South Western Regional Rally
June 14-16, 2010
Cortez, Colorado
Rally Headquarters: Budget Host Hotel

Rally Leader - Joel "Waterman" Schneekloth

Written by Joel "Waterman" Schneekloth
07/08/2010

The rally didn't officially start until Monday morning but on Sunday evening, everyone had shown up in one piece. A total of 14 members were in attendance with 4 guests from Riders of Kawasaki (Brian Gibson), Accelerate Magazine (Teri Conrad) and friends (John and Joe). As always, food is an integral part of a rally. We went to Blondy's Pub and were actually served by Blondy herself. The evening continued back at headquarters with plenty of refreshments.

Day 1. The weather was fabulous with bright skies and nice temps for the area. The first ride was to Moab, UT and Arches National Park. Utah (Jared) led the ride to Moab. It is pretty much an uneventful ride to Arches until you get close and then see the scenery change just over the hill. We only touched a portion of the park but it was truly amazing. Words are hard to describe the beauty. After a trip thru Arches, we wandered back to Moab for a very late lunch. After lunch is was a trip back to Cortez. On the route back we did encounter a fresh layer of chip seal. Many didn't care for it but for me, just like riding back home.

Day 2. The Million Dollar Highway or also called the San Juan Loop. This is true mountain riding at it's best. There are two legends as to why it's called the Million Dollar Highway. One is it cost a million dollars a mile to build and the other is they used mine tailings for fill in areas and that there is millions of dollars in gold left under the highway. My thoughts, the views are worth a million dollars. Pronghorn (Rod) led the ride this morning. However, north of Durango and the start of the Million Dollar Highway, we broke into smaller groups based on the speed they wanted to go with the plans to meet up at Silverton and then again at Ridgway for lunch. We then rode as a group on the backside of the ride back into Cortez.

Since several members were headed home tomorrow, we decided to hold the raffle that night. ROK had donated several nice prizes as well as a goodie bag for everyone. Thanks much to Brian and Teri.

Day 3. A much smaller group with only 6 of us left. Monument Valley was in our sights as CJ (Scott) led us to the desert. Everything has its own beauty. Monument Valley is desolate but the sights are amazing. If anyone remembers the movie Forest Gump, we were where he stopped running.

On the trip back, we did run into a wind/sand storm for a few miles. Really gives you that western feeling. At the end of the day, we had ridden in 4 states and Netnorske has a picture of every State sign as proof.

This was the end of the rally with everyone departing the next morning with some extremely early and others at the very end. It was a truly fantastic rally with the best weather we could have hoped for as well as the company of friends that we were before.