My Iron Butt ride

My Iron Butt ride (the Saddle Sore 1000)

For those of you who don't know about the Iron Butt Association, let me give you a very quick introduction. It's a very loose knit association of motorcycle riders who ride long rides. Very long rides. If you're adventurous (stupid?) enough to take on this challenge, they will certify your ride for you if you provide the right documentation. For more information, see www.ironbutt.com .

I’ve wanted to do a ride like this for quite some time. You have the right to call me adventurous or stupid - the choice is yours, and I won't be offended either way. After reading up a bit on the Iron Butt Association the opportunity presented itself. We were planning a week long vacation to visit my parents in Vancouver, WA. I decided to take the bike up while my wife and kids drove the car. The drive up I-5 is no more than 650 or 700 miles, I knew I’d have to take some fairly substantial detours. I decided to hit as many big Western states as I could in something close to 1100 miles. After planning out my route, here’s what I did:

The plan was to start out in Placerville, California, go East to Carson City, Nevada, head North to Burns, Oregon, then East to Weiser, Idaho, West along the Columbia River George, then finally cross into Vancouver, Washington where my parents live.

This is the start of the trip, taken in my garage.

I got gas at the Chevron very close to my house at 37230 miles.

From here, I took Hwy 49 to I-80 and went East over the Sierras. In Truckee, I took 267 to skirt the North end of Lake Tahoe. I knew my route would be covering a substantial amount of (boring) desert, so I wanted to see some pretty vistas before hitting the big flats. This little excursion was actually somewhat of a mistake, as it was pretty slow going around the lake due to the population and low speed limits in the Lake Tahoe region.

Here’s a picture taken at King’s Beach with Lake Tahoe behind my 929.

I continued on Hwy 28 to 50, and took that East to Carson City, NV. Gas stop at 37374 miles. I was hoping to get a picture of me entering Nevada, but I missed it somehow. I'll blame it on the low speed limit as I went along Lake Tahoe. You know, watching the speed makes you miss what you're looking for... right?

From Carson City, I took 395 North. Here’s the sign where I entered back into California. We’re in the desert now!

Next gas stop was Janesville, CA at 37477 miles.

Here’s a picture of Goose Lake. The desert is really kind of pretty – it just takes a lot of riding in a straight line to enjoy it. I got to spend quite a few miles looking at Goose Lake as I entered Oregon.

I continued on 395 where I gassed up in Lakeview, Oregon at 37633 miles.

Here’s what some of Eastern Oregon looks like. I must confess to taking some liberties with respect to the posted speed limits on this ride. This road was one of those occasions. I was careful to keep things in two digits since my goal was to complete the SS1000 safely – not to see how fast my 929 could go.

I gassed up in Hines, Oregon – just outside of Burns at 37770 miles. From Burns I took Hwy 20 East towards the 4^th state on my quest – Idaho. Highway 20 was a refreshing road that actually had a turn or two in it.

I was born in Weiser, ID, and I thought this would be a perfect opportunity to pay homage to my place of birth. So I bought some gas there at 37924 miles, and took a little more time than normal talking to some of the locals.

Here’s the house my Dad grew up in. It’s really sad to see it this run down. Just to the right of the house you can see a huge stump that used to be a black walnut tree. My Grandfather used to feed the squirrels that lived in that tree. The very best cherry pies I’ve ever eaten were made in this house by my Grandmother. She made pie crusts and pasta from scratch, by hand.

I really enjoyed riding through Eastern Oregon and Idaho. The lifestyle of people is very different from what I’ve become accustom to in California. There are a lot of small, traditional farms where you see people who actually farm on their own property as they raise their families. People don’t seem to be in a rush, and they’re not all that interested in acquiring material “stuff”. Maybe that’s just an incorrect observation as I flew through there on my little red rocket, but it was very cool.

From Weiser, I made my way back into Oregon and I-84, where I headed for the final stretch toward my destination. The next gas stop was Pendleton, OR at 38086 miles. Here’s a picture of the sun setting from the beautiful setting of the Colombia River Gorge. It’s hard to describe the beauty of this region. It’s also hard to describe just how good it felt to get off the bike and take this picture.

My next gas stop was in Troutdale, OR at 38283 miles. I ended up going quite a bit further on this tank of gas. It was the first time the low fuel light actually came on – at 177 miles. The bike was getting very good mileage. By the time I entered the State of Washington, it was dark so I didn’t get a picture of that state sign.

Here’s the finish of the trip for a grand total of 1,084 miles as indicated by my odometer. I wandered around Vancouver just a bit trying to remember the directions to my parent’s house – finally stopping to take a peek at a local map. Total time was right around 19 hours, my fuel mileage was just over 45 mpg, the high just over 50 mpg!

My wife and two daughters had arrived about ½ hour before I did, although they left about 7 hours after I left. I-5 is good for something. Just not me.

My Dad filled out the finish form for the trip, and it was off to bed for me.

I could not have been happier with the performance of the 929 on this trip. I do think a Corbin seat would have been nice as would have been higher bars and lower pegs, but the stock setup worked very well for me. The only comfort modifications I’ve done to the bike are heavier bar ends to quell some vibrations and heated grips.

I have read quite a few testimonials from Iron Butt members, and must say that I consider it an honor to be in their company. As proud as I am of my accomplishment, many of them have accomplished much more, and my hat’s off to them.