Touratech Rally

Well, that was fun. Literally. I took my Royal Enfield Himalayan motorcycle out to the greater Plain metropolitan area and took part in an off-road motorcycle rally. Ostensibly, I was there on business (remember the Simple Shower from Surveyor? Well, it’s real and I was selling it). I also got some trail time on the bike, taking it out for it’s first real forest roads (and mine in 30 years). Glad I took a motorcycle training class for off-roading a couple of weeks ago.

Did I do any writing? No, but I did swing by a restaurant on the east side of Mount Rainier National Park (MoRa) to verify some stuff for my upcoming novel, Reset. Yep, glad I did – I was mistaken about some features, but now I’m not.

Back to motorcycling. If you’ve done street biking (like I did many moons ago), it’s completely different than riding off-road (which includes trails and gravel roads – they really should just call it off-pavement or off-asphalt, but it’s off-road). On the street, you sit and lean with the bike. Pretty basic. With off-road, you stand and salsa (lean on the outside peg, hip out, and outside shoulder/elbow up). My trainer had me do the salsa to learn it (literally, we stood on the ground and did the salsa!). So, now, as I’m cruising up and down the logging roads and trails (and my 3/4 mile gravel driveway), I’m moving about on the pegs, standing, with da-da-da-da-da-da going through my brain.

If you’re into adventure biking or off-road riding, check out the Touratech Rally. It takes place every June in the little town (thriving metropolis) of Plain, WA (which is just, plain beautiful), just a mere half-hour north of Leavenworth (Washington State’s faux Bavaria).