{"id":151,"date":"2024-08-09T08:26:31","date_gmt":"2024-08-09T15:26:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hog.thecreativeplot.com\/en-ca\/?p=151"},"modified":"2024-10-29T02:19:59","modified_gmt":"2024-10-29T09:19:59","slug":"vagabond-rider-unfinished-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hog.thecreativeplot.com\/en-ca\/vagabond-rider-unfinished-business\/","title":{"rendered":"VAGABOND RIDER: UNFINISHED BUSINESS"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A Toronto HOG\u00ae<\/sup> member returns to the scene of the crime.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Mark Keating<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Hoka Hey Motorcycle Challenge may be one of the world\u2019s most challenging motorcycling events. Riders navigate a 10,000-mile (16,000-km) course, mainly along secondary roads, following turn-by-turn directions \u2013 no GPS allowed. Participants must ride American V-twins and sleep outdoors within arm\u2019s reach of their bikes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many don\u2019t finish. There are mechanical, medical, and voluntary withdrawals, plus disqualifications. In 2022, I was one of the unlucky ones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I shared the details of the crash that ended my Hoka Hey Challenge in the August 2022 HOG\u00ae<\/sup> newsletter. The short version is that I was helicoptered to a trauma centre in Phoenix to have my right arm reassembled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the intervening two years, I\u2019ve felt like I had unfinished business, like I needed to finish the course. So, on July 1, 2024, I restarted the 2022 Hoka Hey route right from where I crashed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I committed to honour the challenge rules from the crash site to the end of the course \u2013 a little over 9,000 km through the western United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I started by riding north and west around the Grand Canyon to Zion Harley-Davidson in St. George, Utah, where I set up my camp cot in the parking lot for my first night\u2019s rest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At dawn, I unsealed the directions for stage 3 of the course: 5,000 km through six states to Boise, Idaho. Through southern Utah, the altitude tempered the building heat. But as I dropped into the vast Nevada landscape, the outside temperature gauge on my 2011 Harley-Davidson\u00ae<\/sup> Road Glide\u00ae<\/sup> Ultra hit the top of its range. Remembering my 2022 mistakes, I rested in air-conditioned locations and focused on hydration. Finally, I settled in to sleep behind a community centre in Tenopah, Nevada.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An hour into the next day\u2019s ride, I came upon a line of traffic at a dead stop. I learned from a group of other Harley\u00ae<\/sup> riders that an accident had closed the route almost eight hours before. Rather than take a five-hour detour, I chose to wait for the road to open. Thankfully, less than two hours later I was moving again, having spent my wait time hydrating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I continued generally northwest, entering California south of Lake Tahoe \u2013 where July 4th traffic slowed progress. Thankfully, the course soon diverted to less popular roads and I was able to cruise to an 11 p.m. finish, setting up camp behind the Walmart in Yreka.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The next morning I travelled north into Oregon, passing Crater Lake before turning west. I rode more than 500 km along the Pacific Coast, enjoying the cool breeze. I turned inland again at the state\u2019s northern edge, following the Columbia River through Portland. I continued up the Columbia River Valley until 11 p.m., tucking myself safely away at the edge of a truck stop in Umatilla.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I rose at dawn, travelling mostly east and south towards the third checkpoint in Boise. My bike was overdue for a service, so I popped into High Desert Harley-Davidson for a 3-hole oil change. While they worked, I got into fresh clothes, drank some water, enjoyed the air-conditioning, and unsealed my final set of route instructions: 3,500 km to the finish in Hot Springs, at the southern end of the Black Hills of South Dakota.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the remainder of the day, I rode from valley to valley, enjoying the altitude, cooler temperatures, and stunning views of rural Idaho. By 11 p.m. I had traversed most of the state, and settled in behind a school in Terreton.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I woke with a mix of hope and trepidation that the route would take me over the Teton Pass. A few weeks prior a landslide had disappeared a portion of that road. I was fearful it might not be open, or that it would be slow going on a temporary road. The route did go over the pass, but it was repaired so well I remain unsure where it had to be rebuilt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From Jackson, the route turned south, crossing back into Oregon before re-entering the northeast corner of Utah. State Route 39 out of Ogden looked to offer miles of twists as it climbed out of the city. But once again, I found myself stopped behind traffic. Then, I heard the sirens. Word soon spread that a rockslide ahead would take the remainder of the day to clear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Busting out my paper maps (remember, no GPS!), I cross-referenced the directions and discovered my only reasonable option was to detour via the interstate to a point an hour east and pick up the route near Evanston, Wyoming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Wyoming is vast and sparsely populated. When travelling by motorcycle, alone, on mostly secondary roads, this can be nerve-wracking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I refuelled at every opportunity. Still, watching my fuel gauge approach empty on a dark, isolated highway, I wondered whether I had missed a station. My last hope was Jeffrey City, which according to signage was within range of my remaining fuel. But I saw no gas station in Jeffrey. Consulting my maps by flashlight, I realized I did not have enough to get to the next city. I also did not have enough to backtrack. To my great relief, I finally found a single, unlit but functional fuel pump next to a decrepit building.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, I settled in under the stars at a roadside memorial to the Oregon Trail. When thundershowers rolled through, I quickly assembled my tent and climbed in, a little damp.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By morning, the rain had stopped, but the remaining clouds were gloriously lit as the sun crested the Rattlesnake Mountains. I headed mostly northeast towards South Dakota. By midday I had passed Devil\u2019s Tower and into the Black Hills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The route headed east through Rapid City to the Badlands, where it U-turned westward. Thunderstorms whipped up ferocious winds and sand. At points visibility was near zero, and I made slow progress using the edges of the roads as guides. Once I was out the other side, I faced one final challenge: the Needles Highway. Knowing I was close to the finish, I settled in and enjoyed the ride.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the sun set, I rode into Hot Springs, finding the finish in Centennial Park. Two years earlier, I would have arrived to a reception committee. As it was, I took a few pictures and let what I had done sink in. While I hadn\u2019t earned my \u201cfinisher\u201d designation, I had, perhaps, expunged the demons that haunted me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Pictures featuring the 2005 Road King\u00ae<\/sup> are from the 2022 event (pre-crash). Pictures featuring the 2011 Road Glide are from 2024. The course map shows the full route: pre-crash (2022) in fainter black, and post-crash (2024) with the tracking \u201cbreadcrumbs.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lifetime HOG Member Mark Keating (IG: @markwkeating<\/a>) has explored (almost) every corner of North America on his Harley-Davidson\u00ae<\/sup> motorcycles. As winner of the 2020 & 2021 HOG\u00ae<\/sup> Canada ABCs of Touring challenge and holder of 49 Iron Butt Association (IBA) certificates \u2013 including three \u201cfirst-ever\u201d \u2013 Mark has officially found his happy place with a proverbial full tank.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A Toronto HOG\u00ae member returns to the scene of the crime.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":184,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[11],"class_list":["post-151","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-riding"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hog.thecreativeplot.com\/en-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hog.thecreativeplot.com\/en-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hog.thecreativeplot.com\/en-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hog.thecreativeplot.com\/en-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hog.thecreativeplot.com\/en-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=151"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/hog.thecreativeplot.com\/en-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":197,"href":"https:\/\/hog.thecreativeplot.com\/en-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151\/revisions\/197"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hog.thecreativeplot.com\/en-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/184"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hog.thecreativeplot.com\/en-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hog.thecreativeplot.com\/en-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hog.thecreativeplot.com\/en-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}