IRON BUTT RALLY
June 26-July 7, 2017
Christopher Ross
IBA# 522
Getting There
On Wednesday, June 21, I rode the 1200 miles from Lubbock to the Minneapolis West Marriot, the host hotel for the 2017 Iron Butt Rally. The ride up was smooth, at least until I hit the massive highway project near the hotel. My wife Mikki would be driving the same route a couple of weeks later to be at the finish, so I called her on my ride up with notes about things to see along the way.
I arrived just before 10 PM to find that the kitchen in the hotel restaurant had closed early. I parked among the dozen or so rally bikes already in the lot, checked in, and called a local delivery place. I ordered a meatball sub and a 6-pack of Sprite to stock my fridge with, and then went downstairs for a cold Guinness while waiting for my dinner. I called home, enjoyed a really good sandwich, and called it a day. The next couple of days would be days of rest and hanging out with friends I don’t see often enough.
It pays to occasionally wash a motorcycle, and just a couple of weeks before the IBR I had discovered a leaking rear main seal while cleaning it. BMW of Austin got me in very quickly, and replaced the seals and the clutch. There were no other mechanical issues and my 2012 R1200GSA ran very well to Minnesota. There was no need to have last minute work done or parts bought. I would be starting the rally with some miles on the tires, but a spare rear wheel with a new tire mounted would be at the second checkpoint for me, so I wasn’t worried about tires. The rear tire change on the GS/GSA bikes consists of 5 lug bolts and is a quick parking lot task, even for a tired rider.
Tech inspection was Saturday and I got through it without any real issues, although I did blow the odometer check just blocks from the hotel and had to return to ask Marty Leir how to leave the hotel one more time. Check in complete, I enjoyed some last minute shopping with a couple other riders. Three Texans and an Irishman walk into a onetime dive bar turned family restaurant, and they had fun. On Sunday we had rider meetings… rules were clarified, digital file formats discussed, and general procedures talked about.
In IBR15 riders received waypoints in electronic format, but the point values were in hardcopy, requiring a lot of manual data entry. For this year’s rally riders would receive both the waypoint data and point values electronically (.gpx and .csv), allowing us to more quickly get to the real task of routing (provided we knew what to do with the digital files). I am a novice when it comes to Excel spreadsheets, but thanks to an informational gathering of Texas and Louisiana riders a couple months before the rally, and especially thanks to Danny Dossman, I had an improved strategy and was able to take better advantage of the digital formats provided.
I have not made it to as many long distance events in recent years as I would have liked, and am still relatively new in the LD community. Although I’m not well known, this community of riders is very welcoming and helpful, willing to lend advice, loan a tool, or give a hand. I met a lot of people, some I’ve known about for years but never met in person. I also enjoyed catching up with several Texas riders whom I’ve gotten to know through the DFW Defective Gene Pool RTE, and the RAT this past May. Texas was very well represented in the rally, both in terms of riders and rally staff, and there is talk of getting organized like our friends in Minnesota, which I absolutely support.
The strategy… I opened both .csv files, combined the waypoint data and point values into one spreadsheet, sorted boni by point value, added an availability column, and assigned symbols and colors based on that info. Using codes I denoted availability… a bonus could be available anytime (A), daylight only (D), nighttime only (N), or timed (T8-2). I then renamed each waypoint in a new column using a formula. Waypoint “PNM” became “PNM.978.A”, indicating it’s an Anytime bonus worth 978 points. This new name would be displayed in Garmin Basecamp and on my GPS units (Zumo 660 and 665LM), which was helpful to see while on the move. The spreadsheet got saved as a new .csv file, then converted to a .gpx file using an online converter, then imported into the correct leg folder in Basecamp. This entire process took about 20 minutes, and then I was ready to work up a leg route that I could actually ride. We received point values at the start of each leg, and this process would be repeated for each leg. In legs 2 and 3 it would be done at 4 AM, so I had a very clear check list written out to follow. I would not recreate my spreadsheet in legs 2 and 3, but would copy and paste the new point values into the existing spreadsheet which already had availability listed, then recode the symbols and colors, and clear and rename the boni. Once in Basecamp I would develop a route and time it out using my average moving speeds based on the types of roadways used, factoring in time for rest and for certain difficult boni. The GPS units struggle when recalculating long routes, so once I was committed to a plan for the leg I would break the route into smaller sections by day or by string, before exporting them to GPS. Final steps: screenshots of my planned bonus stops with estimated arrival times, Basecamp backup saved to desktop and to a flashdrive, leg .gpx files emailed to myself to be opened on iPhone with GPX-Viewer app if necessary on the road, confirm Call-In bonuses are listed somewhere so they are not forgotten.
One mistake I made following leg 1 was to not clear out my GPS units, and when I imported my second leg plan I ended up duplicating the bonuses. The point values had changed and I was unsure which value was correct for leg 2, which would have made adjusting my route on the fly difficult. This step was missing from my checklist.
Rally Theme: The theme of IBR17 was “North American Safari”, and each bonus would be an animal from one of five categories (Air, Land, Mythical, Prehistoric, Water). Those categories would play a role in the strings of each leg. This rally involved 328 possible bonus locations in North America, with many being worth just 1 point, and all point values changing each leg. A minimum of 55,000 points was required to be a finisher.
Each leg featured a string option to increase points earned. The downside to this was the possibility of spending days stringing bonuses together, mess up and lose credit for a single bonus, and then miss the multiplier at the end. While in some rallies you could simply delete the very low point values, to clean up the map and have less to consider, you could not dismiss anything in this rally because it could be needed for a string. Some of the strings I completed in legs 2 and 3 involved several bonuses worth 1 point only, meaning I’d be in trouble points-wise if I messed up any bonus in the string, or if I missed the big final bonus of the string.
Leg 1 (58 Hours, Minneapolis, MN – Allen, TX)
String Option: String 3 bonuses together for a 2x multiplier on the 3rd bonus. The 3 must be from the same animal category (Air, Land, Mythical, Prehistoric, Water).
On the first leg I didn’t see a string to collect. I considered a few, but nothing really jumped out at me. After days of anticipation, I just wanted to get out on the road and away from the pack. I planned to skip the optional leg 1 group photo bonus northwest of Minneapolis, regardless of what it was worth, so I looked east. I chose some “big rocks”, or large value bonuses reachable while riding from point A to B (Minneapolis to Allen), and then filled in some smaller bonuses along the route. I left the start hotel, grabbed a bonus in downtown Green Bay, and then headed for an animal from the mythical category in Sault Ste. Marie. From the rally book: MFB, Available 1100-2200 Sun-Thurs, Every square inch of the Antlers Restaurant in Sault Ste. Marie is packed with dead critters. Your challenge is to find the rare fur-bearing trout. This was a challenge… it was worth a lot of points, and they don’t give you a lot of points because it’s easy. Neither the hostess nor bartender knew where the fish was (I was the first rider to show up there), so I ordered a steak and iced tea, and started wandering around the restaurant. Just after finding the fish and taking a picture with my rally flag, a fellow rider and friend from the last IBR walked in, spotting the fish immediately as I was standing right by it. I jokingly told Greg Farmer “You’re welcome”, as I sat down to enjoy a quick steak.
This first day was very wet, as most of leg 1 would be, but the rain broke as I rode south toward the Mackinaw Bridge. I stopped to shoot a picture or two of the bridge… beautiful sunlight reflecting off it, dark clouds in the background, and a rainbow off to the left. A beautiful scene, captured on my iPhone. It is important to keep things separate, and my rally camera is only used for rally pictures. Any additional “tourist” photos are taken with my cell phone, to avoid issues in scoring, where SD cards are not returned and points are deducted for extraneous photos. I finished this first day near Ann Arbor.
Continuing on Tuesday, I collected a couple of university mascots south of Toledo and in Columbus, before heading for my second big rock, another mythical animal. MPP, Available 24 hours, Take a photo of the Mothman statute. In West Virginia folklore, the Mothman is a legendary creature being reportedly seen in the Point Pleasant area from November 15, 1966, to December 15, 1967. The Mothman was introduced to a wider audience by Gary Barker in 1970, and later popularized by John Keel in his 1975 book “The Mothman Prophecies”.
From West Virginia I turned west, collecting a couple more mythical animals on the way to the first checkpoint in Allen. The Cincinnati bonus was a Stegowagenvolkssaurus statue on the third floor of a university library… a mythical cross between a stegosaurus and a VW beetle. There were students in the library, watching me walk through in my dripping wet Aerostitch, but no matter. In rally mode you very quickly stop worrying about how you look. Or smell. Rain continued to fall, and before I could leave the hometown of WKRP, I got caught behind a massive wreck that had closed the interstate south toward Louisville. The Waze app might have helped me here, but I had just learned about it and had decided not to try learning to use it while on the rally. I got out of the mess using a right shoulder and then squeezing between trucks to cross the grass ditch to the left of the stopped lanes. It was wet and muddy and for a second I thought I’d made a horrible miscalculation, but the GSA climbed up the other side and got me onto the hard pavement of northbound traffic. After a few miles I exited and had a sit down break in a McDonald’s where I reworked my route. McDs are dependable for good wireless internet and cold filtered water for the gallon Camelbak bladder I use on the bike.
I lost at least an hour and a half with the detour, and as much as I wanted to continue to Memphis and then reach a nighttime only bonus in Shreveport before sleeping, I hit a wall. Somewhere around 11 PM on I-40 I told Mikki on the phone that I was good and would press on, planning to reach the nighttime bonus around 4:30 AM, before sunrise. A half hour later, with constant rain and a lot of big truck traffic, I called her back and said I needed to get off the road. I grabbed a cheap motel and reworked the remaining hours of this leg.
The next morning in downtown Memphis I photographed a flying catfish with airplane wings and propellers, and then continued on, arriving at the checkpoint with a couple hours to spare.
I got through scoring, finishing a reasonable leg and leaving no points on the table. In my room, my LD Comfort washed in the shower and wrung dry in a towel, and my mobile office set up (2 laptops, 3 GPS units, new SD card and battery in camera, rally book and notebook out), I set my alarm for 3:30 AM and crashed. (Following Leg 1: 44th place, 14,562 pts, 2502 miles).
Leg 2 (64 Hours, Allen, TX – Allen, TX)
String Option: String 4 bonuses together for a 3x multiplier on the 4th bonus. The 4 must each be from a different animal category (Air, Land, Mythical, Prehistoric, Water).
The rider meeting and breakfast buffet was at 4 AM, and riders must not be late to meetings. At 4 the doors are closed and latecomers are not allowed in. During the meetings the new string option is explained, and questions are answered. It is up to the riders to ask for clarification if they are unsure about any of the rally rules or scoring requirements. In this leg 2 meeting there were very few questions asked, which was mentioned in the official daily reports as several riders, myself included, made scoring mistakes and lost points. At the conclusion of the meeting the point values file for the next leg was emailed to the riders who attended the meeting. I was on time for the meeting, but had failed to pack any street clothes, so while some riders were comfortable in flip flops and shorts I was wearing my riding gear, which was not yet completely dry. I would call and ask Mikki to bring me clothes when she meets me at the second checkpoint.
Routing a leg that starts and ends in the same place is a little different. You do not have a point A to B line to start with. So I looked for big rocks to anchor my route that were in a circular shape. I chose a circular route to Pensacola, up into Georgia, and then back in on I-40, collecting two bonuses that I also got in leg 1. In this rally, all bonuses were available in each leg, although the point values changed each leg.
Should mechanical problems or sickness develop, it can be helpful to have bail out points in the route where you can just turn and head for the checkpoint. The worst thing that can happen in a rally, as far as scoring goes, is to be late to a checkpoint and be time barred. Miss a checkpoint and you are disqualified, DNF. A route that runs straight out and then straight back in, may not offer much in the way of a bail out point. There were points in the Florida Keys, but with the rain and slow traffic probable, I played it safe and rode a more circular route a little closer to the checkpoint.
Weather also factored into my decisions about where to go. While Texas and the southwest were dry, they were forecasted to be very hot. Riders have withdrawn from this rally after just a few days due to heat exhaustion, and I don’t generally do so well in real hot conditions. Heat takes a toll on tires, and also requires you to drink more fluids. I tried to stick with 1 gallon of water a day, which is the capacity of my Camelbak water bladder. Much more than that would require more stops to fill the bladder, as well as more bathroom breaks, and less water could lead to dehydration. So I passed on the hot dry options west, in favor of a southeasterly route with cooler temperatures and more rain forecasted.
Speaking of bathroom breaks, since it is something I have been asked from time to time… I have figured out for myself how to maintain regularity that does not require excessive stops or the use of an external catheter. Some riders use a catheter, and I took advantage of one on a 1600 mile day several years ago. But keeping things clean over 11 days is more challenging than during a one day ride, and it’s not something I’ve felt would be a real advantage for me. I pee on the side of the road, bike running. I do not pee at gas stops, which would require leaving my bike unattended and removing my helmet, which is not a modular lid (Arai doesn’t make one). If I had to do more than pee, which is rare during the day, Starbucks restrooms can’t be beat.
Maintaining regularity comes down to food and drink. Several weeks before the rally I cut my alcohol and caffeine consumption way down. I also started eating my rally food here and there to make sure my system would be happy with it.
My rally routine:
Morning: Cup of coffee, Ensure protein shake from my top box (vanilla or chocolate). Atkins Lift protein bar in the morning, broken into pieces to be eaten out of tankbag. Water bladder from the previous day finished.
Mid-morning: McDs or Waffle House stop: Small coffee. Sausage biscuit or waffle and bacon. Water bladder refilled (easier at McDs drink station).
Afternoon: package of beef jerky and water. Possibly a cold Sprite or Gatorade if I go inside a gas station. Gummy worms.
Late Afternoon or Evening: a sit down meal, along the lines of a Subway inside a travel center. If I am going to enjoy a full night in a decent hotel, and there happens to be a Chili’s style restaurant real close, I might do that instead. I avoid large meals if I am going to continue riding after I eat. If stopping to sit down, I always take my rally book in to read over requirements for upcoming bonus stops.
I do not drink energy drinks or use any kind of stimulants, beyond my normal routine of 1-2 cups of coffee in the mornings. For me the idea is to stay as close as possible to my normal eating and sleeping habits.
So for leg 2, I planned a route quickly and rode south through downtown Dallas before the morning rush hour. I grabbed a couple of bonuses just south of DFW, and headed east toward Pensacola. The rain persisted, and there were several accident delays on I-10. At one point, I think in Mississippi, I ended up at a dead stop on a long bridge. Both eastbound lanes were stopped, and I could see cars stopped way up ahead, so I laid down on my tankbag, legs hanging straight down, and tried to enjoy the break. I made Pensacola after dark, in pouring rain and standing water, and found a decent hotel. During the rally I alternated between short power naps, cheap motels, and decent business-class hotels, depending on how long I’d be staying. On this night I opted for a Holiday Inn Express, with a Ruby Tuesdays in the front parking lot. Good dinner and great sleep.
The next morning I bagged the bonus in downtown Pensacola, again before the business district woke up, and headed southwest for another nearby bonus close to the Barber Marina. From there I rode north into Georgia for a polar bear on a stone monument, which would be one of my larger errors. I collected the polar bear following a hot and sweaty walk from the parking lot, and then rode through more rain toward Tennessee for a bonus there, and to rejoin I-40. A few more bonuses were collected along I-40, and I made it across Arkansas before dark. It was still raining, and my boots had started leaking. In the 100,000 miles I’ve worn them they have never leaked. They didn’t even leak during the IBR15 “Rain Bowl”, but gear doesn’t last forever. I worked through my options as I rode, eventually deciding to stop in Texarkana. There isn’t much between there and the Shreveport nighttime bonus, and my weather radar was showing a lot of red in that stretch. I also needed to start my official Rest bonus with a gas receipt before midnight, and my GPS was giving an arrival time of 12:15 AM to the bonus, if I went straight through. I would stop in Texarkana and start my Rest about 9 PM, and get going again in the morning early enough to make the bonus in the dark. The hotel was a welcome break from the road. My boots and socks were really reeking, and my big toes were shriveled up from being wet for so long. The skin where all the folds occurred were painful. Even though my boots probably wouldn’t dry out overnight, I was looking forward to dry socks at the checkpoint.
Each leg of the rally offered a Rest bonus, giving points for each minute stopped and resting, from a minimum 4 hours to a maximum 8 hours. The rest bonuses had to be started within a specific timeframe or on a particular day. I could have claimed the maximum 8 hour Rest the night before in Pensacola, had I collected receipts. I mistakenly didn’t keep receipts because I had planned to do the official Rest at the end of that day, rather than at the beginning. Next time, I’ll collect all receipts just in case plans change later.
I had hated missing the Shreveport nighttime bonus in leg 1, because it seemed like such a cool thing to see… a 19’ tall Dalmatian named “Art”, with his spots lit up from the inside… so I made sure to work it into the plan for this leg. I maximized the Rest bonus as much as possible (7 hours) and left the hotel at 4 AM, to make the 80 mile run to the dog while still dark. Sunrise was to be around 5:30, according to the National Weather Service. The plan worked and I got the dog before dawn, and it was very cool to see, even in pouring rain.
From the dog I headed to the leg 2 group photo bonus in Broken Arrow, before returning to Allen for the second checkpoint. After being on the road for days and only rarely seeing other rally riders, the group photo bonuses are nice. I skipped the one in leg 1 because it wasn’t far from the start and I didn’t want to be in a group. But I was planning on hitting the legs 2 and 3 group photos if they made any sense in my leg plans. I arrived about a half hour early and caught up with friends I’ve made since getting into long distance riding. Following the photo I headed for the checkpoint, collecting a couple of smaller bonuses along the way.
When I pulled into the checkpoint hotel Mikki was waiting for me. I was so happy to see her, and was again a couple of hours early. I “stopped the clock” and went upstairs to get out of my gear and shower. Checkpoints are nice breaks from the road, but the clock still ticks and riders should stay in a rally-mindset. To help stay focused on the rally, I had reserved a room for each of us at the hotel. However, by talking to Mikki each day while on the road, and her reading to me the daily rally reports, I decided to cancel her room and we would stay together. Mikki was engaged in this rally with me, and I just wasn’t worried about her wanting to discuss non-rally business, or wanting to go have a regular dinner out like we would at home. She was happy to see me and interested in how I was doing, but was very careful not to change what I was thinking or doing.
After showering and putting on clean shorts and a T-shirt, I got ready for scoring: flipping the lock tab on the camera SD card and copying the photos to my computer (scoring will not return the SD card), filling out the Bonus Claim Form, confirming my Rest bonus receipts were paper clipped in order. I signed up for scoring, grabbed a meatball sub in the riders waiting room, and then went through scoring. Only riders were allowed in the rally ballrooms, so Mikki walked across the hotel parking lot and got herself something for dinner from a restaurant there.
In IBR15 I recorded my odometer and time at each bonus on an index card in my tankbag, and then transferred that information to the claim form later. This year, in an effort to prevent errors and safeguard against lost or illegible index cards, I didn’t write anything down at my bonus stops. Assuming I got good pictures on the first try, at each bonus I took 3 pictures: bonus animal with rally flag, bike odometer, GPS displaying local time. I completed the Bonus Claim Form by clicking through my pictures on the computer after copying them, without worry that I may have written something incorrectly on the road. The claim form asked for local time, which the GPS always displayed, and unless it was a timed bonus I did not worry about which time zone each bonus was in. These additional photos were allowed to be on the SD card and were not considered extraneous, because they were there to prove my bonus claims.
Going back to the Q&A part of a riders meeting… it is up to the riders in the meeting to ask for clarification if they’re not completely sure about the instructions for the upcoming leg. Well… the excitement about getting back to your room to route the next leg, along with the early morning time of the meeting, can cloud judgement. Long story short, in leg 2 I rode into Georgia to grab a polar bear, which I intended to be a single bonus between strings, but which actually slid my string brackets up a space. The 3x multiplier was applied to a 200 point bonus, instead of a nearly 2000 point bonus. In a leg with a target of 15,000 points for finisher status, this mistake cost me almost 6000 points. I was sick, but by morning I had recovered and realized that the long third leg was still to come and that I had to let my mistake go, while not repeating it. (Following Leg 2: 59th place, 29,224 pts, 5224 miles).
Leg 3 (126 Hours, Allen, TX – Minneapolis, MN)
String Option: String 5 bonuses together for a 4x multiplier on the 5th bonus. The 5 must form a full house – 3 from one animal category and 2 from another, in any order.
I went downstairs about 3:30 AM for the rider meeting, thankful for the shorts and flip flops Mikki had brought me. Another buffet breakfast and the announcement of the leg 3 string option. Staffer Tim Masterson held up a visual aid as Jeff Earls explained how to correctly claim an individual bonus along with strings. Apparently I had not been the only rider to mess that up in leg 2, and there were more questions asked by riders in this meeting.
When I got back to our room Mikki was up and dressed, and had coffee going for me. She pulled up a chair and watched me work up a doable end game, without interfering with the task or slowing me down. I was really comfortable having her looking over my shoulder, and I think we could make a good team in a future rally.
Because of the 4x multiplier and the length of this leg, I shortened my symbol and color coding process. Everything that was large (above 1980 points) was made red, everything else blue, and all symbols made the same (triangles). I did not code for availability because that information was already in the name of each bonus.
Why make the break point 1980, rather than just 2000? I had noticed in leg 1 that a lot of bonuses had point values just under an obvious benchmark. In the first leg I had mistakenly dismissed a couple of 990 point opportunities because I had started my high level coding for that leg at 1000 points. This is one of many examples of the cleverness of Jeff Earls, the designer of this rally. This IBR required much more brainpower than in 2015.
Once the updated bonus listing was imported into Basecamp, I dragged the point A to B line to the large red bonuses in the west. I chose 3 to anchor my leg and serve as the fifth and final stops to strings, receiving the 4x multiplier. They were in Utah, Oregon, and North Dakota. I then found 4 bonuses that I could hit on the way to those anchors, making strings that met the full house requirement, always keeping in mind their availability.
I chose a loop in the west for leg 3. I had encountered constant rain and traffic delays in the first two legs, and I was ready to dry out and enjoy generally higher speed limits. There were huge opportunities in Newfoundland, and indeed the winning riders went there, but I never seriously considered that for me. I do not have experience riding in the northeast, or catching the required ferries, and I was not going to risk a DNF in this final leg.
Mobile office packed up, new SD card and battery in camera, batteries in the SPOT changed, water bladder refilled, and I was ready for the long push to the end. I had a quick visit with Craig Brooks in the parking lot, hugged Mikki one last time, and got back on the road. My first stop would be north of Amarillo, but rather than heading west on 380 through construction and lights, I went north to Sherman and then west.
Before dark I bagged dinosaurs in Boise City and Canon City, and birds in Trinidad and Ridgeway. I then maximized a Rest bonus in Montrose, positioning myself for a shuttle bus tour to a dinosaur skull in Utah the next morning. The Rest had to be on this second day, and I claimed it from midnight to 8 AM. My airhead buddy Upe, who was following my SPOT tracks, texted Mikki to see if everything was okay since I was still stopped at 8:00. Hearing from friends and family throughout the rally, either directly or through Mikki, was great! Often a text or call would come at a low spot in the day, and was really encouraging to me.
Based on prior experiences, I expect to hit a lull or low spot each day, when I feel tired and maybe unmotivated. Early in a rally this low happens in late afternoon. I never eat a big lunch while riding because doing so may worsen the sleepy lull I already have. As the rally wears on overall fatigue builds, and by the 7th or 8th day my low spot has moved up and can happen as early as 10 or 11 in the morning. During the low spots I call friends, sing along to rock music, practice yoga stretches, and suck on hard candy. If I have to stop and take a little walk or grab a nap, I do that. Self-awareness and recognizing how you are doing both physically and mentally is a critical skill to staying safe.
Several of the bonus options in this rally were time consuming to collect (ride shuttle bus, hike in woods, take a tour, etc.), but the rally book accurately provided a heads up in such cases, so extra time could be allotted in the planning stages. In the past two rallies I have been impressed with the rally books. I imagine they take a massive amount of time and effort to compile, but what great souvenirs to have following the IBR!
Leaving the Rest in Montrose, I rode over Douglas Pass and collected the dinosaur in Utah, and then headed to Wyoming along the western edge of the Flaming Gorge. I would have liked to have stopped in Green River, as Mikki and I are sponsoring a plaque there to honor George Wyman, America’s first long distance rider (http://wymanmemorialproject.blogspot.com/). But with over 1000 miles to cover this day I chose to stay on the job. I wouldn’t be ending the day until I had clipped the corner of Idaho, cut through Utah, captured a polar bear in a Nevada casino, and reached Reno. Two of the coolest sights on this rally were the quiet desolation of NV233 north of Wendover, and the ridges on both sides of the I-80 east of Sparks, lit red and orange by wildfires.
The next morning, following a nice 4 hour sleep, I headed northwest toward Mt. Shasta to collect the 4th bonus in my second string of the leg. My 4th stop was a Big Foot statue in northwestern California, down a curvy mountain road, dozens of miles west of I-5. The next and last stop of that string was in southern Oregon, about 20 miles away as the crow flies, but by pavement over 130 miles around, requiring a ride back to I-5, north a bit, and then back west on another curvy mountain road. I consulted my GPS, and decided to attempt a “shortcut” over the mountain. Another rider at the Big Foot, Steve Diederich, had decided to try it also. What started as an enticing little paved road, turned to hard gravel, then steepened and turned to deep gravel. We fought a good fight, and helped each other pick up our downed bikes, but ultimately we threw in the towel and returned to the pavement. We had wasted over an hour. It was late afternoon and a long way from our 5th bonus, which was a daylight only bonus. I can only imagine rally staff back at HQ shaking their heads as they watched riders attempt this shortcut.
One of the interesting risks with strings are the consequences if anything is missed in the string. In this case, after collecting 4 relatively low value bonuses, missing the 5th daylight only bonus, the last in a string making it the big value, just wasn’t an option. If I didn’t get there in time, my choices were to scratch the string and continue on, losing a ton of points, or to wait for sunrise the next morning and likely push the rest of the leg back, possibly missing a string planned for later. Both were bad options.
So we rode. We didn’t stop for gas or refills on water or anything else. We fought through traffic on I-5 and made it to the 5th bonus while still daylight. This bonus was hard won. Following the rally book instructions for this bonus, we stopped at the store by the lake, bought parking passes (which would be required at the scoring table for points to be earned), then parked in a different parking lot and headed on foot into the mountains. The sun was getting low in the sky. This last bonus of the string involved a nearly mile long hike in the woods to find a Big Foot trap. After a hot and sweaty hike we found the structure and collected daylight pictures with our rally flags. Mission accomplished. We hiked out, passing Paul Slaton on the trail as he was heading in, and I left Steve at the parking lot. He needed a rest and I needed food. Happy my second string was completed, I stopped at a DQ in Medford, and then rode up I-5 to Portland, enjoying fireworks all along the way. It was the 4th of July, and I stopped just after midnight on the eastern side of Portland, to avoid rush hour traffic the next morning.
The next morning I crossed the Columbia River at Cascade Locks to pick up a bonus in Washington, and then rode over the bridge back into Oregon. Cascade Locks is a beautiful place, and I remembered the fun Mikki and I had there last summer on our Pacific Northwest road trip. My route took me through the Columbia River Gorge, and I stopped at a Subway in the Tri-Cities for a quick lunch. While eating a club sandwich, I was joined by Matt Watkins, the city mayor of Pasco and an IBR finisher. He had been following the group SPOT map, and decided to get out of the office and come say hi. It was a great surprise, and we had a short but really great conversation. I got back on the road again feeling encouraged and refreshed.
I continued through northern Idaho, wishing very much I could have included Lolo Pass in my route. One of my favorite roads, ID12 was just south of me, but the time required to drop down and ride it didn’t make sense. I pushed on to bonuses in Missoula and Bozeman and stopped for the night. In Bozeman I ran into Robert Bolger, a rider I’d met in ‘15, and we swapped tales from the road while eating dinner at Applebee’s.
That night in Bozeman I was shaken awake a little after midnight. The bed I was in felt like it was swaying like a boat, and I thought “surely I can’t be this tired”! I stayed in bed and fell back asleep quickly. The next afternoon I learned that I had been woken up by a magnitude 5.8 earthquake about 150 miles away in Lincoln, MT. I was happy to have experienced this from my hotel bed, and not while riding the bike.
The next morning Robert and I rode east to the leg 3 group photo bonus. Nearing the bonus we passed the Boge family riding their Harley-Davidson sidecar to the same bonus (Dad, Mom, and 12 year old Laura in the sidecar). I met them before the rally started, and was really impressed. A great family taking on an amazing and difficult challenge together. Laura was smiles and happy every time I saw her, and I was proud for them when I learned that they had finished the rally.
From the group photo bonus I entered South Dakota, finishing up a final string before returning to the barn. I pulled into the Minneapolis hotel around midnight, parking and climbing off the GSA one final time. Mikki was there waiting for me, and I was welcomed by a small group of cheering riders and fans. It was a great moment, and almost the end of another great Iron Butt adventure.
The rally really ends when you get through scoring, and I went downstairs early the next morning. Showered and out of my gear, I had taken care in filling out my Bonus Claim Form to avoid the mistake made in leg 2. Scoring took some time, but I walked out of the ballroom happy. I didn’t make any mistakes and lost no points for leg 3, and I had the points to be a finisher.
Friday night at the Finishers Banquet I learned that I placed 44th. I beat my 2015 finish, but by only 2 places. I went into this rally hoping for a Silver Medal, but based on the complexity of the routing in this rally, I was quite happy with my performance. When Rallymaster Lisa Landry called me up for my award, she jokingly asked if I’d talked Mikki into running this two-up yet. We’re seriously discussing it Lisa! I love the people in the long distance community, and the Iron Butt Rally is a fantastic way to spend 11 days on a motorcycle. Over the years the IBR has continued to evolve. Every rally is different, and presents different challenges, but there is one thing they all share… you cannot finish it by simply riding from checkpoint to checkpoint, or by riding a lot of miles. The routing part of rallying, what was my least favorite part when I got started in this, has really become great fun for me. Learning something new can daunting, but when you finally get it, the rewards can be great.
Leg 4 (Getting Home)
While the IBR only scores 3 legs, riders talk about the trip home as leg 4. The adventure is not really over until you have safely arrived back home to your loved ones.
Following the IBR, Mikki and I took a few days and had a relaxing time being tourists. We got a couples massage and toured the Surly Brewery in Minneapolis. In St. Paul we took a walking tour of historic Summit Avenue, checked out the art deco Commodore Hotel and Bar where F. Scott Fitzgerald once lived, and stopped by Robert Pirsig’s home. We drove to Duluth and enjoyed great seafood, walked the boardwalk along Lake Superior, and saw lighthouses and an aerial lift bridge in action. We visited Duluth Trading Post (it’s not just a catalog), as well as Aerostitch, where Mikki had a fitting appointment for a 2-piece Roadcrafter. We trailered the GSA home so we could enjoy the windshield time together. We visited the Iowa field where Buddy Holly’s plane crashed, past IBR finisher Dennis Powell’s pig farm which features a large “Iron Butt Iowa” sign, and then made a final stop at the historic gas station in Shamrock, Texas.
Stats
I rode 10,153 miles, finished 44th place with 82,528 points, in the Bronze Medal range.
I had a fantastic time, both in routing and riding IBR17. Mikki was my constant cheerleader and encourager. Being able to talk to her during the rally was so helpful and motivating. I could not have finished this without her, and we are considering entering a future rally as a two-up team.
June 26-July 7, 2017
Christopher Ross
IBA# 522
Getting There
On Wednesday, June 21, I rode the 1200 miles from Lubbock to the Minneapolis West Marriot, the host hotel for the 2017 Iron Butt Rally. The ride up was smooth, at least until I hit the massive highway project near the hotel. My wife Mikki would be driving the same route a couple of weeks later to be at the finish, so I called her on my ride up with notes about things to see along the way.
I arrived just before 10 PM to find that the kitchen in the hotel restaurant had closed early. I parked among the dozen or so rally bikes already in the lot, checked in, and called a local delivery place. I ordered a meatball sub and a 6-pack of Sprite to stock my fridge with, and then went downstairs for a cold Guinness while waiting for my dinner. I called home, enjoyed a really good sandwich, and called it a day. The next couple of days would be days of rest and hanging out with friends I don’t see often enough.
It pays to occasionally wash a motorcycle, and just a couple of weeks before the IBR I had discovered a leaking rear main seal while cleaning it. BMW of Austin got me in very quickly, and replaced the seals and the clutch. There were no other mechanical issues and my 2012 R1200GSA ran very well to Minnesota. There was no need to have last minute work done or parts bought. I would be starting the rally with some miles on the tires, but a spare rear wheel with a new tire mounted would be at the second checkpoint for me, so I wasn’t worried about tires. The rear tire change on the GS/GSA bikes consists of 5 lug bolts and is a quick parking lot task, even for a tired rider.
Tech inspection was Saturday and I got through it without any real issues, although I did blow the odometer check just blocks from the hotel and had to return to ask Marty Leir how to leave the hotel one more time. Check in complete, I enjoyed some last minute shopping with a couple other riders. Three Texans and an Irishman walk into a onetime dive bar turned family restaurant, and they had fun. On Sunday we had rider meetings… rules were clarified, digital file formats discussed, and general procedures talked about.
In IBR15 riders received waypoints in electronic format, but the point values were in hardcopy, requiring a lot of manual data entry. For this year’s rally riders would receive both the waypoint data and point values electronically (.gpx and .csv), allowing us to more quickly get to the real task of routing (provided we knew what to do with the digital files). I am a novice when it comes to Excel spreadsheets, but thanks to an informational gathering of Texas and Louisiana riders a couple months before the rally, and especially thanks to Danny Dossman, I had an improved strategy and was able to take better advantage of the digital formats provided.
I have not made it to as many long distance events in recent years as I would have liked, and am still relatively new in the LD community. Although I’m not well known, this community of riders is very welcoming and helpful, willing to lend advice, loan a tool, or give a hand. I met a lot of people, some I’ve known about for years but never met in person. I also enjoyed catching up with several Texas riders whom I’ve gotten to know through the DFW Defective Gene Pool RTE, and the RAT this past May. Texas was very well represented in the rally, both in terms of riders and rally staff, and there is talk of getting organized like our friends in Minnesota, which I absolutely support.
The strategy… I opened both .csv files, combined the waypoint data and point values into one spreadsheet, sorted boni by point value, added an availability column, and assigned symbols and colors based on that info. Using codes I denoted availability… a bonus could be available anytime (A), daylight only (D), nighttime only (N), or timed (T8-2). I then renamed each waypoint in a new column using a formula. Waypoint “PNM” became “PNM.978.A”, indicating it’s an Anytime bonus worth 978 points. This new name would be displayed in Garmin Basecamp and on my GPS units (Zumo 660 and 665LM), which was helpful to see while on the move. The spreadsheet got saved as a new .csv file, then converted to a .gpx file using an online converter, then imported into the correct leg folder in Basecamp. This entire process took about 20 minutes, and then I was ready to work up a leg route that I could actually ride. We received point values at the start of each leg, and this process would be repeated for each leg. In legs 2 and 3 it would be done at 4 AM, so I had a very clear check list written out to follow. I would not recreate my spreadsheet in legs 2 and 3, but would copy and paste the new point values into the existing spreadsheet which already had availability listed, then recode the symbols and colors, and clear and rename the boni. Once in Basecamp I would develop a route and time it out using my average moving speeds based on the types of roadways used, factoring in time for rest and for certain difficult boni. The GPS units struggle when recalculating long routes, so once I was committed to a plan for the leg I would break the route into smaller sections by day or by string, before exporting them to GPS. Final steps: screenshots of my planned bonus stops with estimated arrival times, Basecamp backup saved to desktop and to a flashdrive, leg .gpx files emailed to myself to be opened on iPhone with GPX-Viewer app if necessary on the road, confirm Call-In bonuses are listed somewhere so they are not forgotten.
One mistake I made following leg 1 was to not clear out my GPS units, and when I imported my second leg plan I ended up duplicating the bonuses. The point values had changed and I was unsure which value was correct for leg 2, which would have made adjusting my route on the fly difficult. This step was missing from my checklist.
Rally Theme: The theme of IBR17 was “North American Safari”, and each bonus would be an animal from one of five categories (Air, Land, Mythical, Prehistoric, Water). Those categories would play a role in the strings of each leg. This rally involved 328 possible bonus locations in North America, with many being worth just 1 point, and all point values changing each leg. A minimum of 55,000 points was required to be a finisher.
Each leg featured a string option to increase points earned. The downside to this was the possibility of spending days stringing bonuses together, mess up and lose credit for a single bonus, and then miss the multiplier at the end. While in some rallies you could simply delete the very low point values, to clean up the map and have less to consider, you could not dismiss anything in this rally because it could be needed for a string. Some of the strings I completed in legs 2 and 3 involved several bonuses worth 1 point only, meaning I’d be in trouble points-wise if I messed up any bonus in the string, or if I missed the big final bonus of the string.
Leg 1 (58 Hours, Minneapolis, MN – Allen, TX)
String Option: String 3 bonuses together for a 2x multiplier on the 3rd bonus. The 3 must be from the same animal category (Air, Land, Mythical, Prehistoric, Water).
On the first leg I didn’t see a string to collect. I considered a few, but nothing really jumped out at me. After days of anticipation, I just wanted to get out on the road and away from the pack. I planned to skip the optional leg 1 group photo bonus northwest of Minneapolis, regardless of what it was worth, so I looked east. I chose some “big rocks”, or large value bonuses reachable while riding from point A to B (Minneapolis to Allen), and then filled in some smaller bonuses along the route. I left the start hotel, grabbed a bonus in downtown Green Bay, and then headed for an animal from the mythical category in Sault Ste. Marie. From the rally book: MFB, Available 1100-2200 Sun-Thurs, Every square inch of the Antlers Restaurant in Sault Ste. Marie is packed with dead critters. Your challenge is to find the rare fur-bearing trout. This was a challenge… it was worth a lot of points, and they don’t give you a lot of points because it’s easy. Neither the hostess nor bartender knew where the fish was (I was the first rider to show up there), so I ordered a steak and iced tea, and started wandering around the restaurant. Just after finding the fish and taking a picture with my rally flag, a fellow rider and friend from the last IBR walked in, spotting the fish immediately as I was standing right by it. I jokingly told Greg Farmer “You’re welcome”, as I sat down to enjoy a quick steak.
This first day was very wet, as most of leg 1 would be, but the rain broke as I rode south toward the Mackinaw Bridge. I stopped to shoot a picture or two of the bridge… beautiful sunlight reflecting off it, dark clouds in the background, and a rainbow off to the left. A beautiful scene, captured on my iPhone. It is important to keep things separate, and my rally camera is only used for rally pictures. Any additional “tourist” photos are taken with my cell phone, to avoid issues in scoring, where SD cards are not returned and points are deducted for extraneous photos. I finished this first day near Ann Arbor.
Continuing on Tuesday, I collected a couple of university mascots south of Toledo and in Columbus, before heading for my second big rock, another mythical animal. MPP, Available 24 hours, Take a photo of the Mothman statute. In West Virginia folklore, the Mothman is a legendary creature being reportedly seen in the Point Pleasant area from November 15, 1966, to December 15, 1967. The Mothman was introduced to a wider audience by Gary Barker in 1970, and later popularized by John Keel in his 1975 book “The Mothman Prophecies”.
From West Virginia I turned west, collecting a couple more mythical animals on the way to the first checkpoint in Allen. The Cincinnati bonus was a Stegowagenvolkssaurus statue on the third floor of a university library… a mythical cross between a stegosaurus and a VW beetle. There were students in the library, watching me walk through in my dripping wet Aerostitch, but no matter. In rally mode you very quickly stop worrying about how you look. Or smell. Rain continued to fall, and before I could leave the hometown of WKRP, I got caught behind a massive wreck that had closed the interstate south toward Louisville. The Waze app might have helped me here, but I had just learned about it and had decided not to try learning to use it while on the rally. I got out of the mess using a right shoulder and then squeezing between trucks to cross the grass ditch to the left of the stopped lanes. It was wet and muddy and for a second I thought I’d made a horrible miscalculation, but the GSA climbed up the other side and got me onto the hard pavement of northbound traffic. After a few miles I exited and had a sit down break in a McDonald’s where I reworked my route. McDs are dependable for good wireless internet and cold filtered water for the gallon Camelbak bladder I use on the bike.
I lost at least an hour and a half with the detour, and as much as I wanted to continue to Memphis and then reach a nighttime only bonus in Shreveport before sleeping, I hit a wall. Somewhere around 11 PM on I-40 I told Mikki on the phone that I was good and would press on, planning to reach the nighttime bonus around 4:30 AM, before sunrise. A half hour later, with constant rain and a lot of big truck traffic, I called her back and said I needed to get off the road. I grabbed a cheap motel and reworked the remaining hours of this leg.
The next morning in downtown Memphis I photographed a flying catfish with airplane wings and propellers, and then continued on, arriving at the checkpoint with a couple hours to spare.
I got through scoring, finishing a reasonable leg and leaving no points on the table. In my room, my LD Comfort washed in the shower and wrung dry in a towel, and my mobile office set up (2 laptops, 3 GPS units, new SD card and battery in camera, rally book and notebook out), I set my alarm for 3:30 AM and crashed. (Following Leg 1: 44th place, 14,562 pts, 2502 miles).
Leg 2 (64 Hours, Allen, TX – Allen, TX)
String Option: String 4 bonuses together for a 3x multiplier on the 4th bonus. The 4 must each be from a different animal category (Air, Land, Mythical, Prehistoric, Water).
The rider meeting and breakfast buffet was at 4 AM, and riders must not be late to meetings. At 4 the doors are closed and latecomers are not allowed in. During the meetings the new string option is explained, and questions are answered. It is up to the riders to ask for clarification if they are unsure about any of the rally rules or scoring requirements. In this leg 2 meeting there were very few questions asked, which was mentioned in the official daily reports as several riders, myself included, made scoring mistakes and lost points. At the conclusion of the meeting the point values file for the next leg was emailed to the riders who attended the meeting. I was on time for the meeting, but had failed to pack any street clothes, so while some riders were comfortable in flip flops and shorts I was wearing my riding gear, which was not yet completely dry. I would call and ask Mikki to bring me clothes when she meets me at the second checkpoint.
Routing a leg that starts and ends in the same place is a little different. You do not have a point A to B line to start with. So I looked for big rocks to anchor my route that were in a circular shape. I chose a circular route to Pensacola, up into Georgia, and then back in on I-40, collecting two bonuses that I also got in leg 1. In this rally, all bonuses were available in each leg, although the point values changed each leg.
Should mechanical problems or sickness develop, it can be helpful to have bail out points in the route where you can just turn and head for the checkpoint. The worst thing that can happen in a rally, as far as scoring goes, is to be late to a checkpoint and be time barred. Miss a checkpoint and you are disqualified, DNF. A route that runs straight out and then straight back in, may not offer much in the way of a bail out point. There were points in the Florida Keys, but with the rain and slow traffic probable, I played it safe and rode a more circular route a little closer to the checkpoint.
Weather also factored into my decisions about where to go. While Texas and the southwest were dry, they were forecasted to be very hot. Riders have withdrawn from this rally after just a few days due to heat exhaustion, and I don’t generally do so well in real hot conditions. Heat takes a toll on tires, and also requires you to drink more fluids. I tried to stick with 1 gallon of water a day, which is the capacity of my Camelbak water bladder. Much more than that would require more stops to fill the bladder, as well as more bathroom breaks, and less water could lead to dehydration. So I passed on the hot dry options west, in favor of a southeasterly route with cooler temperatures and more rain forecasted.
Speaking of bathroom breaks, since it is something I have been asked from time to time… I have figured out for myself how to maintain regularity that does not require excessive stops or the use of an external catheter. Some riders use a catheter, and I took advantage of one on a 1600 mile day several years ago. But keeping things clean over 11 days is more challenging than during a one day ride, and it’s not something I’ve felt would be a real advantage for me. I pee on the side of the road, bike running. I do not pee at gas stops, which would require leaving my bike unattended and removing my helmet, which is not a modular lid (Arai doesn’t make one). If I had to do more than pee, which is rare during the day, Starbucks restrooms can’t be beat.
Maintaining regularity comes down to food and drink. Several weeks before the rally I cut my alcohol and caffeine consumption way down. I also started eating my rally food here and there to make sure my system would be happy with it.
My rally routine:
Morning: Cup of coffee, Ensure protein shake from my top box (vanilla or chocolate). Atkins Lift protein bar in the morning, broken into pieces to be eaten out of tankbag. Water bladder from the previous day finished.
Mid-morning: McDs or Waffle House stop: Small coffee. Sausage biscuit or waffle and bacon. Water bladder refilled (easier at McDs drink station).
Afternoon: package of beef jerky and water. Possibly a cold Sprite or Gatorade if I go inside a gas station. Gummy worms.
Late Afternoon or Evening: a sit down meal, along the lines of a Subway inside a travel center. If I am going to enjoy a full night in a decent hotel, and there happens to be a Chili’s style restaurant real close, I might do that instead. I avoid large meals if I am going to continue riding after I eat. If stopping to sit down, I always take my rally book in to read over requirements for upcoming bonus stops.
I do not drink energy drinks or use any kind of stimulants, beyond my normal routine of 1-2 cups of coffee in the mornings. For me the idea is to stay as close as possible to my normal eating and sleeping habits.
So for leg 2, I planned a route quickly and rode south through downtown Dallas before the morning rush hour. I grabbed a couple of bonuses just south of DFW, and headed east toward Pensacola. The rain persisted, and there were several accident delays on I-10. At one point, I think in Mississippi, I ended up at a dead stop on a long bridge. Both eastbound lanes were stopped, and I could see cars stopped way up ahead, so I laid down on my tankbag, legs hanging straight down, and tried to enjoy the break. I made Pensacola after dark, in pouring rain and standing water, and found a decent hotel. During the rally I alternated between short power naps, cheap motels, and decent business-class hotels, depending on how long I’d be staying. On this night I opted for a Holiday Inn Express, with a Ruby Tuesdays in the front parking lot. Good dinner and great sleep.
The next morning I bagged the bonus in downtown Pensacola, again before the business district woke up, and headed southwest for another nearby bonus close to the Barber Marina. From there I rode north into Georgia for a polar bear on a stone monument, which would be one of my larger errors. I collected the polar bear following a hot and sweaty walk from the parking lot, and then rode through more rain toward Tennessee for a bonus there, and to rejoin I-40. A few more bonuses were collected along I-40, and I made it across Arkansas before dark. It was still raining, and my boots had started leaking. In the 100,000 miles I’ve worn them they have never leaked. They didn’t even leak during the IBR15 “Rain Bowl”, but gear doesn’t last forever. I worked through my options as I rode, eventually deciding to stop in Texarkana. There isn’t much between there and the Shreveport nighttime bonus, and my weather radar was showing a lot of red in that stretch. I also needed to start my official Rest bonus with a gas receipt before midnight, and my GPS was giving an arrival time of 12:15 AM to the bonus, if I went straight through. I would stop in Texarkana and start my Rest about 9 PM, and get going again in the morning early enough to make the bonus in the dark. The hotel was a welcome break from the road. My boots and socks were really reeking, and my big toes were shriveled up from being wet for so long. The skin where all the folds occurred were painful. Even though my boots probably wouldn’t dry out overnight, I was looking forward to dry socks at the checkpoint.
Each leg of the rally offered a Rest bonus, giving points for each minute stopped and resting, from a minimum 4 hours to a maximum 8 hours. The rest bonuses had to be started within a specific timeframe or on a particular day. I could have claimed the maximum 8 hour Rest the night before in Pensacola, had I collected receipts. I mistakenly didn’t keep receipts because I had planned to do the official Rest at the end of that day, rather than at the beginning. Next time, I’ll collect all receipts just in case plans change later.
I had hated missing the Shreveport nighttime bonus in leg 1, because it seemed like such a cool thing to see… a 19’ tall Dalmatian named “Art”, with his spots lit up from the inside… so I made sure to work it into the plan for this leg. I maximized the Rest bonus as much as possible (7 hours) and left the hotel at 4 AM, to make the 80 mile run to the dog while still dark. Sunrise was to be around 5:30, according to the National Weather Service. The plan worked and I got the dog before dawn, and it was very cool to see, even in pouring rain.
From the dog I headed to the leg 2 group photo bonus in Broken Arrow, before returning to Allen for the second checkpoint. After being on the road for days and only rarely seeing other rally riders, the group photo bonuses are nice. I skipped the one in leg 1 because it wasn’t far from the start and I didn’t want to be in a group. But I was planning on hitting the legs 2 and 3 group photos if they made any sense in my leg plans. I arrived about a half hour early and caught up with friends I’ve made since getting into long distance riding. Following the photo I headed for the checkpoint, collecting a couple of smaller bonuses along the way.
When I pulled into the checkpoint hotel Mikki was waiting for me. I was so happy to see her, and was again a couple of hours early. I “stopped the clock” and went upstairs to get out of my gear and shower. Checkpoints are nice breaks from the road, but the clock still ticks and riders should stay in a rally-mindset. To help stay focused on the rally, I had reserved a room for each of us at the hotel. However, by talking to Mikki each day while on the road, and her reading to me the daily rally reports, I decided to cancel her room and we would stay together. Mikki was engaged in this rally with me, and I just wasn’t worried about her wanting to discuss non-rally business, or wanting to go have a regular dinner out like we would at home. She was happy to see me and interested in how I was doing, but was very careful not to change what I was thinking or doing.
After showering and putting on clean shorts and a T-shirt, I got ready for scoring: flipping the lock tab on the camera SD card and copying the photos to my computer (scoring will not return the SD card), filling out the Bonus Claim Form, confirming my Rest bonus receipts were paper clipped in order. I signed up for scoring, grabbed a meatball sub in the riders waiting room, and then went through scoring. Only riders were allowed in the rally ballrooms, so Mikki walked across the hotel parking lot and got herself something for dinner from a restaurant there.
In IBR15 I recorded my odometer and time at each bonus on an index card in my tankbag, and then transferred that information to the claim form later. This year, in an effort to prevent errors and safeguard against lost or illegible index cards, I didn’t write anything down at my bonus stops. Assuming I got good pictures on the first try, at each bonus I took 3 pictures: bonus animal with rally flag, bike odometer, GPS displaying local time. I completed the Bonus Claim Form by clicking through my pictures on the computer after copying them, without worry that I may have written something incorrectly on the road. The claim form asked for local time, which the GPS always displayed, and unless it was a timed bonus I did not worry about which time zone each bonus was in. These additional photos were allowed to be on the SD card and were not considered extraneous, because they were there to prove my bonus claims.
Going back to the Q&A part of a riders meeting… it is up to the riders in the meeting to ask for clarification if they’re not completely sure about the instructions for the upcoming leg. Well… the excitement about getting back to your room to route the next leg, along with the early morning time of the meeting, can cloud judgement. Long story short, in leg 2 I rode into Georgia to grab a polar bear, which I intended to be a single bonus between strings, but which actually slid my string brackets up a space. The 3x multiplier was applied to a 200 point bonus, instead of a nearly 2000 point bonus. In a leg with a target of 15,000 points for finisher status, this mistake cost me almost 6000 points. I was sick, but by morning I had recovered and realized that the long third leg was still to come and that I had to let my mistake go, while not repeating it. (Following Leg 2: 59th place, 29,224 pts, 5224 miles).
Leg 3 (126 Hours, Allen, TX – Minneapolis, MN)
String Option: String 5 bonuses together for a 4x multiplier on the 5th bonus. The 5 must form a full house – 3 from one animal category and 2 from another, in any order.
I went downstairs about 3:30 AM for the rider meeting, thankful for the shorts and flip flops Mikki had brought me. Another buffet breakfast and the announcement of the leg 3 string option. Staffer Tim Masterson held up a visual aid as Jeff Earls explained how to correctly claim an individual bonus along with strings. Apparently I had not been the only rider to mess that up in leg 2, and there were more questions asked by riders in this meeting.
When I got back to our room Mikki was up and dressed, and had coffee going for me. She pulled up a chair and watched me work up a doable end game, without interfering with the task or slowing me down. I was really comfortable having her looking over my shoulder, and I think we could make a good team in a future rally.
Because of the 4x multiplier and the length of this leg, I shortened my symbol and color coding process. Everything that was large (above 1980 points) was made red, everything else blue, and all symbols made the same (triangles). I did not code for availability because that information was already in the name of each bonus.
Why make the break point 1980, rather than just 2000? I had noticed in leg 1 that a lot of bonuses had point values just under an obvious benchmark. In the first leg I had mistakenly dismissed a couple of 990 point opportunities because I had started my high level coding for that leg at 1000 points. This is one of many examples of the cleverness of Jeff Earls, the designer of this rally. This IBR required much more brainpower than in 2015.
Once the updated bonus listing was imported into Basecamp, I dragged the point A to B line to the large red bonuses in the west. I chose 3 to anchor my leg and serve as the fifth and final stops to strings, receiving the 4x multiplier. They were in Utah, Oregon, and North Dakota. I then found 4 bonuses that I could hit on the way to those anchors, making strings that met the full house requirement, always keeping in mind their availability.
I chose a loop in the west for leg 3. I had encountered constant rain and traffic delays in the first two legs, and I was ready to dry out and enjoy generally higher speed limits. There were huge opportunities in Newfoundland, and indeed the winning riders went there, but I never seriously considered that for me. I do not have experience riding in the northeast, or catching the required ferries, and I was not going to risk a DNF in this final leg.
Mobile office packed up, new SD card and battery in camera, batteries in the SPOT changed, water bladder refilled, and I was ready for the long push to the end. I had a quick visit with Craig Brooks in the parking lot, hugged Mikki one last time, and got back on the road. My first stop would be north of Amarillo, but rather than heading west on 380 through construction and lights, I went north to Sherman and then west.
Before dark I bagged dinosaurs in Boise City and Canon City, and birds in Trinidad and Ridgeway. I then maximized a Rest bonus in Montrose, positioning myself for a shuttle bus tour to a dinosaur skull in Utah the next morning. The Rest had to be on this second day, and I claimed it from midnight to 8 AM. My airhead buddy Upe, who was following my SPOT tracks, texted Mikki to see if everything was okay since I was still stopped at 8:00. Hearing from friends and family throughout the rally, either directly or through Mikki, was great! Often a text or call would come at a low spot in the day, and was really encouraging to me.
Based on prior experiences, I expect to hit a lull or low spot each day, when I feel tired and maybe unmotivated. Early in a rally this low happens in late afternoon. I never eat a big lunch while riding because doing so may worsen the sleepy lull I already have. As the rally wears on overall fatigue builds, and by the 7th or 8th day my low spot has moved up and can happen as early as 10 or 11 in the morning. During the low spots I call friends, sing along to rock music, practice yoga stretches, and suck on hard candy. If I have to stop and take a little walk or grab a nap, I do that. Self-awareness and recognizing how you are doing both physically and mentally is a critical skill to staying safe.
Several of the bonus options in this rally were time consuming to collect (ride shuttle bus, hike in woods, take a tour, etc.), but the rally book accurately provided a heads up in such cases, so extra time could be allotted in the planning stages. In the past two rallies I have been impressed with the rally books. I imagine they take a massive amount of time and effort to compile, but what great souvenirs to have following the IBR!
Leaving the Rest in Montrose, I rode over Douglas Pass and collected the dinosaur in Utah, and then headed to Wyoming along the western edge of the Flaming Gorge. I would have liked to have stopped in Green River, as Mikki and I are sponsoring a plaque there to honor George Wyman, America’s first long distance rider (http://wymanmemorialproject.blogspot.com/). But with over 1000 miles to cover this day I chose to stay on the job. I wouldn’t be ending the day until I had clipped the corner of Idaho, cut through Utah, captured a polar bear in a Nevada casino, and reached Reno. Two of the coolest sights on this rally were the quiet desolation of NV233 north of Wendover, and the ridges on both sides of the I-80 east of Sparks, lit red and orange by wildfires.
The next morning, following a nice 4 hour sleep, I headed northwest toward Mt. Shasta to collect the 4th bonus in my second string of the leg. My 4th stop was a Big Foot statue in northwestern California, down a curvy mountain road, dozens of miles west of I-5. The next and last stop of that string was in southern Oregon, about 20 miles away as the crow flies, but by pavement over 130 miles around, requiring a ride back to I-5, north a bit, and then back west on another curvy mountain road. I consulted my GPS, and decided to attempt a “shortcut” over the mountain. Another rider at the Big Foot, Steve Diederich, had decided to try it also. What started as an enticing little paved road, turned to hard gravel, then steepened and turned to deep gravel. We fought a good fight, and helped each other pick up our downed bikes, but ultimately we threw in the towel and returned to the pavement. We had wasted over an hour. It was late afternoon and a long way from our 5th bonus, which was a daylight only bonus. I can only imagine rally staff back at HQ shaking their heads as they watched riders attempt this shortcut.
One of the interesting risks with strings are the consequences if anything is missed in the string. In this case, after collecting 4 relatively low value bonuses, missing the 5th daylight only bonus, the last in a string making it the big value, just wasn’t an option. If I didn’t get there in time, my choices were to scratch the string and continue on, losing a ton of points, or to wait for sunrise the next morning and likely push the rest of the leg back, possibly missing a string planned for later. Both were bad options.
So we rode. We didn’t stop for gas or refills on water or anything else. We fought through traffic on I-5 and made it to the 5th bonus while still daylight. This bonus was hard won. Following the rally book instructions for this bonus, we stopped at the store by the lake, bought parking passes (which would be required at the scoring table for points to be earned), then parked in a different parking lot and headed on foot into the mountains. The sun was getting low in the sky. This last bonus of the string involved a nearly mile long hike in the woods to find a Big Foot trap. After a hot and sweaty hike we found the structure and collected daylight pictures with our rally flags. Mission accomplished. We hiked out, passing Paul Slaton on the trail as he was heading in, and I left Steve at the parking lot. He needed a rest and I needed food. Happy my second string was completed, I stopped at a DQ in Medford, and then rode up I-5 to Portland, enjoying fireworks all along the way. It was the 4th of July, and I stopped just after midnight on the eastern side of Portland, to avoid rush hour traffic the next morning.
The next morning I crossed the Columbia River at Cascade Locks to pick up a bonus in Washington, and then rode over the bridge back into Oregon. Cascade Locks is a beautiful place, and I remembered the fun Mikki and I had there last summer on our Pacific Northwest road trip. My route took me through the Columbia River Gorge, and I stopped at a Subway in the Tri-Cities for a quick lunch. While eating a club sandwich, I was joined by Matt Watkins, the city mayor of Pasco and an IBR finisher. He had been following the group SPOT map, and decided to get out of the office and come say hi. It was a great surprise, and we had a short but really great conversation. I got back on the road again feeling encouraged and refreshed.
I continued through northern Idaho, wishing very much I could have included Lolo Pass in my route. One of my favorite roads, ID12 was just south of me, but the time required to drop down and ride it didn’t make sense. I pushed on to bonuses in Missoula and Bozeman and stopped for the night. In Bozeman I ran into Robert Bolger, a rider I’d met in ‘15, and we swapped tales from the road while eating dinner at Applebee’s.
That night in Bozeman I was shaken awake a little after midnight. The bed I was in felt like it was swaying like a boat, and I thought “surely I can’t be this tired”! I stayed in bed and fell back asleep quickly. The next afternoon I learned that I had been woken up by a magnitude 5.8 earthquake about 150 miles away in Lincoln, MT. I was happy to have experienced this from my hotel bed, and not while riding the bike.
The next morning Robert and I rode east to the leg 3 group photo bonus. Nearing the bonus we passed the Boge family riding their Harley-Davidson sidecar to the same bonus (Dad, Mom, and 12 year old Laura in the sidecar). I met them before the rally started, and was really impressed. A great family taking on an amazing and difficult challenge together. Laura was smiles and happy every time I saw her, and I was proud for them when I learned that they had finished the rally.
From the group photo bonus I entered South Dakota, finishing up a final string before returning to the barn. I pulled into the Minneapolis hotel around midnight, parking and climbing off the GSA one final time. Mikki was there waiting for me, and I was welcomed by a small group of cheering riders and fans. It was a great moment, and almost the end of another great Iron Butt adventure.
The rally really ends when you get through scoring, and I went downstairs early the next morning. Showered and out of my gear, I had taken care in filling out my Bonus Claim Form to avoid the mistake made in leg 2. Scoring took some time, but I walked out of the ballroom happy. I didn’t make any mistakes and lost no points for leg 3, and I had the points to be a finisher.
Friday night at the Finishers Banquet I learned that I placed 44th. I beat my 2015 finish, but by only 2 places. I went into this rally hoping for a Silver Medal, but based on the complexity of the routing in this rally, I was quite happy with my performance. When Rallymaster Lisa Landry called me up for my award, she jokingly asked if I’d talked Mikki into running this two-up yet. We’re seriously discussing it Lisa! I love the people in the long distance community, and the Iron Butt Rally is a fantastic way to spend 11 days on a motorcycle. Over the years the IBR has continued to evolve. Every rally is different, and presents different challenges, but there is one thing they all share… you cannot finish it by simply riding from checkpoint to checkpoint, or by riding a lot of miles. The routing part of rallying, what was my least favorite part when I got started in this, has really become great fun for me. Learning something new can daunting, but when you finally get it, the rewards can be great.
Leg 4 (Getting Home)
While the IBR only scores 3 legs, riders talk about the trip home as leg 4. The adventure is not really over until you have safely arrived back home to your loved ones.
Following the IBR, Mikki and I took a few days and had a relaxing time being tourists. We got a couples massage and toured the Surly Brewery in Minneapolis. In St. Paul we took a walking tour of historic Summit Avenue, checked out the art deco Commodore Hotel and Bar where F. Scott Fitzgerald once lived, and stopped by Robert Pirsig’s home. We drove to Duluth and enjoyed great seafood, walked the boardwalk along Lake Superior, and saw lighthouses and an aerial lift bridge in action. We visited Duluth Trading Post (it’s not just a catalog), as well as Aerostitch, where Mikki had a fitting appointment for a 2-piece Roadcrafter. We trailered the GSA home so we could enjoy the windshield time together. We visited the Iowa field where Buddy Holly’s plane crashed, past IBR finisher Dennis Powell’s pig farm which features a large “Iron Butt Iowa” sign, and then made a final stop at the historic gas station in Shamrock, Texas.
Stats
I rode 10,153 miles, finished 44th place with 82,528 points, in the Bronze Medal range.
I had a fantastic time, both in routing and riding IBR17. Mikki was my constant cheerleader and encourager. Being able to talk to her during the rally was so helpful and motivating. I could not have finished this without her, and we are considering entering a future rally as a two-up team.
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