2011 Good, Bad & Ugly Rally (Big Sky Montana)
Since this would be the closest to a rally on "home" turf for me, I was really looking forward to riding the GBU. The rally was the brain child of IBR veteran's Bob and Sylvie Torter. The V-Twins and staff did a great job and I hope they hold it again.
Rally waypoints were sent to us the week prior, and since I was in my old home town of Cranbrook over a weekend, I decided to do a little run to some of the rally locations in the Northwest of Montana that I didn't anticipate riding on the rally. I'd been through Libby numerous times when I still lived in BC, and that loop including Lake Koocanusa is still one of my favourites. However I'd never ventured north of Libby to the Montana town of Yaak. Been to Yahk, BC and back (sorry) but never Yaak, Montana. Not much to see but the roads were fun. Never thought I'd end up back there on the rally.
Since I'd only returned home from the Iron Butt Rally a few weeks before, and was planning on taking part in the Minnesota 1000 the following weekend, I felt I'd better hold off heading for Big Sky until the Friday morning of the Rally. I had about a six hour trip to Rally HQ, so I left around 7am. I had until 4pm to finish the odo run so I figured I had plenty of time. Of course I hit a couple long delays for road construction, just enough that timing was a little tighter than I wanted but nothing too drastic.
After the odo loop, I ran into Linda Lehman in the hotel lobby. Linda had scored me on leg 1 of the IBR, and she and husband Terry were part of the rally staff for GBU. "I have someone I need to introduce" she said, "Rod, I'd like you to meet Dick Fish, he's been asking about you!" I knew of Dick Fish, he was a legend in the LD world, what I didn't know was why on earth he'd know anything about me. Dick explained that since I was from Lethbridge and he was living only 45 minutes away in Cardston, he had followed my progress in the IBR. We chatted for a few moments, but since it was getting late we agreed we'd meet up on Sunday after the rally and talk more. Unfortunately as most reading this know, we never got that chance as we lost Dick in a freak accident during the rally. My thoughts and prayers go out to his family...
At the riders meeting, we learned that the waypoints we'd been sent didn't include all locations. Some were the middle markers for a series of "Scenic Routes" which we would need to document the beginning, middle and end locations of in order to score the overall bonus. I'd worked up a half dozen or so potential routes based on what we'd been sent in advance, that work had pretty much just gone out the window. The riders meeting went long, and it was after midnight by the time I finally settled on a route I was happy with.
Rally waypoints were sent to us the week prior, and since I was in my old home town of Cranbrook over a weekend, I decided to do a little run to some of the rally locations in the Northwest of Montana that I didn't anticipate riding on the rally. I'd been through Libby numerous times when I still lived in BC, and that loop including Lake Koocanusa is still one of my favourites. However I'd never ventured north of Libby to the Montana town of Yaak. Been to Yahk, BC and back (sorry) but never Yaak, Montana. Not much to see but the roads were fun. Never thought I'd end up back there on the rally.
Since I'd only returned home from the Iron Butt Rally a few weeks before, and was planning on taking part in the Minnesota 1000 the following weekend, I felt I'd better hold off heading for Big Sky until the Friday morning of the Rally. I had about a six hour trip to Rally HQ, so I left around 7am. I had until 4pm to finish the odo run so I figured I had plenty of time. Of course I hit a couple long delays for road construction, just enough that timing was a little tighter than I wanted but nothing too drastic.
After the odo loop, I ran into Linda Lehman in the hotel lobby. Linda had scored me on leg 1 of the IBR, and she and husband Terry were part of the rally staff for GBU. "I have someone I need to introduce" she said, "Rod, I'd like you to meet Dick Fish, he's been asking about you!" I knew of Dick Fish, he was a legend in the LD world, what I didn't know was why on earth he'd know anything about me. Dick explained that since I was from Lethbridge and he was living only 45 minutes away in Cardston, he had followed my progress in the IBR. We chatted for a few moments, but since it was getting late we agreed we'd meet up on Sunday after the rally and talk more. Unfortunately as most reading this know, we never got that chance as we lost Dick in a freak accident during the rally. My thoughts and prayers go out to his family...
At the riders meeting, we learned that the waypoints we'd been sent didn't include all locations. Some were the middle markers for a series of "Scenic Routes" which we would need to document the beginning, middle and end locations of in order to score the overall bonus. I'd worked up a half dozen or so potential routes based on what we'd been sent in advance, that work had pretty much just gone out the window. The riders meeting went long, and it was after midnight by the time I finally settled on a route I was happy with.
And they're off...At 5am, Warchild "The Releaser" Wilson sent off the riders as only he can. Talk about pressure! when Warchild points, you'd better be ready to go. Whew, second time in a month I managed to avoid stalling it in front of Dale :)
One of the things I've come to enjoy most about rallies is the unexpected surprise of ending up somewhere you never thought you'd end up. Like the sunrise bonus at Landscape Arch after riding all night in the 5 day SPANK rally last year, or riding through New York City on a Saturday night as I did in this year's IBR. My first bonus location was one of those bonuses.
One of the things I've come to enjoy most about rallies is the unexpected surprise of ending up somewhere you never thought you'd end up. Like the sunrise bonus at Landscape Arch after riding all night in the 5 day SPANK rally last year, or riding through New York City on a Saturday night as I did in this year's IBR. My first bonus location was one of those bonuses.
I actually added this one strictly on points and proximity to my route, it wasn't until I got close to Butte and saw "Evel Knevil Days" on a sign outside of town that it registered where I was headed.
I was also encouraged to see Jeff Earls pull in a couple riders behind me, never a bad thing to see a ride like Jeff on the same route as you, even if it was the first stop. I got a little turned around leaving town as both my GPS's decided to route me back to Evel's grave, I knew it was wrong but blindly followed them anyway. My thoughts of being on the same route as Earls quickly vanished as he continued on I-90 and I found the first of many fun and twisty routes on my way to my next two bonuses.
I had originally planned a route that would take me further South towards Idaho Falls, but since I'd never done a 32 hour rally before I really wasn't sure what kind of mileage to expect, or if I'd need a rest period.
For some reason I just couldn't seem to make the Southern route work, even though I was sure it would. Ultimately Matt Watkins would use that and more for his winning ride. Nice ride Matt !
I instead ending up opting for Lolo Pass and then a shot north to the same area I'd ridden the weekend previous for some high point bonii and routes. I ended up on 93 heading north and made a couple stops before grabbing the first of three pictures to claim Lolo.
The Daly Manson near Hamilton
Can you see the girl in the beer mug?
Lolo Hot Springs Totem pole.
Lolo was a gamble, good points and a fun road, but it can also be slooow going. Fortunately I got through in great shape, and managed to only get flashed once by the fuzz.
 Only other problem with this route was it was going to be five hours between bonuses. Considering this was a Montana rally, after Lolo I was almost through Idaho and could have spit into Washington a couple of times. |
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Heading Upstream - The end of the Lolo Route Bonus |
The key to my route was to get through Lolo and then north in time to complete the Piano man timed bonus.
Turned out I was a couple hours ahead of schedule by the time I reached Yaak.
The Yaak forest route reminded me of the Wildwood Highway near Redding California, maybe a little rougher . Just a narrow one laner in the middle of nowhere.
The Eagle in Libby was the end of the Yaak Route and the beginning of the Lake Koocanusa route.
The Lake Koocanusa route ended in Eureka, only an hour from my old home town of Cranbrook.
From there it was a quick trip over to Kalispell for the Climbing Cowboy. Now 2 1/2 hours ahead of schedule I had to make some decisions, do I stick to my route or add another high point route bonus over the Going to the Sun Highway ?
My wife Patti and I usually try to do the Going to the Sun Highway at least once a year. It had only opened a week or two prior to the GBU because of all the snow, and since I originally wasn't planning on coming to this part of the state, I hadn't checked road conditions.
If I'd known it was in the condition it was, I probably would never have decided to ride it in the dark. I ran into Trey Nicoud at a construction area near the summit, the wind was blowing quite hard at the top so we held each other's flags.
I also wasn't really looking forward to the ride from the east gate of Glacier park to the town of East Glacier and the world's Largest purple spoon.
This area is full of deer, the pavement is rough and while I love the twisties, this is an area where a mistake can happen quickly and it is pretty remote.
On the positive I'd been through this region many times, so this is what it's like to rally close to home, I was thankful for the local knowledge. While it was getting late, I was feeling good and I knew I was through the hardest part of my rally.
The biggest question for me was still, would I need to stop somewhere for a few hours.I had Great Falls coming up, but really beyond that there wasn't going to be any opportunities to grab a room, so I would need to decide soon if I could go the distance to the finish, or if I would need to stop.
The Browning Teepee bonus was easy and a quick find, andI was familiar with the Cut Bank Penguin after reading about it in reports from the 07 IBR.
By this time I had decided to skip the hotel, I had done 24 hours plus on many occasions and could tell fatigue was not going to be an issue.
I'd stayed only a few blocks from the Kid Russell and Monty statue in Great Falls, but never had seen it until that night.
The second bonus in Great Falls was also decent points for a pretty cool Lewis and Clark statue.
Since I'd decided to forgo my planned 4 hour rest I found I was now looking for bonii to add to my route. Prior to heading south for the Greatest Girls statue, I stopped for gas in Shelby and had a quick look on the GPS about adding Havre. I decided against it as it would have added about 250 miles to my route. I should have looked closer because I could have easily added the Shep bonuses in Fort Benton which would have only added a 100 miles to the route. In the end it wouldn't have mattered as it wouldn't have changed my finishing result.
My last route bonus was the Kings Hill Byway, which I enjoyed so much I decided to ride again on my way back home.
I ended up backtracking a few blocks in White Sulphur Springs for the Castle bonus. I actually thought the Rallymasters might have been trying to trick us up with this one as there had been a fair amount of discussion about collecting the 3 route bonuses in order before collecting another bonus. I don't think it mattered as others got the castle in the midst of their Kings Hill route, but it was only a half mile or so and I didn't want to risk losing points.
Backtracking also gave one of the "relaxed" class riders a chance to head south in front of me. We had met at the Ft. Logan sign and separated when I went back for the castle. Unfortunately in the time I went back, he ended up hitting a small deer. Good think it was just a fawn and he managed to keep the bike upright and the impact didn't hurt himself or the bike. I ended up following him for 15 or 20 miles until he was certain the bike was no worse for wear.
My original plan was now out the window as I had only one bonus left and that was the low point "Elk" in Bozeman. Instead I continued south to Livingston and the Sacajawea bonus. I grabbed that around 6:30am and stopped for a quick McDonalds breakfast.
My only options here were to grab the single bonus in Bozeman or risk heading into Yellowstone park for a pair of bonuses, plus another outside the park gates in West Yellowstone. As it was I probably could have added Old Faithful, actually that was one bonus that really surprised me. Prior to the rally I was convinced that there would have been big points for grabbing a shot of Old Faithful while erupting. As it was the points were really low and I think only rider grabbed those points.
Yes those really are two different signs, it took a while at scoring to sort that one out but I got the points for both.
I grabbed the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center around 9am and took a leisurely drive back to Big Sky.
If my memory serves me right I stopped the clock around 10am, so it wasn't very good time management. But overall I was confident I had run a good rally and there was nothing big enough points wise that made me feel it was worth risking the whole rally at that point.
I ended up being scored by Dick Peak, another IBR rider I'd gotten a chance to spend a little time with at the Ontario finish. Dick and I had a funny exchange as I sat down to score. "How many miles did you end up doing?" asked Dick. "Around 1575" I replied. Dick just shook his head. Now remember he was one of 3 riders who went for Alaska on Leg 1 of this year's IBR, I wasn't sure why Dick was shaking his head. 1300 were needed to be a finisher, so I figured 1575 wasn't bad.
"I know I can do those miles" he said, "it's just when you sit here at scoring that sounds like a long way." It was a nice confirmation of the satisfaction I felt for my rally. We tallied up the points and Dick smiled, "That's a ton of points." And with that my rally was done, all that was left was to watch the other riders come in and grab a nap.
I was hoping it was going to be enough to crack the top 10, but by the time they called the 4th place rider they still hadn't called my name. I'd managed to take advantage of my knowledge of a good part of the route, pushed my limits again and was thrilled to head home with 3rd place.
Once again a big thank you to all the rally staff, a job well done.
Rod Schween
IBA #418
Lethbridge, Ab
November, 2011
