2019 Iron Butt Rally Day -442 (4/1/18)

Iron Butt Rally: Day -442 (4/1/18)

I received the fateful email today that set in motion the plans, thoughts, and dreams that will slowly begin to dominate my sleep and waking hours for the next 453 days.

"Congratulations! Your application was drawn for entry in the 2019 Iron Butt Rally!"

Yes, it's true, I am a little crazy.  the 2103 IBR was an epic adventure I will never forget.  In fact, it was so amazing that I signed up for more punishment in 2015. Unfortunately, a lot of factors conspired to make a rally experience I'd rather forget. I'd pretty much written off any more IBRs  in my life.

But two new lenses in my eyes, a some great rides, and a new titanium knee had me thinking again.  The coverage of the 2017 IBR had me wishing I was out there again crossing the continent in search of obscure animal sculptures.  So with the blessing of my spouse/occasional touring passenger, I applied for another adventure.

So here I am, ready to go, with more than a year to wait. 

Heaven & Hell: How the West Was Won 2017

I try to do at least one rally per year, and had heard great things about How the West Was Won (HW3). The rallymaster has a reputation for creating fun and challenging puzzles, so when the application opened, I quickly signed up.

This year, HW3 started and finished in Grand Junction, Colorado in August. The fun started a week before the rally, when we received the rally pack. HW3 gives you a week to plan, and you need it.  This year, the theme was Heaven and Hell.

The premise is simple but devious. There were Heaven bonuses which were positive values, and Hell bonuses that were negative point values. We needed to have an equal number of each bonus. So the main idea was high value Heavens combined with low value Hells.  But of course there were twists. Completing a thread ( a combination of bonuses with a theme) I could earn a wildcard bonus, there were also wildcards for mileage milestones (1000 & 1500 ). Using wildcards could offset hell bonus requirements, with no negative points. Simple? Of course (not). After a few focused nights and lunches, I had a plan. More on that later. All I had to do was hit all my bonuses and get back within 32 hours.

Thursday morning early, I set off for Grand Junction. After taking I-80 over Donner Pass and to Fallon, I headed onto US 50, America's loneliest highway. I hadn't crossed on 50 since the 2013 IBR. It was fun to stretch out across  the vast empty desert plains, with giant cumulus clouds dotting the sky.  I arrived at the hotel and checked in, getting dinner in the bar with some of the rally staff.

Friday was rally check-in, Odometer check, and dinner. Odometer check took two tries,because of a tricky double roundabout, but all was well. Of course, a new surprise set of bonuses were added. Churches and graveyards. Churches only in daylight, Graveyards from dusk to dawn. With route planned and GPS's loaded, I set the alarm to be ready for the 8AM start.

I woke to the sound of a Harley in the parking lot.  Checking the clock, I found that my alarm didn't sound, and it was 7:30! I quickly messaged the rallymaster that I overslept, dressed and packed. My official start time was 8:30. My tightly planned route just got much tighter.

I headed west on I-70 towards Utah. We needed to collect State signs.  Utah was my fist stop.

Next I headed down 191 towards Moab and Canyon Country. Along the way I was collecting Town names for another wild card bonus.

My main thread choice were Indian ruins. I headed to Hovenweep National monument for a picture of the plaque at the visitor center. After a winding section of freshly removed highway, replaced by rock and gravel, I arrived at Hovenweep National monument.  The skid plate on the wing got a workout too.This became a theme, as I ended up on lots of reservation land through the rally,

Stopped here for the Navajo National Monument

Canyon De Chelly was amazing. The canyon is a hidden oasis in the Arizona desert, and the view from the overlook was fscinating.

This bighorn sheep sculpture was a challenge to find. It was supposed to be at the museum. I asked the docent, and she suggested that the artist had taken it back home. Home was a few blocks away, so I was lucky to find it in the field across from the house. Yay!

This was when it started to rain, I was high in the mountains of Arizona, and it was starting to pour.  It was also a challenge to find gas, but after some local searching, a small independent station topped off the Wing's big tanks. I continued south on 180.

  The trip to the Gila Visitor center was a long 19 mile winding road back into the canyon.  I arrived well after dark, dodging rock slides and deer to get to take this picture. Then it was another 19 miles back out.

It was getting very late and I started hunting for a hotel.  I filled up, then checked into a Comfort Inn near Truth or Consequences NM. I caught about 4 hours of sleep.

Packed and back on the road by 4:15. I was now traveling North on I-25. Riding on the empty highway, I was closing on a vehicle with full lights and siren, It was a Paramedic ambulance. I didn't pass, instead pacing it. It slowed at the scene of a car/semi accident. I slipped by the commotion that would shortly close I-25 for an hour or so.

The sun came up to reveal the beautiful New Mexico desert, with large cumulus clouds dotting the horizon.  I arrived at the Aztec ruins, named for the city, not the people that built them. I paid my donation, got the tour book and even spent some time looking at the museum, before finding the main Kiva and taking my required photo.

I continued north, crossing the Colorado border and getting a state sign photo.

The next stop was at Mesa Verde. It's a rarity, in that you can actually ride way up onto the mesa, and get an amazing view.

It was also another long way in and out. At the required bonus photo location, I met another rider. He looked at his GPS fretfully. "I don't think we'll make it back in time". I told him I thought it would be close.

I have two GPSs, a 590LM, and an older GPSMAP 478. They offered two different routes back. The 590 said I'd be 15 minutes late. The 478 said 15 minutes early. I chose old age and treachery. That route went up 141, through a beautiful canyon and over a very high pass.  I kept the pace brisk, closing in on Grand Junction. At Clifton, I reconnected to I-70 and headed west. I arrived back at finish, with 15 minutes to spare. The volunteers had been watching the SPOT track and were betting on whether I'd make it.

After checking in, I assembled photos and score sheet, and went to scoring. All my bonuses were good, and I finished three wildcards, which when combined gave me another thread for even more points.  I finished 19th, of 30 finishers. There were 16 DNFs.

How the West Was Won is a great rally. Thanks and gratitude are due to the rally master and dedicated volunteers.

A Centennial National Park Tour

I've taken vacation every year since 2010 for the express purpose of running in a multi-day rally. Two Ten'n'Tens, Two Iron Butt Rallies, and a Utah 1088 3-day rally.  This year, I didn't have a rally commitment, and decided to take a nice road trip by motorcycle.  This year would also be special because this time, Wendy would be joining me for the adventure!

The idea was to visit some of our great national parks.  I had the week before labor day reserved, and ran the idea past Wendy. Surprisingly, she was up for the trip.  She's taken a few weekend rides, but never anything lasting nine days.  Her only requests, that we avoid the heat and not ride too long each day.  With that in mind, I plotted a trip north.

Day One: Yosemite and Beyond

We packed very light, and were each able to fit everything we needed in our respective saddle bags. A bag on the trunk rack held liners, and other light gear for off the bike. The plan for the day was to travel through Yosemite, enroute to our first stop, Winnemucca, Nevada.

All was going well, or so I thought. Wendy had developed a migraine-like headache, and was not a happy camper.  We rested a while, overlooking the Yosemite valley from high above  on Tioga Pass. Things got a little better and we made our way down the pass into LeeVining, CA.

I've heard good things about the Whoa Nellie Deli, a food delight hidden in thee Mobil station.  We were not disappointed.

From there, bellies full, we headed across the Owens Valley towards Nevada. its very straight and flat out here, with Mono lake off to the right

We made a short stop to collect a Tour of honor location in Nevada. This one is in Hawthorne, One of the USA's largest Ammunition Storage Facilities.

Note the large artillery shells for decoration.

From ther, we headed north past Walker lake, to I-80, then East to Winnemucca.  It was  a little warmer than we like, but soon we were tucked in at the Holiday Inn Express and having Mexican for dinner.  Wendy's headache had subsided and we were fully air conditioned.

Day Two: Going to Jackson Wyoming

We hit the road about 8:30, heading east for a while. then north into Idaho.  We stopped for another Tour of honor location in Twin Falls.

There wasn't much more to say about this day except that it was hot and boring, and Wendy was questioning my judgement, until we headed up over Teton Pass.  What a magnificent view! As we dropped into the valley and passed the river, we knew things were going to be different from then on.

We checked in to the Antler Inn Motel, in downtown Jackson. It's a nice older motel, well kept and vintage.  After cleaning up and cooling off, we walked to Snake river brewing for a delicious dinner of beer, home-made pretzel and Pizza.

Day Three: Grand Tetons:
In the morning we breakfasted at the Silver dollar, in the old Wort hotel. We walked over to the park to see the Antler arches. These are  constructed of shed Elk antlers, collected by local boy scouts.

We came back later with the bike for a Tour of Honor site, located in the center of the park.

Now it was time to head north into Grand Tetons National Park. There are very few words that can capture the grandeur of the Tetons, so I'll let the pictures do their best.

We rode up through the park, and around the main lake. Saw some elk and a huge buck Mule deer.

Mother nature threw a wrench into our plan for the day - a huge forest fire was burning at the south entrance to our next stop, Yellowstone.  Unfortunately, we had to make a large detour back through Jackson, over into Idaho, and up to West Yellopwstone, where we'd spend the night.

Arriving at West Yellowstone, we had planned to stay at the Dude & Roundup Motel.  However, the motel wasn't anything like its pictures. We were the only residents, and it felt like the prelude to a slasher movie.  We quickly arranged a much nicer place in town, and checked in there.  We spent a nice evening shopping and having dinner.

Day 4: Yellowstone National Park
We planned to be off the bike today.  Instead, a tour bus picked us up at the hotel for an all day tour of Yellowstone National Park.  I highly recommend the big yellow bus tours.

 Our guide was amazing, and took us to many beautiful locations. At one point, huge Bison came down next to our bus.

The tourguides keep in touch by radio, and we got word of wolves somewhere ahead.  Sure enough, a white female wolf was feeding off a killed elk calf.  Her partner sat watch on the hill above.  Soon, we saw a brown dot making its way down the hill towards the wolves.  It was a grizzly!  They kept their distance fro us and each other, but it was a real treat to see nature up close.

We stopped to watch Old Faithful, and visited other geothermal areas around the park.  It was a great day, letting someone else find parking, while we enjoyed the scenery.

Day 5: on the way to Glacier National Park

We rode north up HWY 89 from Yellowstone, skirting the edges of the massive mountain range.  By late afternoon, we reached Browning, MT, in the center of the Blackfoot reservation.  The Holiday InnExpress was great, and we were glad to be ready for the next day's epic ride.

Day 6: Glacier National Park

Heading north, we entered the eastern entrance to the park. We started onto the Going to the Sun road.  The highway winds tenuously along the sharp mountainsides.  The views are breathtaking.  Eventually, we stopped at the visitor center at the pass.

It was an ideal day for the ride. The road winds its way along the sheer cliffs, with stunning views out over lakes and meadows below. The smoke from Yellowstone fires hadn't touched these skies.

We passed out of the park, following the river southwest towards Flathead lake. We headed further west, eventually stopping for the night in Ritzville. We stayed at the Bronco Inn. It is a family-owned Best Western and the staff and facilities were wonderful.

Day 7: We headed west along the Columbia river. We stopped at Multnomah Falls. We had a little rain long the way.

Our eventual evening stop was Seaside, Oregon at the Shilo Inn. There was scattered rain through the evening, but we enjoyed walking in town and exploring the shops, and the sunset into the Pacific.


Day 8: Rain greeted us for our morning start. The original plan was to travel down the coast, but it was quite foggy, and we needed to make better time. We switched our route to I-5. I was expecting a boring slab trip, but I-5 in Oregon was a beautiful winding ribbon through mountains and valleys, We saw elk, Paul Bunyan, Bigfoot and Babe, the blue ox as we traveled to my mom's place in Fortuna, CA It was good to see her, and to share stories and pictures from the trip.

Day 9 was a last run home to Fremont. We got off 101 to travel along the Avenue of the Giants in the best way there is, on a motorcycle. The cool air and woodsy smells are amazing.

We rolled into our garage, 3k miles later. Wendy's first real tour went well, and she still likes riding with me, so that is a win!  Where to next?