< From Rallymaster John Humphrey >
First, I would like to thank my unnamed co-conspirator for this rally, my wife Derris Humphrey who helped measure the rally, type up the rally, handle registration and hand out the trophies!
Second, I would like to thank the 9 teams who came out to participate in the rally. Special recognition goes out to car 17, Jordan and Derek for taking a 19.5 minute time dec at the rally start to allow for the navigator (who shall remain nameless) to arrive.
At the driver’s talk, I informed all rallyists about wildlife one might encounter and to be avoided on the rally route. There were encounters with deer, elk and suicide rabbits on the course. And I can report, no animals nor rallyists were injured on the Friday Nighter!
From the Park-n-Ride, the odometer check transit zone headed East to Issaquah, South on WA-900 and East on May Valley Road and ended at the classic location just past the fire station. The rally proceeded East on May Valley to Issaquah Hobart Road to Tiger Mountain Road, and Leg 1’s Checkpoint.
Leg 2 proceeded South, past the Yellow Submarine (less the Beatles) to Ravensdale. The course then went east to Kanaskat. It was just after the BPA Electrical Substation that Derris & I had to brake for an elk cow and her calf who cautiously crossed the road. The rally continued past Kanaskat with Leg 2’s Checkpoint located just outside of Kanaskat-Palmer State Park.
Leg 3 traveled South on Kanaskat-Cumberland Road, turning towards the Green River Gorge Road/Enumclaw-Franklin Road outside of Cumberland. The route then turned South onto the Enumclaw-Franklin Road with Leg 3 Checkpoint.
Leg 4 continued South on Enumclaw-Franklin Road, then turning West crossing WA 169 (Enumclaw-Black Diamond Road.) About 1 mile after crossing WA 169, we saw 2 deer feeding on low hanging fruit in trees!! Rallyists turned right on 212th Way SE heading toward Leg 4 Checkpoint before the Green River bridge.
Leg 5 turned right onto Green River Valley Road heading back towards WA 169, where Derris and I encountered a suicidal rabbit, whom we missed by a “hare” (pun intended) or is it hair? The course then turned North on WA-169 through Black Diamond and right onto Black Diamond-Ravensdale Road with Leg 5’s Checkpoint located outside the Ravensdale Park.
Leg 6 route then crossed Kent Kangley Road where rallyists turned left toward Summit Landsburg Road for Leg’s 6 and 7 Checkpoints.
While Legs 1 through 6 had no intentional traps, Leg 7 had an old NRI ‘out-of-sequence’ trap. Rally route instructions are to be executed in numerical order. Experienced rallyists know to check and make sure at the start that there are no out of sequence or missing NRI’s.
Then it was a very short transit to pizza and a cold drink.
Administratively, with our small number of rallyists, I chose 2 minute spacing between cars. This is why contestants had odd numbers assigned to them for the Richta Application. I did this to potentially eliminate the traffic jams at checkpoint outcones due to rallyists arriving early or late and then restarting after the checkpoint pauses. The two minute spacing of rallyists was endorsed by rallyists to control the traffic jams at the controls and outcones.
Thank you again for attending and see you all back again in September. Remember, we take a rally vacation in August.
John Humphrey
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