bolty.net

A Breakthrough

Stacy — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 04:28:12 +0000

Who knew a throttle body sync could make such a difference? Seriously. Who knew?

I left the dealer’s with a smile on my face and promptly carved up some corners on the fresh pavement on Salem’s River Road. Consistent fueling and throttle response makes a world of difference in being able to corner with confidence.

The smile matched the ones generated by test riding a Tiger and a Speed Triple. Though I must say there’s just something about downshifting a Speed Triple with aftermarket pipes. Mrrrowr!

Oregon Figure-Eight Tour, Day 4

Stacy — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 11:00:48 +0000

Day 4 – July 5, 2010 (Monday)

Start: Moscow, ID
End: state campground between Mt. Vernon and John Day, OR
Mileage: 294 miles

We awoke early and, faced with the prospect of exactly zero concrete plans, we decided to grab breakfast at a place recommended by our friends. The appropriately named Breakfast Club in downtown Moscow lived up to its advanced billing:

Huckleberry stuffed french toast, anyone?

Over breakfast, we discussed potential southerly routes and settled on taking Hwy 395 with a goal of making it to John Day in the late afternoon.

We walked off the hearty breakfast with a brisk walk back to our friend’s place and packed up our things. As I was loading the SV, I noticed a few black drips of oil on the ground under the engine in the vicinity of the front sprocket. Ever get that sinking feeling?

Many choice words went though my head, most of which were unsuitable for the delicate eyes of babies and moto-blog readers.

I pulled out my tool roll and removed the front sprocket cover. The oil had clearly originated from the area of the clutch pushrod; classic signs of a failing seal. And of course this had to occur on Monday, which everyone knows is the second worst day for attempting to contact a motorcycle repair shop.

After reaching the answering machines of all 6 Suzuki dealers within a 100 mile radius, I sent a plea for help on Twitter and called up someone I trusted. The consensus was that a leak was likely developing at the pushrod seal, but that it would probably be fine to keep riding as long as I kept an eye on it. Well alrighty then!

Dealing with the oil drip shenanigans delayed our departure about an hour and we finally left town at 10am¹ We backtracked on Hwy 95 to Lewiston, but this time stopped to take pictures from a viewpoint over the city and the Snake River far below.

We turned off on Hwy 12 at Lewiston and headed for Walla Walla. This part of the ride was somewhat blah as there was quite a lot of traffic heading home from the holiday weekend. The views of the Snake River were quite nice, but the road soon diverged away from it as we headed west.

We reached Dayton, WA around lunchtime. Something caught my eye and we pulled around the block and found ourselves outside the Manilla Bay Cafe.

The food seriously blew our minds.

Shrimp and sausage ravioli.

Kahlua pig.

Up close and personal with the kahlua pig.

Dessert!

Wow.

If you ever find yourself in the sleepy burg of Dayton, WA, you owe it to yourself to stop at the Manilla Bay Cafe.

And now the quality of this part of the RR is going to go downhill, because the rest of this day is pretty much a vague blur. Fatigue was definitely my nemesis.

Once past Pilot Rock, Hwy 395 is beautiful. It was neat passing by Ukiah from the other direction since we’d passed it only a couple of days before. The road is wonderfully curvy, particularly in the Umatilla National Forest. Too bad I couldn’t enjoy it as I was getting tired. The Ironbutt folks aren’t kidding when they say that your average daily mileage will start to drop during longer trips. Every corner started to look like a hairpin, and I slowed down so much for corners that Stacey definitely noticed it.

Fatigue sucks.

Anyway, we made it to a nice state campground between Mt. Vernon and John Day and called it a day.

Steak, anyone?

It was a day of firsts:

first time I’ve had a mechanical issue while on a multi-day trip
first time I actually had to use the GPS to find the way out of a town instead of being able to rely on signs (twice!)²
first time in Walla Walla and Pendleton (and seeing the famous Pendleton Roundup Rodeo Grounds)
first time thinking the SV might not be suited for long distance touring after all³

See? What did I tell you?
Frakking road construction in Walla Wall and Pendleton. F U poorly marked detours!
Fatigue-induced blasphemy!

Oregon Figure-Eight Tour, Day 3

Stacy — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 05:17:16 +0000

Day 3 – July 4, 2010 (Sunday)

Start: Enterprise, OR
End: Moscow, ID
Mileage: 120 miles

Our Fourth of July began with a bang, as we awakened to the sound of gunshots rolling through town. Apparently, the locals don’t waste time getting right down to explody business on this noisiest of holidays, and a gun shooting competition was taking place that morning down at the fairgrounds.

The view from the hotel parking lot wasn't bad as parking lots go.

We found a small eatery and enjoyed a basic but hearty breakfast. On the way out of the building, we met a fellow moto-traveler who pulled in next to our parked bikes. Turns out he faced the same camping conundrum that we had the night before, only he happened to stop at a brewery — and they offered to let him camp there for the night!¹

True to form, we departed town around 10am and headed directly north on Hwy 3. The scenery steadily improved as we left the fields surrounding Enterprise behind and climbed into the mountains making up the northern part of the Wallowa National Forest. Our first stop was the overlook at Joseph Canyon:

After the overlook, the terrain turned steadily drier until we hit the infamous Rattlesnake Grade. This road is FANTASTIC.

FANTASTIC! (Look closely up top and you'll see the road twisting, and twisting, and twisting...)

This part of Hwy 3 had miles, and miles, and miles of twisties, and was without a doubt one of the highlights of the trip.

The next 20 miles or so was mostly bland farmland on a high plateau. But once we reached the edge of the plateau, the road dropped through a technical set of twisties down into the Snake River canyon and Lewiston, ID.

We grabbed a quick bite to eat in town while Stacey took photos of her impressive bug killing skills.

After lunch, we headed for Hwy 95, which features an impressive climb out of the canyon but is really just the equivalent of a four-lane interstate for most of the way to Moscow, ID.

We spent the day with our friends in Moscow, seeing the sights around the area. Too late I realized I forgot to bring my camera, or I would have taken a few photos of the verdant green Palouse. This photo I stole from wikipedia will have to do:

The Palouse (photo source: Lynn Suckow, Wikipedia)

Everyone had to wake up early the next morning, so we hit the hay around 10pm only to have our sleep constantly interrupted by the noisy Mormon kids upstairs. Quiet, children!²

More to come…

Note to self: find and remember this brewery!
Who knew Mormons could be so wired without caffeine?

1st International Moto-Blogger Convention Recap

Stacy — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 05:30:29 +0000

The first International Moto-Blogger Convention was held on Saturday, July 17, 2010. We gathered on the same weekend as the big BMWMOA Rally in Redmond, Oregon — the only event with a $45 entry fee that could bring us together. Ironically, only one of us ended up actually going to the rally.

Bloggers in attendance:

Brad from Troubadour on a Triumph
Brandy from Trobairitz’ Tablet
RickRick from IRO – In Rick’s Opinion
bluekat from bluekat’s Journeys
Conchscooter from Key West Diary
RichardM from Richard’s Page
bobskoot from Wet Coast Scootin
SonjaM from Two-wheelers Revisited
Irondad from Musings of an Intrepid Commuter

Honorary bloggers:

Andy
Ron
Stacey

Stacey and I met up with Brad, Brandy, Rick, and Andy — the usual coffee suspects — on Saturday morning. Our destination was Bend, Oregon, and we chose the direct route of Hwy 20 to get there. We stopped in Lebanon to add bluekat and Ron to the group.

Meeting up with bluekat and Ron.

Andy led us on a lovely detour around Sweet Home, Oregon, a route that wound through fields and trees and a confusing number of intersections but ended up spitting us out on the east side of Foster Lake. I have no idea what the route was but my GPS should have a track saved for it. At Foster Lake, I took the lead and led the group over the pass.

You’ll have to ask Brandy how her TU250 fared in an uphill race against a Prius.

We stopped for a short break at the turnoff for Indian Ford Road to shed layers, send text messages, and consult the maps. It was at least 90° F — I mean 32.22° C — quite toasty I must say!

What a bunch of hooligans!

Andy's Tiger, all by its lonesome.

"Fixed it!"

We arrived at the hotel that most of the group would be staying at around 2:30. RichardM somehow found us, Conchscooter breezed through while on his epic road trip, and Bob and Sonja arrived soon afterward. After introductions, the group hung around while folks checked in to their rooms and dropped off luggage. By now, the Corvallis folks were ravenously hungry so Stacey and I led the way to our favorite pizza eatery in Bend, The Community Flatbread Ovens. Does this mean that Lucky from The Great Motorcycle Pizza Tour was with us in spirit?

RickRick departed the gathering soon after for greener pastures and naked ladies.

We bummed around the Old Mill District for a while, watched people on various inflatable objects float down the Deschutes River, and made an unsuccessful attempt to invade REI. We got in touch with Irondad, who mentioned that his hotel room had a couch, a living room, and air conditioning. Sold!

It was too hot to do much more than sit around and chat, and so we did. I guess you could say that this was the actual 1st International Moto-Blogger Convention.

Stacey and I had to leave early to finalize our lodging arrangements. We barely made it to Eagle Crest before the sun set. All this riding and talking left us hungry again, so we hit up a bar at the resort for some pub grub. I ordered a steak salad and was served the equivalent of a cow on its pasture. The salad bowl was bigger than my helmet! And who knew Stacey loved Steve Winwood so much that she’d shout requests for his tunes at the lounge singer?

I’ll update this post with links to everyone’s recap posts as I find them.

Friday Fluff: Blasts From the Past

Stacy — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 18:11:16 +0000

Taking a break from the RR for some Friday Fluff.

Stacey and I are looking forward to riding to the BMWMO National Rally on Saturday with a motley crew of folks from the Mid-Valley. We’ll be having a blogger meetup with bobskoot, SonjaM, RichardM, and Irondad. Did I miss anyone?

my first post: The first post on bolty.net was written way back in June 2007 and titled Starting Out on the Flat Foot: Seven Steps to Learning How To Ride. I still stand by these recommendations today.
the post I enjoyed writing the most: Riding the New Bike Home, Day 1, concerning my adventures riding my new (to me) SV650 back to Oregon from Oakland, CA. Actually, all three parts of this RR were a hoot to write.
a post which had a great discussion: Can Commuting Cause Motorcycle Burn Out? generated a lot of good discussion and ideas for pulling oneself out of the doldrums of motorcycling.
a post on someone else’s blog that I wish I’d written: Is “good enough” really enough? (conclusion) is a wonderful post by Dan Bateman covering skills important to every motorcycle commuter, nay, every rider. Parts one and two are also excellent reads and highly recommended.
the most visited post: How to Change the Oil in Your SV650 is by far the most visited post on bolty.net.
a post with a title I’m proud of: Gentlemen, You Now Have a Medical Excuse for Speeding
a post that I wish more people had read: Motorcycling Needs a Rite of Passage

Oregon Figure-Eight Tour, Day 2

Stacy — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 05:48:55 +0000

Day 2 – July 3, 2010 (Saturday)

Start: Fossil, OR
End: Enterprise, OR
Mileage: 287 miles

The first task of the day was figuring out how our gear exploded and how to get it all back into our luggage and on the bikes.

As I packed up the food, I noticed some tiny bite marks on a package of pita bread. And some crumbs. Uh oh.

Me: “Looks like a critter got into the food last night.”
Stacey: “You mean you didn’t hear it?”
Me: “No! Did you?”
Stacey: “How could you not hear it? It was right next to you!”
Me: “I seriously didn’t hear anything.”
Stacey: “You weren’t moving so I thought you didn’t care. Then I got out my headlamp and shined the light at it and shooed it away.”
Me: …

Ahh, well. That’s what I get for being too lazy to hang the food sack.

Stacey, amused that I failed to wake up while a critter made off with some of our food.

Bonus tip: To keep nocturnal critters out of your food, place all food into a stuff sack and tie off the end with a string. Throw the string over a tree limb and hang the sack out of reach. This won’t stop 100% of critters, but it does help. If you can’t hang your food out of the way and you plan on storing the food inside cloth luggage (saddlebags, tailpacks, etc), leave a zipper open on the luggage before you turn in for the night — this will keep critters from chewing their way through your expensive gear.¹

We loaded up the bikes and headed out around 10am,² backtracking 20 miles back to Condon. Here’s a sign next to the only gas station in town:

We then set out for Heppner. Routes 206/207 were excellent, meandering through rolling farmland and the occasional set of extreme twisties to keep things interesting. Most of the twisty sections featured significant drop-offs to the side and no guardrails, and it was a bit tricky to judge the depths of corners against the featureless green backdrops of the surrounding wheat fields.

After a quick lunch and gas stop in Heppner, we headed for Ukiah via the Willow Creek Scenic Byway. This road is simply fantastic. It’s very scenic, very curvy, and best of all has very little traffic.

A photo that does very little justice to the panorama overlooking the descent down into Ukiah.

The gas station in Ukiah featured this interesting advertising contraption.

Climbing into the hills again just south of Ukiah.

Stacey showing what she thinks of the ride so far.

A scenic overlook further into the hills.

Mountains, mountains, mountains.

Of course, with me leading the way, there had to be a wrong turn somewhere. Instead of turning on 51 toward Granite and Anthony Lakes Hwy, I took a wrong turn and didn’t notice for miles. (On the map above, it’s the sharp u-turn north heading toward La Grande.) I started getting suspicious when the road surface suddenly turned terrible, and then confirmed it when we found ourselves next to the Grande Ronde River.

It’s hard to tell by the picture, but the river feels like it’s right up against the road. The riverbank isn’t sloped much, so the effect of the running water right next to the road is disconcerting.

Taking the wrong turn wasn’t a big deal since we were heading to La Grande anyway. We decided to roll with it, and arrived in La Grande around 3 pm for gas and a quick beverage stop. We left town hoping to find a camping spot off of Hwy 82, which wasn’t going to be easy since it was the Saturday of the holiday weekend.

As expected, the first campground we tried was packed with RVs, car campers, loud stereos, and screaming children. I wasn’t very enthused about this spot, so we pressed on. My map showed a campground south of Lostine at the end of a paved road so we headed for that.

We found the road heading out of Lostine, and there was indeed a park where the pavement ended. Unfortunately, the map was wrong and it wasn’t a campground, just a day-use area. And right after that the road turned to gravel. I should have taken this as a sign, but the map showed a couple more campgrounds up the road, and by now we were pretty tired and just wanted to stop.

We found another campground all right, after 6 or 7 miles of gravel. The remaining spots sucked and there was no water.³ We debated staying, but then one of us would have to ride the 20 miles (round-trip) back to Lostine for water on a mostly gravel road. And while the campground was in a very pretty mountain canyon, this also meant that it was already near-dark between the mountain walls and getting darker by the minute.

Then Stacey suggested that we ditch this place and go to Enterprise for a hotel room. Well, it didn’t take me too long to agree!

So we turned around, rode 10 miles back to Lostine, and headed to Enterprise, where we found a very clean room at a small hotel and margaritas at the Mexican place next door.

More to come…

Unless you have bat-like ears like Stacey does and can wake up to defend your stash.
Which would become a recurring theme during this trip. What can I say, we’re not the hurrying kind.
This wouldn’t have been a problem if I’d brought my water filter, but I didn’t, alas.

Oregon Figure-Eight Tour, Day 1

Stacy — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 11:00:30 +0000

We’d been planning this trip for weeks and today was the big day, the day of departure on a 9-day trip around Oregon. Our goal was to visit two of our friends — one in Moscow, Idaho and the other near Lakeview, Oregon — and take the scenic route while doing so. I dubbed this the “Figure-Eight Tour” owing to the general shape of the route.

While this image shows the route we ended up taking, it isn’t the exact route we planned. You’ll have to keep reading if you want to know the specifics why. Also, neither of us are Ironbutt riders, so the plan was to keep the daily mileage under 300. Pretty reasonable, considering that most of the routes were of the twisty variety.

Day 1 – July 2, 2010 (Friday)

Start: Corvallis, OR
End: Fossil, OR
Mileage: 287 miles

The bikes weren’t even loaded before we ran into our first complication of the trip: the Street Triple isn’t really designed to carry much luggage. It has zero attachment points for straps, and the high dual exhaust makes saddlebags a challenge without a purpose-built support rack. We’d planned on camping a few nights along the way, so our gear payload was bigger than if we were going to stay in hotels. What to do?

Stacey suggested using both of our Kriega US-20 tailpacks together. They aren’t intended to be used side-by-side, but by clipping the packs together and strapping the whole deal down, she managed to carry all the stuff I couldn’t fit on the Battle SV. The SV650 was definitely the pack mule during this trip.

We left Corvallis around 10am. As with any trip, the first hour or so is about getting out of familiar territory. We hit rain up on Santiam Pass and it was cold enough for me to turn my grips and Gerbing’s jacket up to high. The dual-tailpacks on the Street Triple experienced some shifting during the twisty parts of Hwy 20, which caused Stacey to stop to re-balance the load. Fortunately, we planned on stopping at the REI in Bend to return a bicycle pump — yes, the pump was strapped atop my luggage! — and grab some lunch. Stacey picked up a couple of kayak tiedowns and used those to keep the tailpacks from shifting from side-to-side.

After our errand stop, we headed north on Hwy 97 through heavy traffic, worse than normal due to the July 4th holiday weekend.

20 miles north of Madras is a turn-off toward Antelope, Oregon. This is where the fun began! The first section of 293 is wicked twisty, and 218 just gets better. The pavement is generally excellent except for a few tar-snaked sections. Auto traffic is nearly non-existent. During the 50 mile stretch to Fossil, we saw a handful of cars, almost all of them going the other direction.

The riding was so great that I — as always — didn’t stop much for pictures. But I did snap these:

Stacey approves of the riding so far.

The weather warmed up as we rode east but remained overcast, and we could see rainclouds to the southeast but our route remained dry.

I’d planned for us to stop at a campground in Condon, Oregon that I found during my research. The “campground” was part of a county-owned RV park just outside of town. Unfortunately, I didn’t make the connection that the Condon wind farm was built there for a reason: it’s crazy windy! And the campground had little tree cover or any sort of windbreak at all.

Stacey and I faced a decision under the setting sun: stay in the roaring wind, or ride back to Fossil toward the nearest campground(s) marked on my map. The sun was setting, and I’d already had a close encounter of the Bambi kind on the road into Condon, but neither of us was looking forward to trying to sleep through that kind of wind against a tent.

Amazingly, the first campground we arrived at had open spots and potable water. Joy! We quickly claimed a spot and set up camp.

A Harley was parked next to an RV and a pop-up trailer in the campsite next to us, and it didn’t take long for its owner to stop by to introduce himself. He was part of a group of Oregon A.B.A.T.E folks who were having a meeting during the weekend, and he kindly offered us sodas and beer and a spot next to the campfire. We had a great time chatting and swapping stories, and I got some much-needed intel on the roads we had ahead of us.

Bellies full of food and beverage, we dove into our sleeping bags under a clear sky.

Day two tomorrow…

See You In Two Weeks!

Stacy — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 15:46:17 +0000

I’ve got a lot on my plate at the moment, and rather than leave you all hanging, I figured I’d post that bolty.net will be taking a two week hiatus starting today. I’ll have new stuff for you on July 14th. If you’re subscribed to my RSS feed or by email, you’ll be the first to get any updates — and without having to lift a finger.

Yes, there will be some traveling involved during this break.

Hope you’ve all been getting some good rides in. See you in two weeks!

The Case of the Mysterious Buzzing Flyscreen

Stacy — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 11:00:46 +0000

My recent efforts at removing the rust from my SV650′s flyscreen mounting bolts had an unintended side effect: an annoying buzz that seemed to occur around 2000 to 2500 RPM.

I first thought that there was something loose inside the headlight bucket, perhaps a wire to one of the GSX-R turn signals I installed at the same time as the rust removal job. I opened up the headlight bucket and ziptied the wires inside into neat bundles, but still the buzzing persisted.

Some experimentation revealed that the flyscreen was the actual source of the buzzing. The flyscreen is bolted to plastic shrouds which are attached to the same bracket as the headlight bucket. When I put the flyscreen and shrouds back on the bike, I took care to put things back the way they were before, but clearly something had changed.

I was stumped. Since the buzzing was limited to a very narrow RPM range, I decided to try to live with it. That lasted about a week and a half, during which the RPM range steadily grew wider and wider until the buzzing persisted up into the 5000s — the bread-and-butter RPM range for every day street riding. This could not stand.

Fed up, I removed the flyscreen and the shrouds completely, leaving the instrument cluster exposed above the headlight. This was a very pre-2005 look for the ol’ Battle SV.

Eventually, I gave the problem another go, and as I pondered the headlight and its mounting bracket, I noticed something interesting about the back of the instrument cluster: the electronic controller box for my LED voltage monitor was touching the headlight bucket. It certainly wasn’t touching before.

On a hunch, I loosened the headlight adjuster screw as far as it could go, which dropped the bucket about 2mm — just enough to leave a gap with the controller box. I reattached the flyscreen, hopped on the bike for a test ride, and sure enough, the buzzing was gone.

The controller box, by virtue of being solidly attached to the instrument cluster, was transmitting the vibrations from the steering head directly to the headlight bucket, and then to the headlight mount, and then to the flyscreen mount.

Unfortunately, messing with the adjuster screw threw the headlight’s aim off badly. The solution was to loosen the 10mm bolts holding the headlight bucket to the headlight bracket, shove the bucket down a few millimeters, then tighten up the bolts. This let me aim the headlight properly while leaving the necessary gap. Problem solved.

2010 Chief Joseph Rally

Stacy — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 17:43:17 +0000

I spent a long weekend at the most excellent Chief Joseph Rally organized by the BMW Riders of Oregon.

Unlike last year when I rode to the rally by myself, I joined Don and Deb Weber — of Mr. Ed’s Moto and Premier Motogear fame — for the trip this year. We left around 10:30 am Thursday morning and rode to the rally via Hwy 126 and 26, with a stop in Terrebonne for a tasty lunch at the Terrebonne Depot.

I really enjoy riding with Don and Deb because our riding styles match well: the pace is purposeful and we rarely stop except for gas. The downside is that I end up with few pictures, but if you know me, you know I have to force myself to stop for pictures anyway!

Here’s the view from camp at the Grant County Fairgrounds:

The mountains in the background are part of the Strawberry Wilderness and they rarely have snow up top by the time the rally rolls around every year. Unfortunately, the weather in the PNW has been so crappy this year that we’ve taken to calling this month “Juneuary.”

It was about 40 degrees on Friday morning. There’s nothing better on a cold rally morning than a nice hot shot of espresso.

A big part of the rally experience is participating in the various educational sessions scheduled throughout the weekend. On Friday morning, I attended a seminar conducted by Ramey “Coach” Stroud on slow-speed maneuvering in less than ideal conditions (i.e. gravel, construction zones, etc). The classroom session was followed by a practice session on a closed course.

Guess how many guys stepped up when Coach Ramey asked for a volunteer to do the first demo.

If you guessed zero, you’d be right!

Guess who Coach Ramey walked up to and asked to volunteer when no one stepped forward?

If you guessed little ol’ me, you’d be right!

No pressure or anything, doing a demo in front of about 40 or 50 people on the Battle SV.

All I have to say is that I’m damn glad I took that ADV riding course last month, because I pretty much did this:

but on the SV and and in a slightly larger circle on a bumpy grass course. I guess second time’s the charm, because in practicing this set of skills again with another excellent instructor, something major finally clicked for me — so much so that I’m going to devote a separate post to it later on.

I got a bunch of compliments the rest of the rally from folks who had seen or heard about my demo, which was a nice confidence booster.

After the demo session, I decided that I needed to go for a ride.

The Sumpter/Dooley Mountain loop is one of the sweetest rides around John Day. I’m talking roads like this

with beautiful pavement, lovely twisty curves, and basically zero traffic. I think I passed 5 cars in nearly 200 miles.

The best part is Dooley Mountain on Hwy 245. You can see it on the map above starting around the 108 mile mark to 124 or so. I believe there are over 120 curves packed into 18 miles.

Just past the summit, you’ll come across the following vista point:

A word to the wise: out here in Eastern Oregon, when a curve is marked 30 mph or less, especially the 15 or 20 mph curves, they really mean it. Gravel in the corners is a regular menace, as are deer and vehicles that cross the center line. Tread carefully!

Back on Hwy 26 heading west from the Hwy 7 junction, there’s a lovely view of the Strawberry Range…

… and a big covered wagon historical marker.

Unfortunately, I needed to beat feet because bad weather was on its way.

I made it back to the fairgrounds before the rain and just in time for dinner.

On Saturday, I took a short 75 mile ride around the Strawberry Range with a great group of ladies.

Sunday was a travel day back home. We hit pouring rain on Ochoco Pass and it rained sporadically the whole way back, but we made pretty good time overall. I arrived home around 3 pm or so, tired but happy.

So that’s my mini RR for this year’s Chief Joseph Rally. I can’t possibly tell you everything about the rally — you’ll have to see it for yourself!