RenoJohn
2010 Utah 1088  Ride Report

 2

Slow Ride Bonus

Jeeze, after blowing this bonus three years ago I promised myself never again.

....but here I was, back for more punshment

The best part was watching Nasty Newt do the bonus on his GoldWing trike!!   LOL, awesome.
I'm too embarrased/ashamed to post whether I earned the points for this bonus.
But let me tell you, it's tougher than it looks!  -and one attempt was enough for me ...I moved on.
 


 The first bonus for many of us:   Bavarian Motorcycle Workshop.
Ron and his crew are big supporters of the Utah 1088 and have a great shop in SLC.  When in the area but sure to support these guys.
 


 Then up to Antelope Island for this bonus.
A complimentary bonus was possible for those who went into the park and took a picture of  LIVE buffalo.  I did not do this, but at least a few folks did!!
 

 ....I then headed north, making my way to hwy89, then 91 and north through Logan and up to Preston.  I had never been on this stretch of road and doing so was a real treat.

North of Preston:


Bear River Massacre Bonus
....BTW:  A GPS bonus -and you can see the exact coordinates should you want to treat yourself to this exact spot here on planet earth..
 


While at the Bear Creek Massacre Bonus ...
"Larry" rides up.  I've never had the pleasure to chat with Larry so this was a real treat.  Larry rides a good-lookin' bright red GS1150 .  Larry and I shared some nice conversation, truly a wonderful meet-up and Ken Morton could surely learn some polite rally etiquette from Larry. :-)

It was obvious that Larry and I had the same first leg theme in mind ...but we would be taking different routes to the checkpoint.


Uhhhhh,
How do you get there from here?

There were too nice-sized bonuses up near the mandatory checkpoint.   If one went straight to the north (vs the base route through Wendover) there would be time to do both of these before going to the checkpoint.   You'd miss the small bonuses in Wendover etc, but the upside was better.  This would give decent points and more importantly a clean slate to start the 2nd leg.

I wasn't sure which of the two to aim for first, but it seemed that the Bear River Massacre was the best choice ..followed by the Gold Spike bonus.

Problem:  How do you get from Bear River to Golden Spike?  And how long would it take??

Actually there are a lot of ways, probably a million ways.  By luck I let my GPS take me on a wonderful little adventure that was truly a highlight of the rally.

West of Preston, but East of I-15 is a mountain range and I ended up on a little goat-trail road...... 
+++This was NOT part of the base route, instead my own home-brew way to get from Bear Creek to Golden Spike

It started out paved -and got narrower and narrower as it climbed up into the hills.   The sites were spectacluar:

A couple of times I said to myself:
"I can't believe this road is paved"
 

Uhh, well about the 3rd time I said that, the pavement ended:

Some great views here at the summit ....


And very easy dirt road on the west side of the summit.   the first dirt road for the new Battle Born bike and the bike was loving it!
 


The scenery was stunning 


And the pickup truck ahead was the only vehicle I saw on the whole adventure -including the paved section.  I had this whole corner of planet earth to myself.
 

Back down nearing the valley and I-15 ..things flatten out.   Man, that was some great fun and a wonderful excursion!!

Golden Spike Bonus:


Obligatory pic to secure the points of this important bonus

Hey!  it's Matt again ..Matt and I had seen each other a couple of times this morning --as we came in and out of various bonuses




So, no surprise we both cruised up to the Rocket Garden Bonus ...


As I secured my picture .....
......Uhhh, It was obvious that someone was in the mood to dick-around   ...Uhh, and you don't have to ask RenoJohn twice when it comes to dickin' around.




Not far from the checkpoint, and plenty of time, Matt and I both knew we were in no rush  ...............

And Matt asked me to take this picture of him..............


Mommy, Mommy, ...can you hear me now?
So, in the midst of juvenile silliness:  Matt pulls out his phone and calls his mommy 
Personally, I think when a grown man takes time in the midst of a rally to call his mama,  -that speaks volumes to his character and is the best of fun.  Nice job Matt.

But what most people don't know:
Matt's mom and RenoJohn have a multi-year history of Pen-Pal fun --lots of emails during the last to IBR's as we'd follow Matt with interest.
Finally, after years of PenPal fun ...we met in person at the  IBR finish in 
Spokane(clicky)
At the time I wondered if it was poor form to say your buddy's mom is "Hot"  I still wonder if it's poor form.

Being easily jealous'ed,  while Matt was talking his mama, I pulled out my blackberry and sent this fat-thumbed note to Matt's mom.    LOL

And a while later I got this reply from Matt's mom:

So, as you can see, the Utah1088 is very much a family-friendly event.

But .....if the above didn't convince you of the Utah1088 being famiy fun:

Hoka Hey Route Is Family Fun!!!

How about a father and daughter team doing the funnerest alternate route available!!!

   Yep,  Mike Johnson and his daughter Taralynn successfully ran the Alternate Hoka Hey Route ....Congrat's to both of you!!!

There were multiple alternate routes available to riders, all with interesting themes, but if you read this one I think you'll agree that there is no excuse to not have fun at the Utah 1088

Even after rocketman fun, there was PLENTY of time to get to the checkpoint -just a short slab ride up I-84

When we exited at the checkpoint Matt hit is left blinker.   Doh!!   I knew instantly that he was hitting a tiny bonus that I had not put in my GPS but rather had made manual note of on one of my indes cards  -and I had honestly forgot about this bonus.
I could have just followed Matt to the bonus and got a few points ...but poaching bonuses like that is bad form and bad karma so I headed directly to the checkpoint.   Stupid mistakes like that are costly and separate the field..


Rocketman and I leave the rocket garden and head north toward the checkpoint.




Many of us were early to the checkpoint.....
Crucial for everyone to make this checkpoint, -many of us had headed directly north and had plenty of time to spare ..and even many of the base route riders had got here well before the checkpoint opened.  It was like a riders' reunion just 5hours into the rally.

Dave M  --LD legend and good guy.
When the CP officially opened, Dave would stamp the rallypacks of the many eager riders who had been (patiently?) waiting.
It's a real  treat to see Dave and wonderful for him to give so much of his time and fun.
---->Earlier Dave and I had witnessed the many bugs on my windshield  ..and we speculated how many miles one would have to ride to kill every bug on planet earth with your motobike.  We don't have the exact answer, but we're pretty sure it would take a shitload of miles.
Thanks for your contributions and fun Dave!
 

And then riders left the checkpoint in clusters ....


One of these clusters consisted of David Varley,  Ken Meese, Matt Watkins and myself
 


Here Ken and Matt .......this would be the start of an epic battle between these two on this day.
 


David Varley and myself hangin' out and acting cool with the big dogs.
 


 


Matt was beating his saddlebag like jockey in the Kentucky Derby.  Silly Fun


 

There were many possible route scenerios and I had about three plans to choose from ......
One consisted of Las Vegas.   It was hard to rule this out as (best as I could tell) One would have to work pretty hard on National Park bonus to get more points ....and I didn't know if it was worth the effort.  It was a teaser - a thousand points less and it would not have been appealing, a thousand points more and it would have looked REALLY good.

I knew Vegas wasn't going to be a winning route, but I thought I could make it fun.   And, it wasn't a blistering hot day to begin with ...and I could time vegas for a night time stop to avoid the heat.

After thought and running various scenerious through the GPS while slabbing south on I-84,
I eventually decided to hit Great Basin, Las Vegas and work in a bonus west of Cedar City.
Not exciting but easy and should give enough points to not embarrass myself. 

What a beautiful day to be riding MotoBike
....and it felt as if I had all of planet earth to myself

Here westbound on hwy50 west of Delta:


Nice roads, no people, good weather --what could be better?
 


 
 
 


 
 


As far as the eye could see, and 33miles past that .....not a soul
 


.....Truly amazing
 


Bad form to show one's pace ---so I blocked out my speedometer in this pic.

Hello Nevada:


Not a bonus, but one should always stop and give a moment of appreciation when entering the Battle Born State.
Here the Border Inn at the state line.


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