[fjmartin]

Last week (Thurs-Sun) was the Touratech Rally West in the little town of Plain, Washington. This was my first real rally and it was very fun. There had to be 800 or more bikes there. Two huge fields were setup for RV's, campers, vendors and challenge courses. Touratech had scouted out 11 routes that progressively got harder from 1-11. They gave us all the GPX data but also had sign-ups to do the rides with a guide and sweep. When I arrived on Thursday and got setup I headed out to ride #2 by myself. This was a short 21 mile route with about 15 miles of easy forest roads. After, I sat with everyone for the welcome speech and some presentations and walking around and speaking with vendors. The folks from Konflict Suspension said that if I brought my RX3 by their shop they'd look at the front suspension to see what could be done for making custom springs. I plan on doing that soon! I then got a chance to sign up for Friday's ride which would be #6 at 80 miles and about 75 of that being on dirt. This ride was amazing with two viewpoints just a bit below 6000ft. The weather was clear and warm at around 85 degrees. They kept the group to 12 riders plus the leader and sweep and this really kept us moving along. After we got back I did a BBQ and then they had a couple fire pits and beer flowing. Good times. Saturday I opted for ride #7, a 103 mile ride with about 80 of that of forest roads. This ride was more advanced with lots of sand, steep climbs, rocks, a jungle of very overgrown trees that smacked me around and a section with HUGE ruts on both sides so it was about a mile of riding the center which was about 2 feet wide. We ended that ride going to a small town which has an amazing BBQ joint. That evening they did their raffle drawings and a really fun party. Sunday was just about packing up and coming home. I will do this event again next year as it was a blast. I ran into some folks I knew and made a bunch of new friends. Everyone was asking me about my bike and I was amazed that only a few people had never heard of it. Seems the word is really out there!