These days, it is rare for an event to live up to its hype. With a constant barrage of advertising promising all the good things in life for such reasonable prices, it makes us skeptical of almost everything. Well, this time the hype was true. If you sat down with a bunch of maps for a couple of hours and picked the most fun roads to drive in a day trip from Los Angeles. Then, you picked the most scenic rural areas and threw that into the calculation, you would probably use most of the roads we traveled on this rally. The recent rains have greened up a lot of our countryside and made the day even more spectacular. As I drove up the 118 freeway, I got a little sprinkle in the face from a dark cloud. After that, the weather behaved itself.
We drew car number 1 out of a hat. That is an ultimate challenge because it meant that we would have no one to follow to find anything. I was not worried, however. I have the best of all Navigators. Ron has a terrific knack for figuring out where the checkpoints are and how to get there. He also as a great sense of humor. When I seriously questioned his choice of roads on one of the legs, he just pointed to the dashboard of the Cobra and asked me, “Do you see a steering wheel over here”? He was right and even though it meant traveling up an Inmarker road backwards (the most dangerous thing to do in a Monte Carlo Rally), it was the only way to get to the checkpoint in the time allotted.
Ok kids, write these down: Bouquet Canyon, Spunky Canyon, Tehachapi Willow Springs, Cameron, Woodford Tehachapi, Caliente Bodfish, Caliente Creek, Walker Basin. Put these roads on your bucket list of roads you must drive before you die and add the Old Ridge Route to the list. Most of these roads had checkpoints on them which meant that we were very focused on traveling at the right speed to get to the end just as the time ran out. It usually meant that we had to drive slowly and had time to really appreciate the fields, forests, canyons, windmills, lakes, coyotes, horses and cattle. Well, not so much the cattle because they felt strongly that they had just as much right to use Walker Basin Road as we did. The new Stebel Nautilus air horn on the front of the Cobra got them moving though.
This route also took in a sight that I have wanted to see for years. I read about the Tehachapi Railroad loop a long time ago. It was a major engineering feat in 1876 for the Southern Pacific Railroad to bring the track up the mountain. It somehow seems impossible that as the train goes around the loop, the locomotive will pass over the 63rd car. One of our rally checkpoints gave us plenty of time to admire the view and many got to see a train on the loop. As car 1, we had to miss that part because we were timed out with only 2 minutes to get to the next checkpoint. We zeroed that one and most of the others to take first place in the rally. I don’t think we would have made it without all the “good luck” wishes we received before the event.
The sun set as we made our way down the mountain to the town of Caliente. It was not long before the glorious harvest moon started lighting up our way though the darkness. This rally truly exceeded its hype.
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The Harvest Moon Rally is Coming!
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