Final Countdown to Alaska and the Yukon

It seems like it took forever but in fact, time has flown by and now we're down to the final countdown before embarking upon our adventure.  Today I packed up my cooler with snacks and a few easy to make meals for those days when we just don't feel like going to a restaurant.  I also packed a dry bag with a pair of tennis shoes stuffed with socks.  I think I'll be glad to have the tennis shoes when hiking around Dawson City, Denali and other places.  I also filled the dry bag with more goodies for snacking.  I decided to leave the wonderful salmon jerky at home because it is very aromatic and I have visions of grizzly bears making a beeline to my bike.

We plan on departing tomorrow afternoon and all I have left to do it pack up my laptop computer.  For reference, I'll be wearing my LD Comfort zip top and tights under my riding gear.  I'm only taking the one set and will simply give them a good wash when necessary.  For casual clothes, I packed a pair of black yoga pants, short sleeve T-shirt, cotton spaghetti strap shirt, denim shorts, a long sleeve denim shirt and a fleece jacket. Of course, I have undies, socks and a swimsuit.  I cleaned out and lightened up my toiletry bag and threw in a pair of flip flops.  That's it!

Everything fit nicely in my top case bag with room to spare.  Guess that means I can buy some souvenirs along the way :-)  Always resident on my bike is my heated jacket along with a bandanna or two, a cooling kerchief, and an LD Comfort headliner.

Ah, I did go through all the bags, panniers, tank bag, fuel cell bag, and all the nooks and crannies on the bike and thinned down my flashlight collection to a manageable level.  I don't know why but I have a flashlight fetish.  I love them!!!!  All sizes, shapes, colors.  I have a similar fetish for buckets but I don't plan on bringing any on this trip.  Oh wait, I do have that collapsible camping bucket....nah, not taking it!

Here are a few of my favorite flashlights.

The penlight style flashlight is killer!  I mean really, it will burn your eyeballs.  I love it!!!  It is definitely coming with me in the tank bag.

Then Eric got me this great light.  Nice heft and great light and not huge.

 You can zoom the light to a small square or back out to wide area.  It is also in my tank bag.

 This little light is fun simply because it has a compass on top.

 Safety matches with striker inside and the flashlight is pretty bright too.  I'm leaving this one at home, sigh.  I have a caribiner with a compass and a GPS.  I also have spare lighters and safety matches.  So, as much as this little light makes me giggle, it's staying home.

 This is just a small, easy to hold flashlight.  I left this one at home.  (Oh, I have a similar one tucked in a pocket on the fuel cell).

 And, I would never leave home without my D cell Maglight.  Eric tells me it can make a pretty good weapon and the light isn't half bad either.  It resides in my fuel cell bag, in the top pocket directly behind me.

I almost forgot, I always have this little light attached to my riding jacket.  It comes in handy at times.  It came with my Spot "Adventure" kit.  I use it as my jacket zipper pull.

We also prepared for mosquitoes and bugs.  As I mentioned in a previous blog, we sprayed our riding gear with bug stuff.  We are also carrying Coleman 100% Deet in individual pump spray bottles and a bunch of the OFF brand Deep Woods towelettes.

 I'll keep both of these products in my tank bag for easy reach and application as needed.

I'm really hoping that with so much bug protection we'll be overkill and the bugs won't be bad this year at all, LOL.  Regardless, I think we're prepared.  Along with all that bug stuff we also have these.

This cracks me up.  It's almost as good as my picture of Eric with a bucket on his head.  I love how he humors me.  And, I'm sure we'll be glad we brought them along.

I've selected my paper maps.

And have a file folder that fits in my pannier with our itinerary, copies of motel and ferry reservations, maps and an Iron Butt Magazine for those special photo ops.

I guess at this point if I didn't pack it, I either don't need it or can purchase it along the way.  I really made an effort to lighten up the load while covering as many contingencies as I could think.  All in all, I'm satisfied with what I'm taking.  Worst case, I'll be pulling out the credit card :-)

So, I'm counting down in hours now.  Tomorrow, I'll clean out the fridge and take my house plants to a neighbor so they don't die.  Before I know it, we'll be geared up and headed out.  I hope you'll watch my Spot and follow my blog.

Here is a link to my Spot page:   Cletha's Spot

My goal is to be in the top ten if not the number one place for Spotwalla for 2014.  Only you can help me get there!

The adventure is about to begin :-)

Cheers,

Cletha

Preparations for the Yukon/Alaskan Adventure

Preparations for our adventure have begun in earnest.  We are now on countdown, 10 days to lift off.  Maybe only 9, depends on our schedule next week.  Anyway, our departure is rapidly descending upon us and I want to be ready.

I purchased new Ladies Klim Altitude riding gear a month or so ago.  I can totally attest that it is rain proof (snow, sleet and hail proof, too!).  I washed my gear and Eric's so we can spray it with bug be gone stuff.  I think that will be nice when we get north where the skeeters are gigantic.

This is the goo we sprayed on our gear.  I hope it lives up to it's reputation :-)

Guess this is just as good a time as any to give a quick review of my new Klim Altitude riding gear.  First, it's not cheap.  No, it's incredibly expensive and I expect it to last a long, long time.  After years of asking, Klim finally stepped up and produced a Ladies line of adventure riding style gear.  I'm pretty darn happy with it.  Well, except for the color.  It's almost white with silver inserts and orange trim.  I like the orange trim but the almost white is a fail.  It gets filthy in quick time and doesn't wash clean.  I wish they had used the darker grey/silver for the main sections rather than the almost white.

The jacket is well built with lots of pockets.  Good zippers and lots of adjustability in the arms, waist, hips and neck.  I really wish they had put gussets on the sleeve cuffs.  I can barely get my summer, light weight gloves under the cuffs.  My heavy winter gloves with long gauntlets go over the cuffs and I don't know what to do with my mid-weight waterproof gloves.  I'd like to tuck them under the cuffs but that won't work so I guess I'll have to try and tuck the cuffs under the small gauntlet of the gloves.  More on this as I try it out.  Regardless, a gusset in the cuffs would be awesome.  Also, the pockets are NOT waterproof.  Listen up Klim :-)

I have no problem wearing my heated jacket liner under the Klim jacket.  I have plenty of room in the neck (unlike Leslie).  I like that the front zipper is a two way zipper.  When sitting on the bike, I like to unzip a few inches from the bottom especially when using my heated liner.  That way, the electric connection is easy peasy.  I hate the placement of the neck adjustment cord.  It is in the center back of the neck and my long hair catches on it all the time and it pulls...not good.  I wish they had put the adjustment cord on the side.

Here is a pic of the gear.  Underneath, I'm wearing LD Comfort zip top (pink) and tights (black) along with Drymax Socks and my new SIDI Adventure Rain boots.  This will be my everyday riding gear.  I'll complement the gear with the appropriate gloves (depending on weather) and heated liner when needed.  In this pic, I'm all zipped up and ready to ride (after putting on helmet).

 The jacket has some really nice features, one of which is the ability to open the collar and secure it with snaps so it doesn't flip or flap around when moving at speed.  I really like that.

The jacket also has great vents.  When the weather heated up, I opened all the vents and gee, it was awesome.  Lots of airflow to keep me cool.  Wish I could say the same about the pants but I cant.  The pants have a great fit and are extremely comfortable and move and stretch easy, however, they do not vent very well and in the heat that is a problem.  Also, the front pockets on the pants are a joke.  They are shallow and I can't see a use for them at all.  That was disappointing.  However, like I said, the pants fit very well and are super comfortable both walking around and in the riding position.  The knee armor fits well with no adjustment needed.

I'm wearing my Sidi Adventure Rain boots and I LOVE them.  They fit perfect from day one although they squeak something fierce.  I won't be able to sneak up on anyone!  I like that they are waterproof...yes, I've verified that many times.  And I really like the lug soles.  That gives me a lot of confidence on dirt, gravel or rough surfaces.  Yep, I love these boots.   I know, they are dirty!  Our last ride involved a muddy water crossing on a dirt road ;-)

I'll also be wearing my Schuberth C3W helmet that has J&M speakers installed.  I love my Schuberth.  It fits well and is lightweight.  It has a flip up front and a wonderful drop down sun visor.  When I first got the helmet, we did have to "spoon" a bit to get it to fit my dinky head but now it's perfect.  I need to adjust my Pinlock visor as it got wet and fogged up last time I used it.  But, I think we can sort out this issue and make everything golden.  When it gets cold or wet, I use the LD Comfort helmet liner and it keeps my head nice and warm.  That is definitely placed in the easy to reach spot on the bike!

I'll post another more detailed blog at a later date about the gear and how it performs for me.  I just wanted to give you an overview of my set-up.

Here is what I look like all geared up for a ride.

Besides my riding gear, I have new RUMBUX skid plate and crash bars.  And bonus, crash bar bags!!  Yippee.  These awesome bars will replace my current SW Motech bars.  The RUMBUX are much more beefy and protect higher up.  I'm happy to have this upgrade to my F650GS.

 This picture (above) shows the SW Motech bars already installed on my bike and my new RUMBUX bars and bar bags on the garage floor.

 Oh yeah, baby, that's what I'm talking about.  Oh yes, I'm a happy girl.

This picture is with the SWMotech bars.

And here are the RUMBUX bars.  See how much beefier they are?  And, they offer better all over protection.

Here is a picture of the RUMBUX skid plate.  I'm debating on putting the radiator guard on or not.

So, as of today, I have new Rumbux crash bars and skidplate.  New brake pads front and rear.  New air filter and oil change with new oil filter.  The chain looks good (but I have a spare in the pannier).  New Heidenau K60 Scout tire on the rear and a Shenko 705 on the front.  I hope to replace the front in a few days if the replacement Heidenau shows up.  The local dealer ruined my original front Heidenau when they attempted to mount it.  They assure me they have ordered a new one for me but it hasn't shown up.  Regardless, I have a good set of new tires ready for our trip.

Eric and I both have fuel cells that we will keep mounted on the bikes for this adventure.  That will add a small level of comfort or just take us longer to run out of gas!

I spent time today cleaning out my panniers and repacking everything.  I checked all the emergency lights and made sure I have spare batteries.  I eliminated my Frog Toggs because my Klim gear is waterproof and I won't need the additional rain gear.  I checked over my tire repair kits and need to get some fresh glue but other than that, I'm good with stickies, plugs, proper tools and compressor.

I have a few tools (especially chain repair and replace tools!), chain lube, a first aid kit, rain cover, miscellaneous zip ties, tapes, glues, fuses and stuff one should probably have in case of emergency.  Yup, emergency lights, flashlights, flares, and whatever along with plenty of spare batteries.  Bungy cords and a cargo net along with several plastic ziplock bags are also in the panniers as well as spare oil filter and fuel filter.  I've tucked in foot and hand warmers (never know it might get chilly), space blanket, mosquito wipes, ear plugs, hat and belly bag.  There's probably more stuff but this is the meat of it.

I forget to mention some things because they are just part of my bike like the Spot tracker, ZUMO GPS, CB Radio, and volt meter.  Heated grips and heat troller for my electric jacket.  I also carry a can of Plexus with several clean cloths for cleaning my faceshield, windscreen and lights.

I have a Wolfman tankbag that I need to re-arrange.  Then, I think all I need to do is pack a set or two of street clothes, some shoes, a swimsuit and my toiletries and I'll be ready.  Oh, I'll definitely pack my cooler (a/k/a portable bar) with snacks, sodas and juice.  I already have a hydration system on the bike so will keep that full of ice and water.

LOL, I totally forgot to give information on our bikes!!  Eric is riding his 2012 Yamaha Super Tenere.  He currently has about 74,000 plus miles on it.  He is using Heidenau K60 Scouts both front and back.  He has a beautiful, custom Ernie Azevedo flat fuel cell mounted over the pillion area, RUMBUX crash bars and skid plate and a number of other customized farkles.

I'll be riding my 2011 BMW F650GS with about 74,000 plus miles on it.  Hahaha, Eric jumped ahead of me on miles because my bike was out for a good part of the riding season two years ago getting the engine rebuilt!  My bike is loaded with after market products - simply too many to list.  But, I have made it incredibly comfortable for me to stay on for long periods in any weather.

Thanks for reading and soon we'll be on our way.  I will try to be a good blogger and entertain you daily with pictures and stories of our ride.

Cheers for now,
Cletha

Cletha & Eric's Yukon/Alaskan Adventure - Summer 2014 - Introduction

Barring any weirdness, Eric and I will be riding to Alaska and the Yukon this summer.  We actually began planning this trip for departure in 2012 but family matters squashed that.  Then Eric rode the Iron Butt Rally in 2013, so no Alaska.  Although our return from the IBR in 2013 was another epic adventure :-)  Finally, it looks like we'll actually be able to take our dream ride in a few weeks.

We'll be Visa or American Express camping in motels, hotels and cabins.  No tents for this old lady!  This introduction is to give you an overview of our planned trip and stops we intend to make.

"This is the law of the Yukon, and ever she makes it plain: Send not your foolish and feeble; send me your strong and your sane ----"

Robert Service, The Law of the Yukon

I don't know if we're particularly strong or sane, but Yukon, here we come!  Our general plan is to ride from our home in Ivins, UT to Boise, ID.  Depending on what day we depart, we will either slog up the interstate or take rural two laners.  I hope for the latter.  From Boise to Wenatchee, WA.  This part is subject to change depending on which route we take.  However, once out of the US our route is pretty much set in stone because of reservations already made.

From Wenatchee (or wherever) we'll ride to Prince George, BC and on to Hyder, AK.  I'm so looking forward to Hyder.  That is where Eric and I met face to face for the first time and, bonus, it will be on my birthday.  So, Hyder will be a special stop.  We'll be staying at Ripley Creek Inn - Crow's Landing, Room 466.  We'll visit Caroline and buy some of her fabulous fudge and we'll visit Johanna, a lady I met there who runs the Pizza place.  And of course we'll have a meal at The Bus.  Wonderful folks :-)  We might even get Hyderized (again)!

From Hyder its on to Watson Lake via the Cassiar Highway.  While at Watson Lake we will visit the sign post forest and place two signs.  One to memorialize our Yukon/Alaskan adventure.

And one to memorialize our love and admiration for our dear friend, Dread Pirate Kermit a/k/a Ken Morton.

From Watson Lake we'll ride on to Carmacks, YT for a night stay and then on to Dawson City for the Dust to Dawson ADV gathering.  It's NOT a rally, it's a gathering where we expect to find at least 175 like minded riders.  We'll spend two days there exploring and hanging with the ADV riders, playing games and staying up way too late.  I'm pretty sure I might kiss The Dick and Eric might even kiss The Dick at our ADV gathering!  Also, I'm excited to meet some internet friends at the gathering.

From Dawson, we will take the ferry across the Yukon River so we can ride the Top of the World Highway.  The Top of the World Highway is NOT PAVED.  I think we'll be riding about 100 miles to our destination that day of Tok, AK.  In preparation of this intimidating ride (at least intimidating to me) we've been riding local gravel and dirt roads.  I'm slow but heck, even if I go 10 mph I'll get to our destination in 10 hours and it will be at a time of the longest days of the year :-)  Hopefully, I can get my speed up a bit more than 10 mph.  I have new Heidenau K60 Scout tires front and back that should work well for the dirt and gravel.  Pray for dry and no rain :-)

From Tok, we'll head to Healy, AK (yeah, look it up) where we'll spend two days.  We plan on one full day exploring Denali N.P., so we'll take tourist clothes and change in the parking lot, catch the shuttle bus and see the sights.  Moose Pass, AK will be our next destination and then on to Soldotna for a two day stay.  We'll use Soldotna as our base to explore the Kenai Pennisula and visit a Facebook friend.  I'm soooo looking forward to meeting my friend of several years but no face to face.  It should be awesome :-)

After being tourists on the Penninsula, we'll head to Gakona, AK.  Next will be Haines Junction, Yukon followed by Whitehorse, Yukon.  We'll ride to Haines, AK (I know, it sounds crazy, but look at a map) and catch the ferry to Skagway, AK.  Only an hour or so ferry ride but I'm really excited about it.  We'll get to Whitehorse via the ferry and some highway.  Spend the night in Whitehorse and then back to Watson Lake!

From Watson Lake, we'll head east on the Alcan Highway to Fort Nelson, followed by Grande Prairie, AB with a destination of Jasper, AB.  On my last ride this direction I smacked Bambi who was pregnant with twins and ended my fabulous ride by totalling my GL1800 Goldwing.  So, my hope, dream and ideal ride will be to arrive in Jasper with an intact bike and a smile on my face :-)

From Jasper we'll head south back to the USA to Bonners Ferry, ID.  Then it'll be a ride home.  No plans, no reservations, just point home and figure out what way we want to get there.

Along the way, we'll be placing Big Tex Rally stickers at strategic locations.  Hyder and Watson Lake for sure and wherever we find an appropriate spot.  Future riders can have a lot of fun finding them!

So that's the plan in a nutshell.  I hope you'll follow us as we ride our dream ride.  I'll try to post on the blog daily but that will depend on internet connections and time allowed.  I'm pretty sure this ride will be one of the ages, one to remember for a lifetime.

My next post will be about ride preparations. I'll post pictures of the bikes ready for the ride as well as what I plan on packing (and how). As we embark upon our journey, I plan on blogging about our gear, what works and what doesn't and what was silly to pack and what I should have packed but didn't.  This will be a learning experience and I hope that you enjoy reading about our experience, lessons learned and maybe, things we did right :-)

A challenge to all who might read this...I want to be the most followed trip on Spotwalla this year.  So I'll post my Spotwalla link shortly before our departure and ask that you check it once in a while.

Cheers until my next post!
Cletha

Twisted Kern County

I was so excited to be going to the 2013 Discover Kern County (DKC) Rally.  I attended the inaugural rally in 2011 and also the 2012 rally.  Each one got better and better and I saw new and different things on each ride.  Kern County really has a lot to offer - don't let the freeway drive by fool you.  Kern County has a plethora of good, unique stuff to see.  And, ever changing scenery and terrain.  Yes, I was excited to get there for the 2013 rally.

The DKC Rally is a fund raiser for the Brain Aneurysm Foundation with all proceeds going to the charity.  Matt Pflug, our esteemed Rally Master puts on this wonderful event.  He spends countless hours scouting bonus locations and garnering sponsors.  This year was absolutely over the top fantastic!!!  But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Eric and I left our home in Southern Utah on Friday. We stopped a scant 30 miles from home to have some breakfast and try our luck at the slot machines and Blackjack table.  We didn't last long as Lady Luck really wasn't with us.  I hoped that wasn't to be the case at the rally :-)  Our route to Bakersfield, CA was not exciting.  It was a slog down I-15, turn west on California Hiway 58 and roll on into Bakersfield.  Fortunately, the weather was kind and the traffic not too bad.  We arrived at the Howard Johnson Motel around 5pm and met up with several other rally riders who were also staying there.

Well, I really wanted my cocktail (hey, it was cocktail hour after all!) and the pre-rally dinner was about a mile away.  We NEVER EVER EVER drink and ride so I had the foresight to call a cab.  Several of us hung outside the motel and had our beverages waiting for the cab.  Six of us piled into a cab and made our way to the restaurant.  Bonus....riders were treated to a hosted dinner the evening before the rally.  This gave all of us a chance to meet each other and renew old friendships.  We had a wonderful time.  After dinner it was another cab ride back to the motel and off to bed.  After all, we had a big day ahead of us.

Saturday morning came way too soon and into our gear and onto the bikes, we headed to the Rocket Shop Cafe for the rider's meeting before the rally start.  We got checked in, filled out and signed the release forms and waited for the rally packs to be distributed.  Promptly at 7 am, the rally packs were handed out.  I was rider number 5 and Eric was rider number 6.

I quickly scanned the rally pack, got the gist of the types of bonus locations and points and then took a good, hard, long look at the map that Matt provided with all the bonus locations identified.  Well, looking at that map I decided to hone in on the area with the most bang for the buck and quickly wrote down the bonus numbers in the order I thought I should go.  This gave me a nice loop to ride in an area I hadn't been before.  A whole new area of Kern County!

I wasn't concerned about "winning" the rally.  I just wanted to have a great ride, find new stuff and go on unfamiliar roads.  Yes, I did want to be a finisher and that was always on my mind.  So, I go back to my seat and discuss my proposed route with Eric.  He was good with what I wanted to do.  We were going to ride together and have a fun time.  Whoopee!!  To be a finisher, you had to ride a minimum of 200 miles in 8 hours. Pay attention, this will be important later :-)

We had plenty of time to get ourselves prepared and ride ready since I didn't really plan anything but a fun ride.  8 am was the start.  We were number 2 and 3 out the gate and headed to our first bonus, the Mill Creek Water Wheel in Bakersfield.   Only worth 4 points but an easy grab on our way out of the city.

Eric's camera takes such better pictures than mine!  So, I'll post both or just his, since we went to the same places :-)

From there we headed to another Water Wheel bonus, the Hart Park Water Wheel.  Easy peasy since we had been to this park last year on the rally.

Interesting, huh?  Same place, totally different photos.  The most unusual thing about this bonus was the feral cats.  There must have been at least 30 cats here.  Someone had placed wet and dry food and water outside the fence for the cats.  My goodness, they were everywhere.  However, because of the good samaritans, the cats looked fat, sleek and healthy.  Just kind of weird.  I should have taken a pic but didn't think to do so.

This ended our city bonus hunting and we headed off into the wilderness of Kern County.  A lovely ride that took us through a few oil fields and then into the golden hills with twisting, winding roads studded with fantastic rock formations with the sun shining down on us....oh bliss...this was wonderful.  Big sweeping curves, a decent speed limit and gold everywhere.  We ended up riding down a dead end road to End of Pine Mountain Road looking for a number on the gate at the end.  Here is what we found.

Yup, the answer was Number 11.  Got it :-)  We met up with a trio of other riders here that we had been leap-frogging with, Andy Mackey, Don Beaton and Jim Lerer.  Some awesome riders.  I figured if we're on the same route as these Big Dogs, then I must have selected a good route, hahahha!

Next bonus was the Granite School House.  That was a quick ride and easy photo.

On to the next bonus, a fun sign along the road of Poso Height...as we made our way there, the roads just got twistier and twistier with golds and browns and bright blue sky.  No traffic to speak of and fun, fun, fun!  We found the next bonus with no issues.  The bonus required answers to the questions of the population (a "few") and elevation (2,950) of Poso Heights.  Easy :-)

We then moved on toward the next bonus location.  Still riding remote country roads with golden fall colors and no traffic.  Yep, I loved this ride :-)  Poso Heights also has a school house no longer in use - our next bonus location.

Dang, you can see how much better Eric's camera and his picture taking ability is than mine.  Oh well....funny thing at this stop.  I pulled in across the street where there was a large parking, turn around area with two ranchers shooting the bull.  They looked at me and then I u-turned and u-turned again and ended back in the same parking area to take my pic.  Hahaha, bet they were wondering what the heck is going on here????  Anyway, bonus captured and off to the next.

Moving along, riding another wonderful twisty, turny, golden road, we came upon Glennville, CA and the Saddle Sore Saloon.  We pulled up and got out our flags to take the requisite pictures.  While we were there a local Sheriff pulled up.  We had already taken the pics and were putting stuff away, stuffing earplugs in and getting ready to roll, when the friendly Sheriff wanted to chat.  Apparently, he is an enthusiast and rides some foreign bike, oh yeah, a Moto Guzzi :-)  He wanted to know all about our farkles and so on.  I finally told him what we were doing and we need to move on and he was most gracious.  Cudos to Kern County Sheriffs!!!  Here is the bonus...

Moving along on the same beautiful road our next bonus was the Fulton Hot Shots Sign in remembrance of the 19 Firefighters killed in Arizona this year.  This was an easy score.

At this point we were riding California Hiway 155 which is a flippin fantastic ride.  Twist, turn, twist, turn and do it all over again.  The fall colors were magnificent.  It was so cool to watch Eric in front of me parting the path of fall leaves on the highway.  The sky was blue, blue, blue and the trees were golden and green.  The twisties were tight and all was good.  I actually scraped my right peg and toes on one turn.  Yippee!!!!  So wonderful, this kind of ride is what it's all about.

On to the next bonus, we rode over the mountain to Wofford Heights to cop the Antique Store bonus.  We had to answer a question - What happened here?  The answer was "Absolutely Nothing!".  Here are some fun pics of the bonus location.  We also ran into a half dozen other rally riders here.

 This was a very fun stop at a place full of crazy silliness.  My kind of fun :-)

From here we rode around Lake Isabella (sad that so much water is gone and it's not much more than a pond.)  However, the ride around the lake was awesome!  We stopped for a not so quick lunch at Mickey D's and then off to the next bonus.

A quick scoot along Lake Isabella brought us to our next bonus, a land locked boat for sale.

Backtracking (my bad) we then headed to the next bonus.  Up a goat trail of a road.  I seriously thought this might be an out and back because the road was a tiny, twisty no line road up, up, up, up, up the mountain.  More twists and turns and very SLOW!  I was worried about the slow but that's where the bonus was.  We got up to the top and over to the next side.  Seriously?  Surely this was a sucker bonus?  Nope, there it was.  Our next bonus,  Momma Bigfoot & Babies.  Well, we slowed waaayyyyy down to like nothing and couldn't find this bonus.  We were on top of a mountain with nothing around but a few worn out ranches.  We couldn't find it!!!!  We continued down the mountain of more twisties and curves and turns and finally reached a flat area where we parked and discussed this bonus.

Eric turned around and went back UP the mountain to see if he could find it.  I waited, and waited and waited.  No love.  He came back and said he couldn't find it.  Oh well, on to the next bonus.  Turns out that everyone who went for this one couldn't find it.  We all determined that the ranch had been put up for sale and apparently the old owners had taken the Sasquatch and babies away....darn.

Moving on, we were still on this wonderful twisty, colorful, rural road taking us to the next bonus, the Havilah School House.

Bonus grabbed and off to the next one!  Man oh man, this was a fantastic road full of fall colors, twists, turns, rural scenes and blue sky.  The temps were perfect and I was having a ride of a lifetime.  People pay big money to have this experience and we were doing it on a rally :-)  Good stuff.  So, moving on...our next bonus was the Stutz Fire Engine and Hydrant bonus.  Easy peasy - well butt for the gravel and not so nice exit with ruts and grunk and stuff that I HATE!

 At this point, we are still high up in the mountains with lots of slow, twisty roads ahead of us.  We were more than halfway through the rally and I was looking for an exit in case time got short.  Well, we were in the mountains and there were no exits!  So,off to the next bonus :-)

We enjoyed our ride, nothing but rural Kern County with lots of golden fields, awesome rock formations, fall leaves and blue sky.  We headed to the Smiley Face Tank and found it quick enough.

I should have taken a pic but didn't.  Stopping here, a rancher, covered with paint (he'd obviously been painting something!), came up to the gate to ask how our Scavenger Hunt was going.  I'm guessing he had encountered a few other riders that day :-)  We had a nice chat and really enjoyed talking with him.  He made a point of saying how much he enjoyed our stopping by and not making a ton of noise like some of the other bikers do (not pointing fingers or anything here).  It was a good stop and photo op.

Okay, on to the next bonus.  The roads were perfect, traffic pretty much none and we were having a grand time in the twists and turns.  Yes, our route was slow due to the twisty roads but man oh man it was beautiful!  Picture fall leaves in the road on a nice twisty road.  The rider in front parts the leaves as they fly up and away and all is golden with shadows here and there.  Oh my, it was hard to concentrate on the ride with all the beauty of fall in front of me!

Butt, concentrate I must because these roads were twisty, turny and tight!  From our last bonus, we moved on to the Twin Oaks General Store.  Where we had to answer the question, "What Happened Here?"

From here we were directed onto the Caliente Canyon Road.  I should have realized from all the cow patties on the road that there might be cows.  Oh, yes!!! Lots and lots and lots of cows on both sides of a very, very narrow, twisty, winding canyon road that follows a river.  Although a fantastic road it was extremely slow both because of the turns and twists but even more so for all the cattle.  It was a beautiful time suck!

At this point I was starting to worry about getting back to the finish on time.  There was no grace or penalty window.  If you arrived after 4 pm, you didn't finish, period!  We finally got to the end of the cow road and made our way to Railroad Tunnel #2 where we encountered a few more rally riders.  The bonus asked the question, "How long is Tunnel #2?"  Answer 219 feet.

We then picked up the Caliente Historical Marker where we had to answer what year the Southern Pacific Railroad established construction headquarters in Caliente.  Answer 1875.

We were now pushing our envelope to get back to the finish on time.  We aimed toward California Hiway 58 and booked on toward The Chalet Basque Restaurant in Bakersfield which was the finish location.  We had to pass up our final two bonus locations as time was just too short.  Oh well.....that was 42 points we didn't get.

Oh, remember, we also had to have a minimum of 200 miles to be considered a finisher.  As we got within a mile or so of the finish location, I realized I needed a few more miles.  Hahaha, slog up and down the freeway a few miles in each direction and then we headed to the barn.

My Kern County ride was indeed TWISTED!!!  I finished with 7 minutes to spare and had 201 miles on the odometer!  Our final score was 579 and we placed 14th.  Had we scored the last two bonus locations we would have only moved up one spot.  I have to laugh at how few miles we rode and we did ride all day but for a lunch break.  Well, I choose a route that was all tight, twisty, meandering, mountain roads and it was a blast!  We saw yet another part of Kern county that we hadn't explored before and once again we were amazed at all the cool, wonderful stuff we saw.  Our efficiency was 2.88 points per mile and the winner, Erik Lipps rode 3.39 points per mile.

Matt Pflug put together a fantastic rally with many, many choices of places to go.  His bonus locations were creative and fun and everything was straight forward.  No riddles or games, just ride and grab the bonus photo or answer the question.  Scoring was quick and easy.  We self scored with the top five being audited.  Everything went smoothly and all riders were safe and accounted for.

The finish dinner was awesome.  A Basque meal served family style that we all enjoyed.  Following our meal, it was raffle time.  Many of us bought raffle tickets for some really cool prizes.  Although I didn't win anything I had a lot of fun checking my ticket numbers and cheering for those who did win.  After the raffle was an auction and I was lucky enough to be high bidder for a new waterproof Nikon Cool Pix camera!  Yippee.  All proceeds from the raffle and auctions were donated to the charity.

Finally it was time to call the winners - Erik Lipps in first, Jerry White in second and Ted Bosch and his wife LeThanh were third.  This was Ted and LeThanh's first rally together and they rocked it!  Jerry White rode a great rally and was only three points away from the win!  Erik is having a fantastic year winning and placing on the podium on several rallies.

The Discover Kern County Rally is just a whole lot of good, silly fun.  This year we had at least half a dozen or more newbies along with half a dozen Iron Butt Rally vets.  The DKC Rally has something for everyone and it packs a lot of fun into 8 hours!

A great, big THANK YOU to Matt Pflug, his lovely bride Andrea, Wendy Crockett and all the volunteers and sponsors for putting on such a high quality event.

Click here for photos taken by Matt of the pre-rally dinner and start.  http://www.discoverkerncounty200.com/2013-Pictures_1.html

And click here for finish banquet and award photos provided by Matt.
http://www.discoverkerncounty200.com/2013-Pictures_2.html

You might want to put the DKC Rally on your calendar for 2014.  It's sure to have something for everyone and lots of fun for all!

Cheers,
Cletha