DAY 1 – Southeast MA to Martinsburg WV
Thursday, May 25
(~ 502 miles)

My second endurance rally of the year, the Mason Dixon 20-20, approached quickly after last month’s Rock n Ride extravaganza. This 17-year old 32-hour event is held over Memorial Day weekend each year in the mid-Atlantic area, starting and ending in Martinsburg, West Virginia for this go-round.

I had added an extra travel day on each end of the weekend, with the intent to snag some grand tour bonuses and lighthouses along the way. However, as Thursday approached and the weather looked rather wet and gloomy, I made a last minute decision to blast straight down to the rally HQ hotel, and just enjoy the local roads on Friday before rally check-in began in the afternoon.

So I rode down to Martinsburg in the rain on Thursday via I-84 and I-81, stopping off at the Blue Colony Diner in western CT for a late breakfast and to dry off a bit. I seized the opportunity to snap my Connecticut diner Americana bonus picture as well.

This was my first visit to the Blue Colony, having heard many good reports, and the Russian omelet was very good. There were a few groups of bikers there also taking shelter from the rain, all apparently on their way to the big Rolling Thunder rally in Washington DC. I was filled up after my meal, but gazed wistfully at all the baked goodies and pies filling the counters and cases. I made a mental note to head back this way for some pie some day!

The diner stop was the highlight of this day’s ride, miles ticking off uneventfully. There seemed to be a lot of traffic volume on the road, but no jams. I wore my Aerostich rain mitts for the first time on this run, remembering that I’d stuffed them into my top box after buying them, but had never tried them out. The three-fingered covers worked as advertised in the pouring highway rain and I arrived at the hotel very pleased with my dry gloves/hands. I had been worried about the loss of dexterity with the lobster-style mitts, but it wasn’t a big deal at all especially for highway riding.

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DAY 2 – West Virginia Roads and Rally Check-in
Friday, May 26
(~ 368 miles + 16 mile ODO check)

Rally check-in was from 15:00 – 18:00 on Friday, so I plotted out a nice loop (using several BONE routes from the NER website) in the northern part of the state, to get some twisties under my darkside tire to really get a better feel and confidence in the handling – it had been mostly highway miles to-date. Plus I really just needed to get out and ride to blow off some steam from recent work-related stuff. This accounts for the lack of photos and grand tour bonuses collected today – I simply tried to chill out and focus on the road, my lines, and the scenery of new (to me) roads.

I scooted down I-81 in the morning into Virginia under warm sun and blue sky, and headed west on US-50, a nice (sometimes divided) secondary highway. Traversing it many miles brought me into the approaching rainy weather patterns, and I headed south on WV 93 and picked up the Seneca Trail in Thomas, which brought me along several lovely miles of curves through the Monongahela National Forest. I’d spotted a nice crinkly looking road (CR-291) in Basecamp that paralleled the road I was on, so I turned off and enjoyed even more twisties on a road no wider than a couple bikes.

Upon reaching Hambleton, I turned onto WV 72 which I’d looked up online the night before. It turned out being a beautiful twisty journey through the forest on another skinny road in the middle of nowhere. Recent rain had brought a lot of twigs and debris into the road, so I had to stay alert, but it was plenty of fun nonetheless.

WV 72 poured me out at last onto WV 32 for some sweepers south to US 33, by which I skirted the Spruce Knob and Seneca Rocks National Recreation Areas. Beautiful country, with rocky crags thrusting up through the trees on the higher mountainsides.

At Franklin WV, I turned north on US 220 for a few very pretty miles alongside a branch of the Potomac River. At Upper Tract, I took Smoke Hole road, more wonderful twisties amidst nature’s beauty! I eventually rejoined US 220 to US 48 east, back towards I-81 and some clearer skies.

After crossing back into Virginia, Zepp Road led me south along the boundary of George Washington National Forest to a real “Back Road” which, while aptly named, wasn’t actually too bad.

Back Road led me to Saint Luke VA, a small crossroads community in the hills, which is a specific Americana bonus location (my only one for the day).

This well-kept Spanish-looking general store and cafe stood at the crossroads, but appeared to be on the market. Not much going on in Saint Luke, it appears.

My ETA for the hotel had crept past 15:30 and I was eager to get back to see my fellow riders and get checked in. Forgoing a couple more GT bonuses, I scooted back out to I-81 from Saint Luke and made the easy run back north to Martinsburg.

There were a lot more bikes at the hotel by now and rally check-in was underway. I went in to meet my doom:

Sure they look like a bunch of nice fellas, but these devious souls had a secret weapon ready to unleash on us poor unsuspecting rally riders this weekend. See how smug they are? Especially Rick the Rallymaster (on right).

After signing all the necessary waivers and paperwork, we all went off on our 16 mile fixed route loop for odometer calibration, which actually included a few nice little back roads. Everyone met back in the function room for a tasty fried chicken dinner and a welcome from the rally staff. It was great seeing friends and meeting new people, including several whom I previously knew only by name or by reputation – long distance riders with impressive riding credentials oft referred to as the “Big Dawgs”.

We had received our GPS files and general information about the rally theme last week, although rally packs wouldn’t be given out until the morning rider’s meeting, half hour before launch.

 

There was much discussion and Q&A about the “Tower combo” game play and rules. Here’s my attempt to explain as well as a picture:

Each bonus in the rally had a letter from the word “TOWER” included as part of the bonus ID (e.g. 110-E).

1. In addition to collecting bonuses for their points, our rally pack will contain a page with a drawing of a tower composed of layers of square blocks, with T blocks at the top and R blocks as the bottom foundation.
2. We need to collect enough of each letter to fill the blocks of our “tower” to be able to multiply against our baseline “regular” bonus points and score really big.
3. One must fill in the lower E and R levels of the tower at minimum to be eligible for 100% of the bonus points you collected during the rally. Completing the W, O and T levels would give you 140%, 180% and 200% respectively.

In a nutshell, you wanted to complete your full tower to actually DOUBLE the amount of points you collected . Here is the tower sheet:

Ten of us were new to the Mason Dixon event and therefore had to attend the new riders orientation meeting with Rick after the meal. It was a good refresher on many rally best practices (and RM tricks!) and an opportunity to hear a few more tales of rally lore from years past. At last we were released to go get some rest, as bike line-up would begin around 04:45.

I spent a bit more time in my room that night playing with routes, but couldn’t find anything usable that would net more points than the “Plan A” route I’d already chosen, which would take me back up northeast to Boston and Jamestown RI. Unless something came up in the rally pack that forced me to change plans, I was now committed to head back into New England (and then back to WV again) as part of my rally ride! I was in bed at a reasonable 22:30 or so, excited for the following day’s run, but with mixed feelings about heading back to the Boston area – sorta like flying back home mid-week from vacation because you left the iron on, and then going back to your vacation spot.