Northwest Cycle Report

Following is part 2 of Tim Watts’ story of the 2007 SPANK Rally held in San Diego, California.

Part 2 – The First Leg

My cell phone alarm, which I set as a back-up, went off just before my wake-up call did Friday morning. It was 4:30 AM and I’d been awake for about fifteen minutes. Before long I was dressed, suited up and trying to get my Rally drawers on over my First Gear HT over pants. There’s no graceful way to do this and I was envisioning attempting this on the side of the road later in the day. Hmm…probably not the most difficult thing I’d do in the next 30 hours.

I was a little early to the morning Rider’s meeting but there were a few folks already milling about. I was anxious to hear the rest of what George had in store for us and soon he arrived with another set of packets for everybody. Now we would begin to learn of the two legs in this Rally. There were 4 “soft” checkpoints during the first leg and a “hard” checkpoint at the end of the leg. The soft CP’s were optional but, at each one, we could open another set of Bonus listings. I don’t know exactly what I was expecting from this event but it wasn’t this.

I had spent my summer weekends riding around the Pacific Northwest, participating in several photo tours at once, in an attempt to train for this Rally. I treated each stop as a bonus location, honing my technique to where I could get a basic photo and be on my way in just a couple of minutes. I’ve also ridden a few “big mile” rides over the last couple of years, (nothing like Warchild’s awe inspiring feat, but enough to prepare myself for a 24 to 48 hour rally). What I really couldn’t adequately prepare myself for was route planning. Not only on the clock, but on the fly. George Zelens is an evil genius. Well, he’s evil anyway.

Once the packets were handed out and questions were answered, I returned to my room to try and make sense of all this. I could see that the smart thing would probably be to get to all of the soft CP’s to activate all of the bonus listings first and then plan my route. For some reason, this seemed to be too much for me to think about right then. I was a little overwhelmed and quickly decided to “dumb-down” the first leg to something I could get a handle on. My plan was to take the bonus list I already had and plot a route that included one of the soft CP’s, (there was a 15,000 point bonus if you arrived during an odd numbered hour), where I would quickly scan the newly gained list for anything that I could easily add to my “base” route and hit the road. I knew this would not be a winning strategy but I didn’t come down here to try to win anything. I came to gain experience and ride my motorcycle and this seemed like a good plan to accomplish both – at the time.

After a mental coin flip to determine which of the soft CP’s to head for, I was off and riding before 7 AM. I decided to make for the Hemet Market with a slight detour to waste about fifteen minutes, ensuring that I arrived during the 9 o’clock hour to bag the 15,000 points. The only bonus location that seemed easy enough to add to my route was the Cranston Fire Station. It was ~15 miles up a very entertaining road to take a picture of the station house then right back down the same road to the market to get my photo approved. This was pretty uneventful except for the over zealous Forest Ranger who was convinced that me placing my Rally drawers on the USFS “Cranston Station” sign constituted defacement of Government property. I got the impression that she was making stuff up as she spoke, which really irked me for some reason, and I wouldn’t exactly have been a very good ambassador of the Rally had I actually told her I was in a Rally. Eventually, I realized arguing with her was just wasting time that was supposed to be used for having the time of my life and I gave it up, opting for a standard pic of the building. This, of course, was perfectly acceptable back at the market and I made a mental note to myself to stop taking things so seriously. Sheesh.

Next on my route was a short backtrack to Anza for a photo of a giant, sheet metal amigo playing a bass violin and a trip along a brick paver walkway at a schoolhouse, searching for the brick that said, “Have a nice day.” With these small bonii secured, I headed out to Salton Sea. The next bonus on my list was something called Truck Haven. Being from another state, I had no idea what this might be but it sounded like one of those gigantic truck stop/travel centers even if did appear to be out in the middle of nowhere. As I was getting low on fuel, I thought Truck Haven would be a great place to fill up before heading to Calipatria. As I rode through Coachella, though, I noticed a station on my right and decided to stop short and fuel up here, (”see gas, buy gas”). This proved to be a very fortunate move as “Truck Haven” is merely a gravel trail off Highway 86 with a tiny commemorative marker. No gas here.

Calipatria, California is home to the tallest flag pole in the world below sea level and that is exactly what I was intending to photograph. The only drama here was the glut of road construction in my way. I didn’t realize until later just how much time all of this roadwork had cost me. Oh, the flag pole is really cool.

The rest of the route was to be West on I-8 with a foray onto Hwy. 94 to pick up some points by the Mexican Border and then decide if I had time for anything else before making a line for the hard check point. I had to make it to this check point before 8 PM or I was through. It had not yet occurred to me that it was already too late to even make any of the bonii off of 94. By the time this particular light bulb lit up I was already on I-8 and decided I needed to bail out now and head for Crestline. Obviously, it didn’t matter how many points I had to leave on the map if I didn’t make the CP on time. Had I thought of this earlier, I could’ve avoided Interstate 8 altogether. Oh well. On the bright side, I was riding in California where lane sharing is the rule of the road. I’ve spent enough time in the state that last few years to get somewhat comfortable with this practice which is frowned upon by my local law enforcement. I’m certainly no expert but I got a little better at it this day as it was necessary for nearly 60 miles of my trip up I-215. I know this much, had it not been for lane sharing through the heavy San Diego area traffic, I would have definitely DNF’ed this Rally.

With a quick fuel stop in San Bernardino, taking just enough time to scarf some trail mix and make sure my Rally drawers were on, I was ready for the last push of the first leg. The appropriately named “Rim of the World Highway” twists and turns skyward seemingly forever. The view from the check point, which was set up in what appeared to be a scenic viewpoint turn-out, was worth whatever minor aggravation I had encountered this day and I managed to arrive with 20 minutes to spare.

Leg 1 was now complete and I felt pretty good about it. I knew I hadn’t scored a ton of points but I had enjoyed some truly euphoric motorcycling. Leg 2 looked to be a bit more “normal” with no soft check points or on-the-fly routing. The bad news for me was that I needed to find somewhere to plug in my laptop to plan a route. My battery is shot. It will only last about five minutes after the AC cord is unplugged. I was pretty sure there was a Starbuck’s across the street from Shell station at the base of this big hill…