by Craig O. Olsen
Originally Published in the IAMC Newsletter, January 2017
The year 2016 has come and gone. It marked the 7th year of the IAMC Challenge, which ran from April 1, to December 31, 2016. In 2016 we had 33 club members participate in the IAMC Challenge of which 25 participants posted photos at one or more sites. As usual, there were some who visited sites but did not post any photos. The theme for 2016 was small towns in Idaho. There were 40 of them listed alphabetically ranging in population from 16 to 1,189, and they covered the entire state from the Canadian to the Utah & Nevada borders, as well as the Wyoming & Montana to the Oregon and Washington borders.
While the majority of these sites could be reached on paved roads, many club members chose more adventurous off-road routes to visit many of them. What constituted a site visit was a photo of the participant and/or the participant’s bike displaying this year’s blue Challenge bandana at some point identifying the site. Credit for a site visit was only given to those participants who uploaded their photos to the appropriate 2016 Challenge site at motoidaho.org on or before December 31, 2015. In addition to the 40 small towns, there were 4 additional mandatory sites in order to achieve any Tire level. These mandatory sites included the 4 dealerships that are so instrumental in sponsoring our club – Happy Trail Products, Big Twin, Carl’s Cycles, and Snake River Yamaha.
Of the 25 club members who participated during 2016, four achieved the bronze Tire level (10-19 sites visited): Mae Spurlock, Burton Briggs, Gary Mountain and Trent Holderness. There were five who reached the silver Tire level (20-29 sites visited): Wayne Smith, Bob Hammond, Dan Driscoll, Gary Kayser and Jim Jorgensen. Two club members attained the gold Tire level (30-39 sites visited): Arden Hill and Chuck Scheer. There were six club members who achieved platinum Tire level (40-44 sites visited): Mark England, Ron Schinnerer, Ron Hoppins, Doug Patchin, Rick Skinner and Craig Olsen.
We thank Mike Hardy for organizing the IAMC Challenge for 2016, and we recognize all who participated in visiting any of the 2016 Challenge sites. Several of the articles in this issue of the newsletter highlight the 2016 Challenge journey of our platinum and gold Tire level winners.