It seems that most people who ride rallies on a regular basis, participate in the MN1000. We were told that this was a "must do" rally. The MN1000 is well organized. The bonus locations offer variety and challenge. We are looking forward to participating in this rally again next year.
The MN1000 was our "first time". Rally veterans Curt Gran and Gary Klinker gave us lots of pre-rally advice. One of the best suggestions was to get a hotel close to the start of the rally. This proved to be invaluable advice.
We checked into our hotel on Friday, June 19th at 2pm. We set up our laptops and got everything organized for bonus location entry. We showered, knowing we wouldn't have that opportunity again for 36 hours.
We arrived at Leo's South an hour before check in. We got the opportunity to meet some of the staff and admire some of the great bikes. There was a continuous stream of rally riders arriving shortly thereafter. Many very talented rally veterans arrived. It was great to meet new people that shared the same passion for riding.
A delicious supper was served. Bart and crew then went through the rally rules. Questions were asked and answered. Finally, the much awaited rally packets were distributed. I've never seen 100 bikes leave a parking lot so fast. Everyone was off to their room to begin plotting and planning.
Jeff and I arrived back to our room at 8:45pm. We divided up the rally pack and began entering the bonus locations in Streets and Trips. There were 60 bonii to choose from. It took us until 10pm to get everything entered and converted into a useful format. We looked at our coded bonus locations and pointed to a route that went through WI. We thought that might be a good route, since we were very familiar with almost all of the locations. Going through that route in both directions, we found that we wouldn't be able to make some of the time restricted locations. We removed bonus locations, but still couldn't do it. We chose another plan. We decided to go to northern MN and Canada. The route looked good, so we decided that's what we would do.
It was now 11:30pm. There was a bonus location in Minneapolis that was worth 500 points on Friday. I convinced Jeff that we should go and get that bonus on Friday. He was reluctant, but finally gave in. We hopped on the bike and tried to ride to the location. There was road construction and the GPS had trouble finding the location. We needed to arrive by midnight. It was 11:50 and we were both getting nervous. How could we mess up our first bonus stop? Finally, the GPS got us on track. We arrived at the bonus site at 11:56pm. We purchased our coffee mugs and I safely stowed the receipt. First bonus completed.
We arrived back at the hotel at 12:20am. We now needed to double check all of the waypoints on our route. We went through everything on the route again. We both felt good about our plan. If we got to all of our locations, we would have 10,414 points. Would this be enough? We really didn't know, but we called it a night. It was now 2am. Off to bed.
Suddenly, there was the OMG moment. We are going into Canada. Is the border crossing 24hrs? Google and Skype were now our friends. I called the border crossing ,to find out they were indeed 24 hours. Back to bed.
At 6:15am on Saturday, our Screaming Meanie told us it was time to get up and go. We packed up and drove back to Leo's South. We had our route planned, our bonus listing secure and our rally flags in hand. We enjoyed coffee and donuts and waited for the 7:30am riders meeting.
In the past, the morning of the rally, Bart usually hands out a few extra boni. This year he didn't. Our route was the plan. At exactly 8am, we left the parking lot with almost 100 other bikes. It was a really exciting feeling. It was our "first time".
We stopped at our first bonus location in MN. Two rally veterans were right behind us, Marty Leir (2007 IBR winner and Tim Conway). If they were going this way, maybe we had a good route. We took our first picture with both rally flags and off to the next bonus.
The second bonus stop made us feel really great, Marty and Tim were right on our tales. We must be really smart. They were following us. We felt bad as we took our photo with our rally flags at this stop. Someone prior to us had already lost their rally flag. It was laying in the dirt, next to the bonus. We simply stepped around the flag and off to the next location.
Marty and Tim were no longer following us. We were thinking that maybe we had an even better route than they did. We soon found out that we fell into the MN1000 trap. We were going to an airport, over a bridge, in Duluth. Everyone knows that Grandma's Marathon is on the Saturday of the MN1000. Not only was there tons of traffic, but the road leading to the bonus was closed. All of the roads leading to the bonus were closed. At the time, we didn't realize that this was an old Team Strange sucker bonus. No wonder Marty and Tim were no longer with us.
After wasting over an hour in hot traffic, only to be blocked from the bonus, we took a picture of the road block and called Bart. Bart laughed and explained the joke. It really wasn't funny to us at the time. We stopped for gas and further documented our attempt. Bart said that he wasn't sure we would get the 300 points, but we should stop wasting time in Duluth and move on.
OK-now our entire route was messed up. There was another bonus location 10 miles away, but that would mean going back through the stalled traffic in Duluth. There was no way. We decided to skip that bonus and go to the next. We rerouted around Duluth. This would be another hour that we didn't have in our plan. All we could do was laugh about our mistake and move on.
While driving along the new route, the GPS pointed to another bonus location along the way. This wasn't in our original plan, but we decided to stop. It felt good getting an additional 400 points, thinking we had just lost 300 and another for 199. After thinking about the rally rules, knowing that the Duluth bonus was supposed to be available anytime, and providing Bart with all the documentation, I felt we would have to get the points. Jeff wasn't as confident, but I felt that we had followed all of the rules.
We rode on to our next bonus location. This was a memorial crash site that required a small amount of hiking on a trail to get the photo. I hopped off the bike and hiked to the location and got the photo, with both rally flags. Jeff programmed the GPS to our next location. This is definitely a time when a two-up couple has an advantage.
Off to find a school house with a dedication plaque. Once we found this plaque, we had to write down the first line and circle the grammatical mistake. When we approached the school, I noticed it was open and there was a man inside. I wonder what he thought when he saw two people run up to this plaque, write something down and run back to their motorcycle, and drive off? We never took our helmets off and we had in our earplugs. I sure we were shouting to one another. The poor man inside. I'm glad he didn't call the police.
The next destination was on a gravel road. Jeff felt confident that this wouldn't be a problem. Along the way, I saw a deer on the right side of the road. I alerted Jeff and we came to a stop, waiting for a second. No other was to be found. After riding for nearly 11 miles on gravel, while going down hill, I spotted another deer. I yelled DEER, DEER, DEER. Jeff replied, "I see it, but I can't stop that fast on gravel!" We passed the deer. It ran along side of us, as we were slowing. Then, it ran in front of us. By this time I was laughing very hard, since we had slowed to almost a stop. We decided that this "forest rat "was leading us to the bonus. We finally found the bonus sight, took a picture, and off to the next stop.
As we were leaving this location Jeff asked the GPS to program us to the shortest distance to the next location. This gave us an even worse gravel road. It was sort of like the "Tail of the Dragon", only on squishy gravel. This helped keep us on track. By this time, we felt like we were on route and making good time.
We stopped for gas. The next two bonus locations had the ability to be flipped, should we need to. One was a time restricted bonus that we needed to be at by 6pm. It was worth 657 points. We felt confident, since it was only 4pm that we had plenty of time and we didn't need to adjust the route. BIG MISTAKE.
We started searching for our next bonus at the end of the GunFlint Trail. We were at the end of the trail, but after making numerous U-turns and driving in gravel lots, we realized we were at the wrong end of the trail. As we turned around, we didn't see the sign stating the end of the trail was 49 miles away. We continued on to find the bonus. This is where we should have stopped and gone to our time restricted bonus.
How long is the GunFlint Trail. The GPS couldn't tell us. Jeff asked me to get out our trusty MN map. I couldn't find our location. As I was frantically searching the map, with Jeff shouting out lakes that we were passing, the bonus pack that was strapped around my neck, blew behind me. I didn't have the top sealed and it was flapping in the wind. When I noticed it, I scream "OH SH_ _!" Jeff yelled back, "Do I need to pull over?" I was flailing for the sheets. Jeff again yelled, "Do I need to pull over?" I grabbed the bonus sheets and realized that I still had them all. I told Jeff everything was ok. He asked what was wrong and I simply said everything was fine. I was hyperventilating by now, and I had to get a grip. We finally saw a sign that the trail ended in 17 miles. We relized that we wouldn't be able to get our time restricted bonus. Our second big mistake!
Finally, we arrived at the end of the trail. We were both a bit frustrated. We needed to find a sign and turn around, find a phone booth and get a number off of the phone booth. I kept pointing Jeff to the wrong signs. We had to keep doing U-turns. Finally, I saw the correct sign and the phone booth. Jeff pulled up next to the phone booth. He opened his helmet to read me the phone number. He was going to give me the number on the payphone, but we needed the number on top, that was writted in black marker. My pen wasn't writing. Jeff was getting attacked by bugs and was very frustrated. He was saying the phone number fast and terse. I finally got the pen to write. I also had to get the time and odometer reading. This task seemed impossible for a few moments. Finally, bonus completed.
Now, we had to decide what to do next. We had to skip a bonus and continue on. We had another quick bonus by the last US exit before Canada. We had to locate a stamp pad behind a sign and stamp our route sheets. We decided that perhaps we could pick up something else along the route back, after we left Canada. We both got a grip and were back on plan.
We had a beautiful drive along lake Superior into Canada. The temperature would drop 20 degrees as we drove close to the shore and then spike back up 20 degrees. We pulled up at the border at 6:45pm. The customs agent asked us where we were going. We told her we were on a scavenger hunt and needed to get a picture of a statue in Thunder Bay and then we would be leaving. She seemed disappointed that we weren't going to be spending more time in Canada. She informed us that the statue was way on the other side of Thunder Bay. We thanked her and we were off.
The bonus we needed in Thunder Bay was also time restricted. We needed to be there by 9:15pm CST. We pulled up at 7:30pm. We were way ahead of schedule. When we arrived at the location, I was going to hop off the bike and find the statue and take a picture. As I started to exit the bike, it seemed like the bike was spinning. I tried to get off the bike but almost fainted. Jeff asked what was wrong. I said the bike was spinning, but I was fine. After jumping off the bike on the second attempt, my legs felt like rubber. Obviously, I was getting dehydrated. I was eating and drinking while we were riding, but apparently not enough. I ran to get our picture and took a minute to drink more water.
A couple of other riders pulled up as we were getting ready to leave. We talked to one guy who we had seen at a couple of other stopes. He said he was off to find a church in Ontario and then on to International Falls. We were riding the same route. We wished him luck and drove off.
We were now on the TransCanada Hwy at dusk. There were large, glowing signs warning us of moose danger at night. The temperature had dropped and I was freezing. I also really had to go to the bathroom, after drinking the extra water at Thunder Bay. It seemed to be snowing mosquitoes. We were continuing on and I saw a moose along the side of the road. A few miles ahead, another moose on the side of the road. OK-I'm now starting to get worried. Jeff now says there is a town 98 km away. He said that they better have gas, or we would be in trouble. Before I had time to comprehend the gas situation, we came around a turn and there were two huge moose in the middle of the highway. I screamed. Jeff stopped. The moose ran away.
I was freezing, I had to use the bathroom and I was terrified we were going to strike a moose. I began to silently sob in my helmet. I wanted to beg Jeff to please slow down. I said nothing and attempted to get a grip. As we were approaching the little town, I saw a sign for a hospital. If there is a hospital, there has to be gas. We see one gas station. It doesn't look like they are open. Ok-there is still a person in there. He comes out to get us gas. I run in to go to the bathroom. As I'm about to leave, I realize that it's 10:05pm. The station closed at 10pm. We just made it. If I would have made Jeff slow down or he would have known how completely terrified I was, we never would have made it on time to that gas station. We left the gas station but were attacked by thousands of mosquitos. It was just so bad, we didn't bother stopping to add on extra layers. The mosquitoes would have killed us.
A big lesson learned here. We got incredibly lucky with finding gas in Canada at. night. They don't have 24 hour pumps there, that are unattended. If we would have been 5 minutes later, we would still be in Canada, hunting for gas and being devoured by mosquitoes.
After 30 minutes, I got a grip. Jeff and I were back to talking and laughing. We had one more bonus in Canada and then back to the USA. We would live and have a great learning experience that could have had a far different outcome.
Our next bonus was to find the sign on a Menonnite Church in the middle of Ontario. First, we drove right through the small town. We turned around on the road. Jeff hit a patch of sandy gravel and nearly dumped the bike. He recovered and we kept searching. We kept driving back and forth on the road. I re-read the directions. We saw the first aid sign and turned onto another road. We saw a school and in two more block we found the church. We stopped, took a picture. I put on heated gear. Life was good.
As we were getting ready to depart, we heard another motorcycle approaching. We heard it going up and back along the same road, doing the exact same thing we did. After a few minutes, we felt sorry for him and pointed our flashlights down the road. I think he had already found the spot on his own, we just provided encouragement. This was the same guy we met in Thunder Bay. After he took his photo, we decided to ride to International Falls together. It was nice to have the extra headlights along the way.
We arrived at the border crossing together at 12:30am. Wow-what a ride. We had to explain to the crossing guard that we had to go back across the bridge from the US side in order to get a receipt and we would see him in a bit. He was a little bit confused, but allowed us to pass. As we approached the border from the US side, going to Canada, the border agent simply gave us a receipt and allowed us to turn around. What a nice lady.
From here, it was crunch time. We had to determine if we had enough time to collect additional bonus points or if we needed to head back in order to get out 2009 point sleep bonus. It became obvious that we needed to drive straight back.
We said farewell to our companion rider and headed back to Leo's South for our final sleep bonus receipt. At 2:30am, Jeff became incredibly tired. We pulled off at a wayside. Jeff wanted to just go to sleep. Because there was no way to document a sleep bonus there, we had to move on. Jeff had a caffinated beverage and jumped around for 10 minutes.
We got back on the bike and proceeded onward. It would be really tight to make it to a gas station in Burnsville by 4:50am. We would then need to get our final receipt at 7:50am and back to the check in by 7:59am. We also were low on gas and didn't have enough to make it all the way back. About an hour from check-in, a giant bear ran across the highway. Just what you need to see when you're dead tired. We stopped for a quick gallon of gas and drove on. We drove on to Burnsville, dodging deer on the side of the road. We got our start of the rest stop bonus receipt at exactly 4:50am. We drove back to Leo's South excited and exhausted.
I fell asleep for about 20minutes on the sidewalk. Somewhere around 6:15am I heard Bart talking. He told us we would get the Duluth bonus, since we documented the road construction and called. We were overjoyed. At 7:30am, I made Jeff take us back to the gas station to wait until 7:50 to get the final receipt. Mission accomplished. Back to Leo's South to check in. We had completed our first rally. What a great feeling.
We assembled our photos and receipts and went to the scoring table. We had to have Bart approve our Duluth bonus. We got full points for all other bonii. What a great feeling. Now, time to wait for the results. I slept for two hours on the sidewalk. I just dropped. I awoke to the awards presentations. We ended up 30th of 87 starters. We
were very proud of the final results of our first rally.
Thanks for sharing your report, Carol. Obviously you learned a lot of important stuff which will come in handy on your IBR ride. I'm certainly glad no moose were harmed in Ontario.
Jeff & Carol,
I was "that guy" you kept running into. It was a pleasure (and a relief) riding with you from Mine Center to Int'l Falls. Thanks for softening up the customs agent and the toll bridge lady for me!
Greg
Hi Greg-
I was hoping you would read our ride report so we could find you. It was very nice to meet you and also nice to have a late night riding buddy. I can now edit my ride report and give "that guy" a name.
Carol
