Washington Nitro National Hillclimb

tombraider2 said:
Don't push it..
Click to expand...

The Doc says that if I work hard at the Physio, and I am, just been working the tendons during lunch, that he doesn't see why I can't ride. It will still be a last minute call, but I'm feeling good about it.

I was just standing on my own two feet, no cast. A little wobbly, (the right knee and hip are not used to the weight anymore) but one finger on my desk and it felt ok. It is part of my exercise regimen, but still a bit scary. Time for an Ice pack, but too bad I don't have one at work.
 
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Typical

What started as 6 riders is now down to 3. It is so difficult to organize multi-rider trips and I see that is not just a problem I face. Andy the organizer of this trip has seen attrition slowly whittle the numbers down by 50%. The last rider to drop out certainly has a good reason. My former off-road instructor, Richard had major surgery in January, and is still off work. His insurance company would not understand him leaving the country on a motorcycle when they won't allow him to go back to work yet.


Richard on the far right.

I am sure that Andy expects me to drop out as well since I was still hobbling around on crutches when I saw him on Saturday. I have made such good progress since then that I'll be damned if I'll let that happen. My bike is coming off the lift on the weekend and I'm getting packed to go. If I can walk, I can ride!

My Tech 8 is every bit as good support-wise as my air-cast is, so Washington here I come! Now if it would just quit snowing....



I don't show the Canadian route since it is just well worn highway miles done many times before. The route is Hwy 21 south through Longview to Hwy 3 west through Fernie to Creston. We have one small off pavement "short cut" south of Cranbrook that may or may not happen depending on snow at the elevation. Currently the "Salmo Pass" on Highway #3 has about 10 feet of snow on the sides of the highway and was -1.5 at 10A.M. this morning.
 
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More bad new's, I'm not going to make it either. My Brothers and folks have dropped out, $300 in gas for us there and back is one thing, but they are charging for camping and entrance fee to see the race's. So I'm out, sorry to miss the Fz1 crowd, take some good picture will ya...
 
Any of you local guys know of any Bike shops near my route that might carry a dark visor for a Shoei Hornet. I can't get one in Canada anymore and mine needs replacing.

Sorry to hear that you won't be able to make it tombraider, but yes I'll take some pictures. Whether they are good or not will be up to you to tell me. There will be an extra spot at the Motel in Sunnyside Saturday night if that helps.
 
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OK, I answered my own question. Tom's Cycle in Walla Walla: Welcome to Tom's Cycle & Power Products - Home

I called and asked about a dark shield for my Shoei Hornet, and the person that answered said that they would order one for me, and didn't want payment ahead of time. They were extremely helpful and I asked that they please order two visors, since they are about half the price as they are in Canada (if I could ever get one). They said that the visors would be waiting for me on Monday(the 19th) when I get there. That was easy!

JMundy, are you still going? If so I'll bring along a Forum T-shirt and hat to match your bike (Blue), even if the bike you ride is an R1. The Yamaha Blue will at least match.
 
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Right now its 50/50. Wife is pregnant and due in three weeks so she isn't sure if she wants to walk around there. Maybe ill go alone. Ill know more sunday. My bike is black (R1) but my WR450 is blue! lol

Im hoping to go, so we will see. What day you guys leaving?

Also desert valley powersports in prosser is a very nice dealership if you wanna go look at bikes / gear. Ive never been to the one in walla walla but glad they hooked you up well.
 
well talked to wife, and she said there was no way in hell I was going




without her :woot:

ill be there Saturday

look for this fugly f**ker

 
We leave Friday morning, with stop in Metaline Falls on Friday night. I'll bring some black gear along. I'll look for you at the event on Saturday!

This is what I look like When I'm cold and tired.



Lee
 
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Thanks for the offer Lee,

The whole thing was to go camping with the family like we use to, but going solo wasn't so bad but paying double $$ to camp and see that crap was the tie braker. May just take our Condo to the lot early now. Hiking season is coming in a few weeks and there are Mines to see out this way...
 
I week out!

I have ditched the crutches and will see how it goes this weekend, getting the bike ready to go. I will take the Aircast along, since I am supposed to wear it until the middle of June. The MX boot (Alpinestar Tech 8) is almost the same so it should count, and a lot more weatherproof.

Weather man is calling for 3 degrees and rain for departure morning. Might as well dive in at the deep end. Once again I'll be running my spot so you can follow my progress if you are interested.

My Spot site: SPOT Shared Page

 
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I use AlpineStar Tech 7's for my dirtbiking boots. They are great and very sturdy, you should get plenty of support from them
 
T- 68 Hours

Here is what Day 1 will look like on a map. The Calgary to Okotoks (small town south of Calgary where we are meeting ) section is not noted, but is about 50 km.



Forecast is (now)for about 7 degrees and rain for departure. A nice way to start my riding season. :dontknow:



Nearly Time to "Hit The Road Jack!"

 
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bad news, I cant make it.

my boss told me today that this weekend we are replacing a server at a remote location. So its a whole weekend of deploying and setting up a new server.

have fun
 
24 Hours and counting

This time tomorrow I'll be on the road. I tried my boots on last night and the right was a tight squeeze, thankfully my damaged leg is the least swollen in the morning, so it should fit better then. :shaking head: I'll try to post pictures along the way.
 
And They’re Off

We departed from the small town of Okotoks about fifteen minutes south of Calgary, after meeting up at the Tim Horton’s coffee shop at the town’s south end. I knew Andy, having ridden with him once about 4 years ago, and talking to him a few times since. Brian, I had never met, but when a white 990 showed up it had to be him. Both are very easy going guys and we were all within a year of each other age wise, with similar senses of humor. It was a cool start but the clouds were not dropping any moisture at least and the winds were not howling. It kept getting cooler as we travelled over the small pass on Highway 22 south of Longview with the temperature warning light flashing on my dash. At Maycroft we turned west on the “gap road” to join the trunk road, and gravel, down to Coleman. From Coleman we continued west on Highway 3 to Fernie, B.C. stopping at a motorcycle shop named Ghostriders. Brian had them cut down his windshield in hopes of reducing the buffeting that was rattling his brain since we hit higher speeds, and Andy was in search of a kidney belt. The only Kidney belt, the bike-shop had was for kids and would not stretch around a middle aged belly, even though his was the smallest of the group. While Brian’s bike was being modified, Andy ran over to Canadian Tire for a roll of Duct tape to make a “ghetto-style” kidney belt.

We stopped a while later to grab a bite in Cranbrook before heading to Creston and over the Kootenay (Salmo) Pass. Near the summit we started to get rained on which briefly turned to ice-pellets before petering out. We took the opportunity to play on the enormous, dirty snow banks with the obligatory photo-op before descending to Salmo. We attempted to find a trail that the GPS indicated as a small side detour but quickly discovered that it was a long dis-used highway that had returned to nature and become impassable.
A short run south from there brought us to the Nelway border crossing just north of our end point for the day, Metaline Falls. The pickup truck ahead of me after his inspection started to roll back into me and with the border guard and everyone else yelling at him to stop, managed to stop an inch from my front wheel. We got through the border, and had a quick run to the little motel up the hill from Meataline Falls. The only game in town for dinner was the 5th Ave Bar, and it was a tiny hole in the wall, but the beer was cold and the food edible. It had been a long day and we sat out on the porch of the motel, playing with our tech and drinking beer for a short while before hitting the pillows to saw wood.










 
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There would be Mud!

The clouds were drifting through the Valley, level with my field of vision from the deck of the Motel first thing in the Morning. Our Room seemed to be the “Elephant Room” with everything Elephant related throughout. The room was clean, and the bed ok,( but not great) with wood paneling on the walls and stucco-look ceiling panels. Think Thailand meets 70’s Rec-Room and you would be close. It must have rained during the night as the parking lot and bikes were wet. After packing up we descended into town across some great paved switchbacks past the old powerhouse, to Cathy’s Café. I had been there last year and knew the food and coffee were good, besides, it was the only game in town. Today we would have a long run, needing to get to Sunnyside by dinner time and we would be mixing gravel and dirt and pavement to get there. The first jump off pavement took us across a muddy two-track with lots of dips (read; puddles) and turns. I was a bit horrified at first, seeing the potential for disaster (for my leg) at every turn and the first deep puddle that soaked me did nothing to allay those fears. I was very cautious and much slower than I usually would be and worried that I would ruin the ride for the other two riders. They were very patient on the off-pavement sections, and I waited for them on the paved sections, being much more confident in my bike through the twisty stuff. One particular section before we reached the Grand Coulee dam I was enjoying the pavement corners so much that I dragged my right boot hard enough to pull it back off the peg which hurt my injured leg a bit.
There was so much switching from pavement to gravel that I have lost track of just what we did when, but do remember a spectacular gravel road that had switchbacks so tight that first gear was as fast as you could take them without doing it flat-tracker style. We stopped for a nice lunch after stopping to see the Dam at Grand Coulee, which was definitely worth seeing. The sun had come out to stay and the temperature climbed, seeming hot to us northerners. We found one closed road that Google maps said was public, but ran across a private ranch, and was gated. The resulting detour didn’t take long and led to another loose gravel road that seemed to sport a good population of snakes. The snake population was down by two after I went across, but at the speeds we were doing that is not the worst that could have happened. One left corner surprised me and the surface was so loose that I was sliding sideways, so I did a flat tracker and put my left boot down. My boot-heal snagged a rock and kicked the foot backward, but I made the corner, barely, leaving two wheel dips on the deep gravel at the edge of the road. Once I was straight and back up in my lane I looked back over my left shoulder to see my saddle bag form that side bouncing end over end behind me with Brian close behind it. I stopped and turned around to retrieve it. Brian was pointing at the marks by the ditch asking if I had made those and when I said yes he said “You crazy sonofabitch!” We both laughed and carried on, nothing damaged and no one hurt. The “Gobi” bags by Hepco-Becker once again showing how well designed they are; made to release rather than snap a leg in a situation like that, and tough enough to bounce down a road at 100 and not be any more than lightly scuffed.
By the time we arrived at the hill-climb location north of Sunnyside we were about done for the day, but managed to do the 20 miles down to town without incident. The Mexican restaurant in the same lot was a welcome spot for both, good food and cold margaritas. Even the drunken biker chick with the bottle of Vodka and the Wii upstairs (she told us) couldn’t rob me of sleep that night.












Me at Coulee Dam.
 
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Hill Climb

Nitro and Hill climbers
Since we were all still working on the huge Mexican meal from the night before; we decided to do the run up to the Hill climb (and the little café across the highway) before considering adding anything to the fiesta in our guts. The silver Dollar Café was nice and after we shot across to the hill climb to park and take in a long day of craziness. It was the final day of the racing and the big boys were out! It was amazing to watch the smaller bikes and the racers were good, but then the unlimited class rolled up to climb. There were GXSR 600 and 750s with open pipes on full nitro and they were amazing! There were brand new KTM1190 motors in homemade frames with open headers that were nasty sounding and awesome on the hills. Such a wide variety of power and frames with the fearlessness of the riders (and hill) being the only thing in common. It was like seeing a Giant Slalom ski-race in reverse, UP the hill, but MUCH louder. The tunes blasting out of the speakers raunchy and hard core to match the mood of the race. I didn’t bring a chair, but would have paid good money had anyone been selling, or renting any. I was hurting from walking and standing and finally found the vendor booth from “509” with a big black leather couch that they were happy to let me relax on.
The kids had lap races in between class-races and they were great to watch, with some definite future contenders with no “quit” in them and no-fear either! They had a hill climb of their own and they were just as (or more) competitive than the adults, with one kid walking beside his machine after it powered out, trying to get just a few more feet higher. Despite the respite on the couch, I was ready to head back to the hotel after the racers finished, and just as we got to town the skies open dumping heavy rain for about the last 3 blocks to the hotel. The prize under that rainbow was the margaritas across the parking lot from my room.




The Hill.


Pre Race Interviews.



Racer on the left, BEST Race name ever.





Drone Video, very cool. Sadly not mine.


Leaving the Line


Ready for Carnage.


For Billy.



More words to follow, bit tired for now.
 
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