By Tom Niemela
My mornings always start with a semblance of a mocha, so after I left Fourbucks (my new name for Starbucks, since you can’t leave without paying at least $4 for something), I figured I’d at least drive on over to the Lobo’s start area in Oregon City. My woman already had plans on things for us to do today, and I’d already burnt up a lot of kitchen passes setting up for my Black Dog Dualsport the week prior, so I drove over and hung around.
Lobos members Billy Toman and Bob Schwarz were there to greet me and of course ask where my bike was. I explained my dilemma and they nodded their heads in understanding. Like last year, the staging area was at Dennis Sweeten’s Apex Motosports Shop (www.apexmotosports.com) and they had coffee and donuts for everyone. The weather doomsayers said that the skies would rain all day, but it was actually a very nice morning. Soon Dan Hatcher rolled in on his Honda Transalp and was also wondering where my bike was and I again explained to him my situation. I figured I’d go ahead and sign up and send my scorecard with Danno just for grins, and play posthumously.
After the rider’s meeting, Danno commented how the girls really screwed up by not coming out to ride two up with us, so I thought I’d call my girlfriend and ask if she just might be interested in riding the event two up, but she didn’t want to go and her plans had changed anyways and said I should go ride it if I want. Well, she didn’t have to ask me twice, so I told Danno I’d meet him at the first checkpoint and jammed on over, loaded up my spare Honda XL and boogied over to the checkpoint.
Once I finally bee-lined my way there, Bob and his stepson, Sean, was there. I snapped a quick pic of the two and then Danno and I hit the mainjet out of there.
This year’s course was primarily the same route as last year’s course and the weather was absolutely perfect! It was overcast and had rained a bit a few days prior, so no dust baby! Since Danno was on his Transalp and I was on the ol’ XL, we just took it easy and just enjoyed the opportunity to get out in the woods.
The vistas on the mountain tops was epic, although the clouds blocked out the views of Mt. Hood and I’d swear the skies got misty maybe once, but I rode in simple riding gear and only one jersey all day and was very comfortable.
Clearly there is a lot of graffiti out in the forest and don't ask about how much mess there is where people are target shooting and leaving trash everywhere! Would've taken a pic or two of that, but I'm not as daring when people are sighting in their popguns.
Once we got out of the mountains, we headed back towards Estacada and topped off with petrol. To our surprise there was a little anti-war protest rally in downtown Estacada. An odd place to have a rally, but there they were nonetheless. One of the signs said to “Honk 4 Peace”, so I tooted my little XL roadrunner horn three or four times and all the protestor hippies just kinda stared at me. 
I’m sure they thought our ‘biker gang’ was going to commence to raping and pillaging…
Oops, the sweep crew caught up with us again…
The finish was at Jimmy O’s Pizza in Oregon City and the majority of riders were already in once Danno and I swaggered up to the tables. I clearly had another pathetic score from the day’s dice rolling and so did Danno. However Billy did have some $20 and $10 gift certificates from Apex that were pulled out randomly and at least got one of those. Here’s Danno with the deer-in-the-headlights look.
Lobos had a special trophy for Steve Simon leftover from their China Hat Dualsport for getting back late after the close-off time for awards, but Steve wasn’t there, so Gary Lande took it for Steve and will deliver.
Thanks to Dennis Sweeten for hosting the event from his shop (Apex)!
And here’s some trophy recipients, complete with BillyT hogging the shots, plus the usual suspects…
Thanks Billy and Bob for another fun ride and, for those that didn’t show, you missed out on another great ride!
Note: you can see all my pictures by CLICKING HERE.
-Tom
