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The SCMA
Three Flags Classic Motorcycle Rally
Feel like going for a motorcycle
ride? How about the Southern California Motorcycle Club's Three
Flags Classic? This is one of the best motorcycle runs in the world,
spanning (as the name implies) three countries: Mexico, Canada, and
the United States. My friend Marty and I, along with 457 other
motorcyclists, took the ride this year. This was the 30th Anniversary of
the Three Flags Classic.
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The Route
What a run this was! We rode our
motorcycles from our homes to Tijuana (Mexico), Gallup (New Mexico), Grand Junction
(Colorado), Driggs (Idaho), Whitefish (Montana), Calgary (Canada),
Penticton (Canada), Portland (Oregon), Roseburg (Oregon), Davis
(California), and back home...a 12 day sprint spanning just under 5,000 miles.
The Bikes
Marty rode his K1200RS Beemer (with close
to 100,000 miles on it) and I rode my '95 Triumph Daytona 1200 (the only
Triumph in the event!). At the banquet in Calgary, Charlie Coyner
(the event director) announced that there were 218 Hondas (most of these
were Gold Wings), 90 Harleys, 90 BMWs, 34 Yamahas (mostly FJRs), about a
dozen Suzukis (mostly DL1000s), about a dozen Kawasakis, and one
Triumph.
Yep, one Triumph! That would be me.
The Equipment
I used my Nikon N70 film camera with just
two lenses (the 24-120 Nikon, and the 17-35 Sigma). Other gear
included included Joe Rocket pants, jacket, and gloves, a Firstgear rain
jacket, a Gerbing electric jacket (it was worth its weight in gold), an
HJC helmet, Haix boots (from Australia; they are wonderful!), a Nelson
Rigg tank bag, and Oxford saddlebags. |
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Tijuana, the starting point of
the Three Flags Classic.
This was the view from our room in the
Tijuana Grand Hotel.
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| Yep, Tijuana. Just making
sure... |
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A sculpture in Tijuana. |
| Whooping it up the night before
our departure in the Grand Hotel in Tijuana. We would all be on the
road at 3:00 a.m. the next morning.
Can you picture almost 500 motorcycles at
the border crossing at that hour!
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| We had an excellent buffet in
the Grand Hotel the night before we left.
We were on the road for 12 days and we
never had a bad meal. |
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Marty and I in Arizona late in
the first day of the event. We covered almost 700 miles that first
day.
This is on the road to Payson.
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More Three Flags riders in
Arizona. There were quite a few Harleys in this event.
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| The first checkpoint, in
Holbrook, Arizona.
Shortly after we stepped up to get our
event passports stamped, we experienced a severe rainstorm. It
delayed us at the checkpoint for about an hour. After
hitting this checkpoint, we rode into New Mexico. We spent the first night
of this run in Gallup.
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We left Gallup early the next
morning.
This is a scene on the road into Colorado,
just a few miles from the Colorado border.
We spent very little time on the freeways. Most of our riding was on magnificent roads like this
one. |
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Another cool shot on the road in New
Mexico. That's Marty's BMW, with my Daytona in the background. |
| Another Daytona shot in New
Mexico.
If it seems like there are a lot of
pictures of my Daytona here, well, I guess there are. I love
this motorcycle, and the more I rode it, the more I liked it. For a
cool story on how I came to own this bike, check out my Daytona
page.
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A few miles up the road from this location,
we crossed into Colorado. This was my first time in Colorado, other
than passing through the airport in Denver.
This is the view looking out over Mesa Verde,
Colorado.
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| Interesting growth in the Mesa
Verde National Park. Marty and I hiked up to the fire look out
station. |
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Ancient Indian cliff dwellings in Mesa Verde. |
| Marty and I detoured for a bit
to stop in Telluride, Colorado. We rode through a rainstorm to get
there, but then the sun came out.
This is the main street through Telluride.
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One of the riders at a
checkpoint. |
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Our bikes, parked in the rain at
the hotel in Grand Junction, Colorado.
I used the 17-35 Sigma, with the camera
tripod-mounted. I had purchased a Sunpak MiniPro Plus tripod, which
looked like it was going to be a good idea, but it was a bust. One
of the legs broke off halfway through the ride. I threw the thing
away. We left Grand
Junction before sunrise, and got to watch the sun gradually
illuminate the mesas on the ride out. It was magnificent. |
| Pat and his mothership BMW
GS. Pat is a serious rider. He's been to Alaska on this
motorcycle.
One of the best parts of this ride were the
people we met, literally from all over the world.
We met Pat in Rangely, Colorado, where we stopped for
breakfast. We were surprised to learn that Pat is from my hometown
and he only lives about a half mile away from me.
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After leaving Colorado, we
crossed over into Utah.
The Gold Wing was the most popular bike on
this trip. They sure looked comfortable compared to my
Daytona! |
| Looking down into the Flaming
Gorge Reservoir in Utah.
Utah is a beautiful state. It's one
of many areas I am going to visit again.
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Marty and his Beemer, with Utah
as a backdrop.
Marty is the guy who invited me on this
ride. He's another serious long-distance rider, having put nearly 100,000
miles on this BMW. The machine looks as if it is brand new.
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| Our next checkpoint was in
Vernal, Utah.
Check out the way this guy has his Harley
packed. Think he might be dragging a bit in the corners?
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| After leaving Utah, we entered
Wyoming for a brief period, and then we were into Idaho. Idaho is a
beautiful state. We saw quite a few dead animals on the road, and in
particular, a lot of dead skunks. We also saw a few larger roadkill
carcasses that I didn't immediately recognize. I later learned they
were wolves!
We spent our next night in Driggs, Idaho. |
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My friend Dave on his BMW in
Driggs.
This is a beautiful R1150GS.
Check out the custom lighting (just below
the turn signals) and the
custom wheels.
Dave's bike is always spotless. He
cleaned it every night.
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| I did a dumb thing on this
trip. I left home with a plugged rear tire (I had picked up a nail
about a week before).
I was doing okay until I started taking
some of the sweepers at high speed in Idaho, playing cat and mouse with a
couple of guys on FJR Yamahas.
The next morning, in the dark, after I
loaded the Triumph, I tried to push it back out of the parking space and
it wouldn't budge.
Yep, it was flatter than day-old
beer.
Marty had a portable mini-compressor
stashed away on his bike (the guy is amazing), and we pumped it up to
about 45 psi before the sun came up. After riding about 20 miles,
though, the rear end started feeling lazy. We stopped at a gas
station somewhere in Idaho, and I found that the pressure had dropped to
about 20 psi. So, I plugged the thing again, and it held all the way
to Calgary. I wised up and bought a new tire in Calgary. |
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This is the gas station in Idaho
where I re-plugged my rear tire. And it worked.
While we were there, a kid pulled up in a
yellow dune buggy. We had an interesting conversation and then we
were back on the road. |
| The next day took us into
Wyoming.
This is Jackson Hole, a
tourist town, but with good eats. We had a great Mexican dinner
there.
The arch is made out of real antlers, and there are four
arches like this at the corners of the town square.
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A door handle on one of the many
art galleries in Jackson Hole. |
| Breakfast in Ennis. |
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| I can't remember, but I think I
took this picture somewhere in Wyoming.
This is John and Joyce, married 45
years. They rode in from Virginia to participate, each on their own
motorcycle. They won the award for the longest distance traveled to
participate in the Three Flags Classic.
The oldest rider in this event was 89 years
old. He received a standing ovation at the banquet in Calgary.
The youngest was 17 years old.
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| Another day and we were
riding across Montana. It was really starting to get cold. I
was glad I was riding the Triumph, and I was glad I had an electric
vest. The Triumph throws off a lot of engine heat, which is not a
good thing in the summertime, but it was wonderful in the cold
weather. And, that electric vest was heavenly.
Montana is another beautiful state.
In fact, the scenery on the entire trip was unbelievable. We also
saw a lot of game. I saw an entire herd of deer in Montana. |
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This is at the checkpoint in
Missoula, Montana.
This Gold Wing is actually one of the
oldest bikes in the event. |
| Check out the mileage on
this Canadian Gold Wing!
900,000 kilometers!
That's well over a half million miles!
I spoke with the rider for a bit, and he
told me that this bike is on its fourth engine. |
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Bob's RT-P. These are
amazing machines. Bob can ride any motorcycle he chooses, and this
is his weapon of choice.
When I wrote The Complete Book of Police
and Military Motorcycles a few years ago, I learned a lot about these
police Beemers. They are impressive machines. Two batteries, a
stronger alternator, an oil cooler, and ABS braking. Plus the
normal BMW niceties, like heated handgrips. |
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Bob's route card. |
| Carl and his beautiful K1200LT
BMW at the checkpoint in Missoula. |
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This rider and his wife flew in
from the Netherlands to participate in the Three Flags Classic. He
had never been to Mexico, Canada, or the United States.
A firiend let him borrow this yellow DL1000
Suzuki.
Like all of us, he and his wife were having
a wonderful time. |
| An older airhead BMW boxer
twin. |
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One of the FJR riders. The
FJR is a very impressive machine. |
| We spent the night in
Whitefish, Montana, just south of the Canadian border. We walked
into town from our hotel and found a microbrewery, and then we had dinner
at a fabulous restaurant. Whitefish is a cool town.
We loaded up early again the next morning
and headed north. It was 34 degrees when we road crossed the border
into Canada, and it felt like it got even colder as we continued to head
north. We stopped for breakfast in Fernie to warm up a bit. |
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Our route took us through a
brief bit of British Columbia, and then we entered Alberta.
The route took us into the Kananaskis
National Park in Canada on our way to Calgary.
These are the Canadian Rockies.
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| Another photograph with the
Rocky Mountains in the background. This was in Canada's Kananaskis
National Park. |
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We saw signs warning of mountain
sheep crossing the road. I thought it would be great to see one, but
I didn't expect that I would. Then we started spotting the things
all over.
Do you see the mountain sheep standing by the sign?
I stopped to grab a photo, but I
realized I had the Sigma 17-35 wide angle on the camera. I grabbed a
quick shot from the motorcycle. I didn't want to get off the bike
because I thought I might scare the mountain goat away. I didn't have the
longer range 24-120 zoom lens on the camera and I thought the
goat would run away before I could get the lens on my Nikon N70.
Then the sheep looked directly at me and starting
walking in my direction.
"Uh oh," I thought.
I
didn't know if these things bite, and I thought it might be coming over to
butt me. Or bite me. I remember wondering if I would be
able to keep the bike upright if the thing butted me.
Little did I know.... |
| Marty's photo of my close
encounter. |
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The sheep literally walked right up to me.
I took this shot while sitting on my Triumph, at a distance of maybe 4 or
5 feet. |
| I shot up a whole roll of film
and the thing was still hanging around.
I guess it was as curious as I was.
Someone later said they are probably used
to being fed.
I prefer to think it just wanted a better
look at the Daytona. After all, it was the only Triumph in the Three
Flags Classic. |
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Dave and friend at the final
checkpoint in Fortress Mountain, Canada. |
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Later that day, we reached Calgary, the end of the Three
Flags Classic, and the turnaround point for our ride home. |
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We spent two days in
Calgary. Calgary is a large and modern city. |
| Some of the sculptures along
Stephens Street in downtown Calgary, as seen through the Sigma 17-35 lens. |
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Interesting graffiti.
Certainly classier than the stuff you see around LA. |
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Another interesting sculpture in
downtown Calgary. |
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This one was interesting, too. |
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A chess set in a store window. |
| I couldn't resist this
shot.
We spent two nights in Calgary, and had the
Three Flags Banquet in our hotel. About a thousand people
attended. I won a $100 Aerostitch gift certificate. It was
great.
Being off the bike for a day was good,
too. We just kind of goofed around. Dave, Carl, Marty, and I
enjoyed several cups of coffee in the hotel lounge, talked politics for a
couple of hours, and solved most of the world's problems.
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On our way out of Calgary, we
headed west across Canada, toward British Columbia.
We stopped in Banff and had a great
breakfast. Smoked salmon and eggs. Sounds bad, but it was
delicious.
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| Interesting stuff for sale in
Banff. |
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After breakfast, it was back on
the road. We next stopped at Lake Louise. This is the hotel on
the lake. |
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Inside the lobby at the Lake
Louise Hotel.
This place looked very expensive. In
our dead-bug-encrusted road gear, we looked out of place. |
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A statue near Lake Louise,
erected by the Canadian Pacific Railway, honoring the Swiss Mountain
guides.
When building the railroad through the
Rockies, the Canadian Pacific Railroad needed guys who knew how to find
their way around in this kind of terrain. They bought mountain
guides in from Switzerland. |
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Lake Louise. It gets its
greenish hue from glacial silt. |
| The road crew in front of Lake
Louise. |
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| We continued heading west and
then south through Canada, and we spent the night in Penticton, about an
hour north of the border. Penticton is an interesting resort town,
complete with a large lake and a casino. I had a smoked salmon pizza
for dinner. Love that smoked salmon.
We crossed the border early and re-entered
the U.S. into Washington. We were honking along pretty good, not 30
minutes into the U.S., when a Washington State Patrol officer pulled us
over for speeding.
When we took our helmets off, he got this
"Ah, old guys..." look. Riding that Triumph, I feel like I
am 18 years old, but I guess I don't look it.
"I don't know why you boys aren't
getting tickets today..." he said, and then he let us go.
It worked. We rode across Washington
at a sedate 60 mph. It took forever. |
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Somewhere north of Yakima,
Washington. |
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Washington, for a cup of coffee in a local bar, chatted with the locals
for a while, and then had one of the most scenic rides I've ever
taken.
One of the best parts of the ride was our
trip down through the Columbia River Gorge. Incredible roads and
incredible scenery.
We rode along the north side of the
Columbia river for about half the length of the state, and then we crossed
into Oregon on the Bridge of the Gods. It was probably 300 feet over
the river, and it was one of those iron mesh bridges that you can look
down and see all the way to the river directly beneath the bike. I
looked down once and that was enough for me.
We found our way into Portland, and checked
into a hotel I knew from a previous business trip. |
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Portland, looking out over the
Columbia River. |
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Kelly's Olympian Bar. This
is a cool place to have a drink. |
| The owner has a wonderful flair
for interior decor. He had a collection of 13 classic motorcycles
suspended from the ceiling. |
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We left Portland before sunrise
early the next morning and headed toward the coast.
Oregon is a wet
state. We had a lot of mist in the morning riding through the
rain forest, and it was eerie.
I half expected to see Sasquatch jump out
and grab me every time I wiped my face shield.
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| Hippy Bob, who we met on
Oregon's Pacific Coast Highway.
Bob hit the Oregon lottery for $5,000 and
bought this motorcycle as a basket case for $4,500.
Bob was
taking his time working his way down the coast from Portland. He had been on the
road for two days when we met him. We were only about 200 miles
south of Portland. |
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I was really interested in Hippy
Bob's
motorcycle, as I hadn't seen a Shovelhead Harley on the road in
years. This is a 1981 model. I used to own a 1979 Electra
Glide (with the Shovelhead motor), and I called it an optical illusion
because it only looked like a motorcycle. Things were constantly
breaking on it.
I asked Bob if he had any problems with his
Shovelhead.
He was still talking when we left... |
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A good friend advised us to
watch for elk along Highway 138 in Oregon.
Wow. |
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Wow again.
Wanna see an interesting elk drama that
played out while I was taking these photos? Check out an Elk
Happy Hour.
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| We spent the night in
Roseburg. The hotel was literally next door to the Roseburg
Harley-Davidson dealer. We looked at the new 2006 Harleys (first
time I had seen them, and they looked good). I bought a Roseburg
Harley T-shirt.
In the morning, we headed out for Crater
Lake. Wow, was it ever cold! More beautiful scenery, but
bitter cold. We also had a herd of elk literally jump out of the
forest and stop directly in our path. We slowed to a stop, and they
just kept coming. Big ones, little ones, bucks, does, and more big
ones, little ones, well, you get the idea. I guess all of the Elk
Crossing signs are for real. |
| My Daytona parked along the road
circling Crater Lake. |
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Yep, that's snow. |
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More views of Crater Lake. |
| One last one. Probably too
many pictures of the same thing, but it was so pretty I couldn't stop.
The area around Crater Lake was downright
scary. There are steep drops on the side of the road, no shoulder to
speak of, and no guard rails. There are lots of signs warning that
you could get seriously hurt or killed up here. |
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It was somewhere just past here
that we encountered ice on the road. I suddenly realized that the
back end of my Triumph wasn't going in the same direction as the front
end. That was a close one. |
| After Crater Lake, we buzzed
down to the California border, almost got stopped for speeding again (the
CHP cruiser going the other way hit us with the lights but didn't come
after us), and we made it to Davis, California. We had dinner with
Marty's son, and then headed home the next day. |
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A trip like this is one of
life's grand events. It's hard to say what part of it I liked
best: the camaraderie, the people we met along the way, the scenery,
the riding, the wildlife, the memories, the photo opportunities, the sense
of adventure, or just the sheer pleasure of being alive and out in the
world. |
Here's a summary of the miles
that Marty assembled:
- 9/1/05
Upland, CA
to Tijuana, BC: 139
- 9/2/05
Tijuana, BC
to Gallup,
NM: 657
- 9/3/05
Gallup,
NM
to Grand Junction,
CO: 419
- 9/4/05
Grand Junction, CO
to
Driggs, ID: 569
- 9/5/05
Driggs,
ID
to Whitefish, MT: 526
- 9/6/05
Whitefish, MT
to Calgary,
AB: 366
- Total for Three Flags:
2,676
- Miles ridden within
Calgary, AB: 6
- 9/8/05
Calgary,
AB
to
Penticton,
BC: 430
- 9/9/05
Penticton,
BC
to Portland, OR: 468
- 9/10/05
Portland,
OR
to Roseburg,
OR: 288
- 9/11/05
Roseburg,
OR
to Davis,
CA: 469
- 9/12/05
Davis,
CA
to Upland, CA: 427
- Total for return trip:
2,082
- Total for round trip:
4,764
You gotta wonder how
many of those miles that little butterfly on Dave's GS covered!
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