobbled down a Balance Bar and some coffee from my thermos, put my cold weather gear back on and headed out east on US-6. (I wound up wearing my cold weather gear, including the Widders, the entire rest of the ride. I had cloud cover the whole way.)

By this time, the winds were steady at 35-40 mph, and I had to lean noticeably to my right to keep the bike straight. Thankfully they were mostly constant -- there's nothing fun about crosswind gusts that blow you over two lanes -- but it was tiring to balance myself against them for mile after mile.

I turned southeast on the Extraterrestrial Highway, a fantastic section of road. The quartering winds were an issue most of the way, but I found some areas where I could wind it up a little. I didn't pass a single car on the way, and only three cars passed me going the opposite direction -- it's a lonely road on a weekday. The free range cattle stayed well back from the roadway.

The Alien Research Center



I skipped Ash Springs to pickup more miles, and stopped for fuel and a receipt in Alamo. The route up NV-318 was almost due north, so the southerly wind was actually an advantage. I got stopped for five minutes for some road construction, but otherwise this section was fast and fun.

My next stop for fuel was Ely, and the wind was really blowing. I grabbed a burger and a Diet Coke, and headed east on US-6/US-50 towards Utah. The winds along this stretch were more of a problem, and I got some occasional gusts below the passes, but it wasn't too bad.

Northeast of Delta, Utah, I veered east on UT-132, which turned out to be a fun little road. Here's the view looking east about 20 miles west of Nephi:



I was about 70 minutes behind my overly optimistic schedule when I stopped for fuel in Nephi, Utah. The Flying J receipt also had the date but no time stamp, and the manager wrote the time and her contact info on the receipt. She said that commercial drivers asked them to not use a time stamp, to give them "flexibility" in making their log book entries...

After all the fun riding on the back roads of California, Nevada, and Utah, I hit I-15 for the long slog back home. I listened to the Lakers-Suns playoff game on the XM, and made good time to the fuel stop in St. George. The time stamp on this receipt was off by an hour, so I headed back inside. The cashier said they hadn't updated their pumps after the change to daylight savings time. While I was behind my planned schedule, I decided I had plenty of time to relax a little. At about the 1,100 mile point, my lower back had started to ache a little, so I walked around a bit to stretch out.

The winds were back as I passed through the Virgin River canyon on I-15 in northwest Arizona.

Coming south on I-15 at night, you're basically out in the middle of nowhere, until you crest the last pass and the lights of Las Vegas open up before you, covering the horizon for miles and miles. It's really quite a sight, but I couldn't stop for a photo.

I got back to Baker right around midnight for my last on-route fuel stop. There was more dense fog over the Cajon Pass, but it only lasted for a few miles this time.

As I got within 10 miles of home, I noticed the headlights of a motorcycle coming up fast on my six. My son Justin had followed my SPOT track, and came out the escort me home. Very cool.

We hit the final fuel stop -- the same station I used for the starting receipt -- at 2:35am, 22 hours and 54 minutes after the start.



Google Maps listed the route as 1,530 miles, and the GPS showed 1,530.3 miles. The FJR odometer showed 1,560 miles.

I got a lot of great advice and support from a lot of different people (doug5551, renojohn, kaitsdad, jwhite, sandiegoland, among other Forum members), and I really appreciated all their time and efforts. Thanks, guys!

SpotWalla Tracking Map for this ride

Posted 21 May 2010 @ 8.40 PM

Bun Burner Gold is in the books - 1,500 miles in 24 hours


I was tired, riding west on the 210 through Monrovia, and looking forward to getting off the bike after 22 plus hours of riding, when another bike showed up on my six. Justin, on his ZZR, had come out to meet me and guide me home.

I left at 3:35am on Monday morning, rode all day and through the night, and made it back home in 22 hours and 54 minutes, after 1,530 miles through California, Nevada, Utah, and Arizona. About half the ride was Interstate, but even more miles were on cool back roads.

Some notes, for now, with more details soon...

Stints

  • Home to Baker - dense fog between I-15/I-215 junction and Hesperia. Felt like the Guild pilots in Dune
  • Baker to Beatty - chose the Badwater Road option; took photos to document it
  • Beatty to Tonopah - high winds began about 10 miles south of Tonopah
  • Tonopah to Alamo - more high winds from the south and west, kept speeds somewhat reasonable, altough I did get some time in the 6,000 RPM range...
  • Alamo to Ely - winds continued, but in my favor on this leg. Short stop for road construction.
  • Ely to Nephi - more high winds, in the 35-45 MPH range, with gusts and/or drop-outs. Very fatiguing.
  • Nephi to St. George - hooked up with a Corolla (of all things) for a 6,000 RPM plus run to Beaver and beyond. Listened to the Lakers-Suns game on the XM.
  • St. George to Baker - gusty winds in the Virgin River passes made things too interesting
  • Baker to home - just after Baker, I got caught behind a seemingly drunk-ass driver. He would slow down to the 55mph range, but when anyone tried to pass him he would speed up to match their speed, and cut just in front of them if they came up on slower traffic. I watched this happen to three different cars, and didn't feel like it would be wise to try it myself. He finally got distracted and let me pass in north Victorville. More dense fog past Hesperia.
Posted 18 May 2010 @ 2.16 PM

LowCal 250


On Saturday, April 24th, I rode in the LowCal 250 rally, an 8 hour bonus rally in San Diego County.

A motorcycle bonus rally is kind of like a scavenger hunt. At the beginning of the rally, you get a list of locations and their point values, along with details on any special restrictions, or extra points if you visit a combination of related bonus locations.

My buddy Doug has ridden in a bunch of bonus rallies, like the Land of Enchantment in New Mexico, the Nevada 1099, and others. We were talking about rallies a few months back, and when I told them they sound like a lot of fun, he highly recommended starting with the LowCal 250 in San Diego.

Craig Chaddock, the leader of the group of riders I joined up with in last year's Yank the Weenie ride, is the Rally Architect, and really knows his stuff. This is the third edition of the LowCal, and Doug rode in the first two - placing second last year.

Craig sent out the bonus locations, including a few extras, and without the point values, earlier in the week so we could load them into our GPS's and/or mapping programs.

I rode down to Carlsbad after work in the late afternoon on Friday, checked into the Motel 6, then headed down to meet Craig, Doug, his friend Gary, and some other riders at Giovanni's for a pre-ride dinner. My buddy Peter P. was there, and Ken Meese, one of the upper crust of multi-day, long-distance rally riders, and Rally Master of this year's LowCal.

I'd been exchanging e-mails about the route for my upcoming BBG with Doug and some other experienced riders in the last few days, so I brought in print-outs of the three routes so Doug could see them in the flesh. Peter and Ken had a good look, and agreed that my final revision met all the criteria for a good, safe, efficient ride. Dinner was great, and we left around 8:00pm to our respective overnight spots.

On Saturday morning, I drove the 16 miles from the Motel 6 to BMW Motorcycles of San Diego, the rally headquarters. I had a couple of donuts until they were ready to hand out the final bonus packets, and gulped down some much needed coffee.

When I got the original bonus locations earlier in the week, I was intrigued by a bonus in Vidal, a tiny hamlet in the desert between Blythe and Needles. When I got the official bonus packet, the point value for Vidal was 42,000 points or so. The problem was, there was a hard-and-fast 250 mile limit on the day's riding, with a hefty penalty for every mile over the limit.

When I first read the rules about the 250 mile limit, I thought I read that there would be 100 point penalty per mile over 250. After some quick calculations, I determined that a round trip to Vidal would be 520 miles, or 270 mile over the limit, or 27,000 penalty points. 42,000 minus 27,000 would be around 15,000 -- probably good enough to win. The only question was: could I do the 520 miles in the strict 8 hour time limit. I knew I could.

Peter and I started discussing a joint trip out the Vidal, and spent a couple of minutes seriously considering it. Luckily, before we got too far along with the plan, I decided to re-read the penalty provisions, and found that my first reading was wrong. There was a 100 point penalty for every minute past the 8 hour time limit, but the over-limit penalty for mileage was 150 per. At 150, the trip to Vidal no longer made sense. I apologized to Peter for leading him astray, if only for a couple of minutes.

Using a print-out of the overall map of the bonus locations, I wrote in the point values for each location. My son Jason had lent me his netbook for trip planning, but I wound up just using my Zumo to creates routes, using the pre-loaded POI's along with the master map with the point values. I played around with a few different options, and quickly settled on a route -- after making a critical mistake, which we'll come back to later.

My initial route was a clock-wise loop, going up to the northwest first, then looping around to the east, then the south, and finally back west to the barn. First up though was an odometer calibration run of about twelve miles. I left just after 8:00am for my odo run, and while I was out I thought more about my route. Just before I got back to the dealer, I decided it would be best to use my same basic loop, but to run it counter-clockwise instead. This would use the morning miles to get the more rural locations in the southeast corner of the county, and leave the more populated areas for the afternoon. If I was running late on time, I knew I could blast down I-15 to make up some time.

The 8-hour clock started when I left for the odo check, so I quickly re-entered the route in a counter-clockwise version into my GPS, and headed out, first to the south. On the way to the first bonus location, I made a quick decision to add a bonus to my list -- the Bell Hotel, in San Diego's Skid Row. I noted the SDMC section against public urination from the sign on the side of the building, took a photo for posterity, and headed west to the Bell Middle School.

Bell has a nice LED sign out front, but the bonus was to list the contents of the old, sign-board sign further south in front of the campus. This sign was noticeably empty, so I wrote that down on the score sheet, and took a few photos for verification.

The next bonus on my route was the Eagle Peak trail head, in the east county back country. For some reason, my GPS routed me north, then east to the bonus. While this required a five-mile-in, five-mile-out turn-around on a dirt road muddied by the recent rains, it wound up being a good thing. The alternate route used by most of the other riders for this bonus came up from the south, and required a hairy water crossing, which I'm very glad I missed.

The bonus required listing the number from a county survey marker, and I literally spent ten minutes looking around for a two- to three-foot high post with the info. I finally found it, about two inches high at ground level, just like the score sheet said...

Next was the Santa Ysabel mission, which went quickly, then the Happy Buddha in Chihuahua Valley. There's a big property on the north side of Chihuahua Valley Road where a number of large buddha statues are standing. The largest buddha, with a big happy face, looks out to the south over the valley.

The Wildomar Bell, between Murietta and Lake Elsinore, hasn't been rung in many years. The bell at the Pala Indian Mission was interesting.

My GPS led me astray on the way to the Flying Leatherneck Museum, but the guard at the north gate to Miramar let me make a u-turn to get back on track.

I pulled back into BMW Motorcycles of San Diego a little after 3:00pm, with plenty of time left, but no more miles. The final odo check, with corrections, put me at 249 miles for the day (which didn't include the miles for the odo calibration run).

I checked and re-checked my score sheet, and turned it in around 3:45pm, thinking I'd done okay, but nothing spectacular. Since this was my first real bonus rally, I was hoping for a finish in the top half.

Craig and Ken did the scoring, and revealed the error I made in the morning. Normally my reading comprehension is better.

There were thirteen different bonus locations marked as "bells" -- the Bell Hotel, Wildomar Bell, Bell Middle School, you get the idea -- and there was a special 1,000 point bonus for getting a certain number of these 'bell' bonuses. When I first read the details of this bonus, I understood that you had to get all of the "bells" to claim the thousand points, and I knew it wasn't possible to get them all and still be under the 250 mile limit. It turns out that you only needed seven of the "bell's" to get the thousand points -- and I had gotten six. If I hadn't made that mistake, I could have easily re-routed to get another 'bell', been a little more careful with my miles, and bagged the thousand points, plus the points of the extra bonus itself.

After everyone came in, we had a nice barbecue dinner provided by the BMW dealer (a class act all around), and Craig and Ken announced the final results. I was shocked to hear my name announced as the fifth place finisher - just off the trophy positions. (If I hadn't messed up the bell bonus, I could have been third...)

Doug rode with his buds Gary and Josh, and they had a great day, but had a problem with one of the bonuses and were down the list. My friend Richard (Fairlaner) was in a group that came in just behind me.

I talked with Doug, Gary, Josh, NealSanDiego, and some others for a while, and then it was time to pack up and go home. I made good time on the way home, and pulled in before 9:00pm, tired but satisfied.

lowcal_route.png
Click for a larger view

Click here for an interactive route map

Posted 24 Apr 2010 @ 11.28 PM

A California In-State SaddleSore 1000


My friend Doug has a lot of big rides this summer, including the IBR5000 in August, and I have dreams of finally doing my BBG. A few months ago, we were talking about our plans, and I told him that we should do some training rides together. His great idea was for us to do an California In-State SaddleSore 1000, one of the rides certified by the Iron Butt Association. Nothing fancy - just up I-5 for 500 miles or so to Corning, then back home.

He met me at my house at 5:30am this morning. Justin had stayed up all night after work to sign our witness forms, and he rode with us up to the 76 station for our starting receipts. It was pretty cold, and we knew it would get colder over the Grapevine, but even though I'd prepped everything the night before I didn't set out the cord to my heated vest, and I just couldn't find it. Doug was having problems with his heated gear too, so we bundled up as best we could, and headed out. Justin rode with us up to Sunland, but he didn't wear his warm gear, and turned off there.

We banged out the miles up to Harris Ranch for the first fuel stop. Doug has a nice auxiliary fuel tank on his '06 FJR, but I'm stock, and with my wind screen up high to battle the cold I only get 200-220 miles per tank. I told Doug about the first time I came to this gas station on my bike -- to meet up for the start of the Central Coast Romp back in April, 2006, my first big FJR group ride. We filled up, emptied out, and got back on the road.

More miles, all the way to Williams for a splash-and-go -- Doug, with his 400 mile fuel range, didn't even dismount. 60 miles later, we hit the turn-around point in Corning.

After fueling, we pushed (literally) on over to The Olive Pit, a local landmark that sells every kind of olive you can imagine. We borrowed one of their outside tables and ate a quick lunch from our saddlebags, then went in to stock up on olives for various friends and family. I'm not an olive fan, but my brother-in-law Randy is a big olive guy, so I picked up a couple of bottles for him - one of the hottest kind of green olive they sell, and one with black olives.
 

Outside, we talked for a while with an old guy on a 1971 Honda. He said he'd taken it past 200,000 miles, shipping it to Panama and Puerto Rico, and he had the look about him to support it.

After an hour-long stop, we hit the road again for Lathrop, south of Stockton. The Tower Mart there is another landmark, with an alien spaceship crashed into the roof of the building, and lots of green aliens all about. We were supposed to meet up with our friend Jerry there, but he had last-minute family obligations that prevented him from meeting up with us. Doug came up with some cool ways to tease him about it, too. More fuel, then back to the road.

The next stop was in Lost HIlls, at I-5 and SR-46. We stretched our legs for a while, then hit the road for the last stint of the day.

After another high-speed blast, Justin met us back at the 76 station by my house. My wife was tracking us on the SPOT site, and when Justin got back from his ride of the day she told him to ride up the gas station. We got a final receipts, 15 hours and 34 minutes after we left that morning.

We dragged ourselves back to my house for a little R&R, and I felt bad that Doug had to ride back to El Segundo. He said he was cool with it, so I wished him the best as he left.

After the fact, I found that the IBA has a special Four Seasons certification, for riding an SS1K on the first day of each of four consecutive seasons, Through sheer coincidence, our ride today was on the first day of spring. When I e-mailed Doug about it, we decided to try to finish our Four Seasons rides. We may have to get a new witness, though &em; Justin says he wants to join us for the whole ride next time.


Posted 20 Mar 2010 @ 11.09 PM

Because I Could

Long distance guru Dean Tanji puts together some of the best rides, and announced the "Because We Can" ride earlier this month:

SoCal’s LD Riders Last Ride-To-Eat Of the Year

Wednesday Dec 30, Guadalupe, CA

It's hard to imagine why, butt, a third of LD riders live where it's frozen solid. Their motors have been "winterized" (a very scary word). It's a process akin to embalming where fluids are changed and the life force is removed and placed on a bench with a Battery Tender on it.

All these riders are just grumpier then hell and can be found hunched over their little computers 24/7, wrapped in a tattered blanket, wearing long-johns (with button rear flap), earmuffs, fingerless gloves and peckin' away. The "sit here, twist that" aggression is now directed solely at the little keyboard and what ever pops up on the screen. They're probably typing like they ride . . . some smooth and effortless . . . others herky-jerky, pecking all over the place. All the while they're mumbling, snortin', dozin’ off and sending each message off with a "smack" of the SEND NOW key yelling "Stuff this up yur candy ass “final drive” drivel ‘n smoke it." Then muttering "If I can't ride, nobody's gonna get the last word on me!" =:o

Another third can only get out on a rare good day. Some screw little metal studs into their tires, shoes, gloves and butt to maintain traction. And they ride till they can't take the pain any longer and they're always in danger of breaking off a very blue finger or black toe. Butt, just knowing they can still ride puts them into a moderately civil disposition. :^|

While the rest of us . . . well . . . life is good. Ride every day or at least every weekend. :^) The electrics are packed away somewhere. And we might even put it on if it gets down to the low-60's! Burrrrr :^))

The timing of this ride is different this year. It’s usually on a weekend between Christmas & New Years. But with Christmas on Friday Dec 24 and New Years on Friday, Jan 1, many (including myself) have weekend family obligations. So this year well see how many can show up in the middle of the week.

SoCal LD Rider's "Because We Can" Ride-To-Eat

Wednesday, December 30, 2009

11:30 Noon - 2:00 PM

The Far Western Tavern
899 Guadalupe Street
or Highway 1 & Ninth Street
Guadalupe, California 93434

Phone: 805-343-2211
http://farwesterntavern.com/

This is a real, genuine "Santa Maria Style BBQ" steak house. The Far Western's claim to fame is their "Bull's Eye Steak" which is a prime cut rib eye steak. The 10 oz "Bull's Eye Steak" is ~$20 and the 14 oz is ~$26. Most luncheon items are in the $10-15 range.

This is not banquet food. Unlike many restaurants that require a prepaid guarantee and a limited group menu, we are ordering off the regular lunch menu and each steak is prepared as ordered. There will be "one check per table". Please bring a wad of cash in all faces (Jackson’s, Hamilton’s, Lincoln’s and Washington’s) to simplify the "one-check-per-table" paying.

Please be aware that service may be a little slower under these conditions. However this give you all more time for tire kickin'.

Northern California LD folks, this is half way between Orange County and the Bay Area! 225+ miles one-way! Not even a full tank for most of you guys. It's the perfect “last” ride-of-the-year ride.

I rsvp'd right away.

When Wednesday dawned, it was cold and rainy. I put on my Widder, and got to Burbank before the rain started and I had to put on my rain suit (under the freeway at Buena Vista). I had originally planned to ride Foxen Canyon and Tepusquet on the way to Guadalupe, but the rain delayed me enough to make the detour impractical. I went straight there, on US-101, CA-154, CA-135, and then CA-1.

I met up with a bunch of old friends, and had a great time at lunch. I sat with Old Michael (ask him about his "canker sore"...), Dr. Rich, Sin-Loki, and dcarver, and we spent the time telling tall tales. Fairlaner was there too, and Jerry White, and bunch of others. I left around 2:00pm, and headed straight back. The rain started at the top of the hill on the 154, and stayed around until the 134 split in North Hollywood. I met up with Carole and Mandy for "Did You Hear About the Morgan's" in Alhambra (not Hugh Grant's best effort...).

It may seem odd to ride 3 hours there, and 3 ½ hours back, almost all of it in the rain, just for a 2 hour lunch, but I had a great time.

Posted 1 Jan 2010 @ 2.32 PM

Yank the Weenie 2009 Results

Jerry White posted the results of the YTW rally:

Thanks to everyone to participated in the Yank The Weenie rally. It sure was a fun way to get to Dean Tanji's Bite The Weenie RTE at Pink's, Hollywood, CA. A brief overview: I selected a number of bonus locations from past rallies in the general vicinity of Pink's, and created a new rally. The "orgy factor" people have mentioned was a feature that multiplied points at a bonus if other rally riders were in the photo. It encouraged group riding and also gave some pleasant surprises when riders coincidentally arrived at the same bonus simultaneously. The top three teams plus one solo rider boosted each others' scores by arriving at the 500-point cigar store bonus at the same time. This nine-way bonus multiplier gave each rider 4500 points, the single richest bonus on the rally.

Rider Place Points Mileage
George Zelenz, 1, 20530, 444 (George rode the rally with another rider. They should have tied for first place. However that team member presented his scoresheet 15 minutes late and was therefore not considered a finisher.)

Team Ogden (The only two-up team. They sped up bonus acquisition by having Tom take all the photos.)
Chris and Tom Ogden, 2, 18023, 392
Robert Lamishaw, 2, 18023, 410

Team Chaddock
Craig Chaddock, 3, 17868,405
Doug Barrett, 3, 17868, 391
Peter Perrin, 3,17868, 391
David Stoler, 3, 17868, 395

Team Rallymaster (These guys rode with me, and were hampered by my insistence on starting near the Grapevine and not going out to Palm Springs. It wasn't the winning route, but it was fun.)
Tim Watts, 4,11733, 418
Bill Wood, 4, 11733, 418

Brian Casey, 5, 9982, 342 (half his score was from the cigar store orgy.)

Team Turbo
Turbo Dave Hicks, 6, 8700, 281
Jim Hoffman, 6, 8700, 281
Mel Hamel, 6, 8700, 281

Doug Webb, 7, 3864, 276
Margaret Peart, 8, 3811, unknown
Lorraine Hickey, 9, 3494, 239

Team FJR (low mileage team)
Greg Marbach, 10, 1842, 54
Richard Hall, 10, 1842, 54

Karl Zuercher, 11, 1264, 226
Lori Magers, 12, 1063, 75

Thanks again to everyone who rode, and to those who contributed in
other ways behind the scenes to make it a success. You know who you
are.
Jerry

Posted 24 Nov 2009 @ 3.28 PM

Yank the Weenie 2009

For the last several years, long distance guru Dean Tanji has hosted Bite the Weenie, an informal gathering of long distance riders at Pinks, the hot dog joint on La Brea and a favorite of celebrities and the common man alike. This year's BTW was held on Saturday, November 21st.

As an added bonus, Jerry White organized a companion rally he called Yank the Weenie. Jerry's a top long distance rider and IBR veteran, and YTW had just the right mix of challenge and fun to draw a big crowd of riders. Jerry published a list of 41 bonuses with varying point values. You started no earlier than 10am, and had to be at Pinks by 10:20pm to turn in your score sheet and related materials.

To make things even more interesting, Jerry added the 'orgy' factor. The point total of each bonus was multiplied by the number of rally riders who were there with you. If two riders were there, you got double the points; five riders meant five times the points.

I've been hammered lately at work, and did my ride planning literally the night before the rally. I decided on a conservative plan that would be fun, but not overly stressful. In a strange coincidence, my wife and our friend Mandy were planning to be in Lake Elsinore at about the same time I was, so I also planned on taking some time out to have lunch with them.

I had planned to be at the call box bonus near Running Springs right at 10am, but some last minute mechanical work on Carole's car delayed my departure until about 10:05. I made a high speed run east on I-210 to make up some time. As I neared I-15, my Zumo kept trying to take me off the freeway for some reason. As I got closer, I saw signs saying the freeway would be closed starting at 11am - I guess the XM traffic guys had it down as a 10am closure.

After a couple of recalculations on my part I found the call box for the first bonus (click on any picture for a larger view):

The bonus specified 'the handset', so I opened up the box:

Next was the Rim of the World bonus:

Next, down the hill to the Wigwam Motel in Rialto. The owner came out to talk to me - he'd had a few other riders stop by already, and knew there was a rally going on, but was a little perturbed about the whole deal. I spent some time explaining everything, and showed him the bonus listing for his motel, and that seemed to make him happier.

My GPS entry skills failed me again, and it took me an extra ten minutes to track down the mural on the side of the San Bernadino Convention Center.

From here, I headed down to Lake Elsinore for lunch with my wife and Mandy. I had a nice steak at the Lone Star, and relaxed for a while. After saying my goodbyes, it was up to 'The E', a hang-gliding launch spot in the hills overlooking Lake Elsinore.

As I pulled up, I found four other riders getting their picture taken. My friends Doug and Peter were part of the group, along with Dave and Craig. They hurried me into the shot, and we got a five-way orgy for this bonus.

Just as we finished up, a hang glider took off to the east:


Doug and Craig asked me to join them - they were heading east to Palm Desert, and the five-way orgy would help us all out. I had tentative plans to go west over the hills into southern Orange County, but quickly agreed to join up with the group. It's always fun riding with Doug, and I knew that sticking with them would maximize my points.

We headed over to the Kenworthy bonus:

I was really cold up the mountains with the sun setting, and put my Widder's for the ride down to Palm Desert. We got stuck behind a really lame cage going down the hill. There were no passing lanes or even dashed lines, and the cage would not pull out — by the time we hit the bottom of the hill, there were six motorcycles and seven cars stuck behind. It was frustrating at the time, but it worked out in the end.

When we got to the cigar store in Palm Desert, there were four other riders already there. We quickly took the group photos (well, as quickly as you take nine separate photos), for an orgy multiplier of 9. The base bonus value was 500, so I picked up 4500 points for this one bonus. If we had made a normal run down the hill, we probably wouldn't have met up with the other four riders. (It turns out that one of the riders in the group of nine was the eventual winner, George Z. Since I directly benefited his score, I'm taking partial credit for his win...)

Doug, Craig, Peter and Dave were headed up to Running Springs, so I parted ways and headed west. At first I was planning on heading over to the Crystal Cathedral and the Long Beach bonuses, but I knew I'd really have to push to make the southern swing and still get to Pinks in time, and I was getting really, really cold. (I've lost 30 pounds since April, and my Widder doesn't fit as snugly as it needs to to give me the most warmth.) When I reached the decision point, I veered north towards downtown.

On the way, I remembered the Donut Hole bonus in La Puente. It was just a brief detour and a quick stop:

I stopped by my house for a warmer under layer, then headed over to Pinks. I pulled in around 9:30pm, and got started finishing my paperwork. I wound up with just under 10,000 points - respectable, but nowhere near the leaders. I waited until Doug and the group pulled in to check on some details of the shared bonuses. I handed Jerry my packet (with cigar) at 10:10pm.

The line at Pink's was long, but I spent the time chatting with Lori, who rode her FJR down from Oregon, and with Doug and Ken Meese, so the time went by pretty quick. I had a spicy Polish dog with chili and grilled onions, which hit the spot. By this time I was pretty tired, so I headed home, and pulled into the driveway around 12:45am, with 39 miles showing on my fuel reserves.

A great, fun day, full of surprises and challenges. I sure hope Jerry does this again next year!

Here's my final route map (with both SPOT and GPS tracks). Click here for an interactive, resizeable map.

Posted 23 Nov 2009 @ 2.36 PM

Hetch-Hetchy, and the end of the Dam Tour

I signed up for the Dam Tour this year, and had visited 19 of the 20 dams on my rides to and from CFR and WFO. The last dam was the one closest to my home - O’Shaughnessy Dam in north Yosemite National Park - and in hindsight I should have detoured for a visit at the end of the WFO ride, but I decided it would be better to do it as a separate ride.

I made an attempt back on August 21st, but problems prevented me from leaving. Then I had to take some time off due to a knee problem. But finally, and just in time (the Dam Tour ends officially on September 30th each year), I put it all together and rode up to Yosemite.

Back in August I was planning on a day ride of about 710 miles,
but since I had been off the bike for the better part of six weeks I decided to stop for the night - thanks to Carole and Justin who both pointed out the folly of riding that far after a long layoff.

I left around 9:20am, filled up at the 76 station, and started the long slog up I-210, I-5, and CA-99 to Fresno. I stopped for breakfast (mostly for the caffeine) in Bakersfield, and gassed up just north of Fresno. Lunch was a tri-tip combo plate at a great little barbeque place in Oakhurst - the potato salad and chili were especially good. Once I got into the mountains, the ride got real fun, even though the speeds go way down once you get inside the national park boundaries.

To get to Hetch-Hetchy from the south, you have to go almost all the way into Yosemite Valley - here's a photo of El Capitan from the side of the road.

From there it's another 40 miles until Hetch-Hetchy, but the miles are fun. I got to the dam around 5pm, and asked a nice couple to take my submission photos.

I walked around snapping more pictures until about 5:20pm, and headed out, hoping to get mostly out of the mountains before dark, but I only made it to Oakhurst before I had to take off my sunglasses. I made it back to the Motel 6 in Fresno on the same tank I had bought earlier in the afternoon.

The first room they gave me smelled too much like smoke, but the young guy at the front desk offered me one of the two non-smoking rooms they normally reserve for Accor corporate visitors, and the one I chose was nice enough. The a/c was off and the room was hot, so I cranked up the a/c and walked up the block to an El Pollo Loco for dinner and to read my book. The room was much cooler when I got back.

The next morning I walked up to a Carrows for breakfast, and hit the road. I'll just say that a good radar detector makes all the difference...

I sent in my submission photos right away, and C posted it promptly, so I am now an official finisher of the 2009 Dam Tour. The awards party is October 10th, but I'm not going to make it this year — there's just too much going on at home and at work to make it practical.

SPOT map

Show all...

Posted 27 Sep 2009 @ 4.39 PM

IBR 2009 Bonus Maps

The IBA posted the bonus listings for all three legs, so I converted them into Google Maps views — one for each leg, and one with all three legs on the same map. The combined map uses different colored markers for each leg's bonuses. Due to the large number of locations, the combined map loads slowly, but it gives an interesting overview of the entire rally.

I also created maps for the 70 riders who reached 'finisher' status.

The complete list of available maps is on the IBR 2009 Bonus Locations page.

Posted 10 Sep 2009 @ 9.19 PM

IBR 2009

The 2009 edition of the Iron Butt Rally started earlier this week. For reasons not completely known yet, the IBA put a general lock-down on blog postings and SPOT tracks from the participants. This FJR Forum post has been the central location for up-to-date info. Warchild is the chief tech inspector for the IBR, and has been making regular updates to the post every hour or two since the rally began.

I've been contributing to the post by providing some on-line tools:

  • http://tcfjr.goptin.com/ibr/index.xml - an RSS feed for the official IBR Daily Reports. I wrote a script that checks the IBR index page every 20 minutes, and rebuilds the RSS feed if a new entry has been posted.
  • Leg 1 Bonus Locations - a Zip file containing CSV, XLS, and ODS versions of the 124 bonus locations for leg 1.
  • Google Map of Leg 1 Bonuses - an interactive map showing each of the leg 1 bonus locations. Hover on a marker for the bonus name and point value; click on a marker for complete details, including the background information provided to the riders.

For the last two items, I grabbed the Leg 1 Bonus Locations PDF off the IBR web site, converted it to text, then wrote a Perl script to scrape out the necessary data, and format it (as CSV for the spreadsheets, and in Google's Map API format).

I hope people find these things useful.

Posted 28 Aug 2009 @ 12.00 PM

WFO-8 Day 9

Winnemucca, NV to home. 592 miles.

SPOT map - full size

Posted 4 Aug 2009 @ 3.10 PM

WFO-8 Day 8

Clarkston, WA to Winnemucca, NV. Oxbow Dam; Owyhee Dam. Rain about 20 miles southwest of Jordan Valley, OR. 545 miles+.


Oxbow Dam powerhouse


Owyhee Dam

SPOT map - full size

Posted 3 Aug 2009 @ 3.09 PM

WFO-8 Day 7

Moscow, ID to Coeur d'Alene, then to Clarkston, WA via the Spiral Highway. 205 miles.

SPOT map - full size

Posted 2 Aug 2009 @ 3.07 PM

WFO-8 Day 6

Moscow, ID to Spokane, WA and back. Little Falls Dam; Upriver Dam. 275 miles.


Little Falls Dam


Upriver Dam

SPOT map - full size

Posted 1 Aug 2009 @ 3.06 PM

WFO-8 Day 5

R&R day in Moscow, ID.

Posted 31 Jul 2009 @ 3.02 PM

WFO-8 Day 4

Tumwater, WA to Moscow, ID. Mud Mountain Dam; Rock Island Dam; Wapato Dam; North Scootenay Dike Dam. 488 miles.


Click on map for larger view.


Mud Mountain Dam. My bike really wasn't supposed to be on this observation platform, so I had to be ready to scram on short notice…


Rock Island Dam


 
Wapato Dam


North Scootenay Dike Dam (take 2)

SPOT map - full size

Posted 30 Jul 2009 @ 3.00 PM

WFO-8 Day 3

Redmond, OR to Tumwater, WA. Rock Creek Dam; Fishhawk Lake Dam; Deschutes Dam. 364 miles.

It took me a couple of tries to find the turn-out for Rock Creek Dam — here's the STV map with the GPS track in pink:

rock-creek-map.jpg


Rock Creek Dam


Fishhawk Lake Dam


Deschutes Dam

Click on photo for a larger image.

SPOT map - full size

Posted 29 Jul 2009 @ 2.59 PM

WFO-8 Day 2

I left Red Bluff around 9am, heading up I-5 into the mountains by Mount Shasta. The bike turned over to 50,000 miles near Lakehead - I took a couple of pictures.

I stopped for gas and a couple of t-shirts in Weed, and headed up US-97. I should have stopped for lunch in Klamath Falls, but kept going. Just north of town, on a section of US-97 with one lane in each direction, I was forced to the shoulder by a woman in a minivan making a pass. Luckily the shoulder was wide and smooth.

Carole called me just as I turned off on Silver Lake Road. I found a turn-out a mile or two down the road, and stopped to stretch and return her call (which was good news on a medical check-up). The rest of the run to the Thompson cut-off was quick, if you know what I mean.

Just after I hit OR-31, I cut south onto Silver Creek Marsh Road, and 14 miles later did some off-roading to a ridge overlooking the dam from the west. The new tripod worked perfectly.

I backtracked to OR-31 and got gas, then did a bunch of miles over 7k rpm in fifth, reaching Lapine at US-97. The highway was under construction, and I had a 15 minute hard stop at a flag man. I chatted up a couple of ladies on sport bikes heading to a rally somewhere in Washington state.

Traffic was slow through Bend, but picked up afterwards. The Motel 6 in Redmond is one of the nice, three-story ones, with interior corridors and smoke-free floors. I ate at the adjacent Subway and read for a while; later I walked down to the Albertsons for water, granola bars, and some popcorn. I watched about half of a Star Trek with bad audio sync.

Red Bluff to Redmond, OR. Thompson Reservoir Dam. 391 miles.


 


Click on each photo for larger image.

SPOT map - full size

Posted 28 Jul 2009 @ 2.57 PM

WFO-8 Day 1

I had packed up last night, checked the tire pressure, and filled the gas tank, so all I had to do was put on my gear, hop on the bike and hit the road. I left the driveway at 6:25am, to beat as much of the heat as possible.

After I cleared the Grapevine I was feeling a little queasy, so I stopped for a small breakfast. I needed gas before Harris Ranch.

Somewhere along the way I realized that I hadn't packed my mini-tripod, which is necessary for Dam Tour pics. My fantastic sister had given me a Target gift card for my birthday, so I stopped in Sacramento to check out their selection. There was a great little tripod, on sale no less, that looked ideal for the task. It folds up to less than a foot, but it extends to almost four feet, and has a lockable tilt/pan head. Since it was on sale, I also grabbed a new neck lanyard.

I grabbed a sandwich at the Quizno's across the street, and read my latest Anne Perry novel for a while.

The heat up to now had been manageable, but it was still hot as I headed north from Sacto. About the time I passed Willows, it was like someone had opened the oven door, and it got brutally hot - over 111°. Thankfully the A/C in room 226 at the Motel 6 in Red Bluff was up to the job. Grilled chicken at the KFC next door for dinner.

Home to Red Bluff. 523 miles.


SPOT map - full size


Posted 27 Jul 2009 @ 2.53 PM

Big Bear for brunch

Pat and Harvey had been asking Carole to come up to Big Bear for a visit. The traffic up there on July 4th is crazy — in the past we've sat in traffic for over two hours getting from the Village to the Dam. Instead, Carole chose to go up yesterday and spend the night with her friend Terry.

Justin and I rode up this morning to meet everyone for brunch. (It was way too early for Justin, who's normally a night owl.) Pat wanted to sit on the deck, but once we got there Carole easily convinced her to move into the lounge.

The brunch was quite nice, but as brunches go we're terribly spoiled. Between Coeur d'Alene and Banff, we've had the best in western North America. It was great to chat with Pat and Harvey.

Afterwards, Carole and Terry left straight down the hill, and Justin and I rode back to the house to see the two new puppies. I held the little bitty one for a while, and Justin had fun with the bigger one. We only stayed a while — Justin was ready to get back home for some rest, especially since we got our central air fixed last week.

We had come up the front way, and neither of us really wanted to fight the crowds going back that way. I gave Justin the option of the back way or the 38, and he chose the back way. In spite of the heat, he said he wasn't feeling it for the twisties, and wanted to get to the straighter parts asap.

Lucerne Valley was stifling hot, and traffic was at a standstill once we got on I-15, but we shared lanes efficiently (in spite of my wide back end), and things loosened up after the summit. We made it home in good time, hot and tired, and ready for the AC.

I put 209 miles on my new bead seat. I think it's going to work out well, but I'll need more miles to know for sure.

bigbear-12july2009.jpg

Posted 12 Jul 2009 @ 4.21 PM

CFR - Day 11

Red Bluff to home. 522 miles. There's not much more to say about a long slog down I-5, other than I was glad to get home to see my family. While I was gone, Carole, Justin, and Jeremy had moved everything into the new bedroom setup, and I was surprised that the new den had a brand new recliner just waiting for me. Too cool.

Posted 24 Jun 2009 @ 12.50 PM

CFR - Day 10

I had finished Killing Floor overnight, so first thing in the morning I headed to the big Barnes & Noble I had passed on the way into town yesterday to pick up Die Trying, the next book in the Jack Reacher series. (Reacher is kind of a cross between Quiller and Elvis Cole.)

After a quick bite, I headed south from Bend on US-97, with a bunch of other folks. At Diamond Lake Junction, I peeled off west on OR-138, which quickly became one of my all-time favorite motorcycling roads.

The first five miles or so are straight and reasonably fast, but I quickly became unreasonable. The highway takes a big turn north past Diamond Lake, then settles in to an excellent series of twists, sweepers, and mile-long straights.

I peeled off for the Toketee Dam, and met up with a group of four riders on cruisers, also doing the Dam Tour. We chatted a bit, and they snapped a picture of the FJR and me, holding the placard, in front of the dam. I hung with the guys for 15 minutes or so, then we each headed out on separate routes for the Hyatt Dam east of Ashland.

My route was to backtrack a few miles on OR-138, then southwest on OR-230 and OR-62 into Medford. More really fun riding. I stopped for lunch on the northern outskirts of Medford, gassed up, then headed down I-5 to Ashland.

At Ashland I went east on OR-66, and ran smack into a chip-seal construction zone. It was bad a few days ago when it was only the loose gravel on the road; today we got a lane closure, fresh oil, and even fresher gravel. After a slow log up the hill I hit the turnoff for Hyatt Lake, and pulled in to the day-use area to take my pics of the dam. Just as I was about to leave, the four guys pulled up behind me. They had taken a southeasterly route from Toketee, which I admitted was more scenic than my route. We chatted some more, and I found out that they're all retired, and they ride the Dam Tour together every year. A cool bunch of guys.

I slogged back through the fresh chip seal into Ashland, and headed south on I-5. I contemplated stopping off in Weed to buy a couple of t-shirts, but inertia overcame me, and I stayed on until Redding. Keswick is a few miles west on the Sacramento River. I took a couple of pics from the east side of the dam, then rode over to the west side for some better late-afternoon lighting. After a fill-up, I headed south to Red Bluff.

Over the years, I've stayed at various Motel 6's in Northern California including Redding North, Williams, Willows, and I think Yreka, but for some reason I never stopped in Red Bluff. The desk manager and I chatted for about ten minutes, about riding, motels, whatever, and I told him about my 5:45am air horn wake-up yesterday. He gave me a nice, clean, quiet room on the second floor. I got some KFC grilled chicken to go, and ate it in my room with my new book.

445 miles.


Toketee Dam


Hyatt Dam


Keswick Dam

Posted 23 Jun 2009 @ 12.48 PM

CFR - Day 9

You know how a lot of newer cars will give you a beep or two when you lock the car from the remote? And you know how a few will even beep once or twice when you unlock the car? And you know how some guys put air horns on their shiny new pick-ups? Well, one of those shiny new pick-ups parked right outside my door — no more then five feet away. And at 5:45am, he decided to unlock his car. Yup — two air horn blasts, short but sweet, blasted me awake. Not my preferred way to start the day.

I couldn't get back to sleep, so I read Killing Floor for a while, then packed up and headed east on I-84. I stopped for breakfast at a Denny's in Pendleton, then headed south on US-395 to the McKay Dam.

I was feeling real good on the bike heading down 395. I had a good rhythm on the bike, and was having a lot of fun in the corners. There wasn't any rain, but it got pretty cold on the way up to the summit of Battle Mountain, so I put on my Widders and the wind liner. I turned west on Hwy 26. It was also a pretty nice road — except for the eight mile stretch of fresh chip seal and gravel that forced my speed way down.

The Motel 6 in Bend, OR wasn't as good as it's rate implied. I walked up to a Baja Fresh for fajitas, and finished Killing Floor.

332 miles.


McKay Dam

Posted 22 Jun 2009 @ 12.47 PM

CFR - Day 8

Sunday dawned bright but cloudy in Nakusp. I headed south towards Castlegar, and stopped there for coffee and donuts at the Tim Horton's. You can't visit Canada without at least one stop at Tim Horton's, can you?

Heading west on Hwy 3 caused me to meet the approaching storm head on. I rode through the rain for a few miles before I stopped in the parking lot of a provincial park to put on my rain gear — better late than never. It rained off and on the rest of day.

I stayed on Hwy 3 to Hwy 41, and crossed the border at Danville. The woman at the guard station was quite nice — I pulled away early to clear the spot for the next car in line, and was about to drive away with my sunglasses laying on top of my tail bag when she called to me to stop, then walked out and handed me my glasses. Very cool.

WA-21 was pretty nice. The northern section was mostly in dense trees, but it opened up some the further south I went. I intended to go west on Manilla Creek Road over to the Grand Coulee Dam, but once I got there the road didn't look all the appealing, so I stayed on Hwy 21 to the Wilbur-Kelly ferry over the reservoir. The ferry was tiny - three cars at the most, plus a motorcycle or two.

Hwy 21 south of the ferry was a pretty cool motorcycling road, climbing up into the mountains, then back down to the flats. I headed west on US-2, and stopped at the Rainbow Falls Dam.

Hwy 17 took me south, and I stopped at what I thought was the North Scootenay Dike Dam. After I got back, I checked on things and realized that I had stopped at a little flood control dam instead of at the actual Dam Tour dam. Since I was within half a mile or so, the nice lady at the Dam Tour gave me credit for it, but I'm going to try to make it back there in August to get the real deal.

The Motel 6 in Richland, WA is on the bottom half of the Motel 6 desirability scale. For dinner I went across the street to Zips, a poor imitation of Lucky Boys.

406 miles.



Dry Falls Dam


North Scooteney Dike Dam

Posted 21 Jun 2009 @ 12.44 PM

CFR - Day 7

This morning I lammed onto a group that was riding the "Vernon Loop". From Nakusp go north on BC-23 to TC-1, west to BC-97A, south to the fine city of Vernon for gas, then back east on BC-6 to Nakusp. Half-way up the 23 you take a ferry Galena Bay to Shelter Bay, which I had to wait all of 45 seconds to board. 30 miles south of Nakusp on BC-6 you take a ferry from Needles to Farquier. I had to wait 5 minutes for this one.

There were a bunch of riders on the Farquier ferry, with a mix of FJRs, cruisers, and Wings. I was the first rider off, which gave me a free run back into Nakusp. There was no other traffic, and the road is fine shape, so I set a new Canadian personal land speed record. Very fun stuff.

That night, we had the Rally Dinner at the local Legion Hall. Turkey, ham, stuffing, potatos, gravy, peas, rolls, and a nice custard dessert. Some of the riders are also craftsmen, and had donated some items for the live auction (with proceeds benefiting the local Nakusp food bank). There were a couple of laser-cut plaques, and a couple of large, laser-cut stainless steel sculptures, both with CFR logos. Great stuff, but I was tapped out so I didn't bid on them.

I finally got hold of Dad, who seems to be doing well. It was nice to talk to him.

271 miles.

Posted 20 Jun 2009 @ 12.41 PM

CFR - Day 6

After five straight days in the saddle, I decided to take some R&R today. In the morning I had sausages and eggs at a great little diner down the street. Later, I walked a block down to the lake and finished The Unbearable Lightness of Scones on a bench, which was quite nice. I hooked up the Archos to the television, and watched the movie Gran Torino, a couple episodes of Weeds. For lunch I had a Caesar salad, and just generally took it easy.

I started reading Killing Floor, the first novel by Lee Child featuring Jack Reacher. Someone on the Quiller mailing list had recommended the latest Reacher novel, but I never like to start a series in the middle. It seems promising.

Posted 19 Jun 2009 @ 12.40 PM

CFR - Day 5

When I woke up, it was cold at the Waterton Springs Campground in Alberta. Really cold. The walk to the restroom was not enjoyable. But, after I got moving, things started looking up, and I made good time packing up the bike.

AB-6 up to the Crowsnest Highway/AB-3 was about how I remembered it from my trip up here back in 2007. Back then, I stayed on Hwy 3 for only a few miles before heading north to meet up with Carole in Banff. Today, I was heading over Crowsnest Pass to Creston.

There was some decent rain showers going over the pass, but it wasn't too bad, all in all. I stopped for gas and an A&W burger (and root beer, of course) in Fernie, BC, a pleasant little town just into the Kootenays. The rain continued off and the rest of the day.

At Creston, I stopped for another small burger, and headed up BC-3A for the east shore of Kootenay Lake. What a fantastic motorcycling road! There were a few too many driveways for really, really fast riding, but the road, the scenery, and the light traffic made for a special afternoon.

At Kootenay Bay I began a tradition that would last throughout the trip: I only had to wait all of two minutes to board the ferry. The ride across was smooth and uneventful. From Proctor I headed north on the west shore of the lake on Hwy 31. If anything, this road was even better, if only because there were far fewer driveways and side roads. From Kaslo over the hill to New Denver, I passed one small group of cruisers, but otherwise I had to road all to myself. When I stopped for gas in New Denver, Nightshine (Sam) and his son stopped to say hi, which was nice. (Sam and I found ourselves at the same table a couple of times at last year's NAFO.) A bunch of other FJR riders went past as well.

After filling up I headed up Hwy 6 to Nakusp. I was riding pretty aggressively, but fell in behind Sam when I caught up to him a few miles before Nakusp.

The hotel is quite nice, and had a great system in place for handling large group check-ins. As a semi-late arrival, I got room 87 in the new wing, upstairs, which suited me fine. After a couple nights in the tent, I was looking forward to a nice shower and a warm bed.

I did the rally check-in in the lobby, and was very impressed with the goodie bag. The rally shirt is really kinda nice.

Waterton Springs Campground in Alberta to the CFR hotel in Nakusp, BC. 355 miles.

Posted 18 Jun 2009 @ 12.39 PM

CFR - Day 4

I rode about 10 miles into Helena, which seems like a nice little town, and had breakfast at a McDonalds. The trip to Great Falls was very nice as interstates go, winding along the head waters of the Missouri River.

The Rainbow Falls Dam east of Great Falls was on today's list. I plugged the coordinates into the Zumo, and it directed me, right into a construction closure. Unwinding the closure required a 14 mile detour — they apparently don't believe much in railroad crossings — but I found it in time. It was quite windy at the overlook, but I managed to tie down my placard well enough to get in a few pictures. There was no good way to setup the mini-tripod to take a picture of me with the bike and the dam; I contemplated asking the couple in the parked car if they'd do the honors, but I decided they were either there for a drug deal or were otherwise unavailable, so I left it alone.

Leaving Great Falls I headed northwest, first on I-15 then on US-89. I wound up in Browning, MT, a sad Indian town with too much wind and too little money. The Mexican fast-food place had run out of rice, and wasn't sure when they'd have more — what? — but I found something to eat, and filled up the tank with 40 miles showing on the reserve odometer.

I got twisted around and wound up taking MT-464 north and then west into Babb, which was probably a good choice. 464 was almost empty, and quite fun to ride. From Babb I headed up MT-17 to the Chief Mountain border crossing. The Canadian officer was great, and we compared notes on great riding roads in southern Alberta and southeast British Columbia.

The Waterton Springs Campground is only a few miles north of the border, and turned out to be really nice. I found a great tenting site, far enough but not too far from the restrooms. I had a granola bar for dinner, did a load of laundry, and took a nice shower (at CDN$1 per 4 minutes).

The view of the Rockies to the south and west was fantastic, but once the sun set below them it cooled down quite a lot. I watched Iron Man on the Archos, and settled in for what turned out to be a very cold night.

From Clancy, MT to the Waterton Springs Campground in southern Alberta. 312 miles.

My campsite was at the star below.



Rainbow Falls Dam

Posted 17 Jun 2009 @ 12.36 PM

CFR - Day 3

The rain had mostly cleared in the morning. I walked down to a Denny's for an omelet, and noticed something interesting.

Pasadena has a lot of intersections with combination left-turn signals. Traditionally, these start out with a solid green arrow for protected turns; when the protected period is over, the green arrow goes out, and the green ball indicates a permissive left turn period.

About six months ago, Pasadena installed a new version of these signals. The protected turn is still indicated by a solid green arrow, but for the permissive period it changes to a flashing yellow arrow. It sounds weird, but it actually works pretty well. (The part I don't like is that there are sections of Del Mar Blvd. by the Gold Line tracks where they have three intersections in a row, with old style, new style, then old style again. If the new style is the better way, do it everywhere. It's confusing to mix and match.)

Anyway, the motel and the Denny's are in a suburb (if you can call it that) of Pocatello named Chubbock. They are also using the new style left-turn signals with the flashing yellow arrow for permissive left turns.

There was the normal amount of rural traffic as I headed north on I-15 from Pocatello, but when I got to Idaho Falls it seemed like everyone got off. There was nobody left, and speeds went up accordingly, as I headed into Montana, where I stopped to put on my rain gear.

I got off in Dillon, MT for a bite to eat, and found it to be over 90° - which made me look silly in my rain gear and Widders. I had my first Dam Tour stop planned for the Flint Creek Dam west of Helena.

I got of I-90 at MT-1 heading west, and entered the fine city of Anaconda. I rode for the 5 miles or so through town at the well-enforced speed limit of 25mph. It took forever. The dam itself was nice enough, and Georgetown Lake was about what you'd expect, but it was fun to notch my first dam.

A navigational hiccup made me decide to backtrack through Anaconda. It was no better.

I stopped for the night at the Alhambra RV Park in Clancy, MT. The park itself is okay, but for $22 you get pit toilets, iffy running water, and no showers. To top it off, the place is about 20 yards wide, and sits between I-15 on the west and a semi-busy local road on the east. Bring your earplugs.

I had a nice grilled prime rib dinner at Chubby's, a nice local bar/grill on the other side of the freeway. I bought some water at a general store, since the water at the camp ground was intermittent.

From Pocatello, ID to the Alhambra RV Park in Clancy, MT, by way of the Flint Creek Dam on Georgetown Lake in Montana. 384 miles.


Flint Creek Dam

Posted 16 Jun 2009 @ 12.31 PM

CFR - Day 2

After packing up the bike, I headed out early, stopping for gas in St. George, UT, then settled in for the long slab ride. I stopped early for a hamburger at a McDonald's about 100 miles north of St. George, then again for gas and phone calls in Nephi.

I'd had a couple of brief showers throughout the day, but after passing through SLC, I hit some heavy, cold rain, and got off at UT-30. I geared up for the weather under the freeway, and checked the forecast on the Zumo - which did not look good. Camping is nice, but it loses a lot of its luster in the rain.

I called Carole and asked her to reserve me a room at the Motel 6 in Pocatello, which turned out to be below the line as Motel 6's go. It rained heavily overnight, with high winds, throughout southeastern Idaho.

487 miles from the Virgin River BLM campground in Arizona to the Motel 6 in Pocatello, ID.

Posted 15 Jun 2009 @ 12.29 PM

CFR - Day 1

The original plan was for me to leave for CFR on Saturday morning, but my nephew Sheehan was walking at commencement at Cal Poly on Sunday morning, and there's no way I would miss it. I rearranged my schedule a little so I could leave directly after the ceremony.

To smooth out the logistics, I arranged with my brother-in-law Cary to park my bike in his garage. Sam heard me pull up, and helped get me situated in the garage, and wished me luck on my trip. Carole met me there, and we drove in her car down to Cal Poly.

The ceremony was lovely, but maybe a little too warm. After pictures and congratulations, Carole and I drove back to Cary's house, with Justin following on his ZZR. I suited back up, and headed out.

Justin rode with me as far as the In-N-Out in Hesperia. After a quick bite, we parted ways, and I headed out for the Virgin River BLM campground north of Littlefield, AZ. Between Nevada and Utah, Interstate 15 cuts the very northwestern corner of Arizona, following the course of the Virgin River.

I stopped at a Subway in Mesquite, NV to pick up a sandwich for dinner, and made it to the campground with plenty of daylight to spare. Like a lot of desert canyons the campground had sundowner winds, which added a lot of needless excitement to the tent setup. Afterwards I took a bird bath and washed up some clothes in the bathroom (no showers...). It stayed quite warm overnight, making for some uneven sleep.

365 miles from home to Sheehan's graduation at Cal Poly and on to the Virgin River BLM campground in northwest Arizona.

Posted 14 Jun 2009 @ 12.23 PM

Leaving for CFR

Well, it's almost time.

Late last year, two different FJR rallies were announced. CFR is the Canadian FJR rally, and has traditionally been held in the eastern provinces. This year, they're holding it in Nakusp, BC, in the Kootenay's in eastern British Columbia, about 75 miles north of the border. WFO is the Western FJR Owner's rally, being held this year in Moscow, ID about 80 miles south of Spokane.

Carole and I talked about it back then, and I signed up for both rallies. And, since I was making two different runs up to the Pacific Northwest, I also signed up for the annual Dam Tour. Each year the Dam Tour folks select 8 dams in Oregon, 8 in Washington, and 4 more in (reasonably) adjacent states. You visit each dam, take a picture of your bike, your Dam Tour placard, and the dam, and send it in for credit. If you get all 20, you get a nice commemoration.

There's always lots to do at home and at work, and if I was deciding today I might not have gone for both rallies, but it will do me a world of good to get away from work for a couple of weeks to decompress, and hopefully recharge my sanity levels.

Originally Carole was going to try to come up and meet me at both rallies, but the logistics just didn't work out for CFR, so she'll only join me at WFO in late July/early August. I'll miss her.

My nephew who's great Sheehan gets his degree from Cal Poly on Sunday the 14th, and I wouldn't miss that for the world. I'm going to ride my bike out my sister-in-law's house in Claremont to save some time after the graduation. I need to get to a campground off of I-15 north of Littlefield, AZ for Sunday night, and leaving straight from Claremont will save me about an hour or so.

The plan is to camp every night on the way to Nakusp, stay at the rally hotel while I'm in Nakusp, and camp every night but one on the way home. I'm going to treat myself to the Motel 6 in Williams on the last night before I get home.

On the way to CFR, I'm going up I-15 so I can visit the two Dam Tour dams in Montana. After CFR I'm going to visit a bunch of dams in eastern Washington, eastern and southern Oregon, and a dam just west of Redding, CA. I'll get the rest of the dams in Oregon and Washington on the way to and from WFO in July. I'll need to make a special trip for the last dam - O'Shaugnessy on the Hetch Hetchy reservoir in Yosemite.

Except for missing Carole, I'm really looking forward to some time off of work and some exploring. I'll post pictures when I get back.

Posted 12 Jun 2009 @ 10.04 AM

SLO-Mo

I'm at the maximum allowable vacation time, 300 hours, so I've been losing time for the last few pay periods — which is really annoying. Today, I took off to go on a nice, long ride.

I left at 7:19am and blasted straight through to SLO, grabbed some coffee and a breakfast sandwich at Jack in the Box, and filled up down the street. I've always done CA-58 from east to west, and turned north on the 229, so the section from the 101 east to the 229 was new to me. The 229 is always a blast, and I made it all the way into town before I hit any other traffic in either direction. The 41/46 run to I-5 was the same as always - fast and dicey, with on-coming cars making passes right in front of me.

Google routed me on CA-46 all the way to the 99, then south to the 58 in Bakersfield, but the Zumo told me to go south on I-5 to Stockdale Highway and then east. I went with the Zumo. Stockdale Hwy passes through a nice area of Bakersfield, but the other way would probably have been faster.

The 58 is a freeway all the way to Mojave. I'm not sure why they don't do a few minor upgrades and renumber it as I-40. I stopped in Tehachapi for gas and tacos. As I was suiting up to leave, I heard my phone ring, and I answered Carole's call. She wasn't feeling well, at all, but told me to ride my ride anyway. I gassed up, and decided to ride a little further, but to skip San Diego county for the day — I wanted to get back home before Justin left for work, so Carole wouldn't be alone in the house.

I wound up taking CA-58 to US-395. The northern section is a lot like CA-46 west of I-5 — fast, but with a lot of dangerous passing in both directions. The downside of 395 starts when you get to Adelanto, when traffic and signals slow things down to a crawl. I hooked up with a full-dress Harley rider on I-15, and we made very good time over the Cajon Pass. He took I-215, and I stayed on I-15.

Northbound traffic on I-15, and later eastbound traffic on I-210, was at a standstill all the way into Pasadena. I'm not sure why, but heading off to Vegas after work would be no fun today.

The full ride plan was for 720 miles; the final route was 540, but still a bunch of fun.

Posted 27 Mar 2009 @ 8.15 PM

A bike weekend

Carole is in Spokane for the weekend visiting Cindy, so I spent Saturday finishing up some little projects on the bike.

Since I got my SPOT for Christmas, the V-1 radar detector has been without a home. The SPOT mounts to the right handlebar using the RAM ball that used to be for the V-1, and there's really no other decent place to mount it. I've been playing with different mounting options for the V-1, but never came up with something usable until today. I cleaned off the top of the brake reservoir, and put on a strip of industrial velcro hook. I set up the audio adapter with loop on the bottom (it was actually already there from the previous setup) and hook on the top; the main V-1 has loop on the bottom. This gives me a stack, with the audio adapter stuck to the brake reservoir, and the V-1 itself stuck to the top of the audio adapter. Just for a little extra stability, I added a mini-bungee cord that wraps around the handlebar on one side and clips to the SPOT bracket. It's really pretty stable - the windshield keeps everything out of the wind, and both the V-1 and the audio adapter are tethered to the bike by the power cables. The SPOT mount also fits over the top of the V-1, for a little extra support.

Next, I connected up the audio mixer box I built. The mixer has two inputs - the V-1 and the Zumo - and one output for the headphones. The circuitry prevents the signal from one of the inputs getting to and damaging the other input - and vice-versa. The mixer is in a small Radio Shack project box, and just barely fits next to the cruise control unit under the front seat.

While I was under there, I also organized the miscellaneous junk under the back seat. A small zipper pouch holds some zip ties in various sizes, some extra audio connectors, and a couple of multi-tools. The pouch fits nicely behind the stock tool bag under the back seat.

On Sunday tested everything with a ride up to Santa Maria. I put my small hydration bladder into the new tank bag, and packed it up based on the checklist. I left around 9:10am, and headed out to Santa Barbara on the 101. I gassed up at State Street, then headed up SR-154 to Foxen Canyon and onto Pappy's for tri-tip and enchiladas.

SR-166 was pleasant, but I got stuck behind some traffic in New Cuyama. Once I got onto Cerro Noroeste I stopped to bundle up, and wound up with: a) a long-sleeve shirt; b) the Widder vest; c) a light sweatshirt; d) the Flex rain liner; e) the FLEX jacket, with the shell in place. I still wasn't warm. I also put in my glove liners.

Cerro Noroeste was fun, as always. A few places with rocks in the road, but no snow, and no traffic. I was going to be just short of making it home, so I gassed up at the Flying J in Frazier Park. I-5 was fast, as always. Only a few beeps on the V-1 in the first section, then free sailing the rest of the way.

A fun weekend with the FJR.

Posted 15 Mar 2009 @ 9.16 PM

Can I get a witness?

After a weekend visit to the In-Laws up in Big Bear Lake, I was reminded that I hadn't talked to my friend Doug (doug5551 on the FJR Forum, who lives part-time in Big Bear) in a while. I sent him an e-mail with a list of my planned rides (CFR, WFO, and the Dam Tour), and asked what he was up to. His reply was something like awesome.

Back in January, Doug rode the Up-Chuck ride put on by George Zelenz. Up-Chuck was a seriously challenging 1K ride through the mountains of Southern California, from Palm Springs to the Mexican border. During the ride, Doug met a Gold Wing rider named Jack who was having serious GPS problems. Jack is a South Dakota native, working in So Cal on a six-month project, and a very accomplished long-distance rider - but he didn't know the back roads of Riverside and San Diego county well enough to ride them in the cold and the dark without a working GPS. Doug offered to ride the rest of the rally with Jack, and working together they both completed the ride successfully.

In Doug's e-mail, he told me that Jack was going to attempt a 100CCC - riding from the Pacific to the Atlantic, then back to the Pacific, in less than 100 hours. He also told me that he was trying to convince Jack to let him tag along as a pillion. (Doug recently bought an '06 FJR from a rider in Arizona, and he rode as a passenger with Jack to pick it up.)

In my reply, I told Doug it sounded like a strange but awesome ride, and to let me know if he wanted me to be a witness. (Iron Butt rides need to be meticulously documented, with witnesses at both the start and the end of the ride, and receipts for all gas stops, motel stays, toll roads/bridges, etc.) I'm a California Notary Public and an IBA member, so my signature on the witness form carries a little extra weight.

Over a couple of days time, Doug and Jack finalized their plans, and asked me to witness their departure from San Diego. I left straight from work on my FJR, working through intermittent rain and afternoon rush hour traffic. It took me two hours and twenty minutes from the time I left my office until I pulled into the house they were staying at pre-ride — not bad all things considering. I got there around 8:40pm.

I met Jack - a great, unassuming guy who really knows his stuff. He has a GL1800 fitted with everything necessary for comfortable long-distance rides - both solo and two-up. We chatted for a while, and I signed and stamped their forms. I wished them the best of luck, told them I'd follow their SPOT track, and headed back home. I-5 at night can be quite fast, and even with a gas stop I got home just after midnight.

I followed their progress on their SPOT page, and Doug and I traded voice mails. They made it to Jacksonville in about 42 hours, giving them ample time to get some sleep before the second block of 50 hours started. (On a 100CCC ride, each leg of the trip must be completed within its own 50 hour period.)

They made great time on the way back, too — so much so that they decided to head back to Los Angeles instead of San Diego, even with the added 100 miles. They asked me to sign them back in, and I agreed, hoping they'd make it into El Segundo around 12:30am. That wasn't to be, but they did make it in right at 2:00am.

I invited Justin to ride down with me, and slept for a little bit. We left in time to meet them as they came in, but some road closures forced us to take a slower route, and we were late by five or ten minutes. They were still there, with their friend Peter who drove down to be a second witness. We all chatted for a while, finished up the paperwork, and they took off to collect their sand from the beach while Justin and I set out for home.

We got home around 3:15am, and I went to bed around 4:10am — it takes a while to wind down from a high-speed run in the cold. I wasn't pleasant getting up with Carole's alarm at 8:00am, so I slept for another hour, which helped a little.

All in all, a great experience for me. Doug and Peter are now talking about doing a 50CC together (but on separate bikes), so maybe I'll do some more IBA witness duty soon.

Posted 5 Mar 2009 @ 10.23 AM

The Bu

It was such a nice day, I had to go for a ride. I told Carole I'd be back around 10:30am with breakfast burritos from Lucky Boys in Pasadena - one of her favorite breakfasts.

It started out a little cold, so I put on my Widder, but by the time I got the Santa Monica I had turned it almost all the way down. I did not have my V-1, and there were lots of LEOs on PCH, so I could only go a little above the posted limit. A lot of other riders had the same idea, and the weather in Malibu was fantastic.

I turned north at Las Posas, and realized I was cutting the schedule close - Lucky Boys makes breakfast late on the weekends, but I thought 11am was my limit. I pushed things a little, and made up some good time, but construction at the 101 and 405 slowed me down a lot - even with some judicious lane sharing.

The high speeds also cut into my gas mileage so much that I had to stop for gas. I got off the 134 at Cahuenga, and called Carole while I pumped, telling her to phone in the order to Lucky Boys. I got there at 11:08, and they were just packing up the order, so it was still nice and hot when I got home.

I made sure to show Justin when I took off my Widder, so he could mock me about being cold.

Posted 11 Jan 2009 @ 4.35 PM

A little ride for the new year...

A combination of work, refereeing, illness, and a knee injury has kept me off the bike almost totally for about five weeks now. I had hoped to get in a bunch of riding over the holiday break, but my deep chest cold was so bad they even sent me home from apheresis. My SPOT has been sitting on my mantle since Christmas day waiting for its initiation.

I've been feeling better the last couple of days, so when the day dawned cool and sunny, I decided to hit the road. I didn't want anything long or too technical — just a nice ride for about an hour or so. Justin has been teasing me about not riding, so of course I asked him to join me.

We did a quick little tour: up the 210 to the 118, down the 5, back on the 134/210. About 58 miles, about 50 minutes. I was a little too cold for my recuperating sinuses, but I managed to make it home in one piece.

I had the SPOT mounted horizontally, and a few of the waypoints didn't make it to the share map. I'm going to try it vertically next time, which should help according to the user's manual.

Posted 4 Jan 2009 @ 7.33 PM

NAFO 2008

I rode to Golden, CO for NAFO 2008 in late July. I converted Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico from just-visited to motorcycle-visited on my "Where I've Been" map:

Posted 20 Aug 2008 @ 3.37 PM

50th Birthday Ride - Day 17

Williams, CA to home. 449 miles.

banff_day17.jpg

Posted 1 Aug 2007 @ 10.04 PM

50th Birthday Ride - Day 16

Albany, OR to Williams, CA. 455 miles.

banff_day16.jpg

Posted 31 Jul 2007 @ 10.01 PM

50th Birthday Ride - Day 15

Tumwater, WA to Albany, OR. 178 miles.

banff_day15.jpg

Posted 30 Jul 2007 @ 9.59 PM

50th Birthday Ride - Day 14

Quesnel, BC to Tumwater, WA. 540 miles.

banff_day14.jpg


Posted 29 Jul 2007 @ 9.58 PM

50th Birthday Ride - Day 13

Smithers, BC to Quesnel, BC. 310 miles.

banff_day13.jpg

Posted 28 Jul 2007 @ 9.55 PM

50th Birthday Ride - Day 12

Dease Lake, BC to Smithers, BC, via Hyder, AK. 453 miles.

banff_day12.jpg

Posted 27 Jul 2007 @ 9.53 PM

50th Birthday Ride - Day 11

Fort Nelson, BC to Dease Lake, BC, via Watson Lake, YT and the Cassiar Hwy. 478 miles.

banff_day11.jpg

Posted 26 Jul 2007 @ 9.50 PM

50th Birthday Ride - Day 10

Grande Cache, AB to Fort Nelson, BC, via the Northwest Territories. 710 miles.

banff_day10.jpg

Posted 25 Jul 2007 @ 9.47 PM

50th Birthday Ride - Day 9

Banff to Grande Cache, AB. 314 miles.

banff_day9.jpg

Posted 24 Jul 2007 @ 9.45 PM

50th Birthday Ride - Day 8

Golden, Kicking Horse Mountain Resort gondola, Lake Louise, a nice dinner in town.

Posted 23 Jul 2007 @ 9.44 PM

50th Birthday Ride - Day 7

Happy birthday! Brunch at the Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel. Local sightseeing.

Posted 22 Jul 2007 @ 9.42 PM

50th Birthday Ride - Day 6

Hairspray at the local theater, Radium Hot Springs, MOOSE.

Posted 21 Jul 2007 @ 9.41 PM

50th Birthday Ride - Day 5

Relaxing with Carole.

Posted 20 Jul 2007 @ 9.40 PM

50th Birthday Ride - Day 4

I started out with my traditional camp breakfast of tea and oatmeal.

The ride up Going to the Sun Highway was very cool, although it was challenge to keep my mind on the road instead of on the scenery. The rest of the way east out of the park was very scenic.

I turned north on MT-17, and ran into a herd of range cattle on the roadway a few miles before the Canadian border. The crossing at Chief Mountain was quick and efficient, thankfully.

I stayed on AB-6 to Pincher Creek, then headed west on Hwy 3 for a bit before turning north again on AB-22. The crosswinds were pretty intense. Traffic got heavier on the outskirts of Calgary, but once I hit TC-1 the going was fast and easy into Banff.

I was really happy to see Carole, and the hotel she got for us was fantastic. It was at the very end of it's construction phase, with only a few things missing, so she wrangled a hugely discounted rate. We ate at the Chili's in the lobby — it's one of our favorite chain restaurants.

Glacier National Park in Montana to Banff, Alberta. 301 miles.

banff_day4.jpg

Posted 19 Jul 2007 @ 9.36 PM