After the packs were handed out and we got our talk about changes etc to the packs I went to work on picking a route. Since I don’t have much experience picking a route quickly it was a new experience. While looking through the bonus pack I noticed that a lot of them had times with them. I really didn’t want to waste my time so I picked out a couple that I knew I could do then left.
My first stop was Four Corners, CA for a gas receipt. This was right on the way to where I wanted to go. When I got to Four Corners I saw a good amount of other riders so it seemed that most people wanted to go this way. Since it was around 10:30 or 11 I decided that it might be a good idea to just get some sleep here since I knew there wasn’t much along US 395. The price was right too, something like 30 bucks for the night. I pulled around 5 hours of sleep and got a shower. The night before I didn’t get gas so I needed to get it now for the bonus.
Getting gas gave me a problem though. Even with three stations right there I thought it would be easy so I pulled into one with all it’s lights on and got my gas. Well after getting my gas it said please go inside for a receipt; ok not a problem, except that it was closed. So with a full tank of gas I rode across the street and got a whooping .12 cents in gas, .07 cents of which went onto my bike. So after finally getting my receipt I was off hours behind everyone else.
My first stop was Devil’s Postpile park a few hours away and was worth 3500 points. The reason it was so much was because there was a good hike up to the Postpile and an hour bus ride into the park and out of the park unless you were there before 7 am. That was one of the reasons I got a room since I knew I didn’t want to ride all night and then sleep at the park. From what I heard later I made a good choice, as it was both cold and loud at the park. I also think I got a nice ride on 395, most of it in the light that I am glad I stopped. When I got to the park I meet up with fellow rider Bob Johnson and we talked a little on the bus ride in. I’m glad that I didn’t ride into the park, the road was one lane with no guardrails over looking those nice 1000 foot drop-offs. During our trip in and out I found out that he was planning on going to Gerlach, Nevada a place I hadn’t planned on going. After getting out of the park we split up and I was on my way to Reno, NV for two bonuses the Fishing Tree and Silver Legacy Resort. The resort bonus was timed and after meeting up with a couple of other riders along the way we made it there about five minutes before it opened. Around half of the people had already gone to the other Reno bonus so I went to pick it up.
At the tree I meet up with Bob again and at this time decided that since I had nothing else planned I tagged along with him to Gerlach. Getting there was pretty quick even though Gerlach really is in the middle of nowhere. Most people were worried because a festival call Burning Man was going on and they thought there would be lots of traffic, in reality there wasn’t much. After getting to the Iron Butt memorial I was deciding what I wanted to do. I really didn’t plan much on this leg and I was only going to go straight to the checkpoint from Reno, but now I decided to pick up a few more points along the way.
After talking to Roy while at the memorial I decided to tag along with him since he was planning to go over into Oregon then head to the checkpoint. We also decided to ride with Harry for a while. Since we were in the middle of nowhere I needed to get gas just in case there was no open stations for over 100 miles. Roy had already filled up and he was worried because of all the people going to Burning Man that it would take us a while to fill up. It turned out that there was no line both Harry and I got gas pretty quick, and pretty expensive around $2.10 a gallon.
Sometime after dark Roy wanted to pull over for a little rest and we found some pull off area. For some reason I ended up dropping the bike, I think I tried to use the center stand instead of the side stand. After I picked up the bike I saw I had broken the footpeg bracket. Since this had happened before I carry a spare and went about replacing it. After getting the bracket on I found that I had also broken my lower and peg, neither of which I had extras of. I ended up pulling a passenger peg and using it for the rest of the rally.
Later that night Roy and I split a room in Klamath Falls, OR and got a quick meal from the nearby gas station. The next morning we got gas at the same station and got the receipt since Klamath Falls was also a bonus. However, the receipt didn’t have the address on it so we had to ask to have the attendant to write out the address for us.
Our first stop that day was in Stayton, OR for a dental dam. The first road we took was a nasty twisty road that was loaded with more deer and logging trucks than cars, I think Roy almost hit 3-4 deer on that 30-mile road. The strangest thing that I saw though was a bull standing outside of the fence on a cliff just having a meal. I have no idea how it stayed there or even how it got out but there it was.
We got to the Dental Dam bonus with a few minutes to spare, we had planned on being there earlier but because of the slow roads it too us much longer than we thought. After a quick bar from the dentist’s office we were off again still with plenty of time left to make the next checkpoint. Our next and last bonus was The Dalles for a gas receipt. After picking up the bonus and getting into Washington State we ran into a fire along the road. I was worried that it would stop us but we had no problems getting past it even with all of the activity.
We got to the checkpoint about an hour and a half early which was much nicer because there was a lot less standing around than the last time. I ended up getting a foot peg from Jeff Hartford, the NW Assistant Area Director, though I didn’t put it on at the time. A local Boy Scout troop was selling food so I got something normal to eat besides Power Bars and Pop Tarts.
Pictures for Leg Two
Leg One: Huntsville, AL to Pomona, CA
Leg Three: Sunnyside, WA to Gorham, ME