New Page 1

Black Dog 2006

Riding the 15th annual Black Dog Dualsport Rally around Mt. Hood

The week leading up to the rally was hectic (as usual). I was able to repair the suspension on the black KLR using parts from Joel's KLR and bits generously provided by members of KLR650.net

I got the repairs finished and a bike computer on the blue KLR the previous weekend, but Friday afternoon rolled around and I still hadn't packed, I needed to mount and calibrate a bike computer on the black KLR and the blue bike had a flat and needed the front tire changed. Even with Casey's help, we got a late start and found ourselves rounding the north side of Mt. Hood at deerthirty...

Casey has a minimalist approach to camping. He talked his brother, Brogan, into driving the car up. They rolled out in the back. Casey, being the oldest, got the uphill side ;-)

Accompanied by his faithful servant, Danno, Tom was up until the wee hours completing the rollcharts...

Morning came early Saturday and signup was at the crack of dawn....

Tom held the riders meeting at 7, with the first bikes leaving shortly after

Tom asked if we would give the Forest Service reps a sidecar ride before the rally. Of course we were glad to oblige!

Casey and Brogan struggle with the rollchart Saturday morning......they weren't alone in their travails.

Here DaveO tries to make sense of his chart.

Coach Stroud was there with his Ural Gear Up, equipped with special camera mounts

Cob had his race face on....

There were 147 bikes in Saturday's event; 11 of those were sidecars, mostly Urals. IMWA had a number of entries, including the Ural factory prototype cross bike. Garret let Amy try on the cross bike for size...

The start included a sound check with points off for loud bikes and points garnered for every decibel below the maximum of 96dB. DaveO's home built exhaust was whisper quiet at 77dB, It worked well and he didn't seem to give any horsepower away to the other Urals there.

The hose you see to the left of his muffler is the vent for the rear drive, raised up to avoid sucking water in the deep crossings. Clever boy, DaveO.

Even with the Super Trapp mufflers the Adventure sidecar KLRs were a reasonable 86dB

Mud Creek Loop

The first checkpoint was at CJ's. The Ural Cross bike was having some problems early on, but they were able to patch it up and continue

The Houtz boys were eating dust most of the day

The Houtz Brothers Brogan & Casey

After some confusion with the rollchart most of us managed to find the old 1916 trail. This rugged two track looped us around a butte near Timothy Lake.

Coming around the other side we had some great views of the mountain.

Some of the IMWA crew caught up with us when we stopped to take photos....

We took a narrow two track, which Danno had romantically dubbed "Toothless Betty Road", through the Rhododendrons to the lunch checkpoint at Summit Lake.

Gary Kelsey IMWA V.P., leading some of the Ural contingent into Summit Lake. As in years past, Gary is competing aboard his personal ride, a Ural Tourist he has had for as long as I have known him.

Summit Lake was a check point, with points scored for putting a golf ball into a plastic cup. Amy wracked up the points here!

The checkpoint crew served up lunch to the hungry competitors...

Casey and Brogan completing the slalom at the final checkpoint

Russian factory rider Sergey Motov at the final checkpoint on his IMWA Ural

Jason Careens through the finish checkpoint!

Team Adventure Sidecar was glad to be back in camp after a successful rally!

Amy took home the second place trophy for Saturday riders and now I have the trophy wife I have always wanted!

I gave ILSE WITTERLAND,the official masseuse of the Black Dog Rally a sidecar ride Sunday. In exchange she gave Amy and myself each a 1/2 massage. It was heaven!

We weren't able to do the Sunday event but we did stick around for a while on Sunday and see the riders off. Here are a few miscellaneous photos from Sunday...

Jay from Dauntless Motors before... ...and after

Dave Olsin has a trophy wife, too. Apparently Jan tied for second place overall but lost the Yahtzee and was awarded third

I have a few more photos on film which I will post here when they are developed. If you are interested in trying out a sidecar, we use the KLRs in our Adventure Sidecar S/TEP classes Call Hood River Community Education (541)386-2055 to sign up!

BACK NEXT