Lost rider.: January 2013

Iron Butt Challenge 12-29-12
1000 miles in 24 (but we did it in 18 hours)

Me.. 2008 BMW R1200 GS Adventure
Saken.. 2012 Triumph Explorer 1200

The idea to do the Iron Butt Challenge has been rattling around in my head for some time now. Always wanted to try it but never had the chance.. So when I purchased my new bike I knew I had to do it then. I set the time to do the ride in January as a New Year kick off. But then a good riding friend wanted to join me. Which was perfect because it's always nice to have a riding partner on long trips. The long highways go by faster and it's safer to travel in packs. His name is Saken and he rode is semi new 2012 Triumph Explorer 1200. I only say semi new because even though he purchased it new he's already put a crap load of miles on it. And of course I had my 2008 BMW R1200 GS Adventure. We got together went over a few route options, times and locations. After Multiple changes and checkpoints we finally got a route planned that worked well. The date changed to December 29, 2012. Sakens birthday. So HAPPY BIRTHDAY SAKEN. Now with everything decided we are now off..

Our route is Apex NC, Far side of Nashville TN, Chattanooga TN, Birmingham AL, Montgomery AL, and Finish in Roswell GA (just north of Atlanta). total of 1080 miles.

DAY 1
Leaving Saturday at 3 am (yes we left that early). We met at the Kangaroo gas station up the street in apex to fill up and for our first checkpoint. All gassed up and partly awake the temperature really wasn't that bad. I'd say it was around 39 degrees but it was starting to sprinkle which we were expecting. We suited up the rain gear and took off. Not long we hit rain (as expected). We rode though Asheville NC and through the 40 bypass into Tennessee it got extremely foggy. It got so bad we could only see about 20 feet and was forced to reduce speed drastically. Cars were vanishing next to us. Kinda cool but also scary at the same time. I'm sure other drivers thought we were crazy. Once the sun came up you would have thought things would have gotten better. Nope. Temperature got around 32 and pretty much stayed there. Cruising along it started to snow and never really stopped. It snowed and rained and snowed more. We hit Chattanooga TN and got excited. Finally we can head south and hopefully it will get warmer and no more snow. Well as we traveled down Highway 59 it only seemed to get colder. My dash temperature sensor got down to 30 and I had a wet left foot the the rain. So you can imagine my left foot was freezing cold. As we stopped at out checkpoints seeing the looks on peoples faces were pretty entertaining. We even had one local cop come up and ask us what we were doing as it was snowing outside. Rolling into Birmingham we came across a horrible wreck. Brake lights for miles and dead stop traffic. We made it through and looking at the car we saw. it was half in a tree and just completely destroyed. Looking at it you wouldn't have imagined the driver would have survived but he left with life support and will pry be recovering for awhile. My guess he was either texting while driving or driving like a crazy person. zipping down through Birmingham and then Montgomery Alabama our spirits were rising. Almost to Atlanta where we can finally lay down, get warm and have a hot meal. My diet for the whole day was Red Bull, 5 hour energy shots, power bars and coffee. So a hot meal was like a gold to me at this point. Sun setting we are still riding. Hard to believe we have been riding non-stop since 3 am. Crazy where the day has gone. Oh and guess what it was still cold and at this point sprinkling. Rolling in Atlanta GA. it was around 9:30 pm and we're done. We did 1080 miles in 18 hours and as were at the gas pumps filling up the sky opens up and it starts to snow heavily again. We just couldn't escape it. But we didn't seem to care. Our hotel was across the street and the only thing on our minds was a hot steak and getting warm. You could say we both slept like a rock that night.

Day 2
Sunday was fun day. waking up around 8am and on the road by 9am we had a short breakfast and packed up. With our morning ride at 29 degrees outside it really didn't seem to phase us because we haven't really had warm weather yet. Taking a long detour home we headed North on a bunch of back roads. As we come into the Smoky Mountains we took a bunch of curvy roads which were very exciting. My favorite view although I couldn't get a photo was as we traveled though the back roads the frozen waterfalls that outlined the rock edge looked awesome. Although I was afraid of sliding off the edge of the mountain I still had fun. But two wheels and ice don't mix well. The sun came out and warmed up a little with a high around 37 degrees. Not really sure where I was since my GPS stopped working I followed Saken who had the fancy GPS. He lead us to by pass through the Smokey Mountains. As we got there the roads slowly started getting covered in snow. Well when I say snow it was more of a mix of snow and ice. (See photos below) We made it partly up the mountain before we decided to stop and evaluate the road. To much ice and it was only getting worse we made a smart decision to make a u-turn and head back down for a alternate route.
As we stopped at the Visitor Center a Snow plow worker stopped and told us it was a bad idea to continue up the mountain because even he was having trouble getting around. We took Highway 19 toward Asheville where we jumped on 40 and cruised on.

At the end of the weekend despite the lack of sleep my but really didn't hurt that bad and maybe next time we'll go for the 1500 miles in 36 hours challenge..