2013 Iron Butt Rally - The Inside View

[Nikk]

That looked like a pretty good pace down a nasty dirt road! I'll ride those by accident when I'm exploring near home but not at that pace and especially not when I'm ~3,000 miles from home (or the finish). Brave man!

 

[doug5551]

Well, Matt,

I am really happy to hear how pleased you are with your most excellent finish in this years IBR, and your view that it is the single biggest physical feat of your life.

But don't forget about what you did in the Team Lyle Nevada Stampede Biathlon. I am pretty sure you did a bit more walking in that event than you did in the IBR...

Congrats and thanks for letting us follow along...

 

[Blind Squirrel]

I think many riders were thrown off by the late start from CP #2. I saw a route that looked custom made for my riding:Colorado/TX/Key West/NC

BUTT...

Didn't want to chance finisher status.

I asked Jim Owens at the finish what he thought,

He replied "Winning route- he would have done"

Josh almost took it. The instant gratification of some CA boni was a real draw though.

You rode one helluva Tony! Looking forward to following you and watching you, Matt and all the other FJR riders go toe-to-toe for the top spots in the next one.

 

[Mike Aldea]

<snip>

It wasn't until I got a ways passed Oxbow that I then said, "Umm......I've never been here before....where's the paved road I though was here? Oh crap! I have to ride Hess Road to get to it. It looks really squiggly and ugly on the GPS."

<snip>

Correct me if I'm wrong but it looks like the above link was Iggy's intended route and not the one he actually rode. I believe this was his route on Hess Rd to NF-39, Wallowa Mountain Loop, that he was forced to ride after missing the left turn onto Route 86. In any case, he is a better man than me to have completed the IBR.

 

[Tanker]

It was fantastic following all of the FJR's in the rally this year.

We'll done by all of you!!

 

[Ignacio]

<snip>

It wasn't until I got a ways passed Oxbow that I then said, "Umm......I've never been here before....where's the paved road I though was here? Oh crap! I have to ride Hess Road to get to it. It looks really squiggly and ugly on the GPS."

<snip>

Correct me if I'm wrong but it looks like the above link was Iggy's intended route and not the one he actually rode. I believe this was his route on Hess Rd to NF-39, Wallowa Mountain Loop, that he was forced to ride after missing the left turn onto Route 86. In any case, he is a better man than me to have completed the IBR.

Probably true. I think this one is even closer to the actual route. I remember Hess Road and Cloverdale Road (both goat trails) and confirmed in my SPOT tracks. The latter made little sense to me....I was paved...went to yucky Hess (I was at peace about it)...paved again and thought I was home free. Riding off pavement again via Cloverdale still doesn't make sense to me....but I'm sure I rode it.

I'm also pretty sure if I were to back to this area and ride with a bit more time, unpanicked as the minutes until mark counted down on the GPS, and not so focused on squiggly lines of the GPS--I could have threaded together better pavement opportunities. That area of the world ain't exactly main street

America and has lots of squiggly trails around it. As it was, it made for great drama while the southern route riders passed me in points.

 

[MCRIDER007]

I'm also pretty sure if I were to back to this area and ride with a bit more time, unpanicked as the minutes until mark counted down on the GPS, and not so focused on squiggly lines of the GPS--I could have threaded together better pavement opportunities. That area of the world ain't exactly main streetAmerica and has lots of squiggly trails around it. As it was, it made for great drama while the southern route riders passed me in points.

Maybe I am stating the obvious but FR39 starts about 6 miles west of Oxbow (left turn when going east) and is fully paved between 86 and 82. Hess road starts east of Oxbow and is a gravel road that eventually intersects FR39 about 15-20 miles north of Highway 86. It appears that Iggy simply missed the turn before Oxbow and took the much longer and more difficult Hess road to get on FR39.

 

[Ignacio]

I'm also pretty sure if I were to back to this area and ride with a bit more time, unpanicked as the minutes until mark counted down on the GPS, and not so focused on squiggly lines of the GPS--I could have threaded together better pavement opportunities. That area of the world ain't exactly main streetAmerica and has lots of squiggly trails around it. As it was, it made for great drama while the southern route riders passed me in points.

Maybe I am stating the obvious but FR39 starts about 4 miles west of Oxbow (left turn when going east) and is fully paved between 86 and 82. Hess road starts east of Oxbow and is a gravel road that eventually intersects FR39 about 15-20 miles north of Highway 86. It appears that Iggy simply missed the turn before Oxbow and took the much longer and more difficult Hess road to get on FR39.

Yes and No. It's obvious now with the hindsight of a full map and/or knowledge of the area, but it was not obvious then. The GPS said to go right at Oxbow (as well as Streets & Trips and Google on one or more occasion by the way....they seem intermittent about which way to go) and the road was paved for some miles after Oxbow. It wasn't until it turned to a gravel road somewhere about "Homestead" that I began to wonder, and by the time I got to the end of the fast gravel to see Hess climbing steeply up the hill with a warning sign about non 4x4 vehicles that.....it was too late to turn around and go back to the fully paved route. At that point it was 56 miles to Wallowa via Hess and still doable even factoring in the slow switch-back road. To backtrack would have been 81 miles and either not possible or too close to the 1/2 hour after sunset rule IMO. Yes, it would have been better and easier to go left, but I didn't go left...I went right. I also doubt a majority riding the rally would have gone left....except maybe somebody like Owen that knows every square inch of the continent to begin with.

Once I went right, it was the right choice to go up Hess and I still bagged 2500 points before nightfall.

WAL
2500 points
Wallowa Lake Tramway
59919 Wallowa Lake Road
Joseph OR
45.271-117.2072
Daylight only
This is the steepest vertical lift for a 4 passenger gondola in North America.
Take a photo of one of the tramway cars.

 

[MCRIDER007]

I meant it was obvious now, or obvious for those like myself who have ridden FR39 a dozen times. Its also obvious that the GPS never should have directed you to Oxbow since taking 39 directly from 86 (before Oxbow) is both the shortest and fastest route to Joseph....but we all know that the GPS directions in rural areas can be unreliable. Once the pavement ended it probably would have been faster and safer for you to backtrack to the beginning of 39...... but if you had known where 39 started then you would have made the turn before you got to Oxbow....as it was, you made the best decision with the information that was available to you and rode a fully loaded FJR where it was not designed to go.

I have never been on Hess road, think I will check it out sometime, but when I do I will be riding my S10.

 

[RiderX]

I think many riders were thrown off by the late start from CP #2. I saw a route that looked custom made for my riding:Colorado/TX/Key West/NC

BUTT...

Didn't want to chance finisher status.

I asked Jim Owens at the finish what he thought,

He replied "Winning route- he would have done"

Josh almost took it. The instant gratification of some CA boni was a real draw though.

It wasn't the Cali bonuses, it was just too late in the morning. Had we got the bonus listings when we expected them or had I been a little quicker or had I been better packed by 6am, I could have made the flaming lips by sunset plus 30 minutes. As it was, the math didn't make sense by about 30 minutes (pushing it hard)

I'm not complaining, just some thoughts. Happy enough to complete leg3 ride as it stood or sure.

 

[dcarver]

Mountain, you dah Man!

Oceanside, huh?

Next biz trip that way I'm buying you dinner.

Congrats on a great ride.

 

[RiderX]

Thank you grand Candy ***.

Out by Joshua Tree weekdays and Oside weekends these days. I accept!

 

[Dan S]

Matt, great fun following your ride. But I can't figure out your 3rd leg score. I can't get the OR, WA, BC, MN, WI, IL, and IN points to add up. Even adding all the Bay Area CA points don't seem to be enough to get very close to 31000 points. And, Eric commented somewhere that he was headed to Oregon after collecting the points in SF. Was he planning to skip some, like maybe the Sidney bonus. Looks like to me that some of the riders that didn't make Astoria before dark didn't make it home in time.

 

[Duster19]

Matt,

That's the kind of road that I ran into too many times on Dam Tours. You have way bigger "balls" than I do. I know why you took Hess Rd. but I've turned around many times in the past few Dam Tour rides because of **** like that. The FJR, is a beast of a machine when off the paved road.

Dave

PS. Either way, great ride and I'll continue to cheer you on.

 

[Ignacio]

Matt, great fun following your ride. But I can't figure out your 3rd leg score. I can't get the OR, WA, BC, MN, WI, IL, and IN points to add up. Even adding all the Bay Area CA points don't seem to be enough to get very close to 31000 points. And, Eric commented somewhere that he was headed to Oregon after collecting the points in SF. Was he planning to skip some, like maybe the Sidney bonus. Looks like to me that some of the riders that didn't make Astoria before dark didn't make it home in time.

4 hours and 20 minutes of a rest bonus (I didn't understand the language and thought bedding down at 8:20 the night before still got me credit...I got about half), call-in, just two bonuses by Sacramento, ALL the PNW stuff (Wallowa, Astoria, Tacoma, Seattle, Sydney, Vancouver BC, and the two others in BC, SPOT tracking bonus, Duluth, Wisconsin, & Milwaukee would add up. I wasn't able to nail down the Chicago bonuses in time/blown shock/concert/bad GPS reception downtown/blue lights and helicopter spotlights on me had me rattled.

 

[Hello Kitty]

4 hours and 20 minutes of a rest bonus (I didn't understand the language and thought bedding down at 8:20 the night before still got me credit...I got about half), call-in, just two bonuses by Sacramento, ALL the PNW stuff (Wallowa, Astoria, Tacoma, Seattle, Sydney, Vancouver BC, and the two others in BC, SPOT tracking bonus, Duluth, Wisconsin, & Milwaukee would add up. I wasn't able to nail down the Chicago bonuses in time/blown shock/concert/bad GPS reception downtown/blue lights and helicopter spotlights on me had me rattled.

4:22 as I recall. I wanted to cry and kick your *** at the same time. I'm not used to both at the same time, one or the other, yes.

You rode an amazing ride and everyone here (and elsewhere!) was cheering for you immensely. Very proud of you.

Oh, did your windscreen note hold up?

 

[08FJR4ME]

I am not sure if anyone caught it or if Matt did either. If you look at his dirt road video at about 19:20 you can see what I think is a big *** moose cross the road ahead of him.

Impresive and I wish I had the time and money to try this LD riding thing,

Dave

 

[Justin]

I am not sure if anyone caught it or if Matt did either. If you look at his dirt road video at about 19:20 you can see what I think is a big *** moose cross the road ahead of him.
Impresive and I wish I had the time and money to try this LD riding thing,

Dave

Something ran across the road. I thought it was a Bigfoot.

 

[orestes]

Kevin and Lyn Weller have posted legs 1 and 2 of their rally here

 

[Bounce]

Who's this?

https://inda-photos.com/2013IBR-Banq/content/SLA_1946_Medium__large.html