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A rookie’s first rally The 2002 Thin Air Tourist Trophy First off, a great big thanks to the organizers of the Thin Air Tourist Trophy (hereinafter referred to as TATT because I’m way too lazy to write that all out.), Bob, Bill, Brian, Frank, Becky and everyone else with the Thin Air Heads. Hell of a job and a whole lot of fun. Take a bow; you’ve earned it and I’m definitely coming back. Prelude: I’ve done a couple IBA rides, but I’ve never done a rally and I’ve been wanting to do a Long Distance competitive rally for a while now. Just when I get all worked up to do one, bang, my job disappears last summer. And as you all know, the job market is LTO currently and it’s been ugly. But then I found out that this year’s TATT was being held about 2 miles from my house. Well, you can’t do any better than that. No hotel room charges, and I know how to get to the rally point. So, I said WTF and sent in my money. So, last Friday (July 26th) rolls around and I get all my stuff together for tech and get the bike all LD ride ready and off I go for that long 2.5 mile ride to the hotel. I get over there and there is tech, sign in, etc. I get teched and go off for my odometer check. I came out over the amount which I thought was pretty strange, but then I realize it’s probably from going right lane to left lane to right lane to get around all the slow people going up and down I-70. You know, if I wanted to do the speed limit I’d be in the slow lane. :-) We sit around and BS with all these new people, I finally get to put faces to email addresses. I see Sam Liles, and then George Barnes roll in, some very cool equipped bikes. One nut on a ZX12. :-) and at least one really rally tricked out K11LT. Lot of BMWs here, some Gold Wings, lot of Concours, pretty good mix. No KTM’s though. Then we go off to the meeting where they explain all and hand out the base route but no clues. The first day’s base route goes basically up coal creek canyon (72) , across Peak to peak, down 34 through Loveland, into Ft Collins, up 287, across snowy range through Battle Pass, down into Craig, back US 40 over Berthoud and home. The 2nd day goes down the Deckers road (67?) through Canon City, Florence, down 165 through Colorado City and then basically up I-25. I’m thinking on this as I head home.
I decide there is no way I’m doing Peak to Peak (PTP), that it’s just
not worth the aggravation. My only goal for my first rally is to finish and have a good
time. Do not DNF, do not miss a
checkpoint, etc. and well to finish I
don't need to do PTP so I'm not going to if I can avoid it. So, 4:10am comes awful early. Even the roosters aren’t up.
I come into the meeting room at about 4:40 (I was late, it was hard to
wake up). There is only one rider
pack left there. Mine.
Everyone else must have been waiting for them to be handed out.
You couldn’t leave til 5:30am anyway, so I didn’t think 10 minutes
would matter. Shows you what
a rookie knows. :-) I start going through the pack, and luckily the questions
are basically in order of where you are going, plus there are extra bonuses.
Pictures of a mine with a sign containing the word “mine” are worth
50 points. Pictures of Continental
Divide passes are worth like 100 for the 1st 4 passes, 150 for the
next 2 or 3, then 200 for any after that (progressive bonuses).
And pictures for buildings/places with a sign containing the word
“fort” are also a progressive bonus. (100/150/200)
to honor Col. Jim Young. Regular
clues are worth from about 25 to 120 or so points, so these wild cards could
really add up, especially the progressive ones.
And there are 5 cities that are not on the base route that if you go to
are worth from about 70 to 130 points, but the cities are pretty out of the way.
The checkpoint is in Encampment, Wyoming and it’s open from 11am to
1:30pm, miss the checkpoint and lose half your points for the day.
You have to be in by 8:30pm, or points start being deducted up til 9:30pm
at which time you are time barred. I make out my plan, decide that it is doable, and I should have fun and there are loops in it that I can cut out if I get behind. I decide it’s a good plan and I’m going to stick with my plan. Do or die and all that. I have no idea how well it’s going to do, but I’m going to finish and have fun. I go off, I’m the very first one out.
More being ready than anything else and
it's 5:30am. First clue is
one about a number on the Coors’ brewery.
I know where that is. For
each clue, you have to provide not only the exact answer, but your odometer and
the time, so they can recreate your route, so you can’t cheat.
For each picture (Polaroid) you have to get your rally number (a heavy
stock piece of pink paper with your number on it, handed out in the morning) in
the picture, plus whatever you are supposed to take a picture of, plus mileage,
plus the time. As I turn onto 19th
street I realize “oh, Colorado School of Mines is right here”
duh. Free 50 points.
I see the sign, stop, and hook up my sign.
As I’m taking the picture I see 3 bikes go flying by down 19th.
About 30 seconds later I see them all coming back after flipping a U as
they realize what I’m taking a picture of.
I get the Coors one, run through town and go up to Rocky Flats.
This is my daily commute, so I know where this one is too.
I then backtrack and go to the middle of Denver for a very obscure one.
But it’s out of order (it’s the very last clue) and it’s worth 111
points which is a pretty good chunk. It’s
at 8th and Vallejo right at 6th and I-25.
I get down there about 6:30 and cannot find it.
I’m just about to get off the bike and take a picture of the corner to
prove I was there when I see it. It’s
right on the corner but it’s behind a fence on the part of the road that
doesn’t go through. You have go
back a block each way to get back to the corner.
I get that pic and then I-25 north to Fort Collins. Like I said, I wasn’t going to do PTP. I didn’t want to do it, and upon looking at it, it didn’t seem like to me there were any points there. I decided I would go up I-25, get the clue at Ft Collins (about 60 points), get gas in Cheyenne ( a bonus city another 100 or so) and then go into Laramie (where the route restarted and lots of points were available.). I go up to the clue at Ft Collins, get that and get back on the freeway and realize “duh, FORT Collins, you idiot, 100 points!!!” I get off at the next exit and finally find a city limits sign. Now I get back heading towards Cheyenne. I get gas at that Diamond Shamrock (for the 4th time in as many weeks) and go towards Laramie. So, now with the extra Fort of Fort Collins I got more points in way less than time than going up PTP. I think this was my best part of the plan. Nobody else did this. I get those point around Laramie and then go over Snowy Range road (Wyo 130 a beautiful road). There are a couple clues there, and then I go up into Saratoga. You just need a receipt in Saratoga, so I get gas. I go to the bathroom at the gas station and realize that the toilet paper dispenser says “Fort Howard” on it. Hey, why not? I take the picture. It got disallowed but you know, at least I was thinking. :-) At Saratoga I see my first fellow rallier. For the next clue after the checkpoint, you need two people, one to take a picture of you. I ask him, hey do you want to go do this since we need two people to do it? He says sure, and off we go. We get to Encampment and it turns out that the clue is right at the checkpoint, so we didn’t need help as the fine ladies helping out would do it for you if you asked nicely enough. :-). We get that bonus, but the checkpoint isn’t open yet.
I hang out for about 20 minutes waiting for it to open. Get some water,
take a break, clean face shield etc. This
was really good. I had wanted to be
early at the checkpoint and it gave me lots of time in the afternoon to do
whatever I wanted. At 11am exactly
I get signed out and off we go. The
guy on the ZX12 is the other fellow rallier (whose name I totally forgot, sorry)
and we go up to Battle Pass. Battle
Pass crosses the Continental Divide. Now
here I owe Randy Bishop a huge thanks. I
couldn’t figure out how I was going to get the number sign to stay on a sign.
I ask about this on Friday night when sitting around BSing and he says
“duh, duct tape”. Ohhhhhhhhhhh,
man, I would have NEVER thought of that. Thank
goodness I live close. I picked
some up after Friday night’s meeting. The
ZX12 beats me to the sign, he’s getting done, I pull up, tape it on (windy,
it’s Wyoming after all), snap the pciture, put it back together and I'm gone
before ZX12 pulls out. He passes me
again, we find the next clue, again I leave first.
(this goes on for a while). We
basically collect every clue along the base route, go through a HUGE cattle
drive before Baggs (that’s like #8 for me, I’m getting good at moving the
cows, maybe I should be a cowboy?) and we go into Craig and grab that clue. I see the ZX12 getting gas in Hayden (only 130 miles?
Man, small tank or bad mileage) and I go into secret plan mode.
:-) Being a local who rides has huge advantages here.
Twenty mile road goes from just east of Hayden down to Oak Creek, it's on
the map and there is even a sign, but you really wouldn't take it if you didn't
know about it.. I grab 20 mile
road, so I get Twenty Mile Mine (50 points), plus Oak Creek (93 points) skip the
two worthless Steamboat Springs ones (maybe 50 points total) and I get to skip
Steamboat Springs and it’s evil traffic mess totally.
So I come up 131 back to US 40 just east of Steamboat and it maybe took
me 10 more minutes to get back to US 40, for about a 100 more points.
Although I did take a nice gas stop in Oak Creek (needed a receipt, double up
your time) Plus I had way more fun on Twenty mile road.
Get the clues up US 40 and get both Rabbit Ears and Muddy Pass then go
off up hwy 14 towards Walden. Along hwy 14 I see another rallier, my 2nd, but he’s a little busy talking to the nice state trooper. :-) Grab the clue along hwy 14, go into Walden and get that receipt (secret city, like 90 points), then go down 125 through Rand (bonus) and then down Willow Springs pass (not only is this one sweet road, but it’s a Continental Divide pass.). I now have 4 passes, all these clues and I’m doing well on time, going to easily make it back. Get a bunch of clues along US 40 (every one), skipped the two up the canyon side (west of Granby, not worth enough points to me) and get Berthoud Pass. This was slow going dealing with the traffic along 40 here and I knew it would be. I decide at Empire to go west on I-70 and get a picture of the tunnel. I had asked how I could do this as the actual sign is inside the tunnel where you can't stop. The rallymaster’s said take a picture of the tunnel entrance itself. Of course you can’t get close now after September 11th. I put my sign up on another sign and back way up and it seems to work I can see the tunnel and my rally card. But now I want to turn around and go east to get on Loveland Pass. I know the summit is much closer to the east side than the west. Well, the turn around over the tunnel is now closed. Shoot. How am I going to do this? I get on the road and go west. As I get to the other side I pull off at the attendent station and flip a bitch. On the freeway. Is this illegal? ;-) I see another rallier pull the same move right behind me. LMAO I go back east to the Loveland exit. Run up to the top, get the picture, help my fellow law breaker get his and go back down. There is a bonus in Idaho Springs, plus I realize that Arco Mine will be there (again with the local knowledge). As I’m going down Main Street I see a sign for the Edgar Mine, so I flip around and go get that one (more dirt) and then get the clue and then Arco Mine. So although Arco was local knowledge it was also pretty obvious if you were driving along main street where the bonus was. So was the sign for Edgar Mine, which I had never seen before. So like another 150 points for maybe 20 minutes of work. I go get Buffalo Bill’s grave clue (eek, you gotta get off the bike? And climb? Bastards. :-)) and run back down. It’s about 7:15. I decide to go get the Fort Restaurant near Morrison and then if I have time Fort Logan Cemetery. BTW, I would have thought of neither of these despite being local, they were given as suggestions on the rally sheet. I know where both are, so that helped. As I was leaving the Fort restaurant, Randy Bishop pulls in. I’m ask him “what do you think, should I just go eat food or go get Fort Logan?” He says “go eat” I think “that bastid is trying to psych me out, I’m going to go get Fort Logan just for him saying that. :-)“ I do and see him getting to Fort Logan just as I leave. I roll back in and clock out about 8pm.
I organize all my paperwork and hand it in.
Grab some food for the first time all day and drink lots of water. I
rode about 750 miles in about 15 hours. Rally
time is MUCH slower than riding on IBA rides.
I was amazed. I’m pretty beat though.
About 9pm I go home, feed one very hungry and not very happy cat and
decide that I’m beat. I figure
thatI’m not last and I’m not first and really I have no idea how other
people did. I saw almost nobody all day.
I figure that tomorrow I’ll just ride the base route and make sure and
finish because so far I'm having a lot of fun Again, up at 4:10am (although the rooster was up this time) and off to the hotel around 4:40. I get my packet and start planning and someone says scores from yesterday are up. Oh, I wonder how I did. I walk up to the front to get my score. I look for my name and find it and after the first day I’m in………. FIRST PLACE!!!!!!!!!!!!! I’m in FIRST PLACE????????? Holy $hit!!!!!!!! No way!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! OMG!!! And
I’m in first place by like 300 points. I
have about 2300 points after one day. Damn, that changes my whole plan. So, of course, I changed my original plan (bad move #1), and
got pretty aggressive (bad move #2) Because I can't believe I'm
actually contending for the win. I mean truly, all I wanted to do was
finish. I had no idea that I could do that well. Probably mostly
luck, but still. To even be top 10 would be a huge honor, to have this
kind of score? I’m off right at 5:31, about the 3rd person
out. I run down 285 to Tiny Town.
One bonus was a big picture of Red Rocks, but I decided it was pretty
dark out as I went by and I didn’t want to wait for it to lighten up to make
sure I got the picture, although it was pretty good points.
Then down to Pine, and didn’t do BuckSnort salon because I knew it was
a dirt road, although I didn’t know how bad of shape it was in.
(turns out it was bad move #3, it was an easy road, was like 70
points). Run down to Deckers and
get those points then I got aggressive. There
are no more points on the base route until Woodland Park. I figure I’ll take
the cutoff to Sedalia over the dirt road (now don’t ask me why I can do this
dirt road and not the bucksnort salon road), get those points in Sedalia, then
go down to Palmer Lake and then do the Colorado Springs points and then meet
back up with Woodland Park. Well,
Deckers to Sedalia is a lot longer than I thought (bad move #3).
I was hammering though and that’s a sweet road when no one is on it, so
no matter what I had fun. Grab the
Sedalia bonus, decide to blow off Palmer Lake because the road was longer than I
thought (only like 25 points), get the Air Force Academy B-52 (man is that
sucker big!) picture and as I’m getting off the interstate to go to the AFA, I
see a sign that points to the other side of the highway and says “Western
Mining Museum” Sweet, another
mine. I get the B-52, and then go get the Mining Museum. So like 130 points for only the time of one stop. Get the Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame one, then jam up 24 to Woodland Park. Almost got nailed for going “5 over” in Colorado Springs on the freeway but luckily the BMW is invisible to radar. Must be, because he had me dead to rights for a wee more than “5 over” and he didn’t even look at me. Weird huh? Go up to Woodland Park, get that clue, then go to
Florrisant and get that one. Remember
the line earlier about being aggressive? I
know that this road goes through to Cripple Creek, I can get Cripple Creek (70
points) and then the Victor Mine (50 points) and then cut back down that back
road that Dave B pointed out a couple years ago and then get to the checkpoint
in Florence. Well, that road
is a lot longer than I thought. It
took me 1.5 hours to get 120 points. Bleech.
And totally wore me out. Was
not worth it at all although the roads were fun, but not good for rally time.
Get the clues down hwy 9, then I get onto 50 going into Canon City and see Gold
Mine Rock Shop. Sweet.
Get that picture and see a Fort something or other campground.
Double sweet, but I’ll come back for it.
Get the clues in Canon City and then go off to Florence.
The original plan (which I had violated like 3 times so far) was to get
all these points along the base route, get the checkpoint at 9:30 and then go
get Fort Carson, a couple close ones then go back west on 50 and go collect
Monarch, Cottonwood, Tennessee and Fremont passes, along with all the mines in
those areas. You don’t think that
was a wee aggressive do ya? Well,
it’s now like 11am, I haven’t gotten these clues and the checkpoint closes
at noon! $hit. Going to Cripple Creek was a STUPID move (#4). I now figure I’ll go get the checkpoint then come back and get these points in town when I am going west again. Getting a few points here or there isn’t going to matter if I miss the checkpoint. I go into the checkpoint. It’s at a Carl’s Jr. I am SORELY tempted to stop and eat, but barely even get off the bike. This whole defending your first place thing really takes time out of my eating schedule. :-) Sign in, sign out and I am outta here. I am late, I gots to go. Grab the extra bonuses back along the route, then go get that Fort Campground something on 50. I get that and as soon as I start going west again, there is a Fort Royal horse something or other and the sign only faces east. You can only see it going west. Sweet. I pull in, this guy sitting on the porch (probably wondering why a biker wants to ride horses) says “can I help you?” Yep, here, hold this, as I hand him my sign. Move quickly and make time. So, I got like 300 points within 500 yards between the 2 forts and the mine. BTW I wasn't the only one behind the gun, as I was getting these last couple pictures I continue to see guys on the rally going eastbound into Florence. I'm thinking you guys are going to be late. I know at least two of them weren't but it couldn't have been by much. Plus they had to miss all those points to make the checkpoint. Gee, this rally stuff is harder than I thought. :-) I go SLOWLY up 50 but not on purpose. If I see one more mini-van with Kansas plates……………. I realize that I’m way behind. Decide to not do Monarch pass because there is a ton of traffic going east and I’ll have to fight it back down. I decide I'll go up and do Cottonwood pass(no traffic) and then the two passes by Leadville plus the mines in Leadville/climax. I get gas in Buena Vista and then go up Cottonwood. Well, the road is under repair. 3 miles of dirt road. Eeeek. (didn’t say 3 miles of dirt when I started! bah!!). Its pretty well groomed but it’s still a dirt road
through the forest and only about 1.5 cars wide.
I get behind this Jeep Grand Cherokee who is just poking.
And c’mon, I’m on a 650lb touring bike on a dirt road, I should NEVER
catch a car. This idiot STOPS on a
steep uphill. I was beyond pissed.
I almost lost it, did a nice little slide and got around him and took
off. I finally get back to pavement
and well the red mist is flying. And
so am I. How likely is it that
there is a cop here? We will not
discuss anything more than 5 over regarding this issue.
Get to the top, snap the pic and go jam back down.
If it was moving, I passed it. Fly
back down the dirt road, get onto 24 going into Leadville.
Decide that the mines aren’t that important.
The passes are worth 200 each, the mines are only worth 50.
It’s just a little before 3pm. I
jam down and get Tennessee pass, and jam back, run off down Fremont pass towards
home. Get that one, and then see a
sign that says “Denver 111 miles” Oh $hit I thought it was only like an hour and a half from Leadville to home. And I do realize it’s Sunday afternoon so I’m going to get hosed bad in traffic. Forget the Climax mine, I gots to go. If I get to Idaho Springs by 4:15, there are points I could get there for a mine I saw yesterday but didn’t get a picture. I’ve messed up bad. I have ridden a lot of miles for little or no points. The rally masters are very good at giving you enough rope to hang yourself with. Every minute after 5pm is 15 points off. That’s huge. That means 3 minutes is one mine. I gots to go, tick tick tick tick tick I am flying down Fremont pass and then go down I-70. Going pretty good and there isn’t much traffic going up the tunnel. Could it be? Could I luck out and there is actually no traffic? Bahahahhahahahahhaah No It stops dead at Georgetown. Oh boy. I get
off and go down the frontage road. This
works great until the stop sign in downyville which nobody can figure out.
I get back on the freeway and putter.
Sometimes we go 30, most of the time we stop.
Bah. Tick tick tick tick tick.
Plus the bike is slowly overheating.
Finally it’s 4:30pm and I’m just west of Idaho Springs and I decide
that I have got to go. Tick tick tick tick tick Gee Officer, my bike it overheating, see it’s air cooled and ……………. I start puttering down the shoulder. Not very fast, not trying to be a jerk but you know, I GOTS TO GO. Tick tick tick tick. Finally at the 6th ave off ramp to go to Central City and then you go up the big hill and traffic clears out as it goes from 2 lanes to 3, I throw it in Terry Mc gear and away I go. Tick tick tick tick tick. Zing zang zoom, I am outta here!!! I roll in at 4:50pm. I am utterly and totally beat. I have ridden 550 odd miles in about 11 hours at rally time
and I’ve totally hosed myself. I
can feel it. I picked a good route
and totally overreached. Well,
I’m sure I still did pretty well, I mean I had a GREAT score yesterday and
hey, top 10 maybe on your first rally ever is nothing to sneeze at.
I walk in, turn in my paperwork and go to the cooler.
“Hey, got any more water?” Because
I haven’t eaten all day, my bike is totally out of gas (I have maybe 15 more
miles worth of gas in it) and had half a bottle of water and a small bottle of
Gatorade. All day! Nope, he says, but there is beer in there. Is it cold? Yep Sweet, close enough Bam, 1 beer gone, grab another one and go back outside.
I’m not sure but I don’t think you are supposed to drink beer after
being totally beat and dehydrated, but hey, it was good and I deserved it.
:-)
I'm pretty sure that while I did ok, most of the other close people made big
moves while I was busy riding a ton of miles for no points. No loss, I
tied my own noose, and I'm sure I still did ok, a lot better than I ever could
have expected to in my first rally. We all BS for a while and stand around, and some people came in late and I did finally find some water and started drinking that (but the beers were soooo good :-)). Found some chips floating around and started munching. I had eaten nothing all day. I told you I was behind. You know I’m in a hurry when I fail to eat, that just doesn't happen, ask anyone. They did the banquet and had some good stories. I think everyone had a good time, I know I did. They started giving away things (like 3 sets of tires.) I didn’t win anything, although our table was pretty lucky like 6 of the 7 people won something or finished top 10. They named #10. #10 had only 300 more points than I had yesterday. SWEET, I made top 10. I happen to be sitting next to Randy Bishop who told me he was in 2nd place yesterday, so we were both hoping for pretty good results. He’s gotten a 2nd and a 3rd previously in TATT and was looking for a 1st place plaque to fill out his wall. They keep going and they get 3rd place and it’s not Randy or I. (it’s John Langan (sic?) who won the 02 Rendezvous (correction from Zulaski: And BTW, John Langan didn't WIN the whole 02 Rendezvous. He just won the non-draw entry into the 03 Iron Butt Rally and a gold medal and Most Points and Most Efficient rider and Most Miles ridden and… but he didn't win the rally. There was no one winner. John just got extremely greedy and tried to win all our trophies for himself. ;-)). So we look at each other, cuz we know it’s him or I. They do the couples class and Rick Rolf (who is as funny in person as he is on email) and his wife won that, George Barnes and his daughter missed the 1st checkpoint on Saturday and got 2nd, Sam and his wife got 3rd. And Rick did not win the Tourist Trophy. You get a really nice plaque when you place, but there is also a traveling tourist trophy that gets the Overall Winners name on it and that person gets to keep it for a year (see at the bottom of the page for a picture). Then they have to come back to “defend” their title. Pretty neat really. So, it’s either Randy or I. And 2nd place in the 2002 TATT goes to …… ...... ....... Randy Bishop. At this point I knew I had won, and so did Randy but I don’t think anyone else realized it. I was so excited. I mean, I don’t ever win anything. I’m competitive as all heck but I don’t win anything outright very often. To actually even have a shot at the win on my very first competitive rally was just unbelievable. To actually win? Man. I’m still blown away 24 hours later. They announce my name, 1st place Solo Class, Overall Winner of the 2002 Thin Air TT.
So many congratulations, so many nice people. Randy over there shaking his head going “man, I knew I shouldn’t have told him about the duct tape”. :-) Ok, probably not, because we are a helpful bunch, but it’s still funny. Barely managed to get my helmet on for the ride home. :-) But yeah, I’d call it a great weekend. They say I have to come back to defend it. I’m thinking man, I won it, where can I go but down??? :-) Like my BBG, I don’t have to do it again right? Nope, I’ll be back. So, what did I learn?
Brian Hopkins 99 R11RT “EvilBambi” 2002 TATT winner. |
