Burning in July

I did- went through Aberdeen on 109 and on to the Q Mart at the corner. That route was set up weeks in advance with a local gentleman helping me out. He said Hoquiam was an Indian word that means 'drives motor home slowly' but thought I would be OK using that route at the time of day I would arrive.

 

I just go through there to camp all the time. Funny

 

Well, this is probably the really funny part then: I met a friend on the way to that place and he rode with me for the last 30 miles or so. We went to the store (for the receipt) and then to the beach so I could get some Pacific in a vial. The attached photo is Chet and both of our bikes, mine is on the left. Chet has to go to work and asks me if I am OK on my own and I say: 'Sure, I have a cell phone, two GPSs, and lots of fuel, what could go wrong' or similar.... famous last words.


Chet leaves, I swap out some gear and get more comfortable (was wearing both heated gear as well as a rain coat and did not need either anymore) and then get on the bike and start back to the road, which is a REALLY long way back through beach sand. I get about 10 feet, hit a little wallow, stick my leg out and.... nothing (legs barely work, not up to holding the 700 lb. bike from going over) and BAM, down on the right side. Hmmmm. I am too weak to lift the bike and grab my cell phone to get some kind of help such as AAA or similar and BAM again, my cell phone is dead as a door-nail. Now I start wondering just how far the tide comes in, whether or not Moby fish might be in the area and so forth. Then along comes a car driving toward me, on the edge of the beach! Great! I wave frantically. The driver, a woman, waves back. Hmmmm. So I put both hands over my head and make the 'come here' motion and the car veers toward me- great! I may get out of this alive yet, I can see other people in the car and am hoping at least one of them is large and physically strong (odor will not do me any good at this point). Turns out it is a mother and her two daughters, about 8 and maybe 11 years old..... not great but they are more than willing to try. So the four of us get on one side of the bike, I position them so they are lifting something rugged enough to be lifted (NOT by the windshield where one of the girls had grabbed onto) and put the kickstand down to 'catch' the bike IF it is actually lifted (classic mistake, righting a heavy bike only to have it get away and go down on the other side- the kickstand will prevent that). I count and we lift on '3' and like magic, the bike pops up! I could not believe it! Fantastic! I thanked all of the profusely and rode off to find a cell store and either charge my phone or buy a battery or something. Find the store, manager puts my phone on a charger, I call my wife to get my son's address 'cause I did not already have it (duh) and get a few glasses of water to wash some of the humiliation (read: beach sand) off the side of my bike. So all worked out fantastic: got my phone charged, called my son, rode to his house, did not get eaten by Moby fish, did not have to live on that beach for years or anything else too bad.

A favorite expression of mine is: 'Inside of every large problem, a small problem is struggling to get out'. I though riding 3,100 miles in under 48 hours would be the really difficult part but never considered I would die of exposure on a WA beach, alone and abandoned....

And just so this whole thread does not veer entirely OFFTOPIC, I looked for but did not see any driftwood suitable for burning....

Brian

 

Oh damm! Hey at least you got to walk away thats a great story! Were you at Ocean Shores part of town or...further out?

 

Most awesome story!! Thanks for sharing it and glad there was no real damage to the bike and you. Well done!

 

You can see the whole trip on this link: Coast to Coast If you go to points #154 and 155, that is where I got Pacific water, dropped the bike and where I <think> I might have seen Moby fish sizing me up for lunch.

Brian

 

Thanks. It was pretty intense and what is funny about the whole thing is that my memory of the trip is all jumbled in my mind, time- wise. I rememember a lot of individual points and instances but they are not 'in order', like a photo album of an event that was dropped on the floor and lost all sequence.

Brian

 

Now here is a truly ironic thing: This thread started with a gentleman posting, among other things, a photo of a beautiful elk. Then the whole thing about my trip to the left coast. Now the gentleman in the photo on the beach in WA, Chet, actually attached an elk hoof to my bike because he did not think it had enough already. Just to spite him, I strapped it to the top of the top-box on the bike and have ridden everywhere for six years with that thing, which I named Mr. Elkhoof of course. He gets lots of interest and comments, and I have had quite a few people pull up to me on the highway and take a photo of him (and us- we end up taking some of Mr. Elkhoof's thunder by accident).

Seriously.



This is a photo of Mr. Elkhoof and I working on the bike, checking the final drive oil level.

Chet has the skull and rack that that hoof came from and I cannot span the elks' rack, and I am 6'2" tall. Big elk, big elk hoof.

And what I tell people who ask about it is that my hope is that when it is time, I die in a horrible motorcycle collision with a large member of the deer family..... and while cleaning up the accident scene, some first- respnder finds FIVE hooves and wonders about the forever....

Brian

 

You Iron Butt guys are some tough nuts! I am such a lightweight...I can barely make it through a tank of fuel without stopping because my butt is SCREAMING STOP! Oh...and this is on a 1500 Wing...I can barely make it across the county on a standard bike
From what you describe of your memory and the function of your legs, it sounds like maybe there were quite a few miles covered where you weren't exactly operating in a prime condition...

 

Opps, I started to answer you when Mr. Elkhoof said something interesting.....

Now what were you saying again?



Brian

 

I did a SS1000 once, unplanned and undocumented, so I guess it really doesn't count, was just one of those days when everything feels good and you just keep going and going and going, probably wouldn't ever do it again, long miles are just not that enjoyable for me.

Back when the IBR was a lap of the U.S. I went to the checkpoint at Reynolds Motorsports a few times to gawk at the proceedings, those hardcore LD riders are definitely a different breed.

 

Yeah, a Saddle Sore 1000 (1000 miles in 24 hours) is a nice ride and a great way to 'test the waters' without a big investment. It can be done by most anyone, and only requires a full day (and evening) of riding but still allows sleep on the day of the ride so no riding all night or anything.

And SS1000's are done as group events all over the country; the local one here is called the Minuteman 1000. Named after the Minutemen of the American Revolution, it is an organized rally, includes a rally dinner and breakfast, along with a route that is guaranteed to be certified by the IBA. In fact, when you enter the rally, they actually get your IBA certificate IN ADVANCE and will give it to you at the banquet dinner provided you finish the ride. If not, the notify the IBA and destroy your certificate. Anyway, it is a ride starting in MA and consists of riding to four corners, four specific places, on a loop through all six states of New England. A nice ride, great people and a great, humorous and unforgiving rally master all combine to make it a great weekend event. I have done several and hope to do more in the future.

And just because this thread has gotten so far offtopic, and we have discussed this in so much detail, let me point out what I think is trying a grueling ride that the current 'owner' will keep for a while; John Ryan, riding an FJR, rode from Prudhoe Bay, AK (also known as Deadhorse) to Key West, FL, the two farthest points in the US connected via roads..... a ride of 5,650 miles, Mr. Ryan smashed the previous record of 96 hrs. 1 minute by over 9 hours! He rode 5645 miles in 86 hours and 31 minutes. An epic ride and a true 'gauntlet on the floor' for the next person to try and pick up. Beyond that, a fantastic ride; he and the bike were covered in mud after riding 300 miles down Alaska's logging road that is the only way in and out of Deadhorse, and so treated himself and his bike to a rinse by riding it through a carwash! You do not see that everyday, Martha. Read about if here if anyone cares to do so: Yamaha FJR Sets Continent Crossing Record - Motorcycle USA

And now for another funny story: I was at an IBR rally point that was the ending point of the 11 day rally. The IBA rally staff were warning the hotel staff that the riders coming into the hotel that day would be fatigued, grumpy- to- outright nasty, smelly, dirty and just plain ole' terrible people, best to not talk to them and even stay away from them entirety. But after a bunch of hours, and quite a few people coming in on motorcycles, a hotel staff member told the IBA president that he was wrong, the motorcyclists were quite pleasant, well behaved, looked and acted fine, etc., etc. to which Mr. Kneebone pointed out: those are not IBA riders, those are local bike riders who have arrived to watch the IBA riders arrive and the end of the rally. He then repeated his warning about the actual IBA riders, who would be tired, nasty, stinky, etc., etc. And they are too. Now the IBA rally folks actually stop, sleep and take the occasional shower but I will tell you all from experience, spend 50 hours in the saddle, at highway speeds, in the rain (in my case for 900 miles) and you will find dirt, sweat and road grime in places you did not even know you had. Washing you clothes becomes an option.... a choice between washing them or burning them.

Brian

 

Yeah, well Dennis the idea of riding a bicycle a mile terrifies me. I worked with a gentleman who rode 100 miles on a bike (bicycle) with his wife fairly often but both of them were in excellent physical shape and condition, something I have absolutely no concept of.

The IBA is really big on each rider being on his / her own and frankly is downright paranoid about the riders getting outside help in any aspect of an IBA sanctioned event, before, during or even after the ride. So anything using the word 'crew' is out. It goes further than that too, if riding 2- up, as many rally riders do, the rider MUST be the rider throughout the entire ride, and cannot swap with the passenger at all. The obvious thing would be for two riders to be on one bike, take turns riding and sleeping but that is strictly forbidden.

They are quite strict about fuel too: the max. is 11 1/2 gallons on the bike. And they check this at the pre- rally inspection: I watched one couple get bounced for being 2 oz. over max. The rallymaster (Mike Kneebone) eventually let them ride but only after making them buy and install steel chain from a hardware store in the fuel tank to cut down on the volume so it met the rules. I do not have an aux. fuel tank, and actually my bike has a smallish tank at 5.8 gallons nominal (it will hold six but barely). I do carry additional fuel in the event I do need to stretch a tank... finding fuel at 3:00 AM in Montana can be a challenge but do not plan on and have never had to actually use it.

Food / liquid: some riders carry a large container of water, usually a couple of gallons, and some of them are insulated and they pack them with ice. They drink from a bite valve. Some wear a 'Texas catheter' (look it up: it is the thing that makes the people in the car behind the bike ask "Hey, is that bike leaking something?" ). I do not bother and just grab liquid, red Gatorade if I can find it, and whatever food I can scrounge along the way. And I can drink from a 1/2 gallon container while riding (I use a flip- front helmet) although I do spill a fair amount and after a while, me and the bike's cockpit start to look like a crime scene photo. The good news is that 900 miles of riding in the rain will clean that right up.

Brian

 

And back ONTOPIC:

It is 58F here tonight. Not burning wood but only because it was warm during the day today. Two days of this and a little fire, maybe just a cardboard fire, would be nice.

Brian

 

Yessir. Low temps here in the region, for sure. Burned some pizza boxes in the wood stove last week. Maybe an outside fire today

Sent from my SM-T280 using Tapatalk

 

It got down to 55° last night, but not cold enough to start burning. It is a comin' though.

 

OK, but how do you make the A/C sounds so you can sleep?



Brian