This Rally wasn't really on my radar this year. It is always a wonderful event, yet my only real focus this year had been the Iron Butt Rally, and I had planned nothing much beyond that. However, here I was, basking in the glow of a Did Not Finish in our premier event, and keen to remind myself that I hadn't forgotten how to do this. Rallies can be hard task-mistresses as I found out to my cost. A quick exchange of messages with Justin (Rally Master), and I was in. Last year this rally clashed with "Back to School", and I missed it. Justin shifted the date forward a week and it gave me just time to enter ... I would be riding home the day before reporting back to work.
Justin loves to create puzzles for his riders to solve. Some like this aspect of planning, and some do not. I love it and as we are given a week to come up with a semblance of something rideable most entrants should find something workable in that time. This particular puzzle was a little more complex than most. Not difficult, but it produced routes that were more restrictive than is usual. What that means is that most riders would have to complete their routes very close to their planned objectives. If not, the penalties were going to hurt. In what was clearly a fairly low-scoring event, losing thousands of points over a small error was going to hurt some people and I was determined not to be one of them. I had a single ambition for this one ... Finish it.
When the Rally Pack arrived the scheme quickly became evident. Every bonus was categorized either Heaven, or Hell. You had to score an equal number of each type or suffer a 500 point penalty for each unbalanced bonus. For example, claim six Heaven and eight Hell, take a one thousand point hit. In addition there were around thirteen ways to accumulate combinations of bonuses to earn thousands of additional points. To make this easier, Justin introduced Wild Cards. These could be played in place of visiting an actual bonus location. Up to seven wild cards were a realistic possibility. My route would earn me six. Four hours rest bonus accounted for two, miles over one thousand was another and three were gained by spelling out the words "Heaven", "And", "Hell" using letters from State, City and County signs. It was technically possible to earn more than this, but the only way to do so would have involved unrealistic mileages. A final twist was that every Heaven bonus would add points to your total, but the point values of the Hell bonuses required to balance them, would be deducted. To be a finisher you needed to amass 4000 points, ride a minimum of 1190 miles, and get back to the hotel before 32 hours had elapsed.
For those familiar with the Rally Pack, I built my route based on the two combos, Hot Springs and Churches. I built a further virtual combo from Massacres and added in a few bits and pieces, including the States combo. Base route and points were worth around 11200 with an option to add a further 400 points if time allowed. I was happy with this. In an event where 10000 points was a good score I was pleased with my potential total, although I had no idea whether others had bigger plans. As always, there is still the matter of riding it. My mileage was around 1550. If I had the time another 150 miles would bring in the extra points.
A routine ride to Grand Junction had me covering the 950 miles and being there early Thursday evening. Tomorrow would be tech, odometer check and socializing. The base for the rally was the Clarion Inn, Grand Junction. This is a very weird building, but clean and comfortable, reasonably priced and with very friendly staff .... and, something Marriott could pay heed to, coffee, fresh and hot, always available!
There is something almost spiritual about 46 motorcycles, engines running waiting to ride out into the dark of a Colorado morning. Last minute adjustments, pulling on gloves and helmets, all orchestrated to the time signals being given by Dale Wilson as we prepare to head out into 32 hours of unknown. I hope we will all return, in good time with everything we hope for. I hope they all come back with less points than me ... usually a vain hope but it's there, probably buried deep in most of us. More than anything I just want a solid ride with a good finish. That thought will probably haunt me until the next Iron Butt Rally, but right now I don't have time for it. I have one objective at 6.00 am this morning. Roll safely out of the parking lot and get to the Utah state line quickly and quietly.
Apparently my ambition was shared by quite a few others, and some were arriving as I left:
That sign gave me "Utah" for the states combo, and the letter "H" for the word "Heaven". There were to be twelve more letters to collect and although I had them all clearly plugged into my route (thanks StreetView), I wanted to grab as many as possible as early as I could. That would reduce the stops later in the ride should time become a concern. Justin had also thrown in a couple of other points opportunities at the start. We could get pictures of Churches for 25 points each, in daylight, and night time pictures of cemeteries for 50 points each. I absolutely hate BOLO (be on the lookout for) bonuses, but they are favorites of Rally Master so I have to get used to it. At least Justin never does anything last minute that causes re-routing. All the letter images are in the following gallery:
After grabbing three letters without getting off the bike, it was on to the first "real" bonus location. This was the Bountiful Tabernacle from the Churches combo, and the oldest church in Utah (pic left).
I only had twelve real bonuses on the entire route, so I was happy to get off the bike and try to get decent pictures. In the end I wouldn't even be claiming two of them because unless I got them both they would hurt rather than help my score. One of the bonuses was part of the optional route. I didn't get it so I ended up dropping the Hell bonus that I did get ... more later.
On this rally you had to be thinking this way or you stood a real chance of suffering badly at the scoring table. This did catch some riders out, and I wasn't going to be one of them.
Back on the bike and it was off to the Devil's Slide, an amazing geological formation with a pull-out on the Interstate for folk to take pictures. I stuck my rally flag on the fence, and a truck driver asked me to leave it there while he took his own picture. He had more than two-wheels on his vehicle so I figured he wasn't a competing rider! My wife thinks this looks like a vagina ... and I have zero to say about that!
The site of the first Holy Mass was up next. Forty five miles away and a good road other than the last two and a half miles which were on gravel. Good gravel though and no issue. I had one problem which was operator error. I made a complete pigs ear of parking the bike and needed a shove to get it out. Fortunately another rider was there with me, and helped me out. I really need to quit doing this because it's not the first time.
So far on this route the GPS was showing that I was maintaining Bun Burner Gold pace. At this rate I would have time for the "extras". However, it was about to get slower, much slower and for the rest of the route I would be losing time from the clock rather than gaining it.
Granite Hot Springs will remain in my memory for many years to come. Here is the description from the rally pack:
Granite Hot Springs is a hot spring located in Sublette County, Wyoming, 30 miles southeast of Jackson. It is
maintained by the USFS. Early settlers in the region dug a pool to collect the water. The Civilian Conservation Corps enhanced the pool in 1935, adding a campground, changing room, and deck. There is also a primitive pool located at Granite Falls, about 1/2 mile downstream, which was one of the locations used to shoot the 1992 film A River Runs Through It. During the summer, the pool can be accessed by car. In the winter, visitors must access it by skis, snowshoes, snowmobile or dogsled. In winter, the pool temperature may be up to 112 degrees. During peak snowmelt in spring, the temperature may drop into the 80s, and be in the mid-90s during the summer.
What that description doesn't say is that the hot spring pool is ten miles down a gravel road. I am used to riding on gravel and never really worry about it. This one was a bit different. It was twisty and contoured. It was very rough, speeds of around fifteen to twenty five mph were all that were possible. The other feature was the traffic. This is a very busy road with a popular campground and hot spring. Oncoming vehicles were a constant problem, and the guy who came barreling round a corner at around fifty miles per hour nearly wiped me out completely. As he hit his brakes, this particular asshole got his F-150 completely sideways, and missed me only because I was able to swerve yet remain upright. There are some idiots who should not be allowed out without their moms. Getting in and out of this location was hot, slow and difficult. You can only guess how much I wanted to jump into the pool, but I got my picture and left.
Before the next bonus I needed to detour about forty miles to grab the Idaho State Sign. This involved a ride over the Teton Pass. A picturesque drive, but not especially fast. Just before riding into the mountains I found I had a cell signal, and was able to have my first (and last) chat with Jodie during this ride. Cell service was spotty everywhere. I could get texts and emails out, but little in the way of voice calls.
There and back over the Teton Pass, and I headed into Grand Teton National Park for a picture of the Chapel of the Transfiguration:
This was just one mile into the park. It was also one mile the wrong side of the ticket booth. I had a brief conversation with the very nice Park Ranger, and she let me in free provided I didn't tell anyone. So don't be telling anyone. Peter Green was close behind me and I think he just said "I'm with him". Peter deserved a bit of luck on this one, an accident with his top case cost him a phone, a laptop and all his bonus pictures up to that point. Nonetheless, he persisted and rode a very creditable finish. According to my route plan I was due here around 4.15 pm. It was actually 6.00 pm when I rode in, so time had slipped considerably and I promise it wasn't me. I had taken no rest stops and I had been riding as hard as the roads, and the traffic allowed.
I was getting a little concerned that I wouldn't make my final Daylight Only bonus in time, and if that happened my route would be seriously compromised. Before that, however, there was the minor matter of the Cowboy Cafe in Dubois, WY. I didn't have time to stop and eat ... I didn't even get off the bike.
Following this quick stop it was another sixty miles to the grave site of Sacajawea. Her story is known to every American school child. The story of the Lewis and Clark Expedition is the stuff American legends are made of. This from the rally pack:
Sacajawea, May 1788 – December 20, 1812, was a Lemhi Shoshone woman who helped the Lewis and Clark Expedition achieve each of its chartered mission objectives exploring the Louisiana Territory. With the expedition, between 1804 and 1806, she traveled thousands of miles from North Dakota to the Pacific Ocean, established cultural contacts with Native American populations, and researched natural history.
I was fully expecting some dirt road to this location, and was gratified to find tarmac all the way there. I arrived about ten minutes after the official sunset for that place. This is okay. Daylight means either visible daylight in the picture, or Sunrise/Sunset +/- 30 mins. Either way I was good to go, and somewhat relieved too.
I then realized that I was here after sunset, and the grave site was in a cemetery. Bonus. Fifty more points for claiming the cemetery. I was still running about two hours and fifteen minutes behind schedule by the time I left the cemetery.
On leaving this place it was still important to maintain as high a pace as reasonable, but I now had three hundred miles and two more bonuses between me and a rest break. I wasn't going to be at the rest stop at the planned time, but once there I could take a close look at the ride to the finish the next day. I would still need the four hour stop, but I also knew that my route already had the "extra" miles built in, and they could be removed if needed.
Saratoga Swimming Pool was followed by a sign from the George Wyman Trail. a momentous feat by an early pioneer of motorcycling:
George Adams Wyman (July 3, 1877 – November 15, 1959) was the first person to make a transcontinental crossing of the United States by motor vehicle. In 1903, Wyman rode his 1902 California Motorcycle Company motor bicycle from San Francisco to New York City in 51 days, finishing 20 days before Dr. Horatio Nelson Jackson, the first person to cross the continent by automobile.
From here it was less than sixty miles to a well-earned break at a truck stop in Laramie, WY. I had arrived at the rest stop two and one half hours later than planned. This was simply a tribute to the slow going down dirt roads, and the mountain roads that are slower than billed, and the traffic in and around the Tetons. You just can't keep up the speeds billed in the planning software. Nonetheless, I was here and I had hit all the required points to make my plan work. I was still looking at a total of over eleven thousand points, but the extra five hundred or so were not going to happen. It also meant I could afford a five hour stop, rather than four.
Over coffee in the restaurant I did the math, re-organized the route, checked I had the required "letters" and settled down to sleep on my Thermarest Mat with down quilt. I slept well, next to the bike, for about four hours.
I was planning on leaving at six thirty am. I had 417 miles to go, two bonuses to collect, and one receipt needed to evidence the state of Colorado.
This should be easy. A six thirty departure should have me back in Grand Junction by one pm, a whole hour to spare. As usual it didn't work out that way.
I made it to Cheyenne and grabbed the church there, heading immediately back to I-80. I had changed a couple of routines for this rally. The complexity of the planning meant that I wanted a complete contemporaneous record of which bonuses I managed, and all the associated details. Normally I get the picture, then a picture of my clock and odometer so I can fill in the claim form back in the hotel. This method means I don't have to write anything on the road, other than the mileage on any receipts I collect. In this event there were only three of those.
In addition, I have a new Tank Bag. My Oxford Products TB, one I have liked for the last few years, broke a zip on the IBR. I bought an RKA Sonoman to replace it. I love this bag, but it works differently. It has a full size map case (great), and a top section above the main compartment that is perfect for Rally Flag, pens, log sheet, camera. Everything you need to claim bonuses without leaving the seat.
So I am doing around 80 mph on I-80 West out of Cheyenne. It is clear, dry and there is very little traffic. I looked down and noticed the zip wasn't closed properly, so I tried to fix it. As I did so, the wind grabbed my log sheet and whipped it off into the center median, a wide grass strip. You cannot imagine the panic I felt when that happened. My entire rally was on that sheet. I immediately dropped the big anchor and stopped in about two hundred yards. I parked in the left emergency lane and set off back to find the errant paper. I needed to find it, this was a disaster in the making. Maybe I could have recreated the information on that sheet from EXIF data and BaseCamp, but it would not be easy and the two hours allowed probably wouldn't be long enough. I was in luck. There, about two hundred yards behind the bike and just sitting waiting to be collected was my log sheet .... whew!
One more bonus then I can head to the hotel. I probably don't need gas, but I do still need a receipt. The roads were incredibly slow. Right through an entire range of mountains, sixty five mph speed limits became thirty five mph averages. Three hundred miles out and I had only thirty minutes to spare, and Steamboat Springs to endure.
Just finding this sign seemed to take forever, and it smelled pretty bad too being right next to a sulphur spring. There were so many signs around that location I wasn't even sure it was the correct one until the scoring table. By the time I cleared this slow, packed town I was down to twenty minutes of leeway before a Did Not Finish. This was not the end of the rally I had planned, and there was no way I was going to DNF two in a row. I still needed a receipt, and I needed to pee.
I finally stopped at a handy gas station. Stuck two gallons in the auxiliary tank, used the restroom and was back on the road in four minutes. I'm getting good at this! The last one hundred miles was reasonably relaxed. Sure I still only had a fifteen minute safety margin, but I had held that since two hundred and fifty miles out, so barring accidents or incidents I wasn't worried about it. The final run in was I-70, and there were no more traffic lights between me and the hotel.
I pulled into the Clarion Inn at 13.43 pm, and the How the West was Won - Heaven and Hell was now just a memory.
Scoring was straightforward. I laid everything out neatly on new log sheets, and Justin ignored all that. He simply went down the log sheet I had made while riding, asked me what I was claiming and which combos, entered it all in a spreadsheet and gave me a total.
At the conclusion of the banquet it turned out that my total was good enough for third place. Not.Bad.At.All Only ninety points separated the top four riders, and there were indeed tears at the scoring table form some. Understanding the mechanic of this rally, putting together a plan, riding it then retaining the capacity to understand how to maximise the score took some doing. Some did it, many didn't.
Two things stand out for me, in terms of my performance. This is the first time in nineteen rallies that I have made a plan, and ridden it to the letter. Nothing missed, nothing messed up, nothing lost at the table. True, I didn't get the extras I built in, and had I done so it would have been a comfortable win, but the others can probably say that too. I planned a ride, and I rode the plan and it doesn't get much better than that. The other thing was that following a DNF in the Iron Butt Rally, I needed this. Just a small reminder that I can actually do it!
I have heard of slightly better routes being available. Over 12000 points, maybe up to 13k. That's definitely a possibility. All I can say is that this is the best route I found, and it was ridden. Others may be possible, but no one has ridden them so we don't know. My maximum with extras was 11700 and I came away with around 11300 ... good enough.
As always with these events, they would not happen without many people prepared to give up their time so that we may ride. Rallies cost a considerable sum to host, and take hundreds of hours to arrange. None of this happens without many people prepared to volunteer.
I thank them all for what they do. Without them, there would be no rallies.
A weird stat to end with .... This was my nineteenth rally. Of those I have finished fifteen with four DNFs. Of the fifteen I have finished, I have now finished five in third place. That is, one third of my total finishes have been in third place ... I need to do something about that because folk are starting to giggle!