June 10, 2005
I finished up some loose ends at work and hit the road around 1:30 PM
on Friday afternoon. I covered the 190 miles to Greenfield in about
2.5 hours. Mr. Garmin and I did not agree however on what the second
exit on roundabout meant so I ended up covering another 13 miles on
I-91 before arriving at the Rally HQ.
I was immediately sent out to do the ODO check, which I screwed up
and had to ride again. I guess the heat was getting to me. So I
added about 50 miles to my ride and was hoping this was not a sign of
things to come.
We got our rally books with diner, and it didn’t take long to figure
out the winner would be riding “plan B”, which required you to ride
to Eastport, ME, West Quaco, NB, and Houlton, ME.
I rode back to my hotel, managed to take the correct exit off the
roundabout, stopping along the way to pick up some more film. I
spent a few hours looking at the laptop and ingesting as many fluids
as I could get down. I selected the plan B route with the planets of
the solar system along the 40-mile stretch of rte 1 from Houlton to
Presque Isle.
I felt that if I could pull that off, and get back to Greenfield
without incurring any penalty points I would have managed a good
score, and for me, a 24 hour high of 1,260 miles.
Image stolen from Adventure rider:
I rolled out of Greenfield at 6:00 AM, about the 20th rider. My goal
was to maximize my stock fuel capacity of 6.6 gallons, which gets me
from 240 – 280 miles, and minimize my gas stops. I rode within 100
feet of the Delorme bonus in Yarmouth, ME. Without stopping. My
first stop was in Waterville, ME for a quick gas-up at about 260
miles.
Actually, my first stop was about 15 miles prior to that. The
troopers were handing out tickets to the ball with great efficiency;
they had me waiting about 5 minutes. That sucked, but then 4 other
riders came cruising by. I don’t take much pride in getting traffic
citations, and felt a bit embarrassed. Hope you guys appreciate me
taking one for the team. Keep an eye on the sky when traveling in
Maine.
From Waterville I headed north through Bangor, bypassing another
bonus on Hogan road, and hit the airline. This is rte 9 east, which
used to be a lot more fun. It’s been widened, and straightened to
the point where it is more like an interstate highway. You can still
see portions of the old road off to your right and left that used to
snake through the forest.
I took a couple of side roads to cut out some miles and rolled into
Eastport behind John Tomasovitch and Alex Schmitt at around 1:00 PM.
I took 4 Polaroid pictures of the Coast Guard station before one
developed properly.
From there it was to Calais for the border crossing. I went through
at the same time as Alex with no wait. I stopped for gas about 40
miles east of the border at 250 miles. I didn’t want to push the gas
situation to far in New Brunswick. From there St. Johns came up
pretty quick. There is a $.25 Canadian toll here, which I think is
just a ploy to get US dollars. All I had was a 20. So my focus
turned from the rally to how I was going to unload all this Canadian
money. Anyway, Shortly after St. John I followed the directions in
the rally book towards St. Martin’s on rte 111. At the T in the road
I went right. After about 20 minutes I decided I was going in the
wrong direction. I scrolled up along the coast on the 2610 and found
West Quaco in the opposite direction. I swung it around, rode past
the T, and took a right at the second T. I lost about 40 minutes
here and passed John, and Alex on their way out. They were about 40
minutes ahead of me.
I blasted into the lighthouse at West Quaco, hoping I didn’t cut a
tire as I “hung it out” on a 90-degree turn on the gravel road. I
think I must have forgot which bike I was on. I had less trouble
getting back to 1, and was soon heading north on 7, then east on
TC-2. The GPS seemed to know less about where I was, or where I was
going than I did. Most of the way up to Houlton I was riding by
myself on a brand new highway cut through the wilderness.
I arrived at the Houlton border crossing all alone, and got through
with no wait. I bagged Pluto at about 5:30 PM, and my gas receipt
with 260 miles at 5:37. They let me exchange my Canadian money back
to US dollars, but for some reason I only got $13 back. So $.50
Canadian in tolls cost me $7 US?
I bagged about half of the planets on the way to Presque Isle, and
the other half on the way back to Houlton. I think I was headed
south on I-95 by a little after 7:00.
I was paying extra attention to the shoulders up here on I-95 looking
for a moose to snap a Polaroid of for the 100 pt. wildcard bonus.
About 20 miles out of Houlton I spotted him. The same Moose I had
tried to get a picture of two weeks earlier with my MD 20-20 flag
just for fun. I hadn’t seen another car for about 15 miles so I just
hauled it off the left hand side and pulled the camera out of the
top-box. About the time I laid my flag on my saddlebag and pointed
the camera at the moose, I realized that he had taken as much
interest in me, as I had him. As he sauntered toward me I snapped
the picture, threw the camera in the top box, slammed it shut, jumped
on the bike and took off. He was probably only about 30 feet from me
when I jammed it into gear with my heel. I had to stop about a half
mile down the road to write my mileage down, and lock my top-box.
Things you’ll do for 100 measly points.
I was ready to get off the bike at the Hogan road Deli in Bangor
after only 120 miles, and again at Delorme in Yarmouth in another
120. I had anticipated this and saved these bonuses for the return.
I pulled into the Citgo next door, got some gas and checked my
arrival time in Greenfield. I had about 1.5 hours to play with
according to the fastest route.
I decided to take my rest break here and try to come up with a plan
for the final push back to the HQ. This is something I never thought
I would have to do. In my planning the night before I figured I
would be at the gas station across the street from the HQ’s watching
the penalty points adding up while I waited for my rest period to
end. I never thought I’d be looking for more points.
I had a bite to eat and took a nap under an overhang. I woke up with
a half hour to go before I could leave and pulled out the paper map.
I liked the looks of a route over the Kancamancus highway, and
southwest to I-91. I’m very familiar with the roads and thought I
could still make pretty good time even though the fog had started to
get pretty thick. I thought there was a chance it would lift away
from the coast. I plugged the route in and still had 40 minutes to
hunt for the bonuses. I thought that if I made good enough time over
this section I could stop again and take a look at the bonuses that
lay along rte 100 south of Brattleboro. I didn’t, so I didn’t.
The second gas receipt for .01 gallons said the two hours was finally
up and I headed out.
After dispensing with a car filled with folks that looked like they
had to much fun for a Saturday night, I didn’t see another set of
lights for 100 miles. The fog was pretty thick so I was careful not
to out-run my HID PIAA 910 lights. They have been doing some
construction on the Kanc, so there was about 5 miles of dirt over two
sections. I got my elbows up and was able to maintain a pretty good
pace over these sections. Shortly after that I had an opportunity to
get another moose picture but I decided I didn’t have the time to
spare. Luckily, she stayed out of the road and ran in the right
direction. The Kancamngus pass bonus, at 2,855 feet, was easy.
The water tower in North Woodstock was a little more difficult. I
ended up getting the rally book out and honed in on the coordinates.
I continued east on 112 to 118 which climbs up over a mountain. I
was thinking to myself that I could let my guard down just a little.
I might see a deer, but there shouldn’t be any moose up here. Within
a half mile I see another cow. She too stayed out of the road but my
guard would have to stay up.
I came down off the mountain into Warren to find out when some fool
had put an ICBM in the middle of town. Continued on 25 out to I-91
and started the final 109 miles south for Greenfield. The GPS said I
had two minutes to spare, and I decided not to figure out if the
points on rte 100 were worth the penalty points. So, kicking myself
for loosing that 40 minutes in NB, I headed for the barn.
I rolled in at 5:58 with 1331 miles on the clock, quite pleased with
myself.
Results here:
MinuteMan 1000
Big thanks to the MM1K organizers, I had a blast, and explored some
new personal limits. I rode the most flawless rally I’ve done. That
is, if you don’t count my ride to the start of the rally, and that
wrong turn…oh, nevermind.
See you next year.
I finished up some loose ends at work and hit the road around 1:30 PM
on Friday afternoon. I covered the 190 miles to Greenfield in about
2.5 hours. Mr. Garmin and I did not agree however on what the second
exit on roundabout meant so I ended up covering another 13 miles on
I-91 before arriving at the Rally HQ.
I was immediately sent out to do the ODO check, which I screwed up
and had to ride again. I guess the heat was getting to me. So I
added about 50 miles to my ride and was hoping this was not a sign of
things to come.
We got our rally books with diner, and it didn’t take long to figure
out the winner would be riding “plan B”, which required you to ride
to Eastport, ME, West Quaco, NB, and Houlton, ME.
I rode back to my hotel, managed to take the correct exit off the
roundabout, stopping along the way to pick up some more film. I
spent a few hours looking at the laptop and ingesting as many fluids
as I could get down. I selected the plan B route with the planets of
the solar system along the 40-mile stretch of rte 1 from Houlton to
Presque Isle.
I felt that if I could pull that off, and get back to Greenfield
without incurring any penalty points I would have managed a good
score, and for me, a 24 hour high of 1,260 miles.
Image stolen from Adventure rider:
I rolled out of Greenfield at 6:00 AM, about the 20th rider. My goal
was to maximize my stock fuel capacity of 6.6 gallons, which gets me
from 240 – 280 miles, and minimize my gas stops. I rode within 100
feet of the Delorme bonus in Yarmouth, ME. Without stopping. My
first stop was in Waterville, ME for a quick gas-up at about 260
miles.
Actually, my first stop was about 15 miles prior to that. The
troopers were handing out tickets to the ball with great efficiency;
they had me waiting about 5 minutes. That sucked, but then 4 other
riders came cruising by. I don’t take much pride in getting traffic
citations, and felt a bit embarrassed. Hope you guys appreciate me
taking one for the team. Keep an eye on the sky when traveling in
Maine.
From Waterville I headed north through Bangor, bypassing another
bonus on Hogan road, and hit the airline. This is rte 9 east, which
used to be a lot more fun. It’s been widened, and straightened to
the point where it is more like an interstate highway. You can still
see portions of the old road off to your right and left that used to
snake through the forest.
I took a couple of side roads to cut out some miles and rolled into
Eastport behind John Tomasovitch and Alex Schmitt at around 1:00 PM.
I took 4 Polaroid pictures of the Coast Guard station before one
developed properly.
From there it was to Calais for the border crossing. I went through
at the same time as Alex with no wait. I stopped for gas about 40
miles east of the border at 250 miles. I didn’t want to push the gas
situation to far in New Brunswick. From there St. Johns came up
pretty quick. There is a $.25 Canadian toll here, which I think is
just a ploy to get US dollars. All I had was a 20. So my focus
turned from the rally to how I was going to unload all this Canadian
money. Anyway, Shortly after St. John I followed the directions in
the rally book towards St. Martin’s on rte 111. At the T in the road
I went right. After about 20 minutes I decided I was going in the
wrong direction. I scrolled up along the coast on the 2610 and found
West Quaco in the opposite direction. I swung it around, rode past
the T, and took a right at the second T. I lost about 40 minutes
here and passed John, and Alex on their way out. They were about 40
minutes ahead of me.
I blasted into the lighthouse at West Quaco, hoping I didn’t cut a
tire as I “hung it out” on a 90-degree turn on the gravel road. I
think I must have forgot which bike I was on. I had less trouble
getting back to 1, and was soon heading north on 7, then east on
TC-2. The GPS seemed to know less about where I was, or where I was
going than I did. Most of the way up to Houlton I was riding by
myself on a brand new highway cut through the wilderness.
I arrived at the Houlton border crossing all alone, and got through
with no wait. I bagged Pluto at about 5:30 PM, and my gas receipt
with 260 miles at 5:37. They let me exchange my Canadian money back
to US dollars, but for some reason I only got $13 back. So $.50
Canadian in tolls cost me $7 US?
I bagged about half of the planets on the way to Presque Isle, and
the other half on the way back to Houlton. I think I was headed
south on I-95 by a little after 7:00.
I was paying extra attention to the shoulders up here on I-95 looking
for a moose to snap a Polaroid of for the 100 pt. wildcard bonus.
About 20 miles out of Houlton I spotted him. The same Moose I had
tried to get a picture of two weeks earlier with my MD 20-20 flag
just for fun. I hadn’t seen another car for about 15 miles so I just
hauled it off the left hand side and pulled the camera out of the
top-box. About the time I laid my flag on my saddlebag and pointed
the camera at the moose, I realized that he had taken as much
interest in me, as I had him. As he sauntered toward me I snapped
the picture, threw the camera in the top box, slammed it shut, jumped
on the bike and took off. He was probably only about 30 feet from me
when I jammed it into gear with my heel. I had to stop about a half
mile down the road to write my mileage down, and lock my top-box.
Things you’ll do for 100 measly points.
I was ready to get off the bike at the Hogan road Deli in Bangor
after only 120 miles, and again at Delorme in Yarmouth in another
120. I had anticipated this and saved these bonuses for the return.
I pulled into the Citgo next door, got some gas and checked my
arrival time in Greenfield. I had about 1.5 hours to play with
according to the fastest route.
I decided to take my rest break here and try to come up with a plan
for the final push back to the HQ. This is something I never thought
I would have to do. In my planning the night before I figured I
would be at the gas station across the street from the HQ’s watching
the penalty points adding up while I waited for my rest period to
end. I never thought I’d be looking for more points.
I had a bite to eat and took a nap under an overhang. I woke up with
a half hour to go before I could leave and pulled out the paper map.
I liked the looks of a route over the Kancamancus highway, and
southwest to I-91. I’m very familiar with the roads and thought I
could still make pretty good time even though the fog had started to
get pretty thick. I thought there was a chance it would lift away
from the coast. I plugged the route in and still had 40 minutes to
hunt for the bonuses. I thought that if I made good enough time over
this section I could stop again and take a look at the bonuses that
lay along rte 100 south of Brattleboro. I didn’t, so I didn’t.
The second gas receipt for .01 gallons said the two hours was finally
up and I headed out.
After dispensing with a car filled with folks that looked like they
had to much fun for a Saturday night, I didn’t see another set of
lights for 100 miles. The fog was pretty thick so I was careful not
to out-run my HID PIAA 910 lights. They have been doing some
construction on the Kanc, so there was about 5 miles of dirt over two
sections. I got my elbows up and was able to maintain a pretty good
pace over these sections. Shortly after that I had an opportunity to
get another moose picture but I decided I didn’t have the time to
spare. Luckily, she stayed out of the road and ran in the right
direction. The Kancamngus pass bonus, at 2,855 feet, was easy.
The water tower in North Woodstock was a little more difficult. I
ended up getting the rally book out and honed in on the coordinates.
I continued east on 112 to 118 which climbs up over a mountain. I
was thinking to myself that I could let my guard down just a little.
I might see a deer, but there shouldn’t be any moose up here. Within
a half mile I see another cow. She too stayed out of the road but my
guard would have to stay up.
I came down off the mountain into Warren to find out when some fool
had put an ICBM in the middle of town. Continued on 25 out to I-91
and started the final 109 miles south for Greenfield. The GPS said I
had two minutes to spare, and I decided not to figure out if the
points on rte 100 were worth the penalty points. So, kicking myself
for loosing that 40 minutes in NB, I headed for the barn.
I rolled in at 5:58 with 1331 miles on the clock, quite pleased with
myself.
Results here:
MinuteMan 1000
Big thanks to the MM1K organizers, I had a blast, and explored some
new personal limits. I rode the most flawless rally I’ve done. That
is, if you don’t count my ride to the start of the rally, and that
wrong turn…oh, nevermind.
See you next year.
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