Wednesday, July 25, 02:00

I’m about to depart for WFO-6. The Western FJR Owner’s Assocaition is the biggest group of FJR owners currently in North America. We have people riding from as far away as Nova Scotia. Besides being one of the event organizers in charge of banquets and money (I call myself the Cash and Hash Pimp)–the event is currently the world’s largest gathering of FJR motorcycles. I know we’re going to have 230 people for dinner Saturday and accounting for pillion riders and a few non-FJR riders….I bet we end up with around 200 FJR’s in the parking lot.

Not exactly Sturgis with Hardeley’s, but then again the bike has only been on the market for a few years and we won’t have killed nearly as many cows to make leather chaps and bikinis for the chicks. Our biggest crime is killing Cordura and Kevlar trees and having stock exhaust pipes.

So, I’m off to ride to Park City, UT for a 700 mile ride. A drop in the bucket in Iron Butt terms, but a great ride to go see my newest batch of eventual old friends. ……and to tease our rallymaster, Tim (TwoWheelNut) Bates, unmercifully.

Wednesday, Noon

I arrive in Park City with Tobie, Lisa, and Doug after a smooth rendevous at a Motel 6 this morning in Ontario, OR.

Just after we get here the sky decides to open up with rain of Biblical proportion. Funny thing is that prior to riding FJRs long distance I had seen rain on this scale maybe once or twice. It seems like I’ve been in similar rain no less than 4 times in the past 3 years. Perhaps FJRs attract this type of rain…..

The smart folks move their bikes to the garage where MadMike begins his duties as a Parking Nazi Enforcer of the most huggable kind.

Friday, 8 a.m.

I’m in the registration area a bit early trying to get ready for what will be a morning rush. Even though we extended registration to 6 p.m. last night and have 136 people checked in…..there were 157 motorcycles parked at Madmike2’s count in the garage last night! Between pillions and riders….that means we’re going to have a rush.

Last night at 6 p.m. Beeroux did his ride briefing for an instate Saddle Sore and optional Bun Burner Gold. About a dozen riders including 3 “virgins” were handed seriously obnoxious towels (they have to take Polaroids with the towels in them to prove they were at a certain place) and departed the hotel at 4 a.m. for what will be a stunning ride I’m sure. With a 1,000 mile budget you get to see large swaths of this phenomenal state.

Beeroux even is doing a Saddle Sore himself with a towel made up for him and hopes to get back on a bike he borrowed from TurboDave before most of the riders.

Also arrived is Slapnpop…however the 4 admins haven’t actually gotten anywhere in one place just quite yet for fear of being painted with lasers and taken out with high-power rifles by trolls or spammers we’ve banned from the board in the past.

Cdogman hosted a BBQ last night and although I couldn’t make it I know TWN, Mike-H, Toecutter, and others made the journey down to South Jordan and were thoroughly overserved. I have this feeling they’ll be running a bit slow this morning.

Looking through the window I want to ride badly….and maybe will get to in the afternoon. I did get away and demo an FZ1 yesterday from Yamaha and although a fun and tossable bike….it just doesn’t compare to the FJR. Maybe I needed to get used to it, but the torque didn’t even appear until 6,000 rpm and although things got seriously interesting at 9,000 rpm with some serious thrust you had to rev it to 12K to squeeze out the go.

…..and a more entertaining note…..SkooterG finally figured out the meaning on his badge title. I had put “Staff Fluffer” and he didn’t get the meaning until IronMaiden explained it to him. …..he’s now diverting his mental resources to paying me back.

I’m sure I’ll report in this afternoon as the first feedbag gets closer.

TWN’s badge is a self-done mug shot styled after Nick Nolte’s arrest with what few hairs he has left sticking straight up.
Friday, 10 a.m.

Tim just rolled in……very, very slowly. To say he “walked” in would be an overstatement. I’d say he “ambled tentatively” at best.

According to Mike-H he became very relaxed, friendly, and sang all the way back home in the rental turned drunk limo he drove. Good call.

His only real statement was that he will never, ever let Cdogman mix his drinks again.

Friday, Noon

Escaping from the registration desk, staff went AWOL and wandered the streets of Park City. First we found a BBQ joint and Big Chief Stinky Pants gorged on a plate of Tri-Tip. No more yanky my wanky, the Tobie needs food!

With guts full we opened up this cute little map provided by the BBQ joint and realized we had somehow already walked half the distance to downtown Park City.

…..or so we thought.

After I pronounced on three separate occasions, “I think it’s just two more blocks.” we all realized the map LIED!

If it weren’t for meeting locally colorful inhabitants….we might have ridden the frickin’ free bus. This chap seemed to sport a great ball cap.

We tried to stop at the liquor store, but either Park City or the State of Utah has a mean sense of humor and sent us into the basement of very old building with an old jail. Vectervp1 sits and ponders the bad things he did with his FJR the day before riding at FJR nominal speeds from L.A. He’ll get out in 3 weeks if he cleans everything out.

IronMaiden is just always cute….especially when she’s riding in some ancient contraption that was like the ski lift subway. I have no clue what that was about, but …….hey…..it’s Utah.

Needless to say we rode the free bus back to the hotel.

Saturday, 20:25

It was a fun evening. Besides gorging ourselves on BBQ ribs and chicken, we had some entertainment with SkooterG and Toecutter giving away prizes for things like most farkled bike (TurboDave), farthest traveled (Gypsy from Nova Scotia), loudest ticker (Slapnpop….to the flinching of the Yamaha folks), most public bike drop (somebody that wouldn’t raise their hand and dumped the demo ‘07).

Probably the biggest news of the evening was from Warchild is that….

……

wait for it…..

you ready?……..

Representatives met from WFO, CFO, EOM, SFO, and CFR and in 2008 there will be a NAFO!

As in an international North American FJR Owners meeting….probably in Denver.

TwoWheelNut will reprise his roll and be the rallymaster for NAFO. Because of this huge undertaking WFO itself will be NAFO. WFO staff will work along side other regional gathering staff so that the following year or other year will then have NAFO hosted by another regional organization.

And we’re calling it North American and not National because it’s so important and apparent that Canadian involvement in these gathering is so spectacular.

So, start planning to block out your last weekend of July 2008 to come to the next evolution of FJR gathering.

Now, I’m off to ride. Headed to Cascade Loop and lunch.

..Riding sweeper I snap off a quick shot on the move.

Skooter and his girlfriend pose for a reverse snappy from under the arm.

Notice the two hands of Skooter plainly visible. Clearly he is attempting to set Playa Dancer II free…..and flop on the ground. BAD Skooter!

Saturday, 22:30, The Curtain Closes

It’s a bit bittersweet this evening, but things are winding down. I’m in the event nexus lobby soaking in the scene and can hear a myriad of converstations, a parade of contented smiling faces, and many new friends making plans for nexst year.

Exemplifyingd is RenoJohn walking by. He finished a Bun Burner Gold about 16 hour ago and is feeling no pain. I asked him why his whiskey glass (straight by the way) never gets any less full. He says, “Oh it’s been empty, but my best friend just filled it. Mind you, Dcarver was just an aquaintance before this……but he’s now my best friend.”

In the balcony is one of my new friends FJRPig (and I’m too lazy and tired right now to go validate handles) and we ran the zip line together. We’re probably riding back in th morning.

Or the ride I took today with about 14 people led by Cdogman culminated in a true group shot of every rider at 9,400 feet above Brighton Ski Resort. With my Gorilla-Pod tripod and timer I was able to get even myself. The Alpin Loops just rocked as a ride….and nobody even thought about crossing the centerline.

Or the contest winner for the evening banquet (I just can’t do that subject justice at this point) Ponyfool was also a Zip Line runner.

Just for the record…..it was the final round for a brand new killer helmet. ….I was runner-up.

But more important than the few pictures I happen to have taken is how much the tone has changed over the weekend. It seemed like Thursday the hotel was a sea of kevlar and mesh clad acquaintances bumping into each other politley saying, “Hi.”, “How are you?”, etc. Friendly and inviting, but not a deep level.

Now it’s Saturday night and quieter. But quieter in a deeper way. We’ve each made at least a dozen new friends and mingle around sharing ourselves far more personally than we would have imagined when we first arrived.

Sappy? Maybe a bit.

But, I think the FJR is more than just a piece of well-done engineering. It’s a vehicle for making new friends into close friends.

WFO-6 is done. Now we get to look forward to NAFO and see all our friends again.

This is Iggy signing out………

———-

For more info and pictures check out various threads here & here.

Matt

THE PROLOGUE – Gotta Respect My Roots!

This is the week of the Utah 1088 where I started this whole competitive rallying business. Nearly three years ago at the urging of my mentor, Warchild, I entered this event and had 9 months to stew, imagine, and get ready for the event in Salt Lake City.

The Rally Master, Steve Chalmers, invites all of us to come down and “play” in Utah each year….and I gotta say after my first rally I was seriously hooked. Perhaps it had something to do with my decent rookie finish or maybe it was that I then spent the season pondering how I could become more efficient and hone a skill set of a sport I seemed to have some talent in.

Me finishing my ride in 2005. Man, aren’t those halogen driving lights quaint?

I might have placed even higher in 2006 had I not had to have a little discussion with a Duchesne police officer and have my all-important sealed envelope torn. As it was that rally marked an important point because in my mind’s eye I conceived and exectuted a plan that was in the top 3 or so.

The whole field was even rewarded with a professional article from Cycle World that did a good job giving a glimpse of why we like to ride 2 wheel bikes for insanely long distances and opressingly hot and cold conditions.

What will Steve in store for us this year?

Well, besides some great BBQ and a chance to meet many of my LD friends…..it will look like 26 hours of Utah fun.

Heading down late Wednesday night and hopefully get some Zzzzs before the BBQ, technical inspection Friday (where I will try very hard to not lose my wallet), a pre-visit to our WFO-6 site at The Marriott in Park City, a good meal Friday evening, and good night’s sleep.

Come Saturday morning at 7 a.m. I’ll either be riding a rock-solidly planned route that even Jim Owen would approve….or be suffering from a helmet fire and aiming my bike in a random direction away from SLC.

TOUGH DAY FOR WARCHILD – June 21, Thursday Evening, 18:00 (times are in Mountain Standard Time unless noted otherwise)
“A Kamikazee jack rabbit decides to charge my bike. I thought it was a dog! It cracked every piece of plastic on the front.”, Warchild relayed to the small crowd as he rolled into Steve Chalmers infamous Thursday night BBQ.

The Blackbird looked maimed and a small puddle of oil was forming under the bike. “Looks my chain oiler went nuts.”

……as if this wasn’t bad enough…then Dale’s world turn to total shit in about 15 minutes.

“Dude…..you have it kinda funky on the centerstand. It’s really hot. You wanna think about reparking that somewhere more level.”, I said.

He then got on and the bike totally went over on it’s side. I watched and stood there in total shock. No decisive save…just me looking like a doof with him trying to lift it back up and another guy helping.

Back upright he then looked at me and grabbed his left bicep, “Something just popped on tore……?!” Looking over his arm you could see a divot where the muscle was supposed to be and he commented how curious it felt.

His BBQ was cut short as a big puddle oil formed under the bike. Not good. Way too much oil for the oiler.

A picture of where the right side of the centerstand punched through the gooey pavement in a hot Utah evening.

Meanwhile, I found a dude with a veritable pharmacy and find a pain pill and muscle relaxer for the boy. We looked it over a bit more at the hotel, but he went to bed and did his impersonation a bowl full of Jello.

He’ll be sore, but a hopefully bit happier in the morning.

I’ve got a burned out tail light and have to take off a bunch of things to fix it, but that will wait until morning also. Time to head to the bar, drink, and tell some tall tales….and then sleep.

Friday, 09:00

I run across Dale having breakfast and he gives me a look and says, “What was that orange pill? It turned me into Rubber Man!”

“Flexeril. It turns you into a pool of melted Jello for about 12 hours. I bet your arm felt better though.”

Get gives me another look.

Off to Wal-Mart he heads for a quart of oil and hopefully things are better, but after returning the seal has popped back out.

Dale has decided to limp back home. Bummer. Bad Kharma.

11:00

I refuse to let it shake me, but I had to tear apart about half of my bike to replace a burned out tail lamp. It makes zero functional difference, but I just don’t want to be drawing unnecessary attention of any of Utah’s law enforcement folks. It was actually kind of fun spreading crap all over the place and a bunch of newbies coming up to me like it’s a huge deal to tear apart an FJR in a parking lot.

I don’t know if I was trying act the part of a “veteran”, it wasn’t a big deal, or I was just putting on a show. I had actually put fresh bulbs in when I repaired my subframe, but one went out anyway.

But, by 11 a.m. it’s frickin’ hot and I’m starting to get woozy. Buttoned the thing back up and jumped in the pool. Life is better now.

13:48

It seems a field caught fire on part of the course we’re supposed to do an odomoter check and it’s taking longer than expected to get it open.

It’s one of those that’s beyond the Rally Master’s control.

……OH…..just changed. ….Steve just came in and altered the course. ….Headed out now!!!!

Once I do my odo check I’m good until the riders meeting at 7 p.m.

19:15

Steve’s hosting our rider’s meeting and his cell phone rings. Steve says, “Yeah…..I’m in the middle of a riders meeting……..well get on over here!” and hangs up.

“Dale is riding back. He fixed his bike.”, Steve says. ……large applause.

Details are sketchy, but he was in Reno and fixed his bike. However, oing the math…he’s gotta ride 6 or 7 hours to get here…which means 2 a.m. or so….so that he can get 3 hours of sleep to then run in a 26 hour rally.

I’m not making any bets against him for sure…..I’m cheering the guy on for digging deep personally and busting his ass to start.

You already won in my book Dale.

A FINE MORNING FULL OF POSSIBILITIES – Saturday, 05:29

Got up 15 minutes ago, got dressed, and working on getting rid of a burger from last night if you know what I mean. ;) Not glamorous, but I am multi-tasking and wouldn’t have blogged otherwise. We have a riders meeting in 30 minutes….and our packets in 1 hour in 15 minutes.

Only thing we know is the first checkpoint is not to long after the start and we gotta go there. I pondered one of the alternate routes pretty seriously as it was a mileage route, but could include points from the main route, but deciding to go with the main route to be sure. It just seemed a little too …..ummmm….too good?

It’s going to be a fun ride!!!!

Matt

(Note: The next 24 hours is written after the fact to report on the adventure. It was not blogged live.)

LEG 1 – Saturday, 07:00

The bulls from Salt Lake City are loose! The 2007 Utah 1088 is underway.

I guessed right that the first checkpoint was going to be Nephi, but was off one hour in that the checkpoint opened at 10 a.m. instead of 9 a.m. I was able to do the slow-ride on my first try and and scooped up 8901 points. I was on the board!

The easy money was on a bonus north to Antelope Island and snap a picture of trailhead. It was worth 9454 points. However, to get there required riding through a local run and parade….that Steve said he knew all about after the fact. Get a few dozen riders having to wait for 7 year olds jogging down the street that are into the rally less than 45 minutes and you’ve got some old fashioned mind screwing going on. Good job Steve!

Once clear of the sea of pedestrians you pay your $4.00 at a booth and then drive a causeway out to Antelope Island. The aroma of the salt flats is utterly disgusting, but a fun view when you get there.

I was about the third one there and this is what became a typical routine. Arrive, dismount, reread bonus for instructions, pull out camera and hat, take picture with a hat in it, write down bonus information details including odometer and time, repack everything, go. When I got good…I could make it a 4 or 5 minute routine.

Upon leaving I came up on a fellow rider that was at the bonus first and appeared to be pulled over by a LEO. Later they’d say they were the “sacrificial lamb” and had their envelope torn that contained their drivers license. 8901 points for the bonus and -24,000 points for a torn envelope. In the hole…ouch!

After Antelope it was a direct route to Nephi with a one minute stopover at one exit to write down a small 102 point bonus. If one becomes a top finisher…these kind of details are important to snag. I arrived at the checkpoint about 5 minutes before it opened and used the time to relieve myself of some all-important extra fluids and recharge my first of many hydration container fill-ups.

Leg 1 Attempted Points

• • Slow-ride: 8901
  • Antelop Island: 9454
  • Identify a Utah Highway: 102
  • Arrive to Checkpoint #1: 1500
  • Envelope: Untorn

LEG 2 – Nephi, UT, Saturday, 10:00

Move Over Jungo Road…..Hello Utah Road 400!

I turned in my Leg 1 packet and memory card to then be handed a packet that would take me for the next 23 hours through the rally. Leg 2 required getting to Checkpoint #2 in Torrey, Utah; Leg 3 required getting to Checkpoint #3 in Roosevelt, Utah (which would become interesting for a variety of reasons later).

The first bonus was to do up to 100 push-ups at 50 points each. Not wanting to scare any of the competitors off and give them a fighting chance of keeping up with me I decided to do 30 of them. ;)

This leg was a variety of possible routes and I did have some trouble determining what the optimal route was, but the calling to Grosvenor Arch at 11,111 points was just too much to pass up. So, I entered the coordinates to the nearest findable location on my GPS of Kodachrome State Park and added on another hour to guestimate time down this mysterious Utah Road 400. After 50 miles of gravel roads at Simpson Springs last year…how hard could it be?

Steve did say, “This is absolutely one of the roughest roads I have ever had the pleasure of riding”, but really….how hard could it be?

On the way I snagged Old Cove Fort for 5912 points at and had to recharge my vest already. I ended up using the second of my hydration containers to dip the vest into. It was in the 90’s and was going to be a scorcher of a day.

As I approached Panguitch (which I’d later figure out I missed a nearby bonus for xxx points) Greg Marbach came up quickly on my 6 o’clock. At that point I had sucked the other container dry and knew a hugely important part to not folding by sundown was to keep hydrated. As I stopped for some Gatorade and more water Greg kept going and I hoped to catch up with him before he finished Grosvenor Arch.

Reading the bonus more thoroughly while cruising through the berg of Tropic Steve did warn us even more stylishly, “IF IT HAS RAINED….OR ABOUT TO RAIN, DO NOT ATTEMPT TO GATHER THE POINTS FOR THIS BONUS AS IT IS AS SLIPPERY AS GREASED OWL SHIT!” Sue he included it in bold and capital letters, but if he can ride it on his Hondapotamus…how hard can it be?

Fuck me……

It was way harder…….

I full expected the washboard factor and figured it was the cost of doing business, but I would have no idea that deep fluffy dry quicksand would make you do a tank slapper in .4 seconds and require putting your feet out like outriggers. I LOOKED FORWARD TO WASHBOARD and hunted out any I could find! Washboard meant traction for the front tire and shock longevity be damned.

I really wish I could have stopped for a picture of how crappy this road was I was, because I was taken back to being 7 years old on my dirt bike and trying deep gravel for the first time. I cried to my Dad then and cried again this time.

The 11 mile out took about 45 minutes to ride…..each way.

On the way out I practiced my Indian tracking skills and saw “Skooter-tracks” and realized we were the first two bikes out here. Not a GS! Not a V-Strom first. Not a Triumph Tiger……but two freakin’ FJR streetbikes are pretending they’re dual-sports! Some local dirtbike riders on KTM’s and 26 inch waists cruised by standing on their pegs and shaking their heads.

Picture from Wikipedia about Road 400, but I gotta say that this picture shows the nice view, but no washboard or sand drifts.

I’d see tracks from an Avon tire and then two or three franticly stabbing boot prints in the dirt where Greg had saved himself from a tank slapper. Then dragging boot prints until he was clear of each sand drift.

When I got to the arch Greg was in full freak-out mode and had said I was just a few minutes behind him…so I guess I found this road from hell easier than him. This picture sums up this bonus and I cannot overstate that it’s directed towards the challenge of the bonus….not the Rally Master….which I give huge props to for finding this to-be-legendary bonus.

And the gravel parking you see in the picture? It’s like a freshly paved I-15 compared to the road I didn’t take a picture of…..trust me.

Riding back on the road I ended seeming to be the stronger rider on this rough stuff and helped Greg find the better of the lines through the muck. Truth is the ride out was a bit easier and quicker. We passed a GS on the way in felt a little less like we were in the Twilight Zone, but then Dick Peek on another FJR…..so back to Freaky Land.

We’d find out later that about a dozen people spilled their bikes on this road including GS and Triumphs, but not one FJR biffed. Jim Owen would even come back with scars on his brand new RT, red dust covered Stich, and biffed three times. However, he road the entire 46 miles of this road by coming up from Page.

Once back out on old-fashioned asphalt Greg led again and he became the dominant rider with me playing catch-up in the straights. I saw the bars flip from 2 to 1 on my main tank and I turned the valve on my auxiliary tank….crossing my fingers. It was freakin’ hot outside and I’m increasingly come to the realization that the FJR tank has a pressure spring on it that’s designed to hold a certain amount of tank pressure before it burps. Even though it’s been a matter of some debate with FJR owners and cells…when I saw the gauge quickly start flashing reserve I new I was blowing precious tank fuel into the aux. tank.

As I rode into Escalante I told Greg I needed to gas up and to continue on without me. With a datapoint in my mind that 101 degrees is too hot for the cell to work I filled up with 6 gallons in the main tank and left the aux. tank alone. Hopefully, I’d be able to use this later this evening when it cooled down.

Devil’s Garden

My gas stop was about 4 minutes and as reread the bonus details it was 12 miles of gravel. After our adventure on Road 400 the thought of 12 more miles of road that Steve dreamed up gives one a bit of pause…however he didn’t put any special warnings on this one so we took our chances…and were rewarded with a relative freeway of gravel.

I even caught up with Skooter the last mile or so….my gravel skills rock!

Picture of a sign and another 7164 points scooped up!

After we got back on the main road and headed east I started to remember my 2005 ride in the dark, but this time it was in the middle of the afternoon and the most breath-taking road I’ve ever been on. I’m talking about Hogsback Road and I’m increasingly convinced that there are few pictures of it on the Internet because everybody who goes there forgets to stop for a photo-op and rides it instead.

One of the few pictures on the Internet I could find….that give a hint of what this thing is like:

The view is so mesmerizing that Greg and I promptly ignored the bonus pack and drove by a bonus we’d realize the next day. An elevation sign that was 9 thousand-something feet. 455 points down the drain. Damn! Small Mistake #1

Rolling into Torrey I pulled the bike into the shade, checked in with staff, pulled out the laptop, bought a Subway sandwich and began plotting my next leg.

Leg 2 Attempted Points

• • Cove Fort: 8901
  • Grosvenor Arch: 9454
  • Devils Garden: 7164
  • Arrive to Checkpoint #2: 2000
  • Envelope Status: Untorn

Leg 2 Missed Points

• • Elevation Sign: 914

LEG 3 – Torrey, UT, Saturday, 17:30

The Wheels Come Off

I can’t exactly pinpoint when things went haywire, but I can say pretty confidently that through the end of Leg 2 I had made fairly decent choices and was probably a Top 10 rider.

That all changed in Leg 3.

As I sat fumbling through my laptop trying to make heads or tails of what seemed like a meager amount of points in the leg Greg left for points unknown although I was guessing he was headed to Vegas and that just didn’t sound good with all the heat. For some reason it sounded like a sucker bonus to me. Big Mistake #2.

There looked to be options to visit Monument Valley and take a picture of it…or possibly Grand Junction, Colorado, but all of them looked like it was difficult to reach and still make it to Checkpoint #3 (Mistake #3) in the early part of the checkpoint to hit some juicy stuff in Leg #4 (Mistake #4).

So, I decided to head to Roosevelt and headed East on US-12 through Capitol Reef. I scooped up two minor ones by counting window panes at the visitor center as 12 + 2 screens (363 points) and logs of the Fruta school as 11 (555 points). Chalmers would later state categorically there were 10…so that may be my Zelenz lighthouse I have to go back to and count again.

By Hanksville (456 points for answering the year the town was established) I was starting to get this sinking feeling about my choice. Two meaty choices of Grand Junction (7999), Arches National Park (8259), Kayenta (7575), and Monument Valley (4444) just didn’t jive with making it to Roosevelt in time….let alone at the beginning of the checkpoint.

I think it was about Sundown near Price that it started to sink in that I really should have blown off Checkpoint #3, but I was now committed. To add insult to injury I misread the packet thinking looking for MP299 was after I changed from US-6/191 to US-191. MP299 would be up by Duschene because the markers started at like 230 on US-191.

I did try and snag an out-of-order bonus of another paltry 666 points by spotting a Port of Entry speed sign, but when I got to Duschene and the last milepost marker said 293….I knew something was wrong. I missed 755 points (Minor Mistake #5).

Rolling into Roosevelt I punched in the address for the Maverick Station I was supposed to find. Didn’t think it would be that hard to find being on the Highway, but as I rolled into where the GPS pointed 951 West Highway 40…..the lights were out. The attendant came out and said a fuse was popped and that there were other motorcyclists down the road at the other Maverick on Highway 40. Strange…..very strange.

I actually had the GPS search for the nearest Maverick and tried going to it…only to find Garmin thinks this guy’s house in a residential neighborhood a mile from highway 40 is a Maverick. No good there either.

So I drive down 40 through the rest of town and find a very nicely lit Maverick that looks very promising….except nobody there either. Time to call Steve. He tells me taciturnly, “Read your packet….it’s all right there.” I do read it back to him and say that the Maverick address I punched in has electrical problems and not where anybody is at (I’d later find that my GPS directed me there, but the address was weirdly wrong). He also said it may be in Vernal, but Vernal is 28 miles away.

I called the Maverick and she said she was in Vernal itself….but the address was Roosevelt? She assured me she was at a Maverick in the city limits of Vernal and there were a bunch of motorcycles outside. I could go on for two more pages about this confusion thing and even add Duschene to the mix, but suffice it to say I rode to Vernal.

Yep, people here! If I’m wrong….I’m wrong with a bunch of other people!

Leg 3 Attempted Points

• • Capitol Reef Visitor Center: 363
  • Fruta School: 555
  • Hanksville: 456
  • Port of Entry: 666
  • Checkpoint #3: 2500
  • Envelope Status: Untorn

Leg 2 Missed Points

• • Road Sign near Price: 753

LEG 4 – Roosevelt, UT Vernal, UT, Saturday, 23:30

Fatalism Fatale

Resigned to my fate (much like I had experienced in Duschene a year ago) I rode the 4th leg like I was still in the thick of things. There was a juicy 6212 point bonus to identify the name of a Vietname Vet in Vernal and I scooped it up buoying my sun-weary spirits.

I rode US-191 up past the flaming gorge yet again the dark, but took solice there was no traffic with the exception of forest rats dithering on the road. I even stopped for a break at Maverick in the city limits of Urie (I didn’t dare ask the attendant if she thought she was actually in Walla Walla or something) and tried to help a wayward returned Missionary and wife looking for a lake somewhere in the Uintas he had last been at 20 some years ago. Apparently, they had been driving Forest Service roads for 8 hours with no luck.

I was personally chuckling as his problems made mine feel very small. I, at least, knew where where I should have gone (Vegas Baby!), where I was going (Fossil Butte Park near Kemmerer Wyoming), and was having an immense amount of fun doing it.

Fossil Butte Park

The road to Kemmerer was devoid of traffic and signs of life…except for a motorcycle with HID lights that was rolling out of the turn-off for Fossil. I think it was a GS and smiled.

Just as I finished snapping this photo another GS rolled up and we talked for a couple of minutes. Then a car came out of nowhere and I could tell as it nosed at us and parked it was a cop. Turns out it was this nice looking 50′ish man that began donning a jacket and flashlight. Not a cop, but he looked like a park ranger that didn’t want to be here.

“What are you doing here?”

Smiling like it’s a normal thing, “Taking a picture of that sign. I’m on a scavenger hunt.”

“At 3 in the morning? Why don’t you do it in the day?”

Knowing this is not going compute at all in his brain I try and turn on the charm and cooperation without giving him the full novel length explanation, “We do these scavenger hunts around the clock.”

“Well, the alarm company called and said the sensors to the building went off. You been up the road trying to get in the building?”

“Nope.”, I said, “Might have been the other motorcycle that left about 15 minutes ago.”….knowing that was only going to make him more confused and distrustful.

“Hmm. Yeah, I’m going to need to see some ID.”, the Ranger I’ve realized has no badge on his jacket says.

“No problem.”, as I reach for my wallet and realize that’s not going to help things as my ID is in an envelope there’s zero chance of him seeing without hauling me away, “…..there’s a problem. I can’t show you my license, but I have this wallet full of credit cards with my name on them and a emergency card I typed up.”

…meanwhile the dude on the GS hadn’t engaged in the conversation at all and hit the starter and sped off. He made the right choice that no good could come from further conversation with this Ranger.

I handed him several of the credit cards as if showing two pieces of plastic without my picture was better than one with a picture and he looked around my bike including a Washington State plate and either decided to believe me or give up trying to make sense of things. I’d like to think it was because I appeared infinitely patient and upbeat during the entire exchange as if I was happy a local could come out and actually see what I was doing near Kemmerer, Wyoming at 3:10 a.m., but it was probably because he was as tired as I was. Regardless, xxxx points snagged and I was headed back towards the barn.

Provo Falls

Now resigned to the fate that although I’d get more points in Leg #4 I also realize that I’m going to have scooped every possible point in this leg and still have over 2 hours to kill at the checkpoint…and not enough time to get back down to some of the bonii from Leg 2 or 3. I figured out what I neeeded to do before next year’s Utah 1088 to quit making the minor mistakes……memorize and internalize the freakin’ highway numbers in Utah and try and get a better sense of how the danged mile markers are organized.

As I cruised down WSH-150 (which I can now confidentally identify as Wyoming State Highway 150) it turned into USH-150 with a slight flourish, jog, and change in road composition (because it was now Utah State Highway 150). As the sky became lighter the aspen groves were quite pretty and I rolled into a parking lot with two outhouses and tons of time to kill with self-portraits and later image brightening on the laptop. XXXX more points scored.

And in a weird twist of fate…..I decided to take an actual picture of the Falls….that weren’t at all required for the bonus, but since I had lots of time I hiked down he 50 yards to the falls. Here’s the raw picture that gives an actual indicator of how dark it still is.

Here’s the picture with the magic of level and other image balance tricks. ….now whether running a digital camera is an advantage over a Polaroid? It certainly helps in publishing a blog, but did it hinder my rally scoring by worrying about composition? It’s a serious question I’m going to have to ask myself before the IBR.

Steve also insisted that all digital photos of bonii included the Utah 1088 hat. It’s not a bonus, but I just couldn’t help taking a picture of this forest rat. She was pre-dead when I got there for anybody wondering. A car hit ass and made her a second hole.

Leg 4 Attempted Points

• • Vernal Vietname Memorial: 363
  • Fossil Butte Park: 9776
  • Provo Falls: 4xxx
  • Peter Hoogeveen Cold Beverage Bonus: 333
  • Envelope Status: Untorn…about to be 12,000

Leg 4 Missed Points

• • Nada!!!!!

FINISH LINE – Salt Lake City, UT, Sunday, 07:15

The Fat Lady Sings

I got back at 7:15 with my frost beverage bonus and was toast on a stick. The ride back from Provo Falls where I didn’t have to engage my brain and simply pilot the motorcycle was a rough ride.

It surprised me how many people were back at 7:00 and weren’t still out bonus hunting. We all hit the wall and just couldn’t ride anymore.

08:30

30 minutes until the finishing line closes.

Marbach is still out as well as Owen.

I had a strong first and second leg, but didn’t make the right choice to skip the third leg and net more points. Realized at about 2 a.m. I think I still did decently….although there are some new hard chargers this year.

Went to one bonus that Greg and I were the first one down a washed out road that Chalmers warned us about. The drift dirt seemed to catch many bikes including Owen three times, but the three FJRs I know about that tried never biffed. The FJR is now officially a Dual Sport! A few pictures later.

No word on Warchild…he didn’t make the start. Hope he’s OK…headed back down to the finishing line to see how things are going….then sleep.

08:45

Greg rolled in. He made Vegas and skipped a checkpoint…which turned out to be right choice. We’ll see at the banquet if he executed well enough for a high finish. Everybody has agreed the 100+ heat yesterday toasted a lot of people. We all hit the wall a lot earlier than we expected and hoped. Even well hydrated with 2 gallons of water consumed and 2 gallons used by my vest wasn’t enough to not get zapped.

11:40

Just got a 2 hour nap and I’m much better. I’m using pronouns a little more accurately and completely now.

I’m sure housekeeping is going to want the room to clean soon, so I’ll move everything down to the bike for an afternoon departure after the banquet.

13:00

The banquet went well and Steve announced the Top 10, there were a lot of hands from folks that dropped their bikes, and most of them were on the road to Grovenor Arch. None of the three or so FJR riders raised their hands! Nor was anybody hurt.

The Top 10 point getters staggered me in the amount of points they got. Scott Schmidt ended up winning the event and #2 was his riding companion, Danny LaDue, who only came in second because he did 8 less push-ups than Scott. “I’m going to do push-ups every day between now and the next Utah 1088!”, he announced.

Clearly blowing off the 3rd checkpoint and using the time to scoop up bonuses that appeared in other legs was the way to go. I didn’t get it until I was most of the way to check point #3. Oh well, I got 23rd place, had a helluva time, and learned a bunch. Next year I totally am going to commit Utah road numbers to memory. I still had trouble locating bonus locations for the big picture.

My buddy Greg Marbach did well and cracked the Top 10. He placed 6th, but lamented riding past a few bonii that he wasn’t paying attention to. Vegas and blowing off Checkpoint #3 ended up being a good choice for a high place finish. My best leg was with him in that we rode that gnarly rode to the arches, and had a riot of a ride up Highway 12 from Escalante to Torrey on Hogsback Road in the late afternoon and perfect weather.

Summary of Finishers and Summary of Mileage

The banquet is summed by this picture. 104 degrees and I found a new use for my Skyway Hydration System. One beer after riding 1150+ miles was required to have a good time and a second just made me feel like a cheap date. ;)

OTHER RIDE REPORTS

Danny LaDue placed 2nd

Fear and Loathing in Utah by Reno John placed 28th

ONGOING EPILOGUE

Monday, 12:06 PST

Back home and got a bunch of sleep. I was so toast you could have put a fork in me and got juice to pour out!

From 104 degrees of sun beating down on me in SLC, through a pressure front to 80 degree niceness of Boise, through another front at LaGrande that was 37 degrees and rainy through the mountains….that’s a temperature change of nearly 70 degrees in about 9 hours.

Greg rode back with me and we got back about 2 a.m. He’s having his bike looked at possible ticker fix after 100,000+ miles. ;)

I feel much better and going back to add pictures to various posts. Do yourself a favor and go back to see them all.

I’m sure Chalmers will put out the full finish order in due time.

Tuesday, 16:30 PST

Warchild got back from the doctor and the prognosis for his torn bicep and riding season may be worse than expected.

It also turns out that the oil leak was because of an excess amount of crankcase pressure because of some arcane Blackbird valve issues. Once he resolved that, the bike ran fine. However, losing his wallet in Reno was the final kharmic blow and he packed up for home.

To up the ante I hosted a BBQ the Friday before and had a record 5 FJRs, an hold Honda, and a gas-tanker BlackBird in my garage. The Jetta got to park outside.

And I also seemed to be taking in strays off the street. (Note salt encrusted rim of drink in the lower right….. Margaritas went down quite smoothly….1 shot tequila, 1/2 shot orange liquer, 1 teaspoon Prickly Pear Syrup, 1/2 lime, 1 oz Margarita mix) I should note that the one being squeezed brought me the nicest of gifts……a custom machined cruise control mount…..BIG THANKS Ian!

The party livened up and I got a shot of a portion of the small fleet of bikes just before dark.

We also got a chance to compare HID lights….

Left is my motorcycle that has 6000K low beam HIDs and Hella FF200 HID High Beams in the 4300K range.

Middle is Skooter’s bike with 4300K low beam HIDs and Phillips “PHIDs”.

Right is Skyway’s Sylvania Silver Stars upgraded halogen low-beam bulbs. His Solteks are purposely off…….

……because with the Solteks on….his lights just destroy the competition.

Meanwhile, nature threw it’s own HID light show and my neighbor, William S., shot some photos.

Come Saturday I did snap a few photos….but ended up spending a lot of time preparing for clinics myself. Dale kicks off the morning festivities.

Taking a grinder to your beloved forks is always a tense moment. No tension in Warchild’s face.

A good view of our host Dan Denchell….and a great TL125 I’d love to have myself in the background…..and even some “tech” stuff going on in the middle!

Skooter demonstrating his Wal-Mart Sticky String Special ™ method of tire repair.

Not pretty, but he swears by them….after trimming off what looks like an alien hawked a green loogy.

General consensus from the 3 LD riders using 3 different methods…or at least how I remember it was:

I’ll still use the use the Progressive Suspension product as my primary for symetrical holes.  The plugs are designed to be an interference fit that “pops” into the whole.  The narrow neck part of the plug is wrapped in a special ring of tacky rubber that increases the stick when the vulcanizing process happens.

Sticky string looks to be a great back-up or if the hole is irregular and/or large.  With lots of material and lots of glue causing a chemical reaction there seems to be a good bond.  I carry it as a backup and it’s dirt cheap at Wal-Mart.

The Mushroom Plugger seems elegant, but relies exclusively on air pressure and physics to hold the plug in place.  There’s no chemical change to make the thing stick.   It just seems the PS option does this plus incorporates chemical reaction in the rubber.

Sunday morning was time to see off Skoot and Skyway off to the great wet Highway 395 in front of them. I went back home and went to bed to recover.

Some other photos including more detailed shots of the actual TechWest: Lisa and Mr. Lisa Steven’s Photos

It turns out riding a motorcycle to all 39 counties in Washington State and take a picture of their courthouse……in less than 2 days was a bit optimistic. 52 hours is far more reasonable, you get far better pictures, and a perspective of Washington that I doubt anybody else has ever seen.

I also got this idea from a friend that this ride might make a good coffee table book. Here’s a short version to see if you think it’s worthy.

Enjoy.

Matt

Addendum:  A few days after I initially posted this report and shared it with family, friends, and fellow LD riders I received an e-mail from Bob Higdon.  He’s the spiritual advisor and scribe emeritus of the Iron Butt Association and has been engaged in a ride to visit ALL of the counties of the entire United States. In excess of 3000 it makes my weekend blitzkrieg a small affair…however he still read through it with enjoyment.

However, in an e-mail he diplomatically suggested I had taken a picture of the wrong building in Friday Harbor.  Panicked I studied the picture evidence of his ride and concluded that we had taken our pictures at different angles and he had gotten principally the new wing with the original part of the courthouse to his right.  I had gotten principally the old part with a bit of the new visible on my right and behind.  We were both right.

Photo: Bob Higdon

Simply stunning.

The Jefferson County Courthouse is like visiting a castle. Port Townsend is probably the most grand courthouse of all in Washington and it’s residents should be proud of the landmark on top of the hill.It was one of my favorite courthouses and by this time I got a sense of the general architectural style of county building construction in Washington during the early 1900’s it was equally obvious that each county would choose some different feature or style to make their building distinctive.

Part 1 and Part 2.

It’s the day of decision, the bike is ready, Doug is scrambling to have his bike back together without popping headlight fuses, I have witnesses lined up, and the weather forecast calls for 30% chance of a soggy commute over to Chehalis and Friday a.m. but improving all weekend.

The ride is a GO!

I have many things to do tonight to get ready, but I’ll be riding over tomorrow after work to the Chehalis area.

I’ve had particular fun and concern with the ferry leg to Friday Harbor. It’s been very helpful to watch the Anacortes Ferry Cam each morning from 9:00 a.m. to it’s scheduled departure of 9:35. Washington ferries have unique motorcycle staging and loading procedures at each terminal and I want to make sure we don’t risk missing this critical ferry time because we couldn’t get to the ticket gate. Mid-week doesn’t seem to be much of a problem this time of year.
Although I’m planning a minute-by-minute schedule for the ride….it’s nice to know if one has any wiggle room in case of traffic in the Seattle area. Missing the 9:35 a.m. ferry would be disastrous to the ride with a 5 hour wait until the next ferry.

It’s also going to be tricky trying to satisfy Saddle Sore 2000 requirements while also zig-zagging around the county seats. To prove to the IBA we’re not cutting corners it means getting about 20 receipts….with at least a dozen of those extras we wouldn’t normally get just to prove we didn’t cut any corners. I think getting the SS2000 is going to be difficult and won’t hurt myself or anybody else trying to do it, but will probably have a better sense somewhere about Vancouver whether it’s going to be possible or not. If need be I’ll resort to just the county seat ride and use as much time as needed.
This is actually 3 rides in one we’re attempting and I’m sure has never been tried. 39 county seats, 1 state capitol, all within the state (no cuts down I-84 in Oregon or into Idaho at Lewistn….no matter how much Streets and Trips wants me to), and an additional 300 miles at the end to get to 2K in 48 hours.

We’ll know Sunday morning for sure whether we did it….

Cross your fingers for us and watch for us Friday around 9:30 in the top picture in the lower right near the closest 3 orange cones!

Sure! Sounds like a great ride to do together. It’s not for points, it’s a good ride to hone our stop and location hunting skills, and gives us two cameras to shoot different angles.

Another thing I thought was it would be a natural to add the state capitol, so it will be a round 40 stops including the State Capitol Building.

Departure plan is to leave Thursday evening, May 3, meet up in or around Chehalis, get a decent night’s sleep, and then start in Chehails Friday morning. If we’re fortunate, we’ll be done with Prosser in slightly less than 48 hours on Sunday.

Here’s the route plan to date (35 is an abitrary point to make sure we don’t get routed through Idaho):

Now it’s time to start doing my anti-rain dance…….

Some 23 years ago I was a freshman at Kennewick High and had to suffer the indignity of taking Washington State History. It’s not like Washington has much history compared to the rest of the nation and it seemed ludicrous that while a Maryland freshmen was studying the historical significant of The Battle of Antietam, I was forced to spend two weeks on the signicance of Whitman missionaries getting too pious with the local Indians and getting their pushy butts massacred.

To top it off my teacher, Addie Verner, had a serious prediliction for quoting straight from her “Teacher’s Edition” textbook …..clinging to it like a talisman to ward off 9th grade apathy.

It didn’t work very well.

If it were not for Spring and the appearance of short-shorts on increasingly shape-shapely girls…..I fear I would have gone AWOL.  Whatever the answer was to Wahkiakum I missed it that day.  Sigh.
Somehow months later I somehow crammed all 39 county seats into my head mustered an A- out of the class.  However, fast forward 23 years and I couldn’t tell you half of the county names, let alone their county seats.  Hell, the only way I know it’s even 39 counties is because I just Googled it.

“It’s Cathlamet Miss Verner!”

…although I think she’d disapprove of the Internet if she’s still alive today.

There is however a new chapter to this life story.

Yeah, I’m in the IBR, but that’s not until August and I’ve got a bunch of time before the Utah 1088 in June. I’ve been growing a seed of an idea all last fall and think I’ve got a plan. What would it take to ride to all 39 county seats? I’ve got a spiffy new Olympus E-500 I’d like to use in the IBR. How about if I take a picture of each courthouse? What route would I take, how many miles would it be, and how long would it take?

With the of counties and seats in hand I plugged them into Microsoft Streets and Trips and came up with the following first-cut route.

My first thought was…..”Wow. This is doable with a two day ride! Perfect for a 3 day weekend…..before Memorial Day.”

Looking at the basic route I saw several tricky counties. First was San Juan County at Friday Harbor. Getting stuck to wait a ferry cycle while in the middle of a route would be maddening as an LD rider. Maybe I’ll start the trip here.

I fiddled with some more routes and found variations in the 1700 mile range….which presents the second dilemma….or opportunity depending on how one looks at it. Clearly more than 1500 and less than 2000. Does one try and get them all in less than 36 hours and call it a Bun Burner or does one add on some extra miles at the end and call it a Saddle Sore 2000?

I’m hopeful that I can start the ride and have the option as the end approaches to make the decision. If I’m behind pace with a Bun Burner with all the mucking around of snapping pictures….it would be helpful to have 300 miles at the end of just a pure road blasting to bring things back on a 2K in 2 day schedule.

With basic cities down it’s now time to start actually finding the exact addresses of the courthouses. I won’t have time on the road to wander towns to find them. Sure it’s easy in some place like Pomeroy because the town is so tiny that the courthouse is the 2nd tallest structure behind the grain silo. But Tacoma seems to change courthouses every few decades. I figure something with a plaque on and is photogenic…or at least proves I was somewhere.

Off to figure out a more detailed route and plan…..and aplan to avoid getting hassled by cops.

A great turn-out by any measure!

Some of the FRJ folks there. It was hard with the 1000+ people to stage a photo of just FJRs and riders, but here’s a few. In fact, the right two folks are Lisa and Tobie, and the blue bike Warchild is mugging from are all in this year’s Iron Butt Rally.

The show was phenomenal…..and the pictures turned out better once I figured out some exposure settings on my camera.

Just to be clear about this shot. He’s going from right to left……not left to right. Figure that one out.

I took so many shots that didn’t turn out…..this is one the timing turned out pretty good.

How does one build-up to a trick like this? It helps when you have a kevlar scrotum….

Zoomed in….this guy is about 30 feet above the ground with legs flailing. Notice the lack of arm armor……it must just get in the way.

The wonderful thing about being volunteer staff for the day is that you get to demo the coolest bikes. These are spy shots of the new ‘08 FJRs. Warchild is trading in his FJR for this ‘08 in Tuscan Blue while Tobie is sporting the ‘08 FJR FS in Vino Black. The IS stands for “Fixed Sidestand”. It’s permanently down so with special piece of carpet glued to the bottom….so it’s impossible to tip over while parking. (inside joke to the FJR crowd)

When you’re the photographer there aren’t too many pictures of yourself. Tobie grabbed my camera and proved a person with zero experience can shoot a photo as well as I can….sigh.

The locals from PNWRiders.com came up to visit.

Denise is much nicer to look at than Warchild and Tobie.

Owner, Dan Denchel takes a practice run. He’s pretty close to being able to do a back flip with an FJR…….at least just once anyway.

What can I possibly say about this one? It was an 11 hour day at this point and he’d been there the previous two days. It’s wrong on so many levels. However I think the blue Yamaha shirt really brings out his eyes.

I participated in my first Patriot Guard Ride. At the invitation of the Pfister family I got to help honor their fallen son, Sgt. Travis Pfister. I didn’t know Travis myself, but known various members of the Pfister family over the years. First stop was a Venti Mocha at Starbucks and ran into a few work colleagues, riding buddies, and acquaintances from PNWRiders.com.

Overwhelmed by the number of bikes that started to show up to King City truckstop I started counting and as we left to ride I counted no less than 392 bikes! Simply stunning and impossible to capture even with a wide-angle lens.

Bikes of every type and age were represented. Many were Harleys and cruisers with leather swathed riders including patches to many clubs and rallies. Also present were various riders from the PNWRiders.com forum. I parked amongst a batch of bikes that measure their worlds in terms of cubic inches, but it truly became a celebration by all riders as the morning brightened.

I met Jeff Matson, ride organizer, and had a nice talk with him about the mission of the PGR, the plan for the day, some “uninvited guests” that ended up really being a very minor part of the day, and, of course, motorcycles! The Pasco Police helped tremendously and even loaned him a PA for the ever-increasing crowd.

Myself and buddy Jim set about counting the number of bikes and came up initially with 180. And, then as bikes road in I added them to the count.

I ended up counting 392 motorcycles at King City alone! Combined later with a bunch of bikes that came to TRAC separately and we easily exceeded 400 with serious possibilities of over 500 motorcycles! The PGR told me it was absolutely a record for Eastern Washington. So many, it was impossible to even remotely capture everybody and their bikes in one picture.

At about 11:30 we had a ride briefing that set out the plan for the day. And got to learn about the head of “uninvited guest” and media relations, Knuckles (can you guess which one?), and Cowboy.

By the way, did I say how great the Pasco Police were? They rocked! Officer Moore is in the right and one heck of a nice guy. This shot got to me….

Riding there was a surreal experience. I got out early with the first 20 or so bikes and was clearly the only non-straight piped rice rocket amongst the front of the pack and wish I could have gotten a picture of what must have been an overwhelming sight of motorcycles from King City to Road 68. I venture to guess that the head of the snake made it to the end of the ride, some 6 miles away, before the tail of the snake was able to start. I feel sorry for the folks that had to wait for us, but hope they understood the special cause.

A picture from my friend Jim’s FZ6.

Heading into TRAC

A shot taken by Q of me and full HID lights blazing:

A shot showing the main line of bikes coming from King City and another smaller group coming from another place. I can see Some sport bike riders in the mid-ground.

As I rode into TRAC it was a sea of flags on the avenue as we crossed through. People smiling, people waving, clapping, and saying “Good job!”. I teared up for sure.

Parking was a loose operation.

Once parked I had to help perform a duty and I ended up doing such a great job at turning my back to the uninvited guests that I didn’t even consider taking a picture of them and their scant 4 or so protesting members and actually only caught the briefest of glimpses of their colossally intolerant asses. I learned that instead of empowering their cause by saying their group’s name….it’s far better to just call them “uninvited guests” or the UGs.

…I’m not even sure they’re viewable in the picture as 4 people behind the tree across the street. I stood myself for about a half hour with my back to them. It really was a pretty insignificant non-event.

After the protesters tired and the family was safely in TRAC at the service it was time to depart for lunch. Helping out families is hungry work.

More pictures and experiences can be found here and here.