Cal24 2008 - BARF style

[Whodat]

Before I get too far in the tall tales I want to say Thank You to Tom Melchild and Mark Crane for putting on another 1st class rally. What these guys do for our entertainment is simply amazing :thumbup:thumbup.

The big winner this weekend was the PolioPLus foundation. Over $5000 was raised this weekend by a bunch of nuts riding motorbikes :rofl
http://www.polioplusride.org/

Great account of the ride Alex. I don't know how you got behind the time curve for the bullets though. I made all the bullets with time to spare even with my time in the Cal24 jail :laughing. I skipped the Markleeville extra bonus although it turns out I could have made it in time. I skipped the Shoe Tree bonus after I got the Rawhide bullet knowing I had time to get it but I had doubts about my bike starting if I shut it down so I skipped it.

Although I had my GPS with me I really didn't need it and it didn't get me much. The bonus listing gave me good enough instructions to get me to the places I needed to be in plenty of time.

In retrospect I with I had taken the base route back over 108. I knew where most of the bonuses were having been riding that area for a long time. I would have got more points and finished earlier and would not have been as worried about breaking down in bumfuck nowhere like I was.

Thanks Chad for saying I have balls :rofl. What I was missing was brains. Taking off by myself on a mechanically suspect bike in the middle of the night was dumb. It could very well have been worse than dumb but I got lucky this time. No one in the world knew where I was. There was no cell phone coverage. And I was waaay too tired. I was literally nodding off on the bike before I decided to stop. This is a mistake I won't be making again.

 

[aciurczak]

Susanville was roughly 160 miles away from Yerington, so I again had some time to think about what I wanted to do after Susanville. My hope was that after I got to Susanville, I'd have enough time to get out to Fort Bidwell, then make my way back West to pick up a few more before heading home. But once I got to Susanville and got the picture of my bike in front of the prison, I realized that wasn't going to happen. I was only at the sign for a minute or two when another rider arrived. That's one of the things that always makes me smile about this rally. Here I am riding miles and miles and miles away from civilization, apparently all alone in the world. But then you sit out in the middle of nowhere for only a minute or two, and boom, up pops another rider who thought that Susanville was a decent bonus as well.

So we talked about what we wanted to do next, and that's when I plugged in Fort Bidwell into the GPS and saw that it just wasn't going to happen. Right then, as of midnight, I would be back at the finish line right around 8 AM. So that would have required riding perfectly, having no glitches to deal with, not getting tired and stopping for a minute, etc. etc. And all for just that one bonus. So the plan changed, and we started to talk about what was still possible. It's funny, it's midnight, there are 8 hours until the finish closes, but everything from where we were is just so danged far away that there truly weren't many options, just a few to choose from. He was going to go for Burney, then head back to the finish. Burney wasn't too bad, and he'd likely get in to the finish line between 5 and 6 AM (we needed to be back by 8). But, Burney was only 300 and some-odd points, I was unsure why I had even put it into my GPS, but I guess I did because it was up in the same general area as the others. The bonus I wanted was in Tulelake. But it was over 120 miles away from where we were standing as the crow flies, let alone over whatever roads you actually need to take to get there. But I wanted to go for it, so I plugged it in and hit the road. After about 30 miles though, I realized that the GPS ETA for home base was getting a bit scary. It's actually hard to calculate that in your head, because the GPS is telling you when you'd get back home from right where you are right at that moment, but you're going x number of miles away, and really want to know when you'll get home after you get out there. And it of course matters if that x miles is exactly in the wrong direction, in a neutral direction, or even in a similar general direction to where you'd be going anyway.

And doing all those calculations in your head while you're riding 74 mph (55 +19) on a dark forest road isn't for the faint of heart. But the end result of this was that I realized it was too risky. So I changed the GPS's to aim me to Burney. And I was pissed. But the good news is that to get to Burney from where I was, I was actually going in the right direction anyway, so I hadn't lost any time. I just changed my goals. I had gone from expecting to get several of these big point bonuses to settling for only Yerington (848), Susanville (600ish), and Burney (300ish). So I was annoyed at myself for awhile, but then got over it. Tough to be too distracted while riding at 1 AM, so I continued to focus on the road. Which was good, as a large white dog hopped out right in front of me on the way to Burney. Better than a deer, but not by much at speed. Minor swerve and I was still on my way.

I stopped to get gas in Bieber. And then noticed a sign for Tulelake, 65 miles. This got me thinking once again. I was here, Tulelake was now only an hour away. I did the calculations 5 times in my head once again. Now that I was stopped, had chugged yet another bottle of water and an energy drink, as well as found a bush, my brain was working a bit better so the calculations were easier. And now I realized that even if I went straight to Tulelake and came directly back to the spot I was now standing on, I'd likely be able to make it back with 30 minutes to spare. So I changed my plan back to the original one, got saddled back up, and headed to Tulelake. I never liked Burney anyway. :laughing

 

[aciurczak]

Before I continue with the story, wanted to congratulate Andy on his finish as well. He only has himself to blame for the bike troubles, he made snarky remarks about BMW final drives prior to the ride, which was more than enough to curse his silly British bike. Electrical troubles? Overheating? British? Who woulda thunk. :rofl

 

[plumber]

Maybe I missed it but what were the final results for the event.?The Cal24 website doesn't have it up yet.

 

[aciurczak2]

Thanks Chad for saying I have balls :rofl. What I was missing was brains. Taking off by myself on a mechanically suspect bike in the middle of the night was dumb. It could very well have been worse than dumb but I got lucky this time. No one in the world knew where I was. There was no cell phone coverage. And I was waaay too tired. I was literally nodding off on the bike before I decided to stop. This is a mistake I won't be making again.

Sounds like you need a SPoT! If something happened and no cell service, you could have pushed the HELP or 911 button and gotten rescued. Plus, people would have known where you were because BARF would have been tracking your progress. No, the company doesn't pay me to say these things... it really is a great gadget... I think Don said his wife referred to it as an electronic leash.

 

[aciurczak]

On the way to Tulelake, I was feeling awfully good once again. I knew that there were 900+ points waiting for me right there, and the bonus was easy. No picture even required, just find out what is written on some sign in front of the fairgrounds. I'd have to check the gps track, but I think I got into Tulelake around 0300ish. Looking at the ETA to home base, I had 40 - 50 minutes of leeway, so I was feeling OK on time. I couldn't find the fairgrounds in either GPS, and of course there are zero souls awake at 3 AM and no such thing as a 24-hr minimart or gas station in Tulelake. So I rode around for a little while just looking, and eventually saw a sign that said "fairgrounds museum -->". I followed it for awhile, didn't see any fairgrounds, but saw two motorcycles coming toward me, then turn off the road aiming at a sign. Bingo. (Thanks Dave, and Brian for finding it for me! :thumbup ). I'm in the middle of BFE after riding alone for hours and magically, two bikes appear exactly where I need them to be. I love this sport. Yes, us rally dorks think it's a sport. Sue us.

I wrote down what I needed to, and started to plan. I knew I didn't have much leeway, but I also seemed to remember that another one of the bonuses wasn't too far from Tulelake, and may in fact be in the direction I wanted to go anyway. I used the Zumo to find nearby bonuses, and it reminded me that Bonus 25 (Dorris) wasn't far at all, and it was pretty much on the way home anyway. And Dorris was 600+ points for another easy bonus, just find out what some plaque says at the base of the tallest flagpole west of the Mississippi. And it turned out to be just that easy, found the flagpole straight away, and was soon headed for home. I was hooked up once again with those two other bikes. They had left before me from Tulelake and headed to Dorris as well. I guess I could have just followed them, but that would have been too easy. :laughing

So now it was just time to get home, and the ETA still looked pretty good. But then I made it to Weed, CA at 0500 hrs all the way up on I-5, and realized that I had almost 200 miles to go on I-5. Certainly doable in 3 hours, but that much highway is actually hard to do after 21 hrs in the saddle, it is much, much harder, for me at least, to stay awake and focused when you're just droning along.

And that turned out to be the case. After the gas stop in Weed, I had to stop two more times (about an hour in between each time) to get off the road, have a drink, and walk around my bike a few dozen times to get the blood pumping and will myself on to the finish. Last thing I wanted to do was to have some type of incident, either minor or major, this close to the finish line. Called Annie along the way to let her know about what time I'd be rolling in.

I pulled into the hotel parking lot at 7:38, with 22 minutes to spare. Got myself checked in, and went to change and unpack the bike. One welcome change this year is that all that is important is to get yourself checked in (someone signs your paperwork with the time you got in and your odometer reading). Then you have as much time as you need, within reason, to get all of your paperwork together and come back to get scored. This ends the frantic exercise of quickly putting all of your paperwork/receipts/pictures/etc all together and throwing it at a rally volunteer so you're not time-penalized if you come in at 0759 hrs. And it means that the paperwork is likely easier to read and score for the rally folks themselves, as people now have some time to make sure that their rider number is on each page, everything is legible, etc.

After changing, getting my stuff together, and taking our dog for a walk, I headed back to the scoring area. Folks were gathered around sharing stories of the rally. A few people were coming in late. If they were in by 9 they could still be finishers, but they were being penalized for every minute they were in after 8. People weren't completely sure what the penalty would be, but I believe it turned out to be 10 points per minute, so some folks that got an extra large bonus but were only 10 or 20 minutes late ended up doing the right thing. Eric Jewell, the uber-rally dude that I mentioned earlier, rode up at speed counting loudly in his helmet "54, 55, 56, 57" as he pulled into the parking lot at 07:59:54. Damn professionals.

Here's my GPS track for leg 2: (high-res version right here)

 

[aciurczak]

I got scored by Mark. The scoring is done in front of the rider to make sure that everything is legible, and to try and control some of the bickering that sometimes goes on about what you expected to get. Mine was pretty easy to score as my first 7 pages were completely blank. 4 bonuses + fuel log, and all were fine. Score for the first leg was easy for the rally scoring as well, 5 bullets + fuel log. The only thing that I wasn't sure of was how the karma affected the score, if at all. Couldn't hurt, I figured. :thumbup You don't walk away from the table with your actual score, you just know that they have accurately read what you've submitted. Actual results are saved for the banquet later in the day.

Went back to nap for awhile, got up an hour or so later to shower, pack the bike and car, and check out of the hotel. Headed over to the banquet right around noon. Bill and Kathy's always puts together some good food for us, and yesterday was no different. After everyone got their plates and had made good progress on lunch, Tom started the official festivities. arty There is always a pretty lucrative raffle. Didn't win anything this year, darn it! The largest contributor to the charity that the rally supports was once again awarded a free aerostich suit of his choice. The largest contributor was Jeff Earls. Not sure what he managed to raise, but I'd bet it was much, much less than the cost of a new aerostich, so he not only got to support Polio Plus, he got an awfully cheap new aerostich out of the deal. (EDIT: From the Rotary award Jeff received for his donation, it can be inferred that his donation may have been as much as an Aerostich, or perhaps even more. Another reason to wish I was less of a putz and more like Jeff.)

Mark Crane went through some of the rally stories, and let us all know the details of the one major incident, and we were happy to hear that all individuals were going to ultimately be OK. Heard some funny stories about the Cal24 police. The one guy that Ironbutt described above as having a melt-down was over the Cal24 police. Ironbutt's right, he's actually a friend of ours and truly is a good guy; it's a shame he got himself a bit peeved at that one portion of the event.

And then Tom listed the finishers one by one from bottom to top, with everyone getting a plaque and applause for their efforts. I ended up 9th, for my second top ten finish in the Cal24 (but it's been a few years since). The winner, almost unbelievably for the third straight year, was Jeff Earls. The man is a rally machine. Eric Jewell came in second. Eric came in second instead of third because he read the rally pack line that stated that whoever raised the most money "during" the rally would be rewarded with extra points. He wrote a $50 check to the charity during the rally, and that was enough to push him to 2nd. Man's a smart guy. (BTW, the entire rally raised over $5000 for the charity; one of the charity's representatives was on hand and was extremely grateful for our support. He happens to be a multi-time IronButt competitor, who was afflicted very young with Polio, and was even in an iron lung for years. He rides rallies with a sidecar. Neat guy). Some pictures from the banquet:

What Don looks like after a 24hr rally:

Razel receiving his plaque:

Full results should be up on the Cal24 site at some point, I'll post a link from here when they are. I believe I ended up with around 5300. I know it was 5000-something. The winner had 7000ish, maybe 7300. I don't know how these guys do it. If someone put a gun to my head, or alternatively, someone said I'd get a million dollars instead, I still have absolutely no idea how I'd better my performance to get to the top. These guys are simply really, really good at this. For Jeff to win outright 3 years in a row clearly illustrates that while luck plays a part, there's certainly much more than that. He's been running this rally for many years, as well as many others, including the Iron Butt, and he demonstrates what that experience has gotten him every time he kicks the rest of our butts. It's actually pretty damn cool. :cool

Thanks once again to Budman for sponsoring me, and I can't see why I wouldn't want to run this rally again next year. Perhaps more BARFers would like to join us, it really is one of the neatest experiences you can have on a bike if you're into the long-distance sport-touring thing.

Here's a link to all of my photos from the event.

Here's the full event route for me (this isn't even close to the base route, though) (full-res right here)

Same pic, but with the bullets and bonuses that I was chasing highlighted: (full-res right here)

If folks would be interested in my GPX file from the event, just PM me and I'm happy to email it. Leg 1 was about 12 hrs for me, and had a 49 mph average speed. Leg 2 was about 11 hours for me, and had a 55 mph average speed. Both of those speeds are higher than I think I've ever had, not because I was riding any faster, but because so much of this route allowed me to take faster roads, and I was also just on the bike that much longer going for very far bonuses. Even 55 mph may seem slow to someone who hasn't done this before, but averaging 55 over a 11 hour period including all gas and rest stops isn't trivial. It's clearly not impossible, but until you sit down and try to actually do it it's not apparent that it isn't trivial either. To hit that magical 1000 miles in 24 hrs for a Saddlesore 1000 award, you only need to maintain 41.7 mph over a 24 hr period, which again seems awfully easy in the abstract, harder in the actual doing...

- Alex

 

[aciurczak]

Just a few more pics....

AndyM receiving his plaque:

A fuzzy picture of me getting my plaque:

Jeff Earls being congratulated for winning the event:

All pics here.

 

[budman]

Alex... you rocked the house with the write up and all... barf is proud of the effort :hail

And bonus point from us for having a wife willing to add to it as well ort

What a neat event... next year we'll have the big party to watch you crazies!!

So very :cool

Congrats to all that participated and big ups to those that finished. :thumbup

Great thread!! :banana

:smoking

 

[Whodat]

Anyone up for a little ride in October?
http://www.loe1000.org/LOE2008.htm

 

[Specterlabs]

I was only at the sign for a minute or two when another rider arrived. That's one of the things that always makes me smile about this rally. Here I am riding miles and miles and miles away from civilization, apparently all alone in the world. But then you sit out in the middle of nowhere for only a minute or two, and boom, up pops another rider who thought that Susanville was a decent bonus as well.

That was me! Talking with you really helped get me energized again.

I never liked Burney anyway.

I do. It was a pretty good bonus, and the sheriff didn't even stop to see why I was parked in from of the Caltrans CHP yard with a bra hanging off my bike:rolleyes

 

[budman]

Pretty cool moment I bet.... that is :cool

:smoking

 

[Cycle61]

Sounds like you need a SPoT! Plus, people would have known where you were because BARF would have been tracking your progress.

:thumbup I'm considering getting one, and I'm nowhere near an adventure rider, but I do tend to find myself without cell coverage a lot.

Following along the riders with SPoT was great, thanks guys for running them and letting us watch along the way.

Look back a few pages, we knew Ray was wandering around Gerlatch lost, possibly before he did! And we called the dirt road he almost tried to take back to 395. :laughing

 

[Razel]

Ok, I only knew of 4 BARF'ers running in this.
Alex
Andy
Chad
Me.

Oh, that's also the order from first to last we placed. Actual placement? Well, out of the 40-odd that were signed up, 26 placed.
I got 24 (*sob*)
[Edit!!! Scoring error! :teeth 17th instead.]
Chad (dammit) 23
Who the heck cares at this point what Andy and Alex placed

Reading Alex's account really covered the rally well. That dirt road that Alex took to get to the Quincy bonus point? Hey...it had concrete barriers to prevent cars from using it. Being the good boy scout, I headed back to take an alternative way, and even flagged Alex not to go that way. Needless to say, he got to the bonus point first...
Cal24 Police Speed Trap...I was warned prior to the speed trap that it was there. Was 5 over just so I didn't look too religous, and got waved at to continue on. Heh. Wouldn't suggest that next time, they hide themselves in a long straight, instead. No, they should never do that...
Bonus six is where you get your fingernails painted. Missed #'s 4 and 5 due to time and traffic.

Cliff Notes:
Boy, did I have fun.
Initially, wasn't sure I would even attempt it. Five years have passed, and I find myself still doing long rides, but sticking my legs off the pegs more often, and standing on the pegs more frequently. Now, understand, standing on the pegs while going down the highway for a mile (while certainly looking to some kids that you're about to put the front wheel up), really makes a difference to the body. You do it a lot at night, because the time up on the pegs is so short. You can't see the road curving, so the straights that look like they're a good one to stand up on are waaaaay too short. Then, too, you're asking your tired body to keep going...so you have to do this more frequently. Yes, sitting on a motorcycle for 12 hours, even though you are getting off for bonus points and check points, gets tiring. So, I've come to realize at a very early age that...I'm getting older.

But, I had fun Saturday and Sunday.

Got to shoot a paintgun (at my rally shirt)
Got to stand out in the wide, open spaces with Oroville Dam as the background, sporting a 44D bra for the camera.
Gave some squirrely guy $5.00 for a carnation that had "karma".
Got frustrated with damn tourists doing ½ the speed limit looking for South Lake Tahoe for 20 miles. They got to U.S. 50 in the left turn lane, only to go right after figuring out they'd actually got to the intersection they were looking for. No bonus point #4 and #5
Got outside of Fallon, NV. into the Naval Bombing Range on a itty-bitty side road only to face a radar gun 14 miles into Nowhere-A, Nevada. Being warned 20 seconds before, my speed was under the threshold, and I didn't get the dreaded red light. Did get to have my fingernails painted, then I could leave.
Got to go to Yerington. Who the f*** thought of that name for the town? 11 miles south, turn in my leg 1 packet, show them I still had the "karma" carnation (but they didn't want it, so I'm still out $5.00), got the leg 2 packet, and told to go down the dirt road until I found "the pickup".
Got to shoot a 9mm pistol four times, putting three holes in the target. One other was...high, but still hit the shirt.
Found that if you read all of the bonus points first before you take off bonus-point hunting, you get some jewels from the last page.
County courthouse in Yerington has a 10 Commandment stone in front of it donated to the county in 1967 (I think...got the answer right, though)
Gerlach has a Shell gas station that's open 24 hours if you have a credit card.
The totem pole in Gerlach can't be seen at night and, unless you know exactly where it is, you'll never find it at night, either.
GPS says there's a way to Susanville from Gerlach that's shorter than the obvious lines on the paper map(s). Too bad there's no indication that 44 miles of that path is a dirt road, and you're expected to spend 73 minutes navigating it. Not really an issue, supposedly, unless you have never ridden in dirt (or any off-road rides) on a sport-touring bike. In an area no one would expect you to be, and absolutely no cell coverage.
Found out that the 2oz. 5 hour energy drink works as advertised.
Ibuprophen is a good thing to have with you and use when needed.
Heated jackets are a wonderful invention. Especially when going over Donner Summit at 5:00 AM, even in the middle of June.
The K1200GT can go over 200 miles on a tank of gas (downhill from Donner Summit).
The CHP isn't out there in force on Sunday mornings.
Nothing yet can match the view of sunrise in the mountains.
Just how great it feels to get to the finish line before the 8:00 AM deadline with 1051 miles under your belt.
Or, how much fun it is to stay up for 24 hours riding a motorcycle to places you've never been. Sweet...

Next year? Definitely.

Would have posted yesterday, but decided I'd take another nap about 6:00 PM. Laid back on my bed, boots still on, but figured I'd get up in about 45 minutes and continue on. At 3:12, got up, took off the boots and riding pants, crawled under the covers and slept until 7:30.
Got to work starting a week-long class covering all the details regarding MPLS. Certification test on Friday afternoon.

I'm getting too old for this...NOT!

 

[Cycle61]

Sunrise in the mountains, 5 hour energy goop, and wandering in the dark along dirt trails... Sounds like a winner to me!

And we're glad you were looking for something in that town :laughing One of us figured you'd gone fishing...

 

[aciurczak]

Great account of the ride Alex. I don't know how you got behind the time curve for the bullets though. I made all the bullets with time to spare even with my time in the Cal24 jail :laughing.

Hi Andy! I think the fact of the matter is that the GPS routing wasn't optimal. The gadgets ranked the interstate highways (395 & 50) as being much faster than the 2-lane highways and even small backroads that made up the base route. But a motorcycle out in the middle of nowhere can make good time on a deserted backroad that is either marked at 50/55 or is even unmarked (so is 55 by default), and those roads took you on a more direct route to where we needed to go.

I rely very heavily on the GPS's not because they will always route perfectly, but because I know that they have found a route that will work, and they provide a damn good estimate of when I'll be at the end of that route, even hours later. Allows for contingency planning with plenty of time to spare; I'd rather know pretty confidently when I'm going to be somewhere, rather than a guesstimate that could be off an hour in either direction. Even if that route that I have confidence in, turns out to be a little longer. In this case, some of those routes may have been significantly longer. One of these examples is how I got from Susanville to Bieber on the way to Burney. If I didn't have a GPS, I likely would have gone west instead of east when leaving the prison. (Went east to pick up 395 North). But that longer route landed me in Bieber, and allowed me to get to Tulelake, so it all worked out well anyway. If I had gone the more direct route to Burney, I would have found myself there with no time to get the rest of the way north to Tulelake, and cost myself roughly 1300 points (Tulelake 950 + Dorris 650 - Burney 300).

 

[aciurczak]

Will you both be at the Barf Bash? I'd love to get a copy of the checkpoints etc. so I can see what I missed out on, and listen to some stories about the rally.

Family is in town that weekend, but I should still be able to stop by for an hour or two. No luck on showing you the paperwork; it is collected at the end of the rally, never to be seen again... Stories, on the other hand, can't be hidden away as easily. :thumbup

 

[Razel]

Nice work gentlemen. Congratulations on finishing and riding safely.

Thanks...

Will you both be at the Barf Bash? I'd love to get a copy of the checkpoints etc. so I can see what I missed out on, and listen to some stories about the rally.

Will be there. I'll see if I can't get a copy of the sheets, but I don't know how secretly they keep them to themselves.

 

[Razel]

Sunrise in the mountains, 5 hour energy goop, and wandering in the dark along dirt trails... Sounds like a winner to me!

Try it, I think you'll like it next year

And we're glad you were looking for something in that town :laughing One of us figured you'd gone fishing...

If I only knew then what I know now...

 

[plumber]

Try it, I think you'll like it next year
If I only knew then what I know now...

I figured you found a brothel in Reynard. :teeth