Bonus Scouting in Nevada for the Wild Wild West Rally.

The Wild Wild West rally was a 32 hour endurance motorcycle rally organized by my friends Brian "Kirill" R. and Dale "Warchild" Wilson.


The rally was almost an year in the making. I remember sitting with Brian R. and Dale as we were brainstorming ways to make the rally a truly unique format, something which had not been done before in the endurance rally world. Suddenly I blurted out - "Why not make them pretend they are cowboys in the wild west and make them live out a lifetime in the west in 32 hours or less". I had no idea at the time of speaking what the evil rally genius in Brian's mind was going to do with this idea and the puzzle he would create to torment the riders with..

The rally format would essentially make the rally participants (riders), virtually endure a life in the Wild West. They would earn money by visiting certain bonus locations (such as mines, casinos and historic bank and train robbery sites). They would spend money by visiting other bonus locations (such as whorehouses, historic battle grounds etc). At the end of the rally - their virtual life in the Wild West would come to an end and the tax man would tally up their earnings and their expenditure - the idea being to crown the rider who earnt the most and also ended his virtual Wild West life spending the last penny he ever earnt - or as close to that ideal as possible..


Not all bonus locations are cataloged in this ride report. There were over 86 bonus locations for this rally, so I picked and chose the ones that I found interesting. It is left as an exercise to the reader to determine which bonus locations fell into which category.. :)


DAY 1:

We pulled the bikes out for an "early" start. What is it light out already? Blame it on the alarm clock!
We decided to get riding first and have breakfast somewhere along the way (we were already thinking about "where").. :)

The Beauty of Hwy 4 in the Sierra Mountains.

Mike and Old Michael were doing a Hwy 4 ride on Saturday, they invited me to the ride but I had a date Friday night and didn't come home till very late at night.
I checked my messages in the morning and they had just left the Eldorado Hills meetup location at 8:50AM - I figured I would try and intercept them at lunch in Markleeville.


I left at 10AM after a quick pre-ride check and fueling up. I took Hwy 50 to Meyers and then got on Hwy 89 over Luther Pass towards Hwy 88.

Lost and Found while riding to Tahoe.

Went for a ride with some friends from FJRForum. We were to take the Old US 40 route to Lake Tahoe. Only Rich knew the complete route, along the way I made a wrong turn...that story below.

Lost sight of my FJR brethren. Found a great solo adventure.


At the meetup in Auburn. That Red FJR needed some company so along came a Red Beemer...

California's Pacific Coast and San Diego.

It was finally time for the first long adventure ride on my new to me FJR. With that in mind I set off on Wednesday April 28th, right after the big storm which rolled through Nor Cal on Tuesday, there were still trailing weather systems from the storm moving through the area, but the idea was to leave "rain or shine" and try to make the best of the conditions and push through those weather systems to drier conditions on the Central and South Coast of California.


Day 1: 

Just as I was preparing to leave, the moment I pulled the FJR out on the driveway, it started to sprinkle…

Wandering in California Gold Country.

Pictures from my weekend ride. The route is outlined in the links below.
It was such a glorious weekend, absolutely phenomenal riding weather both Saturday and Sunday.

I did about 200 miles on Saturday. Rode over Pardee Dam to Murphys from Folsom to have lunch and to pick up my friend who wanted to ride 2-up on the FJR. We did a small ride loop and I stayed the night in Murphys. My friend is camera shy and requested no pictures of her be posted on the internet.
We spotted a Black FJR this day in the afternoon, it was being tailed by 2 other bikes one of them looked like a Ninja 250, not sure if they were riding together, and I can't remember the name of the road either.


Saturday ride route to Murphys and beyond...


I did a fun 100 miles on Sunday. Rode to Volcano and Daffodil Hill along the way back home to Folsom. It was a good time to visit Daffodil Hill, as a week long storm is expected starting tomorrow and they fear there might get frost bitten as Winter weather is supposed to return to this region for about a  week starting tomorrow. This was the Feej's first time on Rams Horn Grade - she performed spectacularly!


I spotted a Blue '05 FJR on Latrobe Road this afternoon. Looked like Patrick (RsvlFeej) but we waved and passed each other in a flash - so not sure!


Sunday ride route from Murphys to Folsom.


On to the pictures....


Saturday Ride to Murphys
View slideshow here...


Sunday in Volcano
View slideshow here...


Sunday in Daffodil Hill
View slideshow here...


Sunday ride from Daffodil Hill through Fiddletown and home to Folsom
View slideshow here...

Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks.

Had been craving one last motorcycle touring trip in the Sierra Mountains before they get snowed in, I picked Sequoia National Park and Kings Canyon because I had never been there and Autumn is a great time to visit the Parks with most of the maddening swarms of people back to work or school.


Day 1: Oct 9th, 2009



Here is a pic of the bike all prepped and ready to go in the morning. I had rigged up the Garmin Nuvi 780 GPS to my bike (powered by a relay and mounted with a RAM handlebar mount) for this trip.
The GPS has a built-in MP3 player and voice guidance. I was able to import the routes and way points from MotoDan's paper maps into Mapsource and then into the GPS for turn by turn voice directions through the forest roads, the GPS actually interrupts your music to alert you of upcoming way points or turns and then starts playing again- sweet!!