2008 Utah 1088 Final Standings
I placed 4th in Standings.  This is my best finish to date.

2008 Utah 1088 Corrected Mileage

I believe I was 8th in Mileage.

I’m back home after the best rally of my life.  Doing the requisite post game on the ride back I kept giggling and smiling.  One helluva and event.

The drama with the flat tire at 6:30 a.m. with 140 miles to cover and 150 minutes to do it…..actually added to the whole thing too.  And here’s a picture of the culprit that almost DNF’ed me:

Or a link to a higher resolution photo.

And to be clear…I didn’t hit a live porcupine .  It wasn’t quite that dramatic…and would have been far nastier I think.  I think I hit the remains of one…as I vaguely remember as a weird little bump in a left-hand sweeper coming down out of the mountains west of Nephi.  It must have been losing air, but I made it the 11 miles to town and it went flat while I was downing a Red Bull and a breakfast burrito.

I assumed it was a nail when I first saw the end of it, but when I grabbed it with a set of pliers a chunk came out and resembled a finger nail.

I’ve also had people tell me it’s not a porcupine, but couldn’t tell me what it was…so unless there’s an animal biologist….I’m going to assume it was from a formerly frolicing spined critter.

After the rally was over I didn’t pretend like I was then going to slog home and try and work Monday….I just extended my room and got 12 hours of great sleep.  Then I just had a leisurely breakfast and am now packing up.

The ride home will be a self post-game analysis and I already know I’m proud of the rally I did.

A couple folks have asked if the main route and sit ups were unfair or something.  Quite emphatically, I’ll say no…or it’s more complicated than than.
First, the Utah 1088 is Steve Chalmer’s rally.  He can and should organize it any way he wants.  I love the guy for providing not only a great competitive event, but an incredible ride around breathtaking sites in Utah.  Even though I was excited by the prospect of holding this rally by the tail…..I was overwhelmed with the ride itself.  I hope to elaborate on the segment from Hanksville to Arches….or the sun going down near Torrey….or the vistas between Price and I-70.

The second thing is that at least first and third place are STRONG riders.  Scott Schmidt and Danny LaDue placed #1 and #2 last year and been in the top 5 the past 6 events.  It would be hubris to think I would have won had I run the same route as them.  I’d like to think I’d have challenged them though.

And second place was an IBR rider who I’ll compare notes with later, Ken Morton.  I think he rode a very efficient route.

One thing I did learn though…I think I can be a Big Dog if I put my mind to it, get a bit lucky, and keep focused.

That and don’t get pulled over in this rally.  That’s a deal breaker.

Now, off to finish packing and the slog home.

Matt

The banquet is over and I place 4th.  This is my highest rally finish and I even got a special note when he announced 4th that I rode my ass off and scored a ton of bonuses.

In fact, had it not been for the porcupine quill (I’ll take a picture and include it later…and Eric rocked) I would have gone to every possible bonus available with the exception of Steam Boat Springs.  Frankly put, I almost add the whole smorgasboard Steve offered without being sick.  It’s like I left a sprig of parsley on the plate.  Those that have read rally packs will know what I mean. 

There were a couple of things that were different for me this time.   I have a better handle on Utah roads and number so when I saw the packet I had a lot better clue the area of the state a bonus was in….which is more like the Big Dogs have.

Second thing was I picked several strategies that were tailor made for the alernate route.  It looked like just a 1600 mile ride for those that like to ride to ride.  But, I quickly saw that besides that I could go to the checkpoint and still get the second leg packet.  A few figured that out, but the second smart move I made was padding some miles in the morning.  Instead of just riding the route and doing miles on urban freeway…..I went to Wendover where one can rack up precious miles at higher velocities.

Third thing was that once I got the 2nd leg packet I then saw that I could possibly ride that main route just about like regular route riders.  I had a clue from the beginning that I could snag most or all of the bonuses available. My trick was to stay above the curve for minimum miles…and if I ever felt that was in jeopardy I’d bail out and go find a fast road in Nevada to crank miles….but never really had to.

So, how it shook out at the awards….about 5 of the Top 10 chose the alternate route, but I had the most points of the alternate route riders.  The four above me were regular route riders that performed a ridicolous amount of situps.  1 point each.  So 100 sit ups was the equivalent of 2/3 of the points I got for a 1600 mile ride.

Classic Steve Chalmers.  It’s his rally, he can do it any way he wants, and I’ll be back next year. ;)

It’s still a little bit of a blur, but I’ll end up doing a write-up of this trip…when my brain recovers.  I saw some incredible country and felt like I had this rally by the tail….which I’ve never had before. 

Now it’s a phone call to my boss’ voicemail and say I’m not going to make it to work Monday.  I’m gonna sleep and leave in the morning….and head back to the bar for another drink of celebration with my Utah 1088 friends.

Matt

I received a call from Matt at aprox 11:00p Utard Time.   He called from a Checkpoint in  Beaver Utah, it sounds as if the checkpoint had no bonus value, instead he went to this checkpoint to pick up a bonus pack for the next leg.

He sounded great, focused and cautiously excited that he may have cracked the puzzle of the rally pack.   I hope I understood correctly and I’ll pass on the best I can:

To reiterate his post of this morning.  YES, he did choose an alternate route.  He chose option 2 which from what he says means a minimum of 1600miles.  He now has 1009 miles so aprox 590 more to go. 

If I understood correctly, his choice of the alternate route also gives him access to many (if not all?) of the generic route bonuses.  Hence Matt is hitting the checkpoints to pick up the listings of possible bonus locations.   This seems to be the puzzle of the rally(?)  Matt seems to think there are others (maybe a dozen(?)) who likely have the same game-plan and it will come down to who can be the most efficient.  

Now, this is *IF* indeed Matt has the best game-plan in place.  

It seem he feels pretty confident that it is!!

He said that he feels that he may have “…..the possibility to hit every possible bonus…”.  There was an excited focus in his voice as he said this so I know he’s focused on what he wants to do.

From his current location in Beaver, he’ll head toward Cedar City, Bryce Canyon, Millford …. so it sounds like he’ll be hitting points in southern Utah before heading back up to Salt Lake City.

I joked with him and said ..”been following your SPOT tracking and wondering when you’re going to stop messing around and do some riding outside of Utah???”.  His response was:  “It’ll all be done inside of Utah.”

Speaking of the SPOT, he mentioned that he thinks his unit turned off, I confirmed this and told him when it went off and came back on …and he asked me to remind family (via this post) not to worry if the updates stop as the unit might be vibrating itself off at times without his knowledge.

So, this very much sounds like an interesting rally, and it seems that Matt is excited that he may have a great plan in place ….And what an exciting and fun feeling that must be.   That, combined with hearing his focused and sharp tone tells me that he’s going to have some fun as he rides the night out …finishing the business at hand.

Good luck Matt, we’re sharing your excitement that you may have an awesome gameplan and executing it well.     It has been fun following your route and the phone call was great.  I hope I relayed the information on this post accurately.    ….renojohn (guest blogger)

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UPDATE  ~~  Sunday 9:15am Utard Time  ~~  UPDATE

Matt called a few minutes after 9:00am Utard time …he had finished the Rally!!

And while the call was brief (Beer waiting for Matt) it sounds like a great and eventful ride!!

During the night Matt hit a porcupine!  …This event put his front tire out of commission and according to Matt “I was kinda freaked out”.   While Matt worked on the tire, Eric Vaillancourt came by the scene and according to Matt:   “Eric Was A Real Hero“.   They were able to fix the tire, (although apparently still some quils stuck in it) and Matt was able to continue on.

This quil adventure cost Matt some time and it seems the end result was having to abandon one bonus he had  hoped to get.   If memory serves me correctly it was worth 2.9points or so.    The event also made made Matt close on time and mileage.   Not wanting to subject the tire to backroads more than need be he pointed west on interstate 80 to collect the needed miles (remember with his alt route, minimum of 1600).   

Matt got these miles with basicaly none to spare and rolled into the finish with just a few minutes reamaining.   Talk about cutting it close!!!

Matt was jazzed when I spoke to him, and is optimistic that he has a competitive score.   He certainly has had a great ride with great adventure.   We’re certainly wishing you luck in your scoring Matt!! 

During our brief call, Matt reiterated the following and made stern instructions that I pass this on:
“Eric Was A Real Hero”

“Be sure to post how much of a hero Eric Vaillancourt was”

“i was freakin’ out and Eric was so calm and we got the tire fixed”

**Congrat’s on a safe and event-filled ride Matt, we’re eager to hear of your finish and all the details of the ride!!.   ….guest blogger renojohn

SPOT GPS Tracking is here or at the top right.

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Rally Day - 06:35 MDT - SPECIAL NOTE!  I’M RIDING AN ALTERNATE ROUTE!

I’m posting just before I leave…after people have to declare if they’re taking an alternate route or not.

I am taking an alternate route.  I’ve consulted my Rabi/Shaman/Priest/Spirit Guide/Psychiatrist and they’ve helped me become at peace with the decision.

I haven’t done this before with Steve’s rallies…as his “Main Route” is always a good in that you will score solid points and a strong finish…..but I think I see something in one of the alternates that would do even better.

It’s a bit of a gamble.  Not a safety one, but my plan is to do an alternate and still show up to Checkpoint #1 and get handed a packet for Leg #2.  Not all bonuses will be available to “alternate” route riders, but my dice roll is that there will still be enough points announced for the alternate AND snag those points open to all riders on the main route.  If I’m right I can net more points than riders on the main route alone.

If it works I’ll have a great story to tell after the rally. If it doesn’t work…I’ll have a great story to tell after the rally.

Steve really made me use my noodle on this one…and I think a few others may have figured it out.  His genius is though that we’ll still look like we’re riding the main route.

I’ll tell you now I’m headed west to Wendover, NV; backtracking towards SLC; looping up towards Ogden, and then down to Heber City for the checkpoint as close to the opening of 11:30 as I can.  I’ll likely be riding with Brian R. on this leg.   Whopping points for this leg will be about 13.4.

Oh, and Steve made the points tiny small as a final list twist.  200 points in this rally will be a good figure I’m led to believe.

Shhh…don’t tell any of the other riders!  Wouldn’t want them to get any ideas.

Also, the next post may be by a guest blogger and rallier.  He knows what I’m up to and I’ll afford one phone call…..maybe sometime this afternoon.

June 27th, 23:15 MDT - We Have Leg 1 In Our Hands

Steve shook things up again and handed us the Leg #1 packet tonight.  It gives us the opportunity to not sleep….just kidding.  I’m headed to bed about 22:00 or so.

It has 11 bonuses and has us land in Heber City between 11:30 and 13:00 for a checkpoint.  Once their we get a packet for the rest of the rally.  He also shook up point values and bonuses are worth like 3.1, 3.8, 3.3 points, etc.  He made the suggestion that a 200 point score would be good.

Some GPS bonuses in southern Utah that look time-consuming to get to and some others that are a bit tricky to optimize.

Also part of the packet are 3 alternate routes.  One is do just do 1600 miles in 24 hours and I’m sure will appeal to Warchild on the Busa; another is to go to Mount Rushmore, Devils Tower, and Cheyenne; and the third is to Gallup, NM, Flagstaff, and Las Vegas.

I’m crunching the packet now….very interesting….Steve is making me seriously think.

I’ll be up at 5:30 and we have a 6:30 rider’s meeting.

Tomorrow is going to be some serious fun…..I say with a sly smile….see this blog close to 07:00 MDT for my last update before the rally.  I’ve got Leg #1 planned and loaded into my GPS.

June 27th, 13:21 MDT - Tech Inspection Goes Smoothly…Mostly

I sailed through the various paperwork, fuel cell inspection (Steve actually looked at them), and my odometer check following the clowns below.  They tell everybody back home”Hi!” by the way….

It wasn’t entirely without incident though….one of my two 1/2 gallon drink tubes must have come loose and I lost part of it somewhere on I-215 or I-80.  It’s fairly specific rigid plastic tube and I’ll have to decide whether to try and find another or not this evening…probably not.  I think it will be more important to get into the zen of things and not bother chasing a part I actually have a backup drink container for.  I can change drink jugs in about 1 minute if needed with my spare.

One other technical note….I rubbed my ear completely raw in the IBR last year and I think it was because I just couldn’t fit the various parts to my Starcom audio system in the shell of the helmet.  I had tried it taped to the exterior last week and it alleviated pressure on my melon…so this is a slightly trickier way to made a wad of crap look less….crappy.  Heat shrinked tubing encasing a wire mass and zip tied to some super sticky fasteners that don’t come off like tape.  I put on the back of the helmet to reduce wind noise.

Ugly?  Absolutely.  Functional?  Reasonably.

June 27th, 12:35 MDT - Free lunches and Utah Sun

I had a great night sleep getting exactly 9 hours.  Sleeping in increments of 90 minutes is supposedly better than the ubquitious 8 hours, but I’ve been struggling with how one sets their alarm clock conveniently.  Low and behold I find my cell phone has a countdown timer.  Set it for 9:10:00 assuming I needed about a 10 minute head start…..I woke up at and felt very refreshed.

The morning was cool, Brian R. bought me breakfast, and I had Supercuts chop off most of my hair.  It’s warm now, but the short hair feels good.

I’m headed back down shortly to start tech. inspection and do my odo run.  After that it’s pretty much about arranging things on the bike and in the room to be ready for Sunday morning.  The weather is looking to be good and warm and sunny during the day and probably a bit cool at night.  Knowing Steve we’ll probably be doing some mountains during the night.

It’s great to see some increasingly great friends and a crop of newbies.

Below is Brad on the left and is his second rally.  He was hazed properly a several weeks ago with the WORD! rally and is a good FJR pilot.  Linda and Terry Lahman are a two-up couple on a Gold Wing from Seattle I’ve become good friends with.  They even volunteered to help me with a rally I’m considering organizing next year.

June 26th, 21:03 MDT

Back from the BBQ and I started things out with a bang by dropping a 6 pack of beer in the front driveway of the hotel.  Fortunately one survived…and I had a whole other 6 pack backup.

I didn’t shoot many pics, but here are what will clearly be the two fastest bikes at this event.  140 sport and 180 sport monster Busa will be slicing and dicing the wind.

And this great Ural with a sidecar…..not so much of a rallier.

Now, more sleep to get caught back up as Friday is tech inspection, odo check, get a haircut, a couple of key duplicates made, and final prep.

June 26th, 11:30 MDT

I made it, was able to check in early, and figure a shower and nap are in my VERY near future.

The SPOT unit ran out of batteries somewhere in Idaho…..looks like near Burley.  I had thought it would flash a certain color light when the batteries were at half, but I didn’t see it.

New set in and updated a position for you all.

I saw the most incredible sunrise this morning south of Boise…and completely failed to stop and take a picture.  Suffice it to say it had color, clouds playing peekaboo with a deep orange disc, and fields for contrast.

BBQ tonight at Steve’s!

June 26th, 01:30

I’m packed up and going. I had hoped to sleep more before departing, but I was antsy. Maybe I’ll catch some Z’s in the Blues. My plan is to be Boise before the morning commute.

June 24th

My fourth Utah 1088 is fast approaching.

• Thursday, June 26th - Transit to Utah in the a.m., BBQ at Steve’s House
• Friday, June 27th - Tech Inspection and Prep, 1900 Riders Meeting
• Saturday, June 28th - 0600 Riders Meeting, 0700 Utah 1088 Start
• Sunday, June 29th - 0700 Finish Line officially opens, 0900 Finish line officially closed, 1330 Awards banquet, late afternoon departure for home

It will mark the 4th anniversary of me getting into the rally scene and is an incredible event sponsored by a great guy, Steve Chalmers. Utah and rallying evokes some great memories for me including Grosvenor Arch, Simpson Hot Springs, Moab, Scipio, Toele, etc. Great roads, scenery, and friendly competition.

I wrote about it my first year in a rally report. Placed 12th my rookie year.

I half-assed a report in 2006. This was my best finish with a 6th place and a great lesson about good sportsmanship and rallymaster integrity being so key to this particular sport.

And, I wrote about it last year in a blog. This one I screwed the pooch a bit with a 23rd, but still had a fun time and learned that you shouldn’t always take the route handed to you.

And I’m sure I’ll blog about it this year too. That and I have this spiffy new Olympus 1030 SW camera to try…including VGA video @ 30 frames per second with sound!

Expect blogging to start Thursday, June 26th.

I rode with an interesting collection of riding gear in 2007 and was largely satisfied with their performance…..or maybe as happy as a soggy person can be be riding across 11 states and 2 provinces. However, I was mocked a bit by a few veterans when I rolled into checkpoints wearing mesh gear.

Normally, conformity doesn’t hold a lot of sway with me….especially if I bothered to devote an entire blog entry to the subject, but it’s 2008 now and I figure I’d reconsider.

The biggest thing I like about mesh is that it flows air well. You do sacrifice in protection, but I’d rather skitter down the highway accidentally on mesh than skitter down the highway in the best armor because I passed out from heat exhaustion. At least with the first I’m conscious when it happens.

Folks wearing the one piece Aerostich Roadcrafter, ‘Stich for shorthand, suits look well protected, but in the hotter climates they also look suspiciously like a baked potato wearing tinfoil. Their hot and red faces stick out of the top like a turkey thermometer and even more unhappy than the average IBR competitor.

And I also knew the Road Crafter wasn’t all that water resistant watching my partner don a rain slicker and get wetter than I did in my Klim Goretex snowmobile jacket.

So, what to do?

I talked with the good people at Aerostich and immediately grew a rapport with Dennis. Dennis immediately steered me to the Darien jacket. I knew the Darien jacket because of the good things George Zelenz talked about it. And after about 10 minutes I found myself ordering at a really good price of $285 a hi-viz lime yellow…..the IBA’s new black leather.

Since I’m clearly headed farther down the path of steamed potato I figured I’d may as well be better protected and ordered a street-grade back protector.

I initially ordered a set of Darien pants, but returned them as they were just too big for my skinny waist (no laughing) and the knee armor seemed to low. The second set of pants was a set of AD1 pants and fit much better.

I also ordered a set of lobster-claw rain cover gloves as I had gotten soaked during the last IBR and thought these actually be waterproof.

What I found when I got everything in one place was an impressive amount of quality and engineering. The Darien looks like something a firefighter would wear more than a motorcyclist….and already has several people inquire about my “firefighter’s jacket”.  Each seam, gusset, zipper, and pocket has a specific purpose and design. Just realizing the left side pockets are purposely made differently than the right side pockets told me this jacket was built for right-handers and opened my mind to where I could stuff things while riding.

So, if you see me on the road…I look a lot more like the average Iron Butt rider now…..at least until the road grim build up a patina.

Well, today is my birthday.  The big 40.

I like to think I’m somewhat ambivalent about it…although I realized a month ago I had a red sporty car in my garage.  Perhaps it’s midlife crises brewing and I don’t fully realize it yet.  Or perhaps this blog is the post-modern equivalent to getting a Vette.

I dunno.

Regardless, today I most remember when my father turned 40 several decades ago and demonstrated with his hands that he had 7 fingers of life dealt to him and that he had 3 of them left….leaving him “over half dead”.

It was edgy and at the same time a bit creepy to an 18 year old.

I guess I’m a bit more optimistic for myself as I do my own mid-life inventory…and think that today I’m only half dead with 4 or so fingers left (insert edgy and creepy visual here).

In fact, on my 40th birthday I’d like to use my birthday wish for Pop revise his thinking and give himself an extra finger….pun intended you old coot.

Of course none of this is really IBR related as the blog title suggests.  However, hopefully I’ve grown a little wiser, sophisticated, and able to appreciate some of the the finer things in life…..including art.  Mom sent me an Allan Mardon lithograph that I’ve been drooling over since I was given directions to open earlier than my birtdhay.

It’s just plain cool and entirely appropriate for my 40 year old bachelor pad.

It reminds me of the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid which was a year after I first skied…and a sport I still enjoy to this day.

Besides Allan’s incredible talent that is a world and brain hemisphere apart from my own–he has become a family friend over the years that I regularly spend Christmas with.  He even signed it with a personal note and what I’ve learned is a favorable mark in the art world.  “AP 1/40″ which stands for Artist’s Proof….a run that precedes production.  And there were 300 of those if my Google skills are intact.

A rare piece to be sure.  And who knew that my 40th birthday would include art appreciation as a subject…and even rarer me appreciating art?

And even if I can’t fully appreciate the finer elements of composition, style, and subject matter…it just really classes up the joint!

It’s Great to Be Alive and the Next 40 are Going to Be Even Better
Happy Birthday To Matt!

The Final Analysis

Final Standings

Clicky here.

Other Reports

Jerry White wrote this report.

I think Eric Vallaincourt totally nailed “The Report” of this rally. His approach is what I’ll call the middle plan or efficient choice.

Philosophy

Now that it’s a few days after the rally and I’ve had time to digest my choices, performance, and do a little comparison I thought I’d try and share a few observations. First and foremost,  My personality type is such that I would like to have run it with the same approach he did, but I think pulling it off like he did was uncommon in this rally. In fact, I guess there were three approaches people took:

1. Conservative - Eight easy-to-get words not maxing out 8 letters each and not many with Z, Q, X, and J. Probably more K, P, and vowel words. These folks probably found themselves finishing easily and upsizing three of their words.
2. Aggressive - These folks tried to use as many of the 64 letters as possible and go for words like ZZYZYVA and HO. If it was on a map or a GPS then it must have existed in real life and would be possible to find. These folks had the rude realization that some towns didn’t exist and were scrambling the whole event to make a minimum of their 5 original words.
3. Efficient and Achievable - Like Eric his appetite more or less matched his ability. He was smart enough not to assume a town existed, gave himself a bit of a cushion, and got to spend more time riding and less time trying to make words fit. Also, his choice to arrive at the final checkpoint early, take a nap, and then attack final scoring relatively fresh was probably the smartest move of all.

Myself? 2…all the way! This was, by far, my most aggressive attempt at a rally, and I ultimately paid the price by missing a letter and dropping from a podium to a 17th place. Mind you, I don’t regret it one bit. I don’t usually do the aggressive thing and it was change of pace for me and learned volumes from it.

West or East?

As I sat in Friday evening trying to come up with 8 words and decide where to go and what cities to get I quickly surmised that Ely and rural Nevada was exactly the wrong area to get lots of letters. I needed to go to metropolitan areas with lots of little burgs.

Two areas jumped out at me as obvious. Salt Lake City to the East and Reno to the West. There really wasn’t any population centers achievable to the North nor the South..except Vegas and not many burgs down there. I knew SLC having went to school there years ago and also from the Utah 1088. It didn’t seem rich with Z’s, but had J’s and even a Q over there….and lots of nearby towns to pick up filler vowels. I decided fairly early that would be a place to go.

The other area of Reno was a bit tougher. It was a smaller area than SLC, but had several corridor options including south through Carson City towards California. I saw Topaz and Topaz Lake and it seemed natural. Markleeville and a Q at a cove. There was also Shurz, Hazen, and Nixon, and it seemed obivous.

In the back of my mind on the West swing was also Sacramento, but it was nebulous at best. Maybe if I had time I could head that way or search on my GPS once I was in the area. So, at that point I clinched the West and East run, but then had to decide which to do first.

The Fallon checkpoint essentially made it a 12 hour leg followed by a 20 hour leg so my choices seemed to be whether I could go Ely to SLC to Fallon in the 12 hours and still get the needed towns. It seemed a bit iffy to me so I opted to head to Reno first. Highway 50 was fast and other than a few stops on the way I could have time to do more than Nixon and Topaz.

The Hitch in My Giddyup

It turns out my front tire had a different opinion on the whole ride. It was a wobbily bitch between 25 and 50 to the point that twisties scared the bejeezus out of me. And at FJR nominal speeds it had a little bounce to it. It bugged me and the thought of losing that tire concerned me enough to stop in Reno and spend two hours have the balance checked and ultimately changed.

I’d like to say the dealership that shall remain nameless started out stellarly by believing it was an emergency to me and checking balance, but when they came to me and said it was out 1/4 ounce and was put back together I had a cow. My instruction had been to “check the balance” and if out a bunch to rebalance. If close I wanted to talk about a new tire.

They insisted the tire was sound with only 1000 miles on it, but I knew better. I rode it down the street and it did it’s scary shimmy until 50 mph and knew the Avon Storm was a bad one. Avon’s are great tires, but they do seem to have a clinker now and again. Returning to the shop our relationship went sour quickly as they thought I was nuts and servicing people with appointments was more important, but reluctantly put on a new Michelin Pilot Road…even as I paid top dollar for it and the service.

They even thought they’d get snippy and put notes on the service sheet that I was running too much weight on the bike, head bearing was loose (mind you I had retorqued it to spec just before leaving home), and that the new tire likely wouldn’t fix the issue. As for weight I’d gone through and added special supsension components to the bike for my fat ass and extra gear….and have learned over 70,000 miles when a tire is going bad or not thank you.

As I left the dealership $240 lighter I was pleasantly validated within two blocks that the tire was butter smooth. No more Avons for me. I did chuckle to myself that I told them for their great service they could keep the nearly brand new tire.  Heh, they’re going to love that turgid piece of defective crap when they mount it up.

Finishing Leg 1

As I left Reno I headed South towards Carson City and snagged what I could. The money was really to score Topaz and Topaz Lake. The two small burgs close together concerned me though…and I never did find a picture adequate to prove I was in Topaz. My GPS pointed me to a post office that was a field nowhere near anything but a single farmhouse.

This area was extra important personally to me because I had just read a book on the history of T.B. Rickey, that was huge landowner (nearly all of Antelope Valley) and cattle rancher in the area, and Senator of Nevada. He’s my stepfather’s grandfather and was also responsible for the building of Topaz Lake

I found after the ride that after my unsuccessful hunt for the Topaz Post Office, I did score one of the three additional things we were to get to avoid a penalty. Prime Cowpie. And it turns out that road I found the cowpie was smack dab in the middle of Rickey’s Ranch.

Small world.

After Topaz I worked my way back into Nevada and started thinking about Yerrington and the all-important Schurz. After I bagged those I gassed up in Fallon, headed east to the middle of nowhere for a checkpoint, and started thinking about the next leg.

What the Old West Was

When I rolled into Middlegate I was seriously struck at the scene. An oasis of a bar in the middle of nowhere, rustic beyond belief, and a shady spot in the afternoon sun. If there weren’t hundreds of thousands of dollars of hi-tech rally bikes parked there I could TOTALLY imagine horses tied to posts, drinking, and eating oats after a long ride from the next oasis.

And it wasn’t just as LD riders, but also a large contingent of Harley riders tossing back a beer, and a gaggle of dirtbike riders barbequing up in the early evening.

The smell and feel of the Old West hung in the air like I had never felt in my life. It was high-def full-color Spaghetti Western come to life. See this link of some great pictures.

Leg 2 - To the Land of Zion But No Z’s

It’s curious that the Land of Zion has no Z’s in any town names. I mean it’s really curious. There’s Nephi, Satiquin, and Jordan…all names that feature prominently in the book of Mormon and have cities in Utah, but Zion doesn’t. Weird.

I tried my hand at darts and in my 3 practice throws scored well over 60 points alone. However, I flailed miserably with my 6 real darts and only scored like 45 points. No extra Z for me….I settled on an X…which would be wasted later on.

I rolled west out of Middlegate lamenting having to go through Fallon for the third time in this rally, but it was a necessary evil to catch Lovelock, Imlay, and Winnemucca for their prized k, y, w, and vowel marrow. I settled into a good routine of I-80, stop, picture, move on. And I repeated this until I couldn’t ride any further…which conveniently was about 3 a.m. near the Great Salt Lake at a rest area.

The cement picnic table looked hard so I chose the soft grass nearby and began a planned 90 minute sleep cycle. About 45 into it I awoke to a sprinkler in the face. Bolting upright I was drenched and the sprinkler had been on for some time…so I must have been tired. I went to the other side of the rest area and salvaged another 45 minutes of sleep and awoke to the pre-dawn hours.

Very refreshed I needed to plan my strategy through the SLC area and opted for a nearby McDonalds and my first meal of the rally (unless you include some granola and jerky from the day before). Scouring the map I knew traffic would be light in the early a.m. and got ready for a berry picking exercise. SLC would be easy and I decided that I needed to be to Nephi no later than 10 a.m. Even conservative speeds would get me from there to Ely by 1 p.m. and if I wicked it up I could be there an hour early.

The highlights were West Jordan and South Jordan. Two big letters within 5 minutes of each other. I also scored Santiquin. Once to Nephi I headed west, picked up a couple extra easy ones in Leamington, Delta, and Hinckley, and then twisted the throttle to the open desert of Highway 50. One more picture at the Utah sign and a small bonus of Baker after hooking up with Brad Warwick, a fellow FJR rider and Nevada Highway Patrol. We enjoyed our last 60 miles to Ely at nominal speeds.

Rolling into Ely I actually forgot to get the town…which was unfortunate because the Y would have helped me later because my Yerrington photo was out of focus and disallowed. The presence of mind one would have had to realize this while in the rally was absolutely impossible though…for me…or mere mortals. I add it after the fact as an example of how small mistakes on an agressive plan can hammer you.

Ignorant of this goof I enjoyed getting a 6 pack of beer though and rolled into the hotel with about 40 minutes to spare.

Scoring - Like Watching the Twit Olympics

If you want funny and sad at the same time…watch 40 something riders spend 32 hours in the hot sun on bikes and then come back and try and make important decisions about scrabble letters. It’s seriously painful to watch unless you’re an event organizer and enjoy the drama of seeing people’s brain actually seize up and smoke.

Again, the smart money would have been to arrive a couple hours early, take another nap, and then get up to finally assemble your photos and letters.

I didn’t take the smart money.

I took a couple of minutes to shuck my clothes and drink a little water, but I tried to sort out my letters quickly.  A helmet fire quickly ensued.  This paper represents the twists and turns I tried to make a round peg to fit in a square hole.

Suffice it to say that I’m lucky to have snagged 7 words.  Although my biggest word was disallowed…I could have easily made more mistakes and eroded my grip on the place I did.  This aggressive approach to a rally was a bit new for me and I’m not saying it’s me in the future or that I’m going to a more moderate approach, but it was certainly educational…and a heck of a lot of fun!

—

During the Rally

I’ll also be trying out my new SPOT GPS transmitter and you can follow along. I will be commuting to Ely on Thursday, departing in the rally on Saturday morning at 5 a.m. PDT, May 31st and returning 32 hours later on Sunday at 1 p.m.

Steve Hobart is posting photos of the event regularly here. ————–

————–

Sunday, 20:00

ZZYZVYA!

With the exception of my GPS transmitter there was an e-embargo for this event. They actually sealed our laptops with a special tamper-proof tape and told in no uncertain terms not to used computers.

We just got done with the banquet and I placed 17th out of about 45. More about it later probably of how I might have been on the podium but I screwed up on my top scoring 600+ point word ZYZZYVA. I had traveled to Topaz Lake, Hazen, and Shurz for those, but didn’t put a “v” on the original sheet so it was disallowed. The scorer felt bad, but I 100% told him to do what he thought was the right thing. Warchild was the award presenter and did note that had I not goofed I would have been on the podium.

Other FJR’s did very well…in fact First, Second, and Fourth.

Must…..sleep….now. Long ride back home early in the morning.

Friday, 13:00

Ran through tech. inpsection and did my odo check. I’m in and chilling. I did try to scare myself by losing my primary keys…and just had that unsettled feeling running my spares. …I ended up finding my keys in my sidebags in the room so my stress level went down.

I also had a wheel weight that was slipping off because of the area I placed it was creating a sideload force as it spun around and was going to fling off at a bad time. I got a new one from the local dealer and it’s much happier when I placed it on a flatter spot of the rim.

Greg Marbach, however, is freaking out a bit. He called at 7 a.m. waking me up and said his high and low beams aren’t working…which is no good if you want to ride at night. He’s due in the next few hours and I’m sure we’ll help him tear things apart and try and fix things. Hopefully, it’s something simple and not a relay…because I already checked at the local Yamaha dealership and none in stock.

The shirts are out and feature a Scrabble theme on back–giving me a hint and prediction that it will be something about forming routes where you have to visit a town that starts with W, then the next with O, third with R….and you see where this is going. Then how many times can you spell the word “WORD” in 32 hours. Looking at the back of the shirt one gets different values for different letters. Perhaps they give a list of locations starting with those letters in Nevada, California, Utah, Arizona, and Idaho and we see how many points we can get.

Thursday, 19:30

Had a nice prime rib dinner with Doug Chapman, my riding partner on Leg 1 of the IBR last year and came back to a bunch more people in the parking lot including a gaggle of FJR riders. Zelenz has returned with his tank coffin and tail sarcophogus. (I’ll post a pic later).

Thursday, 14:48

To McCranium: The loitering around Mountain Home….was breakfast….no LEO conversation.

Thursday, 13:15

I pulled in about 11:30 making good time after Hagerman, ID. You gotta love Nevada! Had a bite to eat and the parking lot is pretty empty. No Dale…I’m guessing I leap frogged him or he’s scouting on the way down.

Don Moses pulled in from Texas and Rick Martin from Pontiac, IL after 1600+ miles.

Two FJR’s and one KLR in the parking lot….I would expect more as the afternoon wears on.

I just checked my SPOTtrack and it seems to have worked pretty well. The interface is a little kludgy with the gaint pushpins, but it works. Curious thing is to see the spacing change of the 10 minute reports when I get into Nevada. Heh.

Thursday, 01:40

I’m outta Pasco. SPOT will be active and I’ll be riding to Ely. Haven’t decided if I’m riding the slab to Twin Falls and cutting down through Jackpot or riding 395 to Burns and then try Denio as a new road.

I’ll get to decide by Pendleton.

Background

My first competitive ride of the season is Saturday, May 31st. The Word! rally promises to be a bit different than others I’ve been in.

For starters, it begins and ends in Ely, Nevada….which I’ve come to learn is a town in the middle of nowhere, at the crossroads of many of Nevada’s most spectacular highways, but still a big enough to host a decent buffet. I rode the White Pine Fever event in 2006 and although I won’t share specific shenanigan details …I can say that it was eating like sugared cereal for 24 hours straight. Not very healthy, a helluva lot of fun though, you have a headache after you finally stop, and you promise yourself you will never ever do it again.

Also, suffice it to say I learned to like Area 51 and the Extraterrestrial Highway so much that I did seven laps that day. The 196 mile stretch from Ash Springs to Round Mountain has one stop sign and no towns between it. It’s nirvana for a road devouring sport-touring bike.

One stretch near Rachel is ethereal in it’s perspective and parabola effect. If one were to sit at Rachel the afternoon might sound something like this.

However, this ride won’t be so much about miles….I think. 1148 is listed as a minimum and I have this sneaking suspicion high miles may be penalized. This one likely will be about routing efficiency and ability to prevail in traditional manly type activities (aka shooting large caliber weapons).

Of the items I need to bring include a crisp dollar bill, an unused Trojan Magnum condom of the extra-large variety, various highlighters, pens, maps, calculator, and a notebook. One fellow rider has captured the essence of the trip in this picture.

It’s also suggested that more competitive riders bring Gazetteers of Nevada and adjoining states…..which is entirely retro. The last time I bought a Gazetteer I’m not sure Washington had celebrated it’s first Centennial and I have since pretty much abandoned the things in favor of the very convenient and dynamic 2730. After visiting Barnes & Noble, G.I. Joe’s, and the Outdoor Sportsmen I found my credit card $130 heavier and will end up wrapping them carefully to return if I don’t end up using them.

This is all in addition to suggestion of bringing what is now rally-standard electronic gear of a laptop, mapping software, and GPS…so it almost seems like a conflict is brewing. Dare they confiscate our electronic warfare gadgets and require us to go old school?

If there’s any event that would do more than threaten this…this would be the one. Let’s see……the features organizers including Dale Wilson, Brian Roberts, and Chickey. If it didn’t include the relatively seratonin-balanced personalities of Don Moses and HMarc Lewis I’d be making a dooty in my pants.

Regardless, I’ll be prepared and as an homage to the 2005 and earlier IBR have a used Marlboro cigarette ready butt to measure map miles just in case.

Ride Reports

Alan and Katy Smutz - On a BMW 650 X-Challenge and KTM LC4 640

Warchild - On an LD Prepped Hayabusa

Lisa and Tobie Stevens riding with Llloyd Gardner - On FJRs and a Goldwing

May 26th 03:46

The first S&M 1000 is a wrap! I just got back home after the second flight returned. One rider did call in and decided to bail out at Yakima…and that’s just fine. The other 8 riders made it with Art, Thoren, and a C-14 rider making good time at 19 1/2 hours….and Art is a bear of man and had the biggest grin on his face when he was done.

Dan and his son rolled in and announced that he’d never do that on an R1 again….duh. Ahh to be young again.

The final three on a V-Star and two Harleys used most of the clock, but that’s also just fine.

22 starters and 21 finishers over a route that’s not the easiest Saddle Sore. Combined with rain for everybody and they all earned their certification. 7 of the riders were newbies…or exactly 1/3 of the finishers. Quickest finishers were Lisa, Tobie, and Llloyd at 19 hours and 6 minutes…partly because of their counter-clockwise direction matched with the weather and daytime traffic better. At 23 hours and 9 minutes Mike Berlien on his KLR rode a tough ride and still finished.

Me, I’m wiped out too. The past 2 days have been weird and it feels to me like 10 p.m….not 4 in the morning.

Signing off.

May 25th, 10:00

Just rolled in from checking in the first thirteen riders. All came back safely. First to return were Big Chief Stinky Pants, Iron MaidenTobie, and Lloyd on a Wing. They rode the route backwards and had the luck of less rain and not having to hassle with a swap meet in Packwood as they did it during o’dark thirty.

Everybody that rode clockwise road a TOUGH ride. Eastern Washington was soaked and slow going…with lots of fog and darkness

The two that tried the BBG C (LDRyder and OCFJR) bailed out because of hardcore rain in Idaho and Montana and shortened it into an 1100 mile Saddle Sore. It was a tough route even in good conditions…so I think they made the right choice.

Ray got beat up a bit as did Warchild, but they rolled in about 8:30. Maura on an ST a bit after that.

The highlight of the event so far is clearly a couple from Pendleton, Alan and Kathy Smutz. TRUE LD newbies on non-fairinged dual-sport KTM 640 and BMW 650, they read about this thing on ADVrider.com and initially thought it was an enduro event on dirt roads, but found out it was an IBA ride and jumped at the chance because somebody did the route planning for them. When they rolled in soaked to the bone grinning…it just mad me smile. They had to gas up every 100 miles and came in with about 1 hour to spare. They EARNED this ride and I’m gonna have to tell Kneebone about these two cross-over spirits.

Following up the rear was an LD guy that rode his KLR. Berlien looked pretty war, but he finished.

That dirty baker’s dozen is headed home, to bed, or both.

Meanwhile, I had a second flight of riders that were mostly shop staff that had to work Saturday and I saw them off at 3:45 a.m. That 9 include Harely’s and cruisers, Warchild’s FJR with Dan Denchell at the helm, and his son on an R1. He’s about 20 something so I cringe with my spine and am happy he doesn’t have to get any lighthouse pictures.

I’m hoping they have better luck on the weather and will head back to DVP later this evening for their return.

It’s already clear the first S&M 1000 has gone well with 12 of 20 riders complete.

….now off to bed myself.

20:30 - Tobie called from Ellensburg. He, Lisa, and Lloyd rode the route backwards….and will benefit from Packwood not being a mess.

16:00 - Warchild called from Ellensburg. He said it took 30 minutes to get through Packwood. I learned last week they have a flea market this time of year…and maybe 12 wasn’t the best choice.

May 24th, 11:00 A dozen people are out riding now including two doing a BBG. As usual, Warchild, gets special dispensation and started at about 8 a.m. This means as he cruises the route he’ll stir up the hornets nest of cops, make it through unscathed, and they’ll be good and stirred up by the time the other people ride through. I’d say watch his progress at the SPOT I loaned him…except I don’t think he turned it on. I think my favorite folks are Katy and Alan Smutz. Their wide-eyed newbies, genuinely eager to try the ride, a little unsure of themselves, but look to have level heads and ambitious since they’re riding what are essentially dirt bikes…including a KTM. I’m now the nervous mother hen and will be puttering around the house in what is an information black-out. The idea of the cell phone ringing both both excites me because it will be somebody out on the road……and scares me because it will be somebody out on the road. I worked it out with Dan Denchell and staff that they’re going to leave in a second flight at 4 a.m.–so it’s like the all Saddle Sore weekend.

May 23rd, 13:00

Cloudy skies are around, but I’ll looking forward to having a BBQ anyway. We are the “World’s Toughest Riders” for a reason.

May 18, 2008

Perhaps it’s a fitting date being the 28th anniversary of Mt. St. Helens blowing, but there’s going to be a route change. The snow-heavy winter has made the opening of the NF-25 later than usual…as I learned from Tobie Stevens that the road from Cougar to Randle is blocked with snow as of yesterday. I doubt it will be open by next week so I’ve tweaked the route just a bit. Since it was an alternate route anyway…it’s now the default….which is all part of LD riding anyway. Adapt and adjust.

Tobie and Lisa also sorted out some personal things and look like they’ll be able to join us again!

UPDATE: May 15, 2008

I’ve finalized the Saddle Sore route and am putting finishing touches on the packets I’ll be providing riders for the S&M 1000 ride. Warchild looked at them and thought the detail I put into the route, detailed packet with a matrix of mileage and waypoint time estimates, route alternates, and a few other details would go a long way to help first time riders and regulars alike. He’s even thinking about riding this route himself!

A little teaser and hint for those folks that haven’t asked for the route in advance…..you’ll be seeing Bluebird houses and Stonehenge as you head West first thing in the morning and hopefully enjoy a nice view of Mt. St. Helens provided the weather cooperates.

I’ll be going over it in the rider’s meeting, but do yourself and others a favor and please read up on the ride rules.

Looking forward to seeing folks at the BBQ Friday and everybody safely return Sunday morning.

Matt

————-

Those Pacific Northwest Folks looking for a fun ride in May–think about joining us in a the first ever Sagebrush & Mountain 1000. It’s a group all Washington State Saddle Sore being hosted at Desert Valley Powersports in Prosser, WA on Saturday, May 24th. Dan Denchel is opening his dealership’s doors to us and we’ll even have breakfast on Sunday waiting for you.

S&M 1000 Flier

Check out the flier and PM me if interested. I’m planning to share the route the morning of the ride to give newbies the feeling of how a rally works, but I can share details beforehand if it’s important to you. Suffice it to say it’s not going to be one that routes through the Cascades and the vista expanses of Eastern Washington…mostly on two-lane highways.

Not hardcore enough? I’ve got an In-state BBG route too if you’re looking for something very technical to chew or a more traditional BBG through several states if that’s more your pace.

Hope to see you in Prosser!

Lodging in Prosser

There are three organized options. The hotel next door to Desert Valley Powersports is hosting a tournament and has about 10 rooms left…and asking top dollar for their rooms. However if you want a Best Western they’re available. Otherwise, The Barn Motor Inn is probably the better value and just a few blocks away.

Inn at Horse Heaven (next door to DVP), 225 Merlot, 509 786-7090, 10 rooms available for 5/23 at $109 a night. Say “sagebrush” for group name.

Barn Motor Inn (~ 0.5 miles), 490 Wine Country Road, 509 786-2121, 27 rooms available $55 single/$62.50 double. Say “sagebrush” for group name.

Prosser Motel (~ 1 mile…downtown), 1206 Wine Country Road, 509 786-2555, 6 rooms available, $39 single/$49 double.

Pre-Ride BBQ

For those that want to come down to my place before the event, I’m having a BBQ Friday evening. Address and details will be sent to folks.

Saddle Sore Route - Open to All

• Washington State Saddle Sore 1000

Bun Burner Gold Routes - Open to only those who have completed an IBA ride prior

• BBG Route A (all in Washington, all Interstate)
• BBG Route B (contact Matt)
• BBG Route C (WA-MT-WA with last leg in common with SS route, favored by most BBG riders)

Confirmed Riders

1. Maura Gatensby
2. Eric Vaillancourt
3. Dan Denchel
4. Dennis York (BBG)
5. Ray Slocomb
6. Lloyd Gardner (BBG)
7. Alan Smutz
8. Katy Smutz
9. Dale Wilson
10. Art Patillo
11. Jim McCabe
12. Mike Berlien
13. Lisa Stevens
14. Tobie Stevens
15. Steve Reinig
16. Bill Rathbone
17. Tom von Tom
18. Chris Kemp (wrichstrom)
19. Adam Quigley (BBG) galactus
20. Joe Zulaski

Tentative Rider

1. Some of Tom von Tom’s friends
   

Possible Riders

1. Jerry Smith
2. Ron ? (friend of Jerry)
3. Bill Watt
4. Tina Hansen, Canada
   

Visitors

1. Terry and Linda Lahman

In Spirit

1. Doug Chapman
2. George Zelenz
3. R62FJR (Neil)
4. John Johnston
5. 
   

The Iron Butt Rally has joined the 21st Century and is going to allow digital pictures as evidence for bonus gathering. At first glance this would appear to make things easier, but I learned in my 2007 Utah 1088 the…. hard way….that one can screw up digital photos more easily and catastrophically than a Polaroid. In my effort to assist the rallymaster and remove non-relevant personal photos…I think I hosed two or three bonus photos he couldn’t find on the card. I think I took a 10 position hit.

Clearly, I don’t want to repeat that. So, a myriad of technical points make digitals an interesting, but more complicated endeavor.

Summarized the rules include new points about digital photographs:

You have to make sure your pictures will read on THEIR equipment. If they don’t, you’re screwed and it’s really hard to haggle as you don’t have the old traditional photo in hand to point at and haggle over.

The requirements to use digital are generally more onerous. You have to submit for inspection and tagging a memory card that you’re going to use and turn in only that one. If that card fails you can’t plug in another card like you can with Polaroid or you’ll take a penalty hit.

You can’t have any non-bonus related photographs when you turn the card in you’ll be penalized. One either has to either skip leisure photos, remember to swap with a non-rally card for each leisure shot, or remove the photos before you turn it in.

You can also only turn in photos that are 640×480 pixel resolution…obstensibly to prevent a George Zelenz Lighthouse bonus from occurring because one owns a camera and lens capable of spy satellite like photographs know you can see a bonus from two counties away. …which is a fair concern.

Admittedly, I do have own a consumer-grade spy satellite called an Olympus E-500 that loves to take photos at 3300×2200 through a 300mm lens with a tripod….but I’ll have to remember to switch back and forth between resolution modes as 640×480 for personal shots just seems like a waste. How likely would I be do that after 10 days of mush-brain? Mmmm….pretty frickin’ likely….unless I can get into a solid habit and practice before.

Or I have another snapomatic type D200 I bought some years ago, but I can’t find SmartMedia memory to be able to give up to the starting line.

Third option is to buy a NEW Olympus Stylus SW series….which wasn’t exactly in my budget plans at $300+. Having two digital cameras already I’m loathed to buy a third…but I have to admit the new ones look pretty cool with lots of features including being waterproof.

Finally, the rules I’m sure are to keep the playing field between digital and traditional Polaroid roughly even AND to reduce the chance somebody thinks they can Photoshop a picture to pretend they’ve been somewhere they haven’t.

I hope digital can work because having photos of a ride to then blog and report would just be so nice since we drop 5+ grand on these little vacations.

Touch and Feel The Goods

OK, so here it is a few days later and I’ve touched a couple of these cameras at my local Best Buy. Funny how having one of them in your hands changes the calculus. They are very cool little critters….very compact……very water and weather proof…and probably a much better option than my largish dSLR.

I think I’ll cave and buy one…maybe before SPANK or next season when the price drops a bit. I’ll justify it my mind as a replacement for my venerable D200Z that’s given me 5 years of good service, but can’t get media for anymore.

That and with a weatherproof camera I’ve got this plan to have a mount on my handlebars with a flexible arm and be able to easily do shots while I ride!

The question now is to get a 770SW, 790SW, 850SW, or 1030SW.

Seems I didn’t learn my lesson in 2007. I applied for the 2009 Iron Butt Rally and got an acceptance e-mail from Ms. Landry last night.

At this point I know it starts in the southeastern United States August 24th, 2009 and finishes near the West Coast on September 4th. I also know of some others that got in…and some that didn’t.

Rules are going to be a bit different this year I’m sure with the issue of “outside assistance” on everybody’s mind. I’m quite confident organizers will address the issue head on and probably sternly. I’m ready as I’ll be prepared for anything.

My goals this time? The first three are substantially the same…with a slight amendment to the last goal.

1. Finish
   
2. Finish Solo Safely
   
3. Finish Without the Ire of Johnny Law
4. Finish in the Top 5

That last one…I almost typed “Top 10″. But, you know……lofty and hard to reach goals are healthy. It will push me to work even harder preparing for this one. Better physical condition, more routing practice while on the clock, I have a rally under my belt, etc.

I figured it’s good to reach for the stars.

But most important…I won’t grab for the brass ring of #4 without staying true to the first three goals. I did just that in 2007 and plan to do it in 2009.

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