The next memorable ride was to Wickahoney Stage Station in south Owyhee County on April 10. Our group of eight riders were “buzzed” by two A-10 Warthogs while at the site. On the way back to Boise, some of our group stopped at Higby Cave located on the Idaho Army National Guard Training Area. It is now gated off near the entrance.
I could open up the throttle during the straight-aways but I had to pay extra aPen&on for the sudden dips around the old bridges. During one stretch, a paraglider circled and buzzed us. On their last pass they threw out a streamer weighted with a large washer. I was feeling lucky since I was the first to retrieve it. I just didn’t consider if it was good luck or bad. A while later I found out.
What constituted a site visit was a photo of the participant and/or the participant’s bike displaying this year’s purple Challenge bandana at one of the op&ons above for each county. Credit for a site visit was only given to those participants who uploaded their photos to the appropriate 2015 Challenge site at motoidaho.org on or before December 31, 2015.
All 44 of the counties in Idaho were now checked off my list but I s&ll had &me for a few more B sites. One of my favorite sites of the year was Indian Lookout in Adams County. The ride in to the lookout along the Little Weiser Road was good gravel road and the smaller Forest Service roads were in good shape until about a mile below the The next morning with temperatures hovering around 36 degrees I was in no hurry to get out of camp. With only Teton County remaining to complete the Challenge, I took my &me riding to the last Challenge site.
I sat in my office staring at an Idaho map that I have on the wall. It is one of the maps I use for planning, and it was covered with little sticky notes attached to the challenge sites I was planning to visit on my trip. I realized that if I was going to achieve my goal of gold, I had to completely rethink how I was going to accomplish it. I began putting sticky notes up on all of the challenge site locations on the map. Labor Day was in a week. I had a three day weekend that I needed to make the most of.
After several years of not having a motorcycle, I purchased a 2009 KLR 650, and to me there was nothing more enjoyable than to go look and see how much more money I could spend on that brand new KLR (don’t tell Leslie, my wife, but as most of you know, it’s a lot). I wasn’t new to riding. I have had some sort of motorcycle since I was a kid. My dad, two younger brothers and I would be out at Blacks Creek, Reynolds Creek or up 8th Street almost anyTime of the year. I also worked at Carl’s Cycle Sales for 11 years in the 80’s and early 90’s, but it had been about 15 years since I had been off in the dirt.
Back in January, I signed up for the Challenge knowing that my summer was already booked up. My youngest daughter was graduating high school, my oldest daughter was getting married in June, and my wife was turning 50 in August, which meant a big celebration or trip. There would be a trip to Victoria, backpacking, and several vintage trailer rallies. I am reTired but my wife has a few more years to work, so I promised to keep the weekends for her. My strategy was to lump as may challenge points as possible in the fewest mid-week trips.
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.
2015 was a fairly lean year riding-wise for me. I started 2016 out planning to correct that injustice. As early as the January Awards lunch, I started socializing the idea of riding the Idaho Backcountry Discovery Route with a number of people. I was well on my way to planning that ride when the list of Challenge points was released. I quickly realized that many of the Challenge sites could be visited either along the IDBDR or on the way back home.
We had an interesting concept for the Challenge in 2016. All but a couple of the sites could be visited without ever leaving tarmac. An unexpected type of challenge for a Dual Sport Club? Of course, no one was required to stay on Tarmac to get these sites. You were free to ride all the dirt road you wanted in capturing the sites if that was your desire. But this year, you had “options”.