(from the rally theme poem)
"...long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth."
  - R.Frost

Kennewick WA – Eureka CA
Fri June 21, 2019
(~703 miles)

I got perhaps 4.5 – 5 hours of sleep before waking to my 03:15 alarm. I grabbed my rally binder and headed down for some breakfast prior to the rider meeting. The hotel had prepared some fresh breakfast sandwiches for us, to keep eating quick and efficient. I helped myself to two, plus some fruit and coffee, then joined my friends in what was last night’s scoring room to try to wake up.

Everyone piled into the main lobby area at 04:00 for the Leg 2 rider meeting. Jeff Earls ascended a rickety step stool to address the masses of tired yet eager riders. Without further ado, he read off the name/miles/score of the top ten riders in the standings after Leg 1. Based on my score, I knew immediately I’d made the list, but couldn’t believe when he got to the end and I was sitting in first place!

The brief recognition was nice, of course, after the effort I’d put into my Leg 1 ride, but knew that this was very early in the rally and I was just “borrowing” first place temporarily from someone “serious”. Jim Owen was only 1500 points down, after all, which could easily be reversed with a single bonus, and other big dogs were close behind. Greg Rice and the other OB/Montauk riders had also placed very well after the leg, but hadn’t gone to SHAME. Ken’s big trek to Arizona, Seattle, and the Olympic peninsula had turned out really well for a 5th place standing.

Leg 1 was in the past, and there wasn’t time to think about things like standings now. Before passing out the Leg 2 bonus listing, Jeff covered some important points with us, all of which would be detailed in the rally book.

credit: Tobie Stevens

First, foremost, and by far most important – the second scheduled checkpoint in the rally was hereby ELIMINATED and returning to the Kennewick hotel on Sunday evening would be considered OPTIONAL. The Leg 2 rally book would contain all bonuses for the remainder of the rally. Riders who chose to return and wanted to qualify as finishers of the 2019 Iron Butt Rally, as well as collect a rather large amount of bonus points, must check in with rally staff by 20:00 PDT Sunday and check out with rally staff no earlier than 04:00 PDT on Monday, eight hours later. There would be no “grace period” with penalty points, it was a hard cutoff – all or nothing. There would be no scoring back in Kennewick, it was now just a “rest” bonus location.

However, riders who elected NOT to return to Kennewick must fulfill one of two other possible requirements:
******************************************************************
1. Successfully claim at least one bonus north of 60 degrees north latitude, OR
2. Successfully claim the following two bonuses:
a. CAPED: Group photo bonus near Cape Disappointment, WA.
b. ROSIE: Cap-de-Rosiers lighthouse near Gaspe, Quebec, Canada.
******************************************************************
I wasn’t all that surprised about the 2nd checkpoint elimination, based on the rally history and checkpoint location, but there was still a lot to take in. There was lots of murmuring in the room as Jeff continued to highlight some important stuff. There was apparently a bonus near a mountain pass called “KENB” (?) or something similar ( I didn’t quite make it out at the time) that was now worth zero points, as there were snow conditions and the rally staff didn’t want anyone going there. Also, Jeff pointedly remarked that for all bonuses north of 60 degrees, no quarter would be given for road closures or any other conditions preventing access to the bonus. You must capture the exact bonus or no points would be given for your claim.

With that, the rally book distribution was divided alphabetically among rally staffers and we all crowded up to get ’em. I headed upstairs immediately to start routing with the electronic files already waiting in my Inbox. I wouldn’t emerge from the room for the next six hours.

First things first. This bonus listing was HUGE compared to Leg 1, with about 170 waypoints and about a dozen combos, so how to handle the “bad” coordinates in the electronic files?  I figured I’d decide on a basic route first and then manually adjust coordinates for the bonuses I intended to capture or that might be optional, before uploading to my GPS devices.

Leg 2 bonus scatter

After 1-2 hours getting the waypoints prepped and imported, I focused my first route (which I called simply “HOMER”) on Alaska, figuring the big points must be where the big ride was. I wasn’t wrong and the payoff for running the table successfully up north looked to be unbeatable at first. The time frame looked EXTREMELY tight, however and was going to require a lot of miles and comparatively little opportunity for rest.

l corrected the coordinates for all the bonuses on that route and skimmed the descriptions. Some of the bonuses looked like they would be pretty time consuming. The Alaska DOT website also showed several construction zones on the way to Homer, and this brought to mind all the ride reports I’d read on ADVrider about long construction delays and generally bad road conditions in the 49th state.

At the four hour mark or so, I figured after spending this much time already, I really needed to just commit to the route. Nervous as I was about facing that much of the unknown northern territories and Alaska, I had everything uploaded and a route sheet created. I was getting ready to pack up to head north, when my phone rang. It was my buddy Roy, calling with a simple question.

“Steve, I just wanted to verify, coming back to the checkpoint on Sunday is really worth 23,000 points, right? I’m not reading that wrong?”

“Yes, that’s correct.”

“OK then, thanks!” sounding very chipper, Roy hung up.

That call seemed to pierce through the fog in my brain. Hmmmm… 23K points for taking an eight hour rest? Arrgh! I really need to explore that, and try at least one alternate route for comparison. A short time later I had formulated a Plan B outline that looked really good – probably too much to hope for, and not as many points as the best theoretical Alaska route. But it showed me that gold medal points were available by staying south. A lot of Plan B would be on fast highways in the more familiar lower 48 states and eastern Canada, removing many of the hazards and delay factors (real or imagined) that might come into play further north. And it was more flexible, with easier opportunities to bail out and just collect finishing points in case things started to go downhill.

I’d seen enough now to know I was NOT going to Alaska during this, my rookie IBR venture. Let the big dogs go running in the snow. I’d take the slightly safer route and hopefully pull in enough for a nice competitive finish. I didn’t bother to look at any other routes or combos for the final “third leg”. I’d have more time to flesh that out during the eight hour “bonus” rest in a couple days. For now, I needed to quickly find somewhere to ride over the next 2.5 (now actually less!) days.

I was feeling the acute pressure of having whiled away half the day in my hotel room while bikes were gradually emptying from the parking lot (ask any multi-day rallier – it’s one of the most uncomfortable feelings!). Char had been respectful of my process, but even she sent me a text saying she was getting nervous at my tracker not moving!

I threw together a loop route consisting of some of the bigger bonuses in the Pacific Northwest region that still looked reachable despite all the time I’d wasted. I started with a counter-clockwise loop beginning on Vancouver Island, but for some reason that must have made sense at the time (perhaps feeling too hurried to look at ferry schedules), I inverted the route direction to head down to northern California first.

Still feeling bad about my late start, but happy to have a route, I finalized my initial route plan, uploaded to GPS, route sheet created, and packed up to go. I filled up with ice and made a quick call to Lisa Landry to confirm the name of the bonus that had been reduced to 0 points. Of course it was indeed MCKEN, which had been first on my route, and which I now crossed off the list and skipped over on the GPSes.

Seeing only a few bikes out in front of the hotel didn’t help my self-esteem. But I was feeling more relaxed with just a short loop ahead to take me back here on Sunday evening, and was excited to be embarking on my first riding tour of the Pacific Northwest, where I’d long wanted to ride. I later heard that there were actually quite a few bikes still left in the lots to the sides of the hotel, so others were struggling as much as me with the new twists from Mr. Earls.

My mood was lifted a bit by words of congratulations I received from some of the folks wandering around the lobby and parking lot, including Mr. Stevens the photographer (great to meet you, sir!). I knew I’d made a solid Leg 1 effort, but now here I was screwing the pooch, late out of the gate on this “mini-leg”. I could only hope to minimize the points lost by too much time standing, considering the diverging road to Alaska.

credit: Tobie Stevens

Quick note about checkpoint bike maintenance – besides a through cleaning of the windshield, I didn’t need any. After all, I ride a double-darkside Honda ST1300 – nuff said.  🙂   But seriously, I had had good fortune and the bike was running flawlessly. I don’t envy having to fiddle with all the planned maintenance tasks other folks had planned for at the checkpoints, plus resting and routing, especially after such a late arrival!

As usual, I hadn’t really looked too much at the specifics of the roads my rally route would be leading me on. I was thrilled as I headed south over the high plains desert terrain of southeast Washington under beautiful skies, crossed over the Columbia River and proceeded to follow the waterway westward a good 50 miles. The weather was perfect and the scenery simply stunning, as I ate up miles on I-84 through that big valley, with the mighty river to my right and high bluffs framing the view.

I turned south and climbed some nice sweepers out of the river valley on US-97. I enjoyed more impeccable blacktop under blue skies on the fast two-lane highway with passing zones a-plenty.

By now, I’d chatted with a few friends on the phone and knew Ken was Alaska-bound, along with just a few others on the group spot tracker. He was stoked to be heading north, and I told him how close I’d been to joining him. I’d heard Jim Owen had gotten an early start, so assumed he was in Canada by now as well. I silently wished them both a safe journey and knew they’d likely be returning with lots of points assuming everything went smoothly up there.

I spied a distinct conical shaped mountain in the distance over some farmlands, and thought it might be Mt. Hood (?), though I wasn’t really sure about my immediate geography.

Since MCKEN was no longer on the table, I stopped off for the low pointer in Terrebonne OR, a short detour off the highway. A few scenic little back roads with a nice curve or two brought me to Smith Rock State Park, which seems to be a popular rock climbing and hiking spot. It certainly seemed packed for a Friday afternoon, but presented no trouble to get in and out. The rock formation reminded me of a similiar one I saw in Utah during the HW3 rally two years ago (Devil’s Slide?) with a distinct slot between two broad edges. Geology can be so cool.

The bonus required you to pull all the way down to the end of the parking lot, to capture a photo of some plaques in front of the rock face. A 2-up rally couple was there just ahead of me, and the pillion was having some other visitors get her photo with the rally flag. Apparently, they didn’t do quite a good enough job, because she asked me (in a charming English accent) to retake the photo, which I was happy to do before snapping my own.

I  continued south on US-97, through the congested cities of Redmond and Bend, and that was probably the most traffic I would see for the rest of the leg. I did a bit of lane filtering at the long red lights and got through as quickly as I could.

I thought it was sooo cool when I found myself riding through Deshutes National Forest. With the acres and acres of tall conifer trees, it’s exactly what I picture when I think of Oregon.

I was very disappointed as US-97 took me past the turnoffs for Crater Lake National Park. It wasn’t a particularly large point bonus, but since I was a little kid, looking at the otherwordly photographs in big books of “Natural Wonders of the World” etc, I’d wanted to visit Crater Lake. It was now so close, I could almost taste the bright blue water on the wind. The bonus was time-limited, however, and the window closed at 17:00. I was running about an hour too late and kept kicking myself for staying at the hotel so long this morning.

Klamath Lake was another pleasant surprise, presenting some magnificent scenery along the route.

As I approached the town of Klamath Falls, I recognized the name from the “receipt” bonuses in the rally book (there were several more of these in the Leg 2 bonus listing BTW) and had a waypoint showing up on the GPS. Still not quite understanding the purpose of these bonuses, but suspecting some underhanded plot to withhold many points for failing to get one, I decided to stop at a roadside convenience store. Several other riders had the same idea and were getting fuel or processing their receipt bonus in the parking lot. I grabbed a Snickers bar, recorded the 15-point bonus, and kept moving along.

A large isolated snow-capped and double-peaked mountain begain to dominate the horizon to the south, as the border with California grew near. Still geographically confused and thinking it might be Mt. Hood, it took chatting by phone with my friend James (who was over on the I-5) to clue me in that it was in fact Mount Shasta in California.

I passed a few other rally riders on the way south, including the distinctive Victory Vision, being ridden by IBR finisher Connie Gabrick.

Views of Mount Shasta continued for many more miles, until I found myself circling right around the base of it after joining the I-5. I never tired of looking at it and enjoyed the scenic riding thoroughly. For all the bad things I’ve heard about Interstate 5, I also quite enjoyed the fast sweeping curves this highway serves up between Mt. Shasta and Shasta Lake, some 50 or so miles to the south.

I finally left the interstate behind, exiting in Redding CA to pick up CA-299, a spectacular motorcycling road. Starting as a simple rural road with nice scenery along Whiskeytown Lake, the real fun began as the road began climbing up with tight fast sweepers in the fading afternoon light. I had the road almost all to myself as I headed up into the mountains away from civilization, and had a huge grin.

After turning onto CA-3 in Douglas City, over Hayfork pass, I felt like the grin about split my face open, because I was riding on a true honest-to-goodness California canyon road, with banked twisties and sharp hairpins that took my full attention to navigate. I followed a sporty little Mini for a while until they finally pulled aside to let me go ahead.

Darkness fell in the mountains as I reached the little town of Hayfork and pushed westward onto Hyampom Road for the next 20 or so extremely twisty miles. I passed several riders on their way out, but otherwise had my high beams scorching the way forward and treading carefully over some loose gravel and a couple washouts.

There was nothing to see but the road until I reached the tiny community of Hyampom, marked with a few signs and fenceposts among the scattered homesteads in the darkness. Apparently, there is also an airport way the hell out there (!) but my job was to get to the general store. I got the photo right around 21:45.

 

 

After documenting the bonus, I took a few extra minutes to recover after the intense concentration it had taken to get out here in the dark on that twisty road. There was no cell service, so I scarfed down some food and water and reviewed the GPS route. It seemed to be leading me out via a different road than I’d come in on and that seemed alright. A friendly local leaving the bar next door stopped and rolled down the window, asking if I needed orientation help. I smiled and waved him on, saying I was just taking a break.

Then I continued to follow that damned magenta line, up the mountains and onto one of the craziest excuses for a road I’d ever experienced. I’m sure the pitch darkness lent extra weight to the experience, but this was apparently a Forest Service road, and not regularly tended. Trees and shrubs grew over and onto the roadway. It was paved, but that only served to highlight the number and magnitude of the stunning potholes that pockmarked the asphalt. I was on full alert once again, moving slowly and using the entire one-lane road to avoid the obstacles. Any kind of problem out here could strand me for hours I thought. I was most certainly in the undergrowth of which the rally poem spoke!

Pennsylvania got nothin on these here potholes, Rick Miller! This is actually a “good” section.

At one narrow section with gravel in the road, an oncoming vehicle approached so I stopped on the side until the glare of headlights passed by. It was a pickup truck with a dog in the back – one of those patchwork-looking breeds with one blue eye. The guy rolled down the window and I greeted him, asking if the road was paved the entire way back out to the highway.

“I’m worried about this turning into a dirt road or goal trail,” says I.

“Well, it’s quite a bit pot-holey,” he said. “But it’s all paved and will bring you out to 299 again, sure.”

I thanked him and proceeded, feeling much better about the route. I soon passed a few oncoming rally riders, heading into Hyampom, giving me further courage and belief I’d get back to civilization at some point tonight.

Note: This site details some of the roads and routing in this area. I ended up doing the Hyampom Road/Underwood Mtn Rd connection up back up to CA-299 at Burnt Ranch.

I finally hit good pavement on CA-299 once again, and followed it another 20 or so miles down to US-101 and civilization by the coast. By the time I approached the town of Eureka, it was just past midnight, about 2.5 hours since I’d captured the HYAMP bonus.

My route plan had me continuing on to capture the other two bonuses in this area before pointing north and finding a hotel for the full REST2 bonus, but the reality of the situation forced me to reconsider. That bonus had taken a lot longer than it looked on a map, because Basecamp was likely using the state default speed limit, which wasn’t realistic on those twisty roads. Plus it probably should have routed me back out via Hyampom Road to be closer to the next bonus.

I didn’t really want to face similar roads again tonight, and I knew Eureka was one of the only major towns in the area where I could bail out for the night. I quickly made a reservation online using my phone and pulled in to the nearby Quality Inn. The friendly staff got me checked in to one of their last available rooms and agreed with my assessment of fewer hotel options south of town toward the Lost Coast.

Back out at the bike, I quickly made my second call-in bonus of the rally, stating that I intended to “get LOST” in the morning, but that the rest bonus was up next. I gushed a bit about how much fun I’d had on CA-299 (thinking at the time that also covered the canyon riding on CA-3). Then I walked to a 24-hour gas station around the corner for some food and a receipt to officially start my REST2 bonus. The hotel room was spacious and clean, a good choice for the longer rest. After a great shower, I got to work re-assessing my route while scarfing a sandwich and York Peppermint Patty (mmmmm).

I began researching the ferry schedules for Vancouver. I came to the disappointing conclusion that the timing wouldn’t work to collect the two big 5700 point bonuses in Canada and then make it back to Kennewick. I had spent too much time in the hotel and had then chosen poorly to head south first. I should have headed directly for Vancouver and gotten all the ferry unknowns and biggest points out of the way. Now I had to salvage what I could from this route.

I kept the remaining two NorCal bonuses, since I was already here, plus the SKOOK bonus near Vancouver that appeared to require only one ferry out and back. That bonus was daylight only and wouldn’t be reachable today, so I needed to plan on catching the very first ferry Sunday morning at 05:50. Now to minimize the damage (so I thought): if I cut my rest short by about an hour, it seemed that I’d be able to visit Crater Lake after all, and maybe even reach the daylight-only ABE cave bonus and then Mt. St. Helens.

This time, I plugged in the ferry transit times as part of the route calculation, and it looked like I’d have about a 90-120 minute cushion for arrival back in Kennewick. New route uploaded, I finally hit the pillows just after 04:00 PDT for my much-shortened sleep.