It's September of an odd-numbered year and Iron Butt Rally aficionados await the start of the every other year 11 day rally. It is an incredible feat of riding lasting 11 days of 1000 miles per day going all over the USA riding night and day. It's only natural to wonder what it is like. To those of us in the southwest the feat of a 1000 mile day is not so incredible. After all we have hundreds of miles of interstate with few major cities and their associated traffic backups. If we want to ride a 1000 mile day we have no need for planning, just choose an interstate and a direction and ride. Consider our friends in New England with their low speed limits, toll gates and cities everywhere. To ride a 1000 mile day, let alone a 1500 miler, requires considerable planning. And an endurance rally also requires planning. It isn't just a matter of mileage, one must also go to specific locations obtaining bonus points for each location visited. At the finish the person with the most bonus points wins.
Fortunately for those who do not feel like attempting an 11 day contest there are several shorter rallies across the country such as the Butt Lite, the Utah 1088 and New Mexico's Land of Enchantment 1000. The LOE 1000 is held every year on the first weekend of October. Last year I decided to try this rally but submitted my entry too late. This year I submitted my entry as soon as possible and was accepted. This report will attempt to give an idea of what it is like to compete in an endurance rally.
Day 1, Friday October 2, 1 PM
All entrants meet at the Quality Inn hotel behind the Albuquerque Owl Café for a technical inspection and a speedometer calibration. The speedometer check requires a 20 mile ride on a predefined route. The odometer reading is recorded at the start and finish, compared with the known mileage and a calibration constant is calculated for each bike. This will be used on the final odometer reading to determine actual mileage ridden. Many of the bikes are setup for this type of event with auxiliary gas tanks, dual GPS units, map pouches, night reading lights for maps and so on. I have a second GPS but only because I am expecting my older GPS to fail as it has been acting up with display problems.
Day 1, Friday October 2, 8 PM
Again we all meet at the hotel for the riders meeting. Safety is the key issue of the rider's meeting. Finally the instructions are passed out with a list of the bonus locations and their point values. We are not allowed to open the instructions until the end of the meeting. At that time everyone will start planning their route in their hotel room. I will return home and plan my route there as I have not rented a hotel room (mistake 1). This year almost every location has a value of 10 points. There are 5 exceptions that are worth 50 points. They are Raton, Carlsbad, Shiprock, Lordsburg and the Trinity Site. To get the points you must acquire a dated and timed receipt from the location before 11 AM Saturday. The distances involved assure that only one 50 point location can be achieved. At home I look at each of the 118 locations and using Garmin's Mapsource I make a marker on the software map for each city where a bonus is located or is nearby. I do not make a separate marker if a city has more than one location (mistake 2). After going through the list I look at the map and decide that I will go to Raton for the 50 point bonus and then work my way back to Albuquerque following a trail of bonus points through Cimarron, Angel Fire, Taos, Los Alamos and Santa Fe. By then it will be evening and almost dark. I do not care to ride unknown back roads after dark and enduring the constant stress of wondering when a deer is going to run out in front of me. I had already decided to plan around that and stay on interstates after dark even though it would mean sacrificing points. Finally at 11 PM I went to bed to get some sleep. No chance of much sleep because I lay awake rethinking my route and my preparations. It was 2 or 3 hours before I got to sleep.
Day 2, Saturday October 3, 4 AM
Because we are balloonists and it was the first day of Fiesta the alarms went off at 4 AM and my sleep was over. But before I left I modified my placard. That is an 8 ½ by 11 inch laminated sign with my number on it. When a bonus site requires a photograph your placard must be in the picture. I punched 2 holes in the top of mine and also 2 holes in the bottom and then made wire hooks that went through the holes so that I could hang the sign on objects when taking a picture (good idea 1). Then I left for the hotel and the starting line.
Day 2, Saturday October 3, 6 AM
I arrive at the hotel and it is quite busy with all on the competitors loading their bikes. I check in and take my bike across the street to the staging and starting area which is in a shopping center parking lot. The officials give some last minute warnings and instructions and then we all wait for 7 AM and the official start. I am talking to the Harley rider next to me who says he has ridden many rallies. He says you must be very careful of bogus bonus locations that take too much time to get to for the points received. He states that a good example would be a route going to Raton. That would be a certain losing route because of the poor locations. He did not know that Raton was the route I had chosen. I say nothing but I don't believe him, I think the real sucker route is Lordsburg.
50 + bikes in the early morning awaiting the start
Day 2, Saturday October 3, 7 AMWe're off for our 24 hour ride. My first bonus location will be to get a picture of at least 4 balloons in the air from the mass ascension at Fiesta. This is a natural for me as I am a balloonist and I know where I can stop and get a picture without being run off by the police. I take Tramway north until it curves west toward I-25. I know that on I-25 you will not be allowed to stop and the traffic will also be backed up from spectators. I stop on Tramway just before I-25 and hang my placard on my bike with my newly made hooks, get my picture and head north to Raton. There will be no bonus stops on the way to Raton as I want to be sure of being there before 11 AM. The temperature is in the low 40s and in Santa Fe it drops to 36. I do not have my electrics plugged in and do not want to stop and take the time to connect them. After Santa Fe I set the cruise on 78 mph. At Las Vegas I get gas at a station next to the highway. It is a Shell station and I am hoping that their pumps will have paper in the receipt writers as we have to turn a receipt for every gas stop. No such luck and I have to go in and stand in line to get a receipt. I connect my electrics and get back on the highway ay my 78 mph. I am soon passed by a bike with an Iron Butt license plate frame, and then another. I kick the speed up to 80 but I am not keeping up. Assuming that they are more experienced than me then I should probably be going faster so 85 it is. This was the only section of the rally where I broke the speed limit by 5 or more mph. In Raton I get a gas receipt with a time stamp of 10:30 AM. 3 ½ hours after the start and I have 60 points. On to the Capulin volcano, back to the NRA Whittington Center, the St. James hotel in Cimarron along with the Philpott Boy Scout Ranch, the DAV memorial in Angel Fire and then on to Taos. I have now joined up with a rider from Colorado, he knows where Kit Carson's grave is in Taos and I know where the Millicent Rodgers museum is.
Kit Carson's Grave - Bonus Point Site
Now it is time to refuel and the pump will not work on regular fuel. I get .2 gallons and it quits. I run the credit card again and select premium but it does not work either. I switch to another pump but 3 tries on the credit card within a few minutes causes an error at Wells Fargo and my card is invalid until I can call. I move to a different station and use the ATM card and all is well again. My temporary partner has left me and is on his way to a bonus site in Las Truchas as he called it. Going south I turn off to Truchas but stop after turning to check what the bonus location is (good idea 2). There is no bonus site in Truchas, it is in Las Trampas and that is too much back road distance for me for a measly 10 points. I continue on to Los Alamos and get a bonus there as well as at the entrance to Bandelier. Then it's off to Santa Fe as there are 2 locations there within one block of each other. I get my photos and leave not realizing that there was a third location in the same area. Remember mistake 2? My next stop is the Unser Racing Museum in Albuquerque. I will go within one mile of my house so I stop in for a quick sandwich and decide to grab a roll of duct tape in case I need to tape my placard to something else (good idea 3). At the Unser Museum the wind is blowing in my face and the placard will not stay on the gate so that it will be in the picture. And it is duct tape to the rescue. Now comes the good part. There is a 50 point bonus if you take a 1 hour rest stop at the hotel where we started. I arrive at 8:30 for my rest stop. It was too early to be resting but the rest bonus had to be started between 5 and 9 PM. At 9:30 I check out, gulp down an energy drink and head to Gallup for 2 more locations. I get my second location just before midnight.Day 3, Sunday October 4, 12:30 AM
I stop for gas again and my ATM card will not work here. I try the credit card and it works. I guess that is because it is now Sunday. Back on the highway I am thinking about how long it takes to make a round trip to Gallup. I stop in Old Town for a picture of the Rattlesnake museum and then it is south to Belen.
Albuquerque Rattlesnake Museum - Bonus Point Site
I have to find the Harvey House Museum. Fortunately it is listed in the GPS and I have no trouble finding it. On to Moriarty and the Drunk Driving Victims memorial, also listed in the GPS. I turn around and start back to Albuquerque as I do not have enough time to go to Santa Rosa. My final bonus location is at the Atomic Museum where the duct tape once again is a big help. It is 5:39 AM, I have all of the bonuses that I am going to get and the GPS shows 1044 miles. I return to the hotel and check in an hour early. Now I have to wait to have my paperwork, mileage, and proofs of the bonus locations checked. I finally get to leave at 10:00 AM so I go back to the house.
Finishers waiting to have ride verified
Day 3, Sunday October 4, 12:00 noonEverybody has returned for the awards banquet. We get our food, select a table and wait to hear the results. 59 starters, 49 finishers. They read each name and the bonus points for everyone starting at 49th place and working up. I keep waiting to hear my name and wondering why it hasn't been called. Finally I am announced as finishing in 8th place which I am very happy with for my first rally. The winner was a man and wife riding together on a wing doing the Raton route. This may have been the first IBA sanctioned rally won by a couple. 6 of the first 10 positions were wings and 2 more were ST1300s. All in all it was a very good weekend for Hondas.
My route as recorded by Spot tracking device
Information on IBA and the LOE 1000http://www.ironbutt.com/about/default.cfm
http://www.raidersporttouring.com/faq.htm
http://www.loe1000.org/
