Once we returned, Danno was all set up and we settled in for the evening with some brew and excellent steaks. This was pretty much how the week progressed: get up, make coffee, ride 100+ miles per day, get back, hit the rain locker, eat, drink, be merry. As the week progressed, others also joined the team and helped out in their various ways like Jim & Sharon Loveall, Dave Hooker, Dave & Jan Olsen, and Mike Moore. This is the part of the event that Dan and I have the most fun at – the pre-event setup, because once the event happens, it’s stress time. Turns out there was more stress this year than ever before! It was also hotter than a two-dollar pistol all week and we were melting, and one morning even had a bodacious display of thunder and lightning (see reference to forest fire below).
The kind folks at IMWA (the American distributors of Ural) sent a demo rig down with Dave Hooker for me to ride and use for the event. Throughout the week and during the event itself, this 2-wheel drive, sidecar machine turned a lot of heads and opened up the eyes and minds of many two wheelers! On Thursday morning, Danno and I took the Ural to Hood River to pick up some things, plus meet with the Hood River County Forestry guys, Brent and Henry. After confirming some last-minute routes, they had to step outside to check out the Ural too. They loved it! Then coming back to the Fairgrounds a local sheriff gave us a THUMBS UP! When was the last time you had that on your two wheeler? Sidecars rock and everyone had to fly the hack! I may have sold another five for them.
In the evenings we chilled with good food, good friends and Danno and I even pulled out our Yamaha DT50 2-strokes for some follow-the-leader fun!
Friday night came and the Fairgrounds were filling up fast. Around dusk is when I received a phone call from the USFS Ranger, Jim Thornton. “Tom, we have a lightning fire. I really need you to change your course on Saturday’s route.” Hmmm… How was I going to do this, since there was no time to actually go ride the reroute? Clearly the only choice I had was to gleam over the different reroute options by way of the GPS software. The best option was to do a change from the lunch stop in Tygh Valley to the next, existing reset in the burg of Friend, OR. So I came up with the simplest route between those two points and added it in, after striking out the original route. Too bad, as the original route was a super two track through the mountains. Just before dusk we had rollcharts available for the Friday night-time ride, which directed the riders up to Cloud Cap and back, consisting of about 47 miles. A number of riders got back late that evening, but it sounds like they enjoyed the loop.
Saturday morning came bright and early at 5:30AM with one of my favorite signup people, Danno’s girlyfriend Dawn, walking around getting things set up. Vernon Wade’s brother, Andy, was also getting coffee, donuts and freshly-made cinnamon rolls ready for the riders to purchase. Andy and his family would be around all weekend during the mornings and afternoons to offer goods to the riders. The riders started lining up in the main building and we were cranking them through. As always, the first 50 riders get a t-shirt, plus we also had a neat trinket for everyone: a small key-fob flashlight with our website address.
At the rider’s meeting, I went over the usual items like safety, courtesy, riding respectfully around other users, etc. I also explained the reroute changes requested by the USFS and that I knew it would be vague and unconfirmed, so to consider that section as an adventure!
All riders went through the start check, which measured their decibel limit where they would get penalized for points if the exhaust was above 94db, or rewarded with points if it was below. After that they wound over Middle Mountain, made their way to Cloud Cap, then down to the first checkpoint where Dale Johnsen was doing some games. From there they rolled up Hwy 35 to Road 44 and up around to the famous and scenic Gumjuac Ridge Road. After going by Badger Lake, the course wound down by Rock Creek Reservoir and funneled to the Tygh Valley Store for checkpoint #2 and some tasty lunch and gas. I hear the population of Tygh Valley doubled that day! Josh Hatcher and his girlfriend Naomi were challenging the riders to a game of putt-putt golf. As the riders made their way down to the store, the massive forest fire was clearly visible to the north.
After lunch was the fictional reroute and of course the adventure really began. Fortunately I had inserted the GPS locations of the resets, so the riders with GPS had an easy time getting to the next reset, but some riders had considerably more of a challenge getting to the next reset in Friend, even though they all had maps too. Fortunately people in Friend are friendly (pun intended) and the locals directed groups of 20 at a time to the proper intersection, where the riders were back on the original rollchart route.
The course then went back into the national forest lands via two track and gravel and worked its way back to Road 44 and checkpoint #3 where Randy Beadle and Phil Vanderlende were manning the game of ‘throw the snowmobile belt’ for points. From here there was a B/C split where the B riders rode around the Dog Creek Aqueduct which was peppered with some fun waterbars. The two routes condensed onto each other again afterwards and wound around some roads on Gibson Prairie, then split again for one last B/C split, where the B riders had a chance to work up a sweat one last time riding up to the summit of the stunning viewpoint atop Bald Butte. From there the courses merged together again and descended down to Hwy 35 again and to the finish for a total of about 160 miles.
Towards the end of the day we handed out a few trophies and prizes to the Saturday-only riders and then a tasty Mexican dinner was served for everyone. After that it was time to relax, visit with old friends and let the benchracing and lying begin!
Sunday morning began again at 5:30AM with Andy Wade filling up his massive coffee points for everyone. Signup commenced again and again another rider’s meeting with details of the day’s ride. Key points from the meeting was telling the riders about crossing the grated Toll Bridge (scary for most!) to the Washington side, the danger locations, and the trails. Due to SDS Lumber not wanting us to use some of their dirt roads, the course did a pavement stint south of Willard, then turned into the back roads and dove into a brushy two track, complete with a bog to change things up. After a few miles of this, it opened up, then came to a creek crossing and mounds of dirt to clamber over. The rumor mill says that one rider endo’d over the bars at the creek crossing, but nobody’s ‘fessing up just yet! The course then shot to the thriving metro of Willard to checkpoint #1 where Jim Dukes and Phil Vanderlende had a game of points for the riders.
Then another segment of pavement to more rough two track up to the summit of a group of mountains, which then dropped down into the valley again into a gnarly two track we titled “Supercross Rocks”. It had its share of jumps, with boulders to land on, but fun nonetheless.
After that was the road into checkpoint #2 complete with gas and another tasty lunch stop also. After a relaxing lunch, it was time to take off again and, just a few miles up the road, the riders came to the Service Trail. This trail was a blast when we were laying the course out, but it turned to silt during the event, and made things even more interesting. The riders rode this trail for about eight miles, then caught more gravel/two-track roads heading back up into the mountains and descended into a valley again with two particular road washouts to traverse. I talked about this section at the rider’s meeting, plus listed it as dangerous twice on the rollcharts, but sure enough, people were augering countless times through here it seems. Even the hotshot guys on the blue Ural did lipskids through here!
Then it was across the mountains to checkpoint #3 with Jim and Phil again, up a very cool road that circled around to Nestor Peak for a killer view of all the peaks. From there it was an easy gravel road down to White Salmon, cross the Toll Bridge again and cruise to the finish to the tune of a total of around 130 miles for the day.
At the finish Dale had a great slow-race for points that incorporated crossing a board and then getting sprayed with a garden hose for distraction. Big fun! The sidecars got lucky and only had to be blindfolded!
At the festivities that evening, the sponsors were thanked, trophies and prizes handed out (Saturday only, then both days) and of course the $300 cash prize awarded to an anonymous two-day entry. However there was also an additional $100 donated by our friends at Dauntless Motors to make it a whopping $400!
We would like to thank a LOT of really great people for helping make this event happen, namely (in no particular order) Dan Hatcher, Dawn Wayne, Josh Hatcher & Naomi, Jim and Sharon Loveall, Gary Anderson, Dale Johnsen, Dave Hooker & Spot the Wonder Dog, Mike Moore, Jim Dukes, Phil Vanderlende, Steffano Pellerano, Dave & Jan Olsen, Vernon & Amy Wade, Frank Noe, Walt Koch, Beaverton Honda-Yamaha-Suzuki, Ural & IMWA, Adventure Sidecar, Rick Higgins & Joe, Andy Wade & Family, Ellen Rhodes, Dale & Warren Juenemann, Joe Fuller, Brad Stevens, Randy Beadle & Carrie, Hood River County (Brent Gleason, Henry Buckalew, Clara Rice), USFS (Glenda Woodcock, Jim Thornton, Rod Ludvigsen, Tom Savage), Clarke Plastics, Moose Racing, PBI Sprockets, Baja Designs, Affordable Trophies, and Dauntless Motors. IMWA’s loaning of their 2WD Ural sidecar machine was extremely handy, as it made for a great machine for running errands and generally stealing the spotlight!
Oddly enough, there were a lot of injuries this year, in fact more than all the previous years combined. We can only surmise that it was due to the heat and dust. There were three concussions, two broken collarbones, one broken set of ribs with a punctured lung, two bruised feet, one heat stroke, and one broken leg. Not quite sure what the cause was for the carnage, but the nice people from Ural/IMWA & Adventure Sidecar were absolutely integral to the follow up and success of getting these injured riders to ambulances in a safe and timely manor. We all hope these riders heal quickly and are back on two feet soon!
After the event, again half the riders thought it was too difficult, while the other half thought it was too easy - always so difficult to please everyone!
We just hope everyone had a great time, enjoyed the event and will come back and play with us again next year! 
FYI, the complete set of my pictures can be seen here:
http://tawmn.smugmug.com/gallery/3162019
-Tom
Methinks there should be an annual tradition of something like this, hehe, kinda like Christmas fruitcake! 
Forgot to post the GPS maps, so here's the respective Saturday and Sunday original routes...
