Mark's Rides & Stuff: June 2019

I never let a year go by without at least one Rally. My favorites are put on by MERA, and Steve Chalmers.

This year, MERA is putting on "Unfinished Business" . The rally finishes in Salt Lake City. It as three flavors, 3-Day, 24 hour and 12 hour. Three day riders can start from home on Thursday. 12 & 24 hour riders start Saturday morning at 7AM.

I'm doing the 24 hour ride. Ironically, I need to leave on Thursday to get to SLC for tech and Odometer tests, but I enjoy the social aspects of the pre-start rally activities. Thursday is also my birthday, so I'll spend it traveling across CA and NV.

Unfinished Business is a classic rally. 24 hours, visit as many sites as possible, and get back on time. Added to the mix were the layers of riders in 12, 24 and 72 hour formats.

As a 24 hour rider, I got my rally pack Friday night, There were lots of options, and a few combination bonuses. I opted for a eastern route into Colorado.

Planned route

Another MERA Tradition - Decorate your own flag

We started off at 7am sharp.

My first stop was in Heber, Utah, to photograph a monument downtown. As a bonus, hot air balloons were launching everywhere

Next stop Steamboat Springs. No photo, but a receipt with Steamboat Springs was required. Then I headed for Rock Mountain National Park. Along the way, I had a stop that cost me 5000 points, but thankfully that was all. A Colorado Highway Patrolman stopped me to talk about my travel speed. This as usual, requires license and registration. However, in an effort to encourage good behavior, mine were sealed in an envelope that, if opened, would deduct 5000 points from my rally total. Ouch. At least I only got a warning and was on my way after a few minutes.

Park photo

After dealing with traffic for Elk watchers, I got the photo and headed for Bigfoot.

Near Jefferson CO there is a Bigfoot museum, and for the small price of $5 you can see a rather lifelike version of the worlds Hide and Seek champion.

That's him, in the shadows behind me.

Now it was time for an amazing ride up a very narrow and steep pass from the east into Aspen, to capture a chrome buffalo.

This guy was grazing in the woods of a park in downtown Aspen. Difficult to find, and more difficult to park.

At this point, I was running a bit behind the curve on time, and had a long way to go. I decided to cut off the lower leg of my rally and head towards Salt Lake City, where there were a few close bonuses to pick up.

I stopped at Timpanogos Caves for a sign photo, and also encountered tow trucks extracting a nasty rollover accident with a 4x4 on the winding park road.

Timpanogos Caves

The next bonus frustrated me. it was along the highway, but night construction blocked all the access. Then I headed to the airport to take a picture of a fire department training airplane. Problem was, there were lots of restricted entry signs and I didn't want to have a long talk with another LEO at 3am, so I passed, and wrapped up my hunt for bonuses and headed back to the finish.

I was tired, but happy that my 30 lbs of weight loss, new knee and new replacement eye lenses were good for all night riding. When scoring opened, I checked in and turned in my points. No penalties, aside from the license, and all my bonuses counted. Yay!

At the afternoon's awards lunch, I was surprised to find I finished 3rd! My best finish all time.