This is the 3rd time I have participated in a Long Distance rally. My final score placed me in 14th position out of 27 riders starting from the Auburn, NY location. There were about 100 riders starting from the 3 separate starting locations. I was very conservative with my route planning and knew there was no way I was going to finish anywhere near the top 10 with the very experienced riders starting from Auburn, NY. You are scored and placed against the other riders from your start location and almost a third of the 30 riders starting in Auburn, NY had ridden in the Iron Butt Rally (11 consecutive days x 1000 miles) with one finishing first in last years Iron Butt Rally and several others finishing in the top 10. This was also my first big ride of the year and my first real ride on my new bike - Yamaha FJR. I am not completed comfortable on the my new bike yet as that will come with additional time in the saddle. I still feel like the bike is riding me and not the other way around....
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| Cape Fear 2010 route |
I rode 1179 miles (1897kms) during the rally itself. The first test of the rally arrived when I received the rally book, which includes all the bonus information, via email on Wed night at 6pm. Turns out none of our printers were working and I was not able to print it out. Spent 3 hrs trying to fix the printer(s) with no luck. Jennie called our friend Arlene who bailed me out and printed the package for me.....Thanks Arlene....I owe you one (again!). Next challenge arrived when I realized that all the bonus locations were given in latitude and longitude in degrees, minutes, seconds. I use an Excel spreadsheet for sorting all my bonuses, but the latitude and longitude must be in decimal format. Therefore, I spent the next 1 hr doing lat/long conversions (I will fix my spreadsheet for next time). The next 2 hours were spent inputting the bonuses into my spreadsheet...... all 127 on them! Each bonus location has a point value By 1am, I had sorted through a rough outline of my selected route/bonuses. Below is an example of a bonus location from the "rally book"
BONUS LOCATION
********************************************************************************** Uncle Sam's Grave
Troy, NY N42 45.202 W73 40.643 2842 points
During the War of 1812, Samuel Wilson was in the business of slaughtering and packing meat. He provided large shipments of meat to the US Army, in barrels that were stamped with the initials "U.S." Supposedly, someone who saw the "U.S." stamp suggested -- perhaps as a joke -- that the initials stood for "Uncle Sam" Wilson. The suggestion that the meat shipments came from "Uncle Sam" led to the idea that Uncle Sam symbolized the federal government. Samuel Wilson is buried in the Oakwood Cemetery, in the northern part of Troy. Enter the cemetery from the Oakwood Ave. entrance, then follow the road to the right. You'll see signs that lead the way toward Sam Wilson's grave. Even with the signs, some visitors have difficulty locating the grave. Look for a waist-height, rectangular monument with a brass plaque set in its front; Wilson's grave is nearby. The headstone is very plain and small, as is that of his wife Betsey Mann. Both headstones lie flat on the ground. Take a photograph of Samuel Wilson's headstone.
Code: USG Time: Odometer: Approved By:
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Thurs I rode down to Auburn NY, stopping to see my parents on the way down. The weather was beautiful, I arrived in time to meet some old friends and make some new ones. Several of us went to dinner and then it
was back to the hotel room to finalize my route and upload the data into my GPS(s). Friday morning, the riders begin to get their bikes ready in the parking lot and usually are found making last minute adjustments on their farkles (ie GPSs, communication systems, aux fuel cells etc). Everyone has their game faces on and the "head games" begin. This is where a rider will say something like.... "I hear that bonus #xx is a sucker bonus", (meaning some some trick or next to impossible to obtain), or that "Looks like everyone is planning on going to Bonus xx...." (meaning that if you are not then you are missing something). This is only my 3rd rally but I have figured out that the purpose of these "declarations" is to fake out the other riders and make you question your planned route. My first rally I fell for it...but now I know enough (and I still know very little) to plan my route and ride my plan. At 10:30am, we all ride to locations we had individually found the night before which issued good receipts (ie, accurate date, time, city and state on the receipt). The official start time was 10:50 to 11:10 EDT. It is better to start as earlier as possible as several bonus locations have time restrictions (eg. daylight only, closed at 5pm etc). Of course, everyone else wants to do the same thing. I watched my GPS clock and at 10:50 I obtained my "starting receipt". Next step is to call in your starting time. There are 6 possible #'s call and everyone (~100 riders) are trying to call at the same time! I had all the #'s preprogrammed into my cell phone and finally got through to one # after about 5 minutes of trying. It is important when you call in to give specific information as indicated in the rally book (ie Rider name, Rider #, starting time, location etc). Mess this first step or get a bad receipt and you will be assigned penalties worth 50% of the amount you collected. Reading comprehension is very important in a rally. If the rally book says take a picture of a grave head stone and you take a picture of the monument beside the headstone....you will score no points.....ask me how I know!
My first bonus location was off to Troy New York to take a picture of Uncle Sams "headstone". The weather started off sunny and around 70F but quickly cooled off to around 54F as I headed East. I ended up approaching the cemetary from the wrong direction but fortunately I noticed some cemetary workers and asked them for directions to Uncle Sams site (the cemetary is huge and very old.) There was several others visiting this tourist location and most gave me a strange look as I ran toward the site (picture a guy flying up on a motorcycle with all kinds of lights and gadgets and dressed in a 1 piece yellow suit (called a "Stich) with a helmet with a happy face on the back.... running up to the headstone, putting my rally flag beside the headstone, taking a picture and running back the bike all before they could digest what was happening...). I saw the look of amuzement on their faces and let them know that it I was "alright (ie good in the head) and that I was on a bike scavenger hunt. Next stop was Reading PA for a 1/2 mandatory rest stop. By Reading, PA I had travelled over 424miles (681kms) with only 1 fuel stop. I had an auxillary fuel tank installed in the location of my rear fender. When my main tank is empty, I just have to flip a switch and fuel is pumped from my auxillary to my main tank and I have another tank of fuel to keep me going. I can travel about 400miles(640kms) or about 6-7hours without stopping. I also have an on board water cooler (1 gallon total) with water that I can drink while riding. While in Reading, PA a severe Thunder storm came through with hail and torrential rains. I waited for the lighting to pass before heading out but it was still raining very hard when I left Reading and it was now dark. For the next 5 hours, I would ride in hard rain in the dark on my ride down to Baltimore, MD. In my haste to keep going, I had neglected to properly secure the top of my 1 piece suit (which is gortex and waterproof). It was not long before the water began to enter the suit just below my neck and fill my suit.... yuck! The rain finally stopped in Baltimore and I grapped my second bonus which was a receipt for a toll bridge. Because of the rain and the delay of waiting out the storm, I was over 3 hrs behind schedule.
Around midnight I arrived at my 3 bonus location which to take a picture of the post office in a small town. Unfortunately, I could not initially find the post office. I rode the bike slowly up and down each street before finally finding it. There was no one moving around the town and it was very quiet. I kept sensing that there were "many" eyes watching me through the dark windows...... Taking a picture of the post office at night was difficult with my camera. I could not get the unlit "Vienna Post Office" sign on the side of the building to show in the picture.
Fortunately, due to previous experience, I had purchased a "slave flash" unit. This is a small flash that triggers off the camera flash. You can place the unit close to the object and it will fill the scene with light. With a good picture I was off to my next location..... the Chesapeake Bay Bride-Tunnel. This is a 20 mile bridge/tunnel complex. You travel by bridge out into the middle of the bay and twice you drop down into a tunnel in the middle of the bay. Just before crossing the bridge, I was getting tired so I needed to stop for my 3 hour "rest bonus". The rest bonus is not mandatory in a rally but it worth a substantial amount of points that you could not finish well without taking one. It really is the manner in which the Rally Master forces the riders to stop to sleep.
To prove you stopped, you need to produce a time/dated receipt for the start and stop of the rest bonus. There was raindrops in the air so I needed to find a hotel to get some sleep (There was no sleeping in the ditch or rest area on this rally!) Unfortunately, I wasted alot of time trying to find a hotel. The first 3 hotels were booked. Each minute in a rally is precious and I wasted about 15-20 minutes looking for a room. Several riders have the ability to call hotels from their bike to check on availability.... After checking in and making sure the receipt was "good", I entered my room dropped on top of the bed (still in my riding clothes) and set my Screaming Meaning for 2.9hrs (btw.....the hotel was a dump). The Sceaming Meaning is used by truckers and is very simple to operate as you only need to set the # of hours/minutes you want to sleep as opposed to an actual wake time. The alarm itself is loud enough to wake "the dead".... so it works great when you are "dead tired"!. 3 hrs later I checked out of the hotel and was back riding. Within minutes I arrived at the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel. It was early dawn and the sun was just rising...... crossing the bridge with no traffic and the smell of the ocean was one of those "perfect" moments.
These perfect moments are what I enjoy most about motorcycling and Long Distance Riding. Those treasured few perfect moments get stored in memory forever....
The remaining several bonuses were picture bonuses located in small towns. This is where my route feel apart. I quickly found myself loosing a tremendous amount of time just "looking" for the bonuses and sometimes having to backtrack. My GPS co-ordinates would take me to the middle of the town but not to the actual bonus location (ie lighthouse, couthouse, gravestone or other interesting place). I learned during this rally I need to take the time to look ahead and read the rally book before arriving at the GPS location. Many times the bonus location will be on road signs but you first need to know what you are looking for. Arriving in the middle of town and then looking is not smart...... lesson learned.
It was also during this time that I had an encounter with North Carolina's finest. I was on a back road and the weather was beautiful with the sun shinning and temps in the mid 70s. I was not in a hurry as I already accepted that I had no intention of being competiitve but I was not paying attention to my speed. My bike is very smooth and can quickly accelerate to some very high speeds if not paying attention...... I was riding down this road and their was a swamp on the right side with thousands of huge turtles sunning themselves (another perfect moment).... except this perfect moment was interupted by a police car feet from the rear of my bike with its lights flashing. I looked at my speedometer and my jaw dropped...... oops this was going to be expensive! Pulled over and took my helmet off. The Police officer asked me why I was in such a hurry. I was honest with him and said that I was enjoying his perfect weather, roads and the turtles and that I just "let her get away from me" from lack of attention. Turns out I was doing 25mph (40kph) over on a back road and he suggested that was not a good thing! I agreed completely and apologized. He asked if was cold in Canada and I indicated that it was compared to NC. He returned my licence and asked my to slow it down and to have a nice day! Whew..... I was lucky.
At this point the rest of my rally route was shot. One of my GPSs is always giving my the ETA to the final checkpoint and it was now saying that I would arrive at the Wilmington, NC checkpoint with only 20 minutes to spare and with about 150 miles to the finish. 20 minutes can disappear fast in traffic or accident delays. I had already experience 2 significant traffic delays already on this rally.... At this point I dropped all remaining bonuses and headed straight for the barn. A good rally plan has "bail out" points and fortunately I had planned some. I was able implement my bail out plan and arrived at the final check point with 16 minutes to spare. Miss the checkpoint window by 30 minutes and you are instantly given a DNF (Did Not Finish) and you would receive no score. When you arrive at the checkpoint there is a behive of activity. Volunteers direct you to the "pit" area where you are "checked in". You are given your official finish time and instructed to report to the Scoring area.
The rally is far from over however. You have a limited time to complete you paperwork and get scored. I was directed to a large hall with doozens of tables with smelly riders (that included me) and gear thrown everywhere. At this point you have to gather all receipts and properly label them with bonus location and odometer reading. You also complete your rally book with similar information. You must also complete a rider log with the date, time, purpose, odo reading, and picture information for every stop taken during the rally (including simply stopping for a quick bathroom break). Get anything at all wrong, or if your paperwork is not complete, or if your pictures are not correct etc, then you will lose your points. They call this "leaving points at the table". In my previous rallies, I had left some big points at the table. In both previous rallies these mistakes took me out of top 10 finishes. My goal for this rally was to leave no points at the table. At this point you are pretty tired and it easy to make a mistake. Once you are done the paperwork, you go to the scoring table. At this point you hand over your package to a scorer. They will ask you if you are ready to be scored. Once you respond yes, you cannot leave the scoring table to obtain a receipt on your bike etc. The scorers are pretty picky and everything must be done correctly and pictures taken must be clear and always show your rally flag. I am happy to say that I did not leave any points at the table which was a big deal for me. I successfully completed all 4 of my goals for this rally 1) Be safe 2) Break in all the new equipment installed on my bike over the winter 3) Leave no points on the table 4) Don't forget Rule #1. After scoring, everyone has a bit if time before the awards dinner to clean up and shower. At the awards dinner I sat with my fellow Canadian riders who I have gotten to know. 2 are from North Bay and the other 2 are from Montreal. These riders are very experienced and the 2 from Montreal have finished the Iron Butt Rally mentioned earlier. They have a wealth of information of lessons learned over many rallies and they are eager to share them with me as they want to see all Canadians place well.
We had fantastic BBQ ribs for supper and it was obvious that this was the first real meal the riders had in 30hrs. At the awards announcement we found out that my 2 friends from North Bay placed in 8 and 9 position from the Auburn NY starters and my friends from Montreal placed in 6 place from the Kentucky starters (they ride as a team). All said the rally was great fun. My next rallies will be the Mason Dixon in Maryland (end of May), the Minuteman 1000 in Mass (beginning of June) and the Minnessota 2010 in Minn (middle of June). I am also taking some advanced rider training courses in 2 weeks in Michigan (better bike handing and low speed control) and 2 days of track racing school in the middle of May (high speed cornering/braking). I am doing all this to better prepare myself for my participation in the Iron Butt 5000 in August. This rally will be 5 days long with about 5000 miles ridden. The rally starts in Denver, CO and ends in Spartanburg, SC. I am under no illusion that participation in this rally will be very difficult and that my preparation and training must be as thorough as possible. For example, several weeks ago I gave up coffee to prevent "caffine withdrawal headaches while riding.
Epilogue: On the ride home from Wilmington, the FJR developed a small coolant leak. The coolant was leaking out of the weaping hole in the bottom of the water pump. I was not too happy to have this type of problem with so few miles on the bike!
