The season ended with a great "End of Season Party". If you missed it you missed a great opportunity to meet other riders, eat some great food, and do some fun discounted shopping. This year we owe a big thanks to Pro-Caliber, Longview, that offered up a great location for us to have our party out of the weather, and in a central location for most of us. They were also gracious enough to provide our riders with some special gift certificates for our Dam drawings, and going above and beyond, offered us some fun "pop-n-shop" opportunities, with dozens of balloons enclosing shopping discounts from 20 to 40% off part and accessories. Wow... and "Thank You, Pro-Caliber". Hope all you riders got a good chance to browse around the store and meet the great and friendly staff, and do a little shopping.

With the help of KR Family Catering (Robyn & Keith Hackett - they will have website up soon, if you need a great caterer ) and Dave & Kathi Haney and my dear husband, Jim Malisch the party went really smooth and was a great success. All this help gave Steve and myself the time to visit and take care of the business of handing out the trophies and pins. This was our biggest gathering yet. We had over "80" riders there and again were blessed with great weather.

We announced next years Bonus Dams and it seems that it has inspired many riders to start planning now. Our Bonus Dams for next year are: Pit # 3 Dam, in California; Swan Falls Dam, in Idaho; W.A.C. Bennett Dam, in B.C., Canada; and Buffalo Bill Dam, in Wyoming, that is featured on our 2010 shirt. Some great life experiences lie ahead.

Also announced was the upcoming increase for DamTour 2010 registration from $20 to $30. This had to be done to keep providing this great adventure for you. As Steve put it, you will still have the same great annual picnic, and the same fantastic end of season party, and the fun website and forum to share your adventures, and you will still be able to earn the states pins, and the trophy. So it will just get better. :-)

We had pre-ordering available for the 2010 t-shirt at the party. For those of you that missed out, we have now added a DamTour Store page to the site as well. There you can pre-order your t-shirt to be sure you get the size you need and as a temporary offer, we have added the choice of ordering long or short-sleeves. If there is enough interest we can add a sweatshirt as well. But this offer is only good as a pre-order before we send in our first order in February. The store also offers a chance to get the first ever DamTour Calendar for 2010. These will make great Christmas presents so get yours ordered soon, before they are all sold out. When they are gone, they are gone. We hope to be adding other things later. So keep watch.... here.

Well riders... you have made this another wonderful DamTour season and we look forward to seeing you all back here for next year. We will be busy in the background planning for next year, and making the final dam selections. The new season web site and the 2010 dams should be up and ready by mid-February. So while you are chomping at the bit and waiting around for us.... get those bikes ready to roll.... it's gonna be a great year.

Now the time has come to get off my lazy behind and finish this season wrap up and get some of our past albums and stats caught up, so today is my day. Some of the new albums are already up and new pages are coming soon. Till next year..... Just ride!!!

Well, the 2009 DamTour Season is officially over except for our end of season party next week. The drop dead date to turn in photos and get credit has arrived. And we have an official total of '50" riders that have gone to all twenty dams. Wow... This has been an exciting and fun year, with lots of milestones for DamTour and its riders. The year has been filled with both fun and some not so fun experiences ( a few tire blow-outs), but I think most still ended with a smile. From rain and cold, to heat and burning sunshine, riders racked up the miles and enjoyed the ride.

The last minute push during our last week of DamTour produced another " Five" to raise the total number that have finished all twenty dams to a record breaking "50". This makes it 49 riders and 1 pillion that got to experience all "twenty" great life experiences. Our finishers this week were, Dick Bader, John Snyder, Brian Casey( from San Gabriel, CA), Dan Stombaugh, and Tim Macy , who got his last dam, Keswick on the 30th.

James Krehmke and Chad Holtquist finished the season by earning their WA this last week. And, Chad has his lovely wife to thank for earning his WA pin, as she kicked him out of the house telling him... "go finish what you started". Pretty cool. :-)

So a great BIG congrats to all on a great season and hope to see most of your at the "End of Season Party". And of course "Next Season" . The 2010 year will be fantastic. Wait till you see the really great bonus dams for next year (to be announced at the party) that will give you some truly great journeys.

Getting down to the wire with just "8" more days left and that includes one weekend before this season of DamTour is over till next year. We have a couple sitting on the fence of doing all twenty, so this is it. Be sure you get your dated photos in no later than Oct. 2nd, but let me know they will be coming or no credit. That is the "dead-line", don't miss it. Now is the time to check the rankings table and see if it matches up with what you think you have done. If not, lets get this resolved before the 30th.

I am sending out the email invites to the "End of Season Party" today. If you haven't  RSVP'ed yet, please do so. This really is an event not to be missed. Good food, prizes, trophies, and the best company in the northwest. You.... the riders is what it is all about. What better place to get together and talk bike. Find out what is in store for next year. Bonus dams will be announced. Don't miss it. And check out the forum for info on camping options or a overnight stay-over if needed.

You can also check out the rankings table this week and see who lives near you, maybe you can get together for the ride over. Or bring a friend that needs to learn more about DamTour. (Just remember to RSVP).

Five more finishers this week, brining us up to "45". A record over last year's "30". Our finishers this week were, Jack Henderson, Jim McQuown, Marty Ihlen, Chris Jette and Bob Dodson.

This week we had 13 riders out doing some last minute dam snags, and they made 30 dam visits. This added 4 OR pins and 2 WA pins. Jack Henderson, Jim McQuown, Marty Ihlen, and Chris Jette for OR, and Larry Madsen , and Jerald Grieder, for WA.

Now last highlight in the news, but not the least, our newest sign-up is a special team effort. The new to DamTour is Pro Caliber, Longview. The team part, is that we total up the dam numbers from any of their riding employees. And hopefully they will still get a chance to get a group ride to a dam before the 30th. So far they have racked up two dam snags. Fishhawk and Deschutes. both of these rides were done by Douglas Glidden, so a big congrats to Doug on actually getting out to do some riding... well, other than to and from work...LOL See ya the 10th...

In to our last month of the season it is slowing down in volume of reports, but as expected it is putting in the last bit to get to a riders goals. Whether it is to finish a state or both states, or to get all twenty dams. This week we added 3 more finishers. None were a big surprise. Our finishers this week were, Lori Magers, Jeff Yarnall, and Matthew Cook. Lori picked up her last five and earned her WA pin while checking out the finish line of the IBR. Cong rats to all three.

This week we added 4 WA pins and 2 OR pins. Jack Henderson ,Lori Magers,Jeff Yarnall, and David Norris for WA, and James Krehmke , and Cynthia "Sam" Foster for OR.

This is a short news brief... too busy to figure more stats so just keep riding and don't forget to get your photos in, your intent to finish, and your RSVP. See ya...

The time has come and now . . . . "for the rest of the story"

We are winding down to the end of a really great season, with lots of stories and adventures for all of us. I have really enjoyed meeting (even if not in person ) some great new to DamTour riders this year. The last couple of weeks have been busy setting up the details for the end of season, and it "ain't" over yet. At least the important part is settled. The first batch of trophies have been ordered and engraving has started. The location has been settled, and of course the date. A flyer(by email will be coming out soon) but you can see it now by clicking here for a PDF file that should even be click able, so you can RSVP to me DT Rider, and with a link to the host of the location, Pro Caliber of Longview, WA for directions.

This is a not to be missed part of DamTour. You may think, why should I go, I only got four dams this year,or maybe you didn't even turn any in, but I'll tell you this. There isn't a better way to get more inspired and active then to attend the picnic and the end of season party. You get a chance to meet the other riders, and this year there are quite a few, and from all over. See the list in the news above showing where all of our "182" riders live. See the real person behind the forum posts, and the "dam" photos and share the great adventures of DamTour. We will have photos to look at, music to listen to, and food to eat. And, thanks to Pro Caliber (Longview) we have a great place to have it, it is centrally located, and they are even throwing in some gift certificates for drawings and some great discounts just for us. WOW!

Now just to get you interested, know that if you visited even one dam, and we have chosen that dam to draw from, you have a chance to win one of the gift certificates from Pro Caliber. Be there... and bring that friend you want to share DamTour with. And ... RSVP, and don't be late... food goes fast.

So Saturday, October 10th, from 11:00am to 4:00pm should be written on your calendar now. Don't miss it.

PS..... Important note to all riders: Please let me know if you are intending to finish by the end of the season. Just drop me a note of your intent as it will help plan for the trophies. You have until Oct. 2nd to turn in your photos or any missing photos that may be due to receive credit for the awards. They must be turned in properly and show proof of date in the embedded data of no later than September 30th if submitted after the 30th.

It has been interesting this year to pay attention to which dams come in each week. It is truly amazing that more riders don't run into each other. Not literally of course. Maybe it is because you are all watching the same weather channel...LOL This week we got reports from 12 riders on 50 dam visits, with only McKay and Owyhee being left out. This gave us 5 more finishers, one of which is our first to finish "Pillion" , Stacy Stewart. The other finishers this week were, William Copland, Wade Spence, Ralph Brockes, and Billie-Jean Williams. We also had our second "four-legged pillion" to finish. Joey had ridden to all twenty dams with friend Billie-Jean Williams.

There were 5 WA pins and 3 OR pins earned this last week. Tim Macy, Billie-Jean Williams, Dwight Gladden, Alice Rogers-Gladden, and Colin Prior for WA, and David Norris, Stacy Stewart, and William Copland for OR.

William and Stacy did more than finish and earn their pins, they did it with a three day weekend ride of 2500 miles for a Saddle Sore and Bun Burner rating, while getting their last five dams in spite of the GPS troubles(see below). Way to Go!!

We had another rider visit Black Eagle Dam this week. I think that makes four who stopped just three miles from the real dam on the list. Two of them I really understand, as it was raining so hard... they were probably drowning. The others.... oops!

I also got some grunts and growls from four of our riders on the lovely Thompson Dam. I think there were many bad words said. Can you imagine why? Two were having serious GPS trouble and I hear they were about to throw it in the lake and the air near there is still blue smoke. :-) The other two, came in from the east side (having not read the forum posts) and had a less than fun time on too many miles of gravel and rough roads. But they made it unscathed.But, as I said to them in reply, count it as skill practice. I was told, they would be sure to follow the forum more closely next year.

Ralph Brockes finished this week with a cute pink clad bear as his ridding companion. The bear was sent from his mom in England to travel with and have photos taken. Like the roaming Gnome. It came from her Breast Cancer Support group. Ralph and his wife are leaving for a trip to England, the day of our awards party. We may have to send photos of the day to them to share with her. :-)

Lastly in the news, I want to say.... hey... there is still plenty of time to get on some rides and see a few more of these dams. Summer isn't over yet... and damtour gives you till the 30th. Enjoy the rides and the experience. Get your photos in by Oct 2nd or they don't count.

More news on the end of season party coming soon. . .

Iron Butt Rally Over - Jeff Earls, Rider #9147 of Portland, OR, finished in 2nd place in the 2009 IBR. This is no small feat. To finish the rally is a big thing much less landing a position in the top ten. Jeff Earls finished with "12,153 miles" in eleven days. It was neck and neck during the whole rally with 1st place winner, Jim Owens. Jim was in 2nd place in 2007, and Jeff was in 4th place. Congratulations Jeff and Jim.

Also in the finish this year in 57th place with 9,463 miles was DamTour Rider Maura Gatensby, from Vancouver,Canada. Terry and Lynda Lahman were damtour riders in 2007, and placed 49th this year with 9,474 miles in eleven days. Go here to read the whole story and the final points and results.

And certainly not to be un-mentioned, Rider# 9038 Roger Van Santen(who finished first in DamTour this year) and his wife Karen were at the finish helping with the scoring and all the other details of putting on such a big and great event.

Well, we are entering the final days and as we head into September tomorrow. And this week the reports have slowed down. I suspect it is not even near the end though.

Important note to all riders: Please let me know if you are intending to finish by the end of the season. Just drop me a note of your intent as it will help plan for the trophies. I will probably be sending out notes to those that appear close before long in any case. You have until Oct. 2nd to turn in your photos or any missing photos that may be due to receive credit for the awards. They must be turned in properly and show proof of date in the embedded data of no later than September 30th if submitted after the 30th.

Now on to this weeks news... We have "Four" new finishers since last report. Rich & Sherri Hensler rounded out the twenty at Rainbow Falls, and Tod Coxen finished his twenty at Fishhawk Lake, while Bill Lynes' final dam was Flint Creek, and Terry Morris ended with Wapato. Bringing our Total finishers to "32". Congrats to all on the finish.

While not finished yet (but will be soon), Lori Magers, had a not so fun experience on her last ride, and put in lots of miles, and a few of those miles made for some long days. On her last day of the trip she put in 1150 miles in 23 hours ...ouch. On day two of her 7 day trip she did 860. She picked up three dams and one potential dam, plus many RCMC check points. The kicker here was the four day layover in Utah because a stupid rock decided to make a hole in her oil pan. Not to worry, she and the bike made it home as you can see by the all nighter above.

As of today, we have 14% of the Washington riders that have finished, and 27% of the Oregon riders have finished. The interesting fact here is that 62% of our "182" riders are from Washington. While only 33% are from Oregon. Oregon riders may be fewer in number, but what we have are riding. See the chart below for stats as of August 31st.

And last but not the least, we have "3" more earning the OR pin, Lori Magers, Jim Coxen and finisher Tod Coxen,and "3" more earning the WA pin, Jim McBride, Terry Morris, and Louis Dash our only rider from Idaho .

Congrats to all, please keep riding, and remember to hold the date/weekend of October 10th. .

Iron Butt Rally update - Jeff Earls, Still in the lead with 62,348 points beating out Jim Owens by only 771 points. And I didn't mention last note on this, that we have another DamTour Rider in this big rally. Maura Gatensby from Vancouver,Canada. Maura had a bad start as her bike battery was dead the morning of, and needed a jump start. Go here to read the story and report of Day 7.

Way to go Jeff and Maura... we are still rooting for you and following your progress. Maybe you can share with us about this great adventure and sport at our DamTour awards party. :-)

Hot in the news this week is Jeff Earls, rider #9147 of Portland, Oregon. Jeff is in 1st position at the end of Leg 1. You can follow the ride and reports from the link below, but here are some short excerps from the 2009 Iron butt Rally page on Jeff Earls.

"Scorers will be looking for Jeff Earls’ mug in a lot of bonus photos for the rest of the Rally. The normally flawless Mr. Earls left his top case unlatched and it has gone bye-bye somewhere along the road".

and . . . "Jeff Earls is in first place at the end of Leg 1 with 16,629 points. Jeff scored a total of 30 bonuses in addition to the gas log bonus and the Call-In bonus. Losing his Rally flag didn't seem to hurt much." Read the story here and click on the August 26th entry : Checkpoint 1: St Charles.

Way to go Jeff... we are rooting for you.

This has been a busy week. Both in the back end side of DamTour and for the riders as well. I have been busy looking at options for our end of season gathering and other details, and the riders flooded the ole DamTour mail box. This week riders turned in "127" ride reports form "20" riders. No, not all of them were made during the last 6 days, but that is how many came in since August 20th, and today is only August 26th. Mind boggling, isn't it. We now have a total of "1517" ride reports or dam visits.

We have added 7 more finishers since last weeks news, giving us "28" riders with "twenty dams". Eldon Cannon, Ritch Davis, Keith Spicer, and the wild group: Ed Recknagle, Chuck Ingham, Bob Newkirk, and Clifford Howard, all finished the quest for all twenty dams. Congratulations guys. Also earning recognition were ourssix WA pin earners, JD Bennett, Ed Recknagle, Chuck Ingham, Bob Newkirk, Clifford Howard and Ralph Brocks. Ralph also achieved his own personal best of four dams in a single day, on August 19th. Way to go Ralph... I'd say that's not to shabby on a KLR. We also had seven OR pin earners. Wade Spence, Keith Spicer, Terry Morris, Keith Shea, Eric Eck, and Glenn and Tammy Schworak, all finished the eight dams in Oregon. Congrats.

In these, "1517" ride reports, riders have hit some DamTour and/or personal milestones, and have had some interesting life experiences to share. I hear of many great adventures through out the season, and over and over again, the ending theme I most keep hearing, is .... "thanks for having DamTou"".As an example, Keith Shea and his wife did the "Cowboy Dinner Tree" experience (check out the links on the Thompson Dam page) while finishing off his last three Oregon dams. This is just one of many I receive each week, and I am hoping he will post something on it in the forum.

Lastly, I want to add a special recognition to a place in Montana. I have now received two separate emails from two of our riders singing the praises of "Sports City Cyclery" in Great Falls, Montana, and I want to thank them. Both emails stated what great service and treatment they received which was much appreciated so far from home. So if you haven't done your Montana dams yet this year,or just in the area, stop in and say hi to Scott Dailey in the service department. Visit their web site here.

Below is an excerpt from the email I got just two days ago about this great shop ...

..." We finished up! Here are 7 more dams for 9097. I will send Chucks and Cliffs on separate emails. By the way, I had a malfunction with my bike, lost my front wheels bearings at the Rainbow dam and I would like to thank ' Sport City Cyclery ' of Great Falls for helping me out. They had the parts, made the repair at a moments notice on Saturday, and had me out of there and on the road in less than 2 hours. Great bike shop, Thanks again Ed..."

Okay everyone. This may not have a lot of helpful news, but at least we have a date set for our end of season party. The date is set for Saturday, October 10th, 2009. Now as for the rest of the information about the party... it will come. Really it will.... just don't ask me when...LOL The location and the time have not been set, so for now, please just hold this Saturday, October 10th, 2009 (or weekend- ya never know what we might come up with) OPEN on your social calendar. :-) Grab your ink pen and write in DAMTOUR !!

Another week gone by with "56" dam visits reported from "14" of our riders. This makes our total number of dams visits 1,387. My mind goes numb just trying to think about how many miles the damtour riders have racked up so far this year. We now have "135" riders that have visited at least one dam, by adding Tod and Jim Coxen to the list of those ranked this week. As I mentioned in the news last week, there is still plenty of time to sign up and ride. As an example ... Tod Coxen signed up on July 7th , snagged his first dam July 29th, and has 12 dams under his belt ( should that be chaps?) already. Way to go!! We have new pin earners this week as well. Three WA - Dave Wensveen, Tod Coxen, and Tim Macy, and Two OR - Jeff Yarnall, and Dan Stombaugh. I suspect there will be more next week as several are sitting right on the edge of "8-n-State".

Seventy of our 135 reporting riders now have at least 10 dams. That is more than half. It is really good to see all these riders out exploring the beautiful northwest. And, almost 85% of the total registered riders have been to at least one dam. That is a lot of "Dam Good Life Experiences", and the most riding yet of any previous damtour season.

Hope it is not a theme here, but got another note on some left lane flat tire experiences. Rider Bob Dash was enjoying a dam chase when this happened (quote from Bob's email) ... "Picked up two roofing nails in my rear tire on I-5 near Tacoma while riding in the left lane...INSTANT DEFLATION!!! An experience I never want to repeat. This happened late on a Saturday afternoon...no place to buy a tire or get it installed until Tuesday! Gee, even lowly Spokane has bike shops open on Monday. Oh well, I made a motel owner $300 richer."

Another rider, Tim Macy, had some good luck with a dam snag getting a personal tour of the Deschutes dam wheelhouse. Check out the Deschutes album. Here is a quote from his email.... "I had just stopped and taken a couple of pics when the dam tender came out of his wheel-house and started telling me about these bikes that kept stopping and taking pictures! He had talked to one of them and knew that it was a Dam Tour, so he asked me if I wanted a really interesting picture. He took me into the wheel-house and took a pic (attached) of me holding my number with the capital dome right behind me."

On another good experience note. Rider Tod Coxen sent this note about Owyhee. .. " It was a great trip there. Stayed the weekend catching big 20 plus inch brouwn trout on size 18 dry flies, so much fun."

Isn't damtour great? You wind up having the greatest life experiences.

Now I'll wrap up this weeks news with a little "stat" table... to show the break down of the "more than half at ten" reporting riders. See the table on the right.

Looks like we are expecting a few days of hot weather this week and I imagine some riders will be out chasing more dams.

So, be safe and careful in these hot days and hydrate well. :-)

Here we are with seven weeks left of the 2009 DamTour season and boy what an adventure it has been. This year broke many records of past years stats. We have "182" riders registered for 2009 compared to "106" from last year. Although it seems unlikely to have new rider sign-up this late in the year.... it not only has happened in the past, but those riders have finished. If you think about it... we have had riders sign-up and be finished in less than a month, and we have had riders just sit and then do all twenty dams in a single trip of just 8 days, so there is still plenty of time to sign-up and ride. In fact we have one rider new to DamTour this year that has enjoyed the experience so much, that after finishing the 2009 twenty, he is now and half way through the 2008 dams already. This rider is Jim Carroll, and he has got to be one of our greatest fans. He spreads the word of DamTour and walks the talk of riding to these great life adventures. Thank you Jim!

This last week of DamTour, we had "16" riders report "54" dam visits. While this is a smaller amount from some earlier weeks, it is still a good showing, and we added four more finishers to the rankings table. Shirley Garland, Albert Blackwell, Mic ( Shirley and Albert's dog) Steve Folkestad, and Mark Shiner have now finished all twenty dams bringing our total finishers to "21" out of the "133" riders that have visited at least one dam. And of course we have some new pin earners as well. Earning both pins this week were Brian Casey of San Gabriel, CA, (who not only came back up this way to get more dams, but re-did Scooteney, because he noticed he was actually at the first little dam instead of the one 1/2 mile further west, and wanted to get it right.) and Matthew Cook of Hillsboro, OR. Rich and Sherri Hensler, Albert Blackwell and Shirley Garland, and Steve Folkestad earned their OR pins. Doug Routh and Mark Shiner earned their WA pins this week as well. We now have 59 WA and 41 OR pin recipients.

Rich and Sherri Hensler had a wild ride of 1,959 mi (+70 on a tow truck) this week. Riding two up on their lovely HD Ultra Classic, about 60 mi south of Redding, going 80 mph with traffic on I-5, they got a flat tire (rear). They were in the left lane with no shoulder and the tire went flat fast. Rich had to get thru 3 lanes of traffic to the right shoulder. It was 111 deg and made for a very interesting story with more than one funny twist of events, but all was well in the end and they finished their ride to Yosemite and made it back home safe and sound. Glad all was well and I hope they put in a trip report on the forum about this wild adventure.

To wrap up this weeks news here are a few dam stats. As of this week's reports Deschutes dam has remained in the lead with "100" dam visits so far, with Flint Creek sitting as least visited at "33" visits. You can see the visits for the other dams in the table above right. Our "182" riders are split up by state in the small table at right. Interesting stat ... we have more Washington riders (close to double) than Oregon riders, but "13" of our 21 finishers so far are from Oregon. Last year at end of season, we had a total of "106" riders registered, and "30", of the only "72" that had visited at least one dam, had finished all twenty. Here we sit with seven weeks to go, "21" finishers out of "133" ranked riders of our 182 registered riders....WOW.

Until next week, get out there and ride. Take along some friends... make some new riding friends... find some new dams for the future while riding... but ride. Share the adventure. And when you go into your local dealership for that much needed set of tires, or an oil change before your next "dam" adventure... spread the word about DamTour. What ever you do, enjoy the ride. :-)

Well, this weeks news is a bit more like three in one. Was busy getting ready for Philipsburg and such and didn't get the time to update for last weeks and some of the week before news, so here is some catch up. Three more finishers came in after weeks close that finished along with Jim Carroll and Lloyd Gardner. Riders Brian Sitton, Brian Diver and Dennis York completed the twenty as of Mid-july. Wade Spence and John Maxwell earned their WA pin and Billie-Jean Williams earned her OR pin that same week. We also got a few more submissions for the bike showcase and the Two-Wheeled Adventures album. I will try and get to those soon.

In the midst of all this riding was our second annual Philipsburg ride. And it was a blast. Got to meet some new riders and some riders from past years as well. It was great. All in all we had a total of 11 riders and one pillion, coming from Alberta, Oregon, and Washington. The town was bustling this year as it was Flint Creek Valley Days and they had a great car show in the middle of town on Sunday and a parade on Friday. And while we had a few thunderstorms and a little bit of hail, it didn't seem to dampen the spirits at the Saturday night street dance. For those of you that missed it... well.... you really missed something. :-) So much to see, so little time. This trip (either at the beautiful Rainbow Falls Dam on Sunday or the trip back home on Monday), added 5 more finishers to our rankings table. Jim and Cheryll Malisch, and Mike and Denise Harchuck ended the search for the last dam at Rainbow Falls dam. Ken Hattan picked up his last dams on the way home. Al and Kathy Lund (previous DamTour riders)from Alberta signed-up again in Philipsburg bringing our total riders up to 182.

On Sunday our ride to Great Falls, Montana had an interesting combination of riders and bikes and it was still great fun on some great roads. We had three FJR's, one C-14, two beautiful Harley's, a V-strom, and a Road Star. This is DamTour.... doesn't matter what bike you ride ... because it is about the ride ... the great country side you see... and the great people you meet and ride with.

Until next week.... remember , "Life is the sum total of our experiences" . . . and each year DamTour gives you "Twenty 'Dam' Good Places to Rides".

Jim Carroll finishes his twenty dams and says "...saved the most spectacular for last ..." , in picking up O'Shaughnessy on July 10th, and that makes him our 8th to do all twenty dams. If you have followed any of the forum, you just gotta check out his photos for O'Shaughnessy. He was ready and prepared for his ride don't ya think? Lloyd Gardner also finished but with Rainbow Falls on July 11th. I hear two other riders riding with Lloyd(Dennis York & Brian Diver) will be in the rank of the finsihed soon. They were to hit their last dams on the way home. :-) Other riders out this last week earned state pins. Ritch Davis earned his OR pin with Owyhee and Oxbow, and Mike Harmon earned his WA pinturning in "six" dams. Bill Barker, turned in his July 4th photos to earn his WA last week, as well.

Also in the news are new to DamTour sign-ups Jim Coxen of La Grande and Tod Coxen of Bremerton. These two newest registered riders make our total "181"riders. I will have to check back through the forums and see who was betting on what number of riders for the year.

Rider Steve Folkestad , made an iron butt run to pick up Toketee and O' Shaughnessy dams this weekend and took lots of great photos. He rode through Lassen and over Tioga Pass on his ride. And new out of the "goose egg" nest this week was Gary Wasserman who picked up his first two dams of the season.

Okay riders... who all is going to Philipsburg, MT in two weeks? There should be some posting going on soon about routes and dates... so keep watch. It may not be too late to find a room somewhere... so check it out. And... if you are lucky, you might get to meet the "P-burg Angel".

Hot... that is the word I heard from more than one ride report. The summer temps are here and riders are still out enjoying the rides. We had 46 ride reports turned in from 13 different riders for this last week. We now have a total of 1,119 dam visits reported. That is a lot of riding. Can't even imagine trying to add up all those miles.

Dean Durham took off on a trip after the picnic to gather his last six dams to become our 7th to get all Twenty dams. Congrats Dean. Several other riders moved way up the ladder of the rankings table as well getting either their OR or WA pins. Bill Lynes and Mark Shiner earned the OR pin this week, and Lloyd Gardner, Rod Worthington, Tony Pavlakis, and Dan Stombaugh earned their WA pins. And, Denise and Mike Harchuck are only one dam away from their OR pin. In earning his OR pin, Mark Shiner picked up all eight in his one week sweep of 10 total dams, and he visited them in dam number order I might add. As of today 48 riders have earned the WA pin and 26 have earned the OR pin.

We have 179 riders to date, and 130 of them have visited at least one dam. And at least 52 of them have ten dams or more. Wow. Still lots of time left to recruit some of your friends and share the fun. :-)

Deschutes is still the most visited dam but the season is till young. Maybe we should have pole or anther pool on which dam will end that way.

Until next week. . . let's ride.

Wow...wow...wow... can you believe it. I just captioned and uploaded well over "112" photos from the 20th to July 1st. And this isn't all of the dam visits from this time period as some had multiple riders in the photos, and some were just thumbnails until they can get back to send the larger images. Wow. That is a lot of riding. And as usual, I know of some that did indeed go dam hunting, but have not sent in their photos ( just how disturbed is the disturbance in the force, Dam Vader?)...so there are even more visits than this. All of the reported riding added "12" more WA pin earners and "3" more OR pin earners. And four of the ride reports are new to the league of the "Ranked". Brian Casey swooped up 8 dams in about as many days coming from San Gabriel, CA. Then he sends me a note saying he was sorry, he thinks he got the a wrong dam and plans to come back up and get the right one(Scooteney). We gave him credit, but he is still going to get the right one. Does he need a reason to ride.... nah. Louis Dash of Sandpoint, ID, picked up his first dam snag and plans to get more with his dad later. Peter Jutras mailed in his first dam and a nice letter telling how much he is going to enjoy DamTour. One of our newest riders who just picked up his placard at the picnic Saturday, Mike Collins, already has two dams to start his season. We also added to the riders at the picnic, with one of our guests Pamela Cundy who sign up right on the spot and I know we will be seeing dam photos from her soon. Congrats to all.

I need to get busy... so news is short... :-) We have a Philipsburg, Montana trip to plan and get ready for.

Happy 4th to all of you . . . be safe.

The annual picnic has passed and I think it was pretty successful. It seemed to run smoother this year and in part I know it had to do with having Robyn and Keith Hackett (thank you, thank you, thank you) take care of the cooking and setting up the food at the picnic. The other part I think, could be called.... 4th time is the charm. Still got a little rattled with the games. And had a bit of miscommunication on the dam tour. I am really sorry for that, and apologize to those that missed getting to go on the tour(including me). I heard it was the best (as Randy always does great). Thank you Randy Stearnes and Tacoma Power for yet another great dam tour, and allowing us to have free parking for our picnic. Steve Folkestad did a great job of reading out the trivia questions and Tony Pavlakis did great calling out the answers for scoring. Thank you to Ralph and Lori Brockes who brought some extra dessert to share, and to Bill and Gail Lynes who brought along a couple of very nice gifts for the games winners. (no it isn't required or necessary, but very thoughtful and nice). The food was really good this year going away from the dogs and having hamburgers for the first time. I hope you liked that.

We had a great turn out and almost ran out of food, but that's okay. My "stat" numbers will probably be all off as we had some later arrivals and not sure everybody got signed in, but it looks like we had about 57 people and around 40 plus bikes at the picnic, and of those, 38 were registered riders, and one registered pillion. All in all it looked like a good crowd. Thanks to all who took photos at the picnic. I have seen some of them so far and they are great. I want to get our picnic album done so if you have some to share, send them in. I will plan on doing the album next week and would love to see waht you have as my battery died. :-)

We handed out our first round of state pins just before lunch. At this point we had "33" earning the WA pin and "20" earning the OR pin. If anybody that was there and didn't get their pin please let me know, as I know some arrived a bit later after we had handed out the pins.

As I didn't do a good job on announcing the game winners... here they are now. In the "Name That Dam" game we had seven sheets turned in. Cary Funk, Roger Van Santen, and Bill Lynes got "all twenty" dam names correct. Congrats! Eric Vaillencourt got "15", Brian Diver got "13 ½", and John Berger, and Marty Ihlen both got "8" right. I think they did really well and especially since they hadn't even been to some of the dams yet.

The trivia seemed to have some brain cells working really hard. I swear I saw smoke in a few corners. We had four teams of riders. The questions ranged from totally motorcycle related trivia, to some about this years damtour to just dam related. Our teams were 1) Iron Butters, 2) Spillway, 3) Team 'A', and 4) "The" team. The first round was all motorcycle trivia, and it went to the "Iron Butters" in the lead with 10 points. The second round was about 2009 damtour, and this round went to "The" team by only 1/2 point over the "Iron Butters". The last round was a mix of motorcycle related info and dam tour specific. "The" team walked away with this category earning extra points for more detail, and were even dang close on the answers they got wrong. Congrats to "The" team for winning this years DamTour Trivia game.

After food and games... it was time for the ride across Mossyrock Dam, and then a tour of Mayfield Dam just 6 miles down river from the park. Randy Stearnes lead the riders across and down the Hwy to give the tour. I heard great reviews from those that made the tour, and big *sighs* from those that missed the tour.

That ended our day... it was great. My only regret is not having the time to sit and talk with more of you. The weather couldn't have been better. Clear skies and not to hot or windy. It was a good day. Next year will be even better. Don't miss it. We will be setting the date soon so be ready to mark your calendar. And..... thanks for coming and making this all worth while.

Okay riders.... a reminder for the 4th annual picnic this coming Saturday, June 27th. If you haven't sent in your RSVP, please do so now, and if you are inviting guests (and we hope you do) let us know. We are in the last bit of getting ready and need to make sure we have enough food.

Randy Stearnes of Tacoma Power has granted us free parking for our picnic(usually $5 for parking). Thank you Tacoma Power. We will have a sign-up sheet at the picnic when you sign in to get your name tag, for the ride across the Mossyrock Dam and the special tour of Mayfield Dam down river from there. Randy does a great job of making the tour very interesting. We had hoped to do Mossyrock this year to see the after work from their remodel upgrades, but it is still in the works, so we will tour Mayfield again, but this time with Randy at the lead. Thank you Randy. The tentative start time for the tour will be 3:00PM, and possibly a tad later, depending on the earlier scheduling of pins awards, games, eating and swapping lies...LOL. If you haven't had the opportunity before it is not to be missed, it is really amazing.

This is a short week period for news, and we got a few new ride reports in for this last week, but lots of ride reports turned in from the previous week so stats are a bit messed up for a week report. :-) But the most visited dam still remains Deschutes at "84", with Fishhawk Lake close behind at "79" visits. We have "six" finishers to date, and "124" of our "177" total riders have visited at least one dam. Of the 177 riders, "14" are female riders, the most we have ever had signed-up, and I hope the number continues to grow. Twelve of those female riders are in the group of the ranked. John Gerszewski, Brian Sitton, Ralph Brockes, and Jeff Earls all earned their OR pins, and Ken Hattan has earned his WA pin. These, and previously earned, will be handed out at our picnic. In a bit of news this week is Rod Worthington and Jack Henderson, who while in the area of Keswick and O'Shaughnessy, picked up Hoover Dam as well. In the area, right???

So guys, don't forget the PICNIC!!! and please RSVP. And remember the Philipsburg ride is coming up soon as well. We will have some photos from last years fun stay in Philipsburg at the picnic, to see what it is all about, and this year, two dams are to be had while in the area. For more info, contact Steve or me (DT Rider).

See ya Saturday.... be there or be Square... ha...ha.. Oops shows my age doesn't it? :-)

P.S. ... Oh yeah... I hope you actually read the news and the rest of the web site... :-) We are having a "Trivia" game...and guess where the info might come from.

The rains continued this week, at least over on the east side. Riders were still out in great force getting dams all over the mid to east side of the states and going to HCMR while they were there. We had 35 Oregon Dam visits and 23 Washington Dam visits since 6/08/09. While we had no new finishers this time,we did have a few riders move real close. Jim & Cheryll Malisch picked up 6 dams to sit at 18, Brian Diver picked up 8 dams and Bill Lynes picked up 6 dams to sit at 16. Bringing our total reported rides so far to "880". Wow ! And I have heard rumor that more than one rider was out snagging dams and has not turned in any ride reports for this last week( like 9128, 9140, & 9068). Our total registered added one more to make it "177" this week with a new Pillion rider. Welcome to Tammy Schworak, our new Pillion .

Deschutes remains the most visited dam on this year's list, and is the most visited WA dam with 83, while Fishhawk is the most visited OR dam at 78. Keswick is the most visited bonus dam with 25 visits.

Okay guys... be gearing up for the "picnic". It is only a week away. GAWD.... I can hardly believe how fast that happened. The RSVP page is now working as it should, so fire away and let us know who and how many are coming. Use the comments section for guest names if you will. As to the real dam tour, I have not heard back from Randy yet and he may well be out of town already so it most likely won't be happening this year. But check whether you are interested just the same.... just in case. :-)

This week and it's crazy thundery wet weather, had a dampening effect on our rides over the weekend. Only received 8 ride reports and two of those were from the previous weeks rides. We did however, have three new sign-up over the weekend. Welcome to new riders, Jeff Ellis of Santa Maria, David Cone of Vancouver, and Wade Spence of Benton City. That puts us at "176" registrations.

Most of the dam rides were in the Oregon state, with 13 of the dams visits. Five dams visits in WA and that earned Charles Katopodis his WA pin. Congrats Charles. Other than a few thunder claps, no noise has been reported from the mysterious damtour rider , "Dam Wader", this week. Hope the stake burning hasn't injured him too much. :-)

We will be leaving for ... HCMR... Thursday, so updates next week may be delayed. Hope to see some of you there... Jim and I will be helping at the t-shirt sales and sign up booths to give Steve a break once in a while, and I am told, I need to be around for the Awards ceremony Saturday evening. Of course we will be heading to Oxbow and Owyhee while there. Anybody else gonna be there?

Wow, June already. We are now starting our fourth month of DamTour. We are "173" strong and had another sign-up this week. James McBride of Mesa, WA, has joined the dam hunt. A real record for DamTour that had a total of 59 riders in 2005, and a lesser number in 2004.

We had another finisher this week, Dave Hebert of Richland, WA. Our first to finish from the state. A big congrats on a great finish with Flint Creek and Rainbow Falls dams. We also had another rider report from the sunny state of California this week. Michael O'Keeffe of Citrus, CA, snagged four dams. We have had some interesting ride reports sent in with the photos, and I really enjoy reading them and going through the photos. "Team Advil" as rider Mike McClure called them, made a loop getting Rock Island, Deschutes, Mud Mountain, Fishhawk Lake, and Rock Creek over the weekend. Dwight Gladden, Alice Rogers-Gladden, and Mike headed out from Walla Walla, on the loop to meet with brother Greg McClure of Bellevue, to complete the team for the fun run. One look at the photos and you can see how much fun they have.

We had nine riders leave the "goose egg" nest this week. David Reed, Brian Ropp, Robert Newkirk, Chuck Ingham, Ed Recknagle, Howard Clifford, John Gerszewski, Michael O'Keeffe, and Maura Gatensby. Think the good weather might be a factor? Rider Maura Gatensby, from Vancouver, BC turned in four rides from April and early May. Congrats Maura... I expect we will be hearing more from you soon.

The picnic is looming and will be here soon. I know the picnic page and the RSVP page aren't up yet... but am working on it. I will try and get it done soon. Just remember to mark your calendar for June 27th. Don't miss it. Oh... and you might be getting ready for the" trivia game".... read the news, the forum, and more. Bone up on some bike and dam knowledge... let's see how much you know.

Another thing to think about... is HCMR... last day to register is June 5th.... two more days. And... make some plans for a ride to Philipsburg, Montana with a group of riders over the weekend of July 24th... for more info, contact myself or Steve. It was a real blast last year... the town will be hopping... and a great car show going on.

Keep riding... have fun... it is all about the ride... well maybe... it is also about some of things you see and people you meet. All great life experiences.

Ride On Riders .

Well guys, I am a little late with the news, we went riding. So I will do a summary of the last two weeks in one report. To finally get some good weather is a great thing and I can see many of our riders appreciated it as they were out in droves over the last two weeks and the holiday weekend. So here a a few news bits and stats.

We now have "172" registered riders, two riders ( Andy Spicer and Brian Ropp) the previous week and one pillion(Lisa Ihlen), and rider Keith Shea this last week, with a good possibly of some more riders coming from the California area. :-) The last two weeks of riding gave us 198 rides reported. Wow! And four new finishers. Congrats to Bryan Townsend, Dean Scheel, Cary Funk, and Eric Vaillencourt. As you can see in the table at the right, we have 106 from Washington, but our first five finishers are from Oregon. And we almost had a finisher from California this week, if it hadn't been for some serious tire trouble. Doug Huse, from San Diego area, made a big two week trip to get the twenty dams and other plans for the area. He did earn both his state pins, and the only dams he couldn't' make it to were the two in Montana. Way to go Doug, and a big congrats for your achievement. A quote from Doug's ride report . . . . "My quest for all 20 ended a few weeks ago in Idaho when my tight schedule was interrupted by tire problems costing me a day an a half I didn't have. Major disappointment! I did finish Washington and Oregon; the only two dams not obtained being the two in Montana. "

Last week we had "9" riders leaving the "goose egg" nest and "3" more this week. We also had 4 WA and 2 OR pin earners the previous week, with 6 more WA and 4 more OR pin earners this last week. We are really racking up the rides. This is what it is all about. The rides. As of today, we have "703" total rides that have been turned in (and I happen to know a few riders that have not sent some in ... hint...hint) and "206" of those rides have been since last reported on May 11th. This better weather is the real turning point...

The table at right shows you what dams have been visited during this last two weeks and which were most popular. A few riders even meet up by accident along these rides, and some were missed by mere minutes. Deschutes remains the most visited so far with Fishhawk Lake being a close second. The Montana dams are the least visited so far being at five rider visits, from our five Oregon finishers.

Time to gear up for the "picnic". Don't forget it is June 27th. I hope to have the RSVP form up the first of this month with more information about the picnic and where and more. You should also be thinking about joining us in Philipsburg, Montana. We will be staying in Philipsburg Saturday and Sunday, July 25th and 26th. It was a real blast last year, and should even better this trip. We will be doing a group ride from there to our two Montana bonus dams. If we think ahead and can plan it maybe we could even do a "meet and eat" at Backstage Bistro one direction or the other. I will try and get oem of the trip details and such posted to the forum soon. Another BIG event on the horizon is the " Hells Canyon Motorcycle Rally" , our sister event with the Folkestad brothers. You can still sign-up until June 5th. But, time is running out fast.

Now I need to get the photos done, the bugs off my bike, and the picnic planned. Till next week... shiny side up.

Four more riders signed up this last week bringing our total to 168, so welcome to David Reed, Drew Williams, Jim Carroll, and JD Bennett. Jim Carroll has already managed snag his first dams, giving him a total of three for his first week of DamTour. Also registered this week is an official "Pillion Rider" Stacy Stewart who has already stared at the back of a helmet for "13" dams. Welcome Stacy.

I think Mother's Day had something to do with the smaller number of riders out for the weekend, but still had some good ride reports coming in. I say, take them along, or get them a bike. :-) That would be a great Mother's Day for me...LOL

We had "20" riders out snagging dams, and "18" of them and one pillion made it to 14 dams. Unfortunately two of our riders were blocked by snow on the route they chose to reach Rock Creek (see more photos). Very reminiscent of our trip a few years back to Detroit, only we couldn't turn back. These sort of things can be very disappointing, but it is about the ride, and that is a great ride over there, so great excuse for another ride to go back. Right? In any case, I should mention here, this shows, it helps to check out the dam pages, and the forum, when planning your rides. Can save you a bit of grief. In fact rider Cary Funk sent in some great photos of Thompson, and noted in his post, that he sure wished he had printed out the forum page with tips about the dam. And rider Brian Sitton picked up an extra dam by using the first "Google" map Steve posted pre-season, before the final choices. At least he now knows the way to a future dam...LOL

Of the riders succeeding, they picked up "48" dam visits. We are now at "490" rides reported. William Copland, Stacy Stewart (Stacy doing it the hard way as a "Pillion Rider") and John Snyder earned their WA pins, and Eldon Cannon, earned his OR pin. Eldon is our third rider to earn the OR pin. Congrats to all of our pin earners. And new to the rankings table this week are Denise and Mike Harchuck of Eugene who picked up "6'" dams each on a nice weekend ride, and Mark Shiner (4), and of cousre as above Jim Carroll (3).

Gal-Power News... Just for fun, I checked the list of registered riders (and pillions) and we have "14" gals signed-up. Thirteen of them are riders, and of those riders, six have been to at least one dam. They are in ranking order, Cheryll Malisch (8), Lori Magers(5), Alice Rogers-Gladden(5), Liz Connors (3), Linda Wilke(1), and Billie-Jean Williams(1). Stacy Stewart is at 13 as pillion. We need more Gal-Power.

Just a bit more news .... Keith Hackett, rider 9059 that had a run in with a deer two weeks ago had a major fall with his crutches yesterday and is in the hospital again for surgery on the "good leg" ? In the fall he managed to completely tear his quads. The major support muscles for his left leg. The right (broken) leg was still awaiting a cast from the surgery that pinned it back together on May 1st. If any want to send any well wishes to Keith.. here is the address.

    Keith Hackett
    68261 Holbrook Rd
    Rainier, OR 97048

We just visited him last Saturday to see how he was doing and he was saying he would get his cast on Tuesday and would be ready to ride. :-) Of course his wife quickly changed his tune on that one.

I hope this is the end of a bad run of luck, Heal Fast Keith.

In spite of the weather, which couldn't decide what it wanted to be, we still had some great ride reports and had new rider sign-ups. So welcome to DamTour to our three new sign-ups, Terry King, Clifford Howard, and Frankosky Perkins. I am sure we will be hearing ride reports from them soon.

Not sure where to start on this weeks news. But our biggest news is we have our first finisher of the season. Roger Van Santen - 9038, picked off his last two dams this weekend. Officially our first finisher this early, May 2nd. In a real butt burning ride from Salem and back in two days, that even included a stop off in Walla Walla to join Steve, Jim, and I at the Backstage Bistro for an absolutely fantastic dinner. You shoulda hve been there. Roger took a rather cold ride to get Rainbow Falls and Flint Creek dams in two days. See the dam photos, they are great and read Rogers great ride report. Congratulations Roger.

Four more riders earned their WA pins. Steve Folkestad, Bill Lynes, Marty Ihlen, and Chris Jette congrats. We now have "430" ride reports from our "164" riders. Eighteen of our riders reported riding this last week in 20 reports. One of those was Doug Huse (another big news item), who is from the San Diego area... believe it or not. And hit his first dam O'Shaughnessy on April 28th, and is now at 13 dams at last report. He was last heard from on May 2nd after getting Rock Island, Dry Falls, Little Falls, and Upriver, and not sure where his next stop was to be, but I am guessing it could be Montana from the dams sent in so far. So if you saw a big orange Goldwing pulling an orange trailer.... you saw rider 9132 going out on his 20 dam, 13 day ride.

Besides riders being out this last week and braving this unpredictable weather, we had a new pillon rider. Bill Mallory of Yakima took his beautiful, 10 year old daughter on her first big ride to Rock Creek. And even though it got a bit chilly and rain was predicted, and given the opportunity to turn back, she wanted to push on and enjoyed the ride wtih dad. Congrats Cierra on your first dam snag. Stacy Steward , Deborah Jette ( 6 dams) and Lisa Ihlen (6 dams) braved the weather as well.

We have lots in the news this week and lots of riders were out including me for a change. Many miles were covered in the last seven days, as you will see from a few of this weeks stats.

Headlining the News this week is a new "DT award" called the "Toughest Dam SOB Rider Ever" , or as Keith says, "should that be Stupid". This weekend Keith Hackett joined Steve, Jim and I for a trip down the coast to California with the intent of getting Keswick and maybe O'Shaughnessy, and some on the way back up the middle of Oregon. Day one, 530 plus miles of great riding down the coast. Day two, early start. About thirty miles into the ride across Hwy 299, Keith and a very "stubborn deer" had a disagreement over road right-of-ways. Deer - 1, Rider - 0. As Jim and I rounded the full-circle-back corner, we screeched to a halt at the sight of the bike on its side in the middle of the road, and Keith standing there flagging us down. The short of the story is, Keith claims "I'm fine" although the road rash and limp said otherwise. We got the bike up, checked it and Keith out(as much as he would let us...LOL) and we were on our way. That made the decision to shorten the trip and head back after Keswick. During the day, repeated attempts to get medical evaluation or help was resisted with an "I'm okay", so we rode on and even picked up Hyatt on the way home. I kept telling Keith he must be " awfully tough".... and he kept saying, "or stupid", but he thought he was okay, and kept saying now he could see how good his insurance was. Well, he wasn't okay. He went to ER that night after getting home, and discovered he had a complete break of his right fibula and may need surgery. Riding almost "700" miles with that..... well, Keith.... maybe you were right, or "stupid"...LOL We will know today (Wednesday)if he needs surgery or not and I'll keep you all posted. Good luck Keith, and next time, if Robyn lets you come out and play with us again, I'll drag you by the ear if need be. :-)

Now on to the other stats and news for this week. We have a total of "371" dam visits already this season and "66" of them are from this last week. The table at right shows which dams were visited this week and how many times. Sixteen different dams had visitors by "30" of our riders. We have "85" of our riders that are among those ranked out of the total "161" registered riders. Deschutes is still in the lead with 55 visits reported so far.

Seven of our riders have earned their WA pin, and two have earned the OR pin. Two of our riders have earned both pins, with Roger Van Santen being the first to have both on April 18th, beating Bart Romple by one day, on April 19th. Bart was the first to earn the WA pin. Richard Skiens, and Jeff Earls earned their WA pins this week. With Jeff doing "7" WA dams in a single day to earn his. On a sort of opposite end of 7 dams in a single day, we have Michael McNamara who picked up the two California dams by way of San Diego for a total of 2486.2 miles just to see two dams. He says it was well worth the ride.

The season is still in the early days... lots of good weather should be coming our way soon, and lots of new life adventures. Ride On Riders...

PS... Well computer locked up again, so that delay let me add this info... Keith goes in for surgery Friday morning to get some lovely pins put in his leg.

One of our last year's dams, Round Butte Dam, in eastern Oregon, hits the news this week. For those of you that visited this dam last year and saw all the construction going on, you probably know it was to build a chute to restore the salmon and steelhead runs. Lots of the riders were able to visit the visitors center and heard all about it from Richard. The140 foot tower collapsed this last week. See the details and news story here or here on The Bulletin.

As expected, knowing the weather forecast for this last weekend, the DamTour mail box was loaded, and I see from the forum postings that a few have yet to send theirs in for credit and ranking. We (Jim and &) did not do any dam riding this weekend, but did make it to the Big Gerbings Open House. They were totally overwhelmed with the turn-out. Lots of bikes and a good chance to try on and check out their gear, and they announced some new gear coming out this fall, but didn't say what it was. I'm looking forward to that. Other rides that I saw there, were Linda and Kurt Wilke, and Papa Ritch. Also met up a few potential sign-ups .

For your pleasure and entertainment, here are some stats as of today( Well, sort of today. I have had to change the stats five times since the computer CRASH, and going to upload. Lots of reports came in after. But still current to the 20th.) We added "10" new riders during the last week. So welcome to Rick Thompson, Michael Pattison, Gary Wasserman, William Copland, Bill Watt, Yuriy Babenko, Marvin Budnick, John Messinger, Ron Sewell and Dick Bader . We had about "38" riders out (more or less) and received "89" reported dam visits. So far this year we have a total of "292" rides reported.

We now have three pin earners. Roger Van Santen and Bart Romple(our first pin earner) have earned both the WA & OR pins, and Dave Hebert has earned the WA pin. Way to go guys. Speaking of Roger, he has taken the last Oregon dam off the list of un-visited, by snagging Thompson & Toketee dams this weekend. And a whooping big surprise to many was Eric Vaillencourt, who made a 2075 mile, 2 ½ day trip picking up "8" dams. Including the last and only unvisited dams, Flint Creek and Rainbow Falls. So there you go. All "twenty" dams have been visisted by April 20th.

Riders hitting the ranked section of our table this week were: Robert & John Berger, John Maxwell, Gary Hoffart, Marty Ihlen, Chris Jette, Steve Uhrich, Jeff Earls, Rob Green, Lloyd Duncan (need your photos Lloyd), Ron Fincher, Liz Connors, Jim Brett, William Copland, Roger Crandall, Pete Schriner, Chad Holtquist, and Rick Thompson. Making it "77" riders now on the rankings chart out of "158" registered riders reporting.

On another note, Rob Green from RoadQuest.Com, sent in his "dam" photos and a link to the newest videos of his DamTour rides. Two sites are available for you to check these out. His U-Tube site and his own RoadQuest site. Rob is doing the DamTour on Video, so check it out. Other interesting stuff there as well.

PS . . . . With the computer troubles yesterday I may miss someone or something... so please check to be sure I got you updated correctly and have your photos uploaded, and let me know if I goofed. It has been a bit confusing keeping up with 89 dam visits and the computer CRASH in the midst of it. Thanks !

Okay there are a couple of things coming up and I don't want you to forget. So mark these dates in your Calendar. April 18th, April 25 & 26th, "June 12 - 15th" , "June 27th", and "July 24 - 26th.

First and foremost... block out this date June 27th for our annual "Picnic" at Mossyrock Park . You will want to be there. We will be handing out the first of the State Pins to those who have earned them. Plan to be there. The picnic page with details and an "RSVP" form will be up next month.

Next up is our Montana trip. This is a sort of group/non-group ride to Philipsburg, Montana. We have been doing this more or less un-officially(the Montana trip) for 3 or 4 years now. Last year we had five riders meet up in Polson (for Kerr Dam) and then rode on to Philipsburg for the 4th of July weekend. It was a blast. I hope to get a page or at least the album done for that weekend yet this year. We stayed at the Broadway Hotel (only three rooms left here) and I have to tell you, it was fabulous. We are staying there again this year but our dates for this trip to put on your calendar are... July24th through July 27th. Lots going on there that weekend, it is the Flint Valley Days and a big Classic Car show. The plan is to have a couple of routes more or less, and meet up either along the way or at set places or at Philipsburg. Steve is heading our after work on Friday. Jim and I are probably setting out earlier. Arrive and enjoy the sights then Sunday snag Flint Creek and Rainbows Falls Dams and have a "dam" good time. Heading home on Monday. Here is a link for other lodging options. More about this later... or contact me, or Steve for more details.

June 12 - 15th --- Hells Canyon Motorcycle Rally.
An absolutely "not to miss" annual event in Historic Baker City. A chance to discover northeastern Oregon. Rides, Bike Show, Music, Beer Garden, and Great Food, what more can you ask all in one place. Oh yeah, Miss Oregon. Check it out and register before it is too late.

April 18th - 9AM to 3PM . . .
Gerbing's is having a Grand Opening/Open House in their new location. You are invited you to come on by and enjoy some coffee and Danish in the morning, and then sirloin burgers, bratwurst and chili for lunch, along with refreshments to help wash it all down. They will also be giving away Gerbing products throughout the day as well as demonstrating proper gear hook up, and showing off some of our new battery-powered items for the recreational outdoorsman/woman. Additionally, if you need any heated gear, their showroom will be open with their Customer Service Team on hand to help you. They even have a Google map to guide you there.

View Larger Map

And . . . lastly, but not the least . . .

April 25 & 26th -- Vendor Fair & Demo Rides.. Click for more details.

Things never stay the same for long.  Especially the stats of the current year.  As of this week, we have 148 total riders and the table at right shows where they are from.  I posted a note last week, about Yamaha being the most listed bike, but that doesn't last long when you get "12" more registrations during the week...LOL 

In any case as you can see on the far right, Honda has taken the lead for now, but FJR's hold the lead on model with "23".  In the Honda category the lead is the Gold Wing with "20", and next are the ST1300's with "10".

In spite of the rainy week we still had riders out and about, with a few very notable riders. Looks like we had 8 riders (plus one that hasn't sent in photos yet) out for a total of 19 dam visits (plus 2 not in yet - subtle hint). Giving us a total of "202" dam visits fo far. Almost a slow week for me... but still didn't get out to ride...LOL  Two riders went out to snag their first dams of the season this week, Greg McClure and Matt Henry (Greg I still need your photos- not so subtle). Last Sunday ( the 5th) got a call from a guy that wanted to sign-up, Dean Durham. Assigned him a number over the phone so he could get started with a homemade placard until he could the real one. Well, Dean picked up a total of "10" dams this week. Moving him quickly from a new un-ranked listing to dang near the top of the heap. Congrats Dean. John Snyder made a quick "670" mile run on Friday to pick up Oxbow and Owyhee dams keeping him near the top, and Roger Van Santen made a cold run to Hyatt in 32 degree snow spitting weather.

I'll do Hyatt later, thank you very much.

PS... Just after updating, I got this in. Roger Van Santen made another run and picked up five more dams yesterday and today, taking the lead. He says 1500 miles and 33 hours from Little Falls to Owyhee, and then Rock Creek today. Wow.

Well, when the sun comes out, so do the bikers, and wood ants, and well, I seem to remember more... In any case the sun came out and this last week and the stats shows it for sure. The riders were out and enjoying the long awaited nice weather we have all been missing. Let's hope it lasts a bit more.

The table at right shows how many visit those dams got just in the last week.

We currently have 54 riders in the rankings out of 136 total. Six of these were new to the rankings table just this week. In the last week(since 3/30/09), we added 7 new riders, had 24 riders out riding to dams that made a total of "54" dam visits to 13 different dams. Bart Romple, snagged five dams to earn the first WA pin. This last week shows Steve Folkestad picking up 7 dams and 1 scouted for future, (in 2 days, 1049 miles ), with Bart Romple (2 days), and John Snyder (3 days )getting 5 dams each. Bob Dodson had a break down with his GL 1200, at Fishhawk Lake that required him to drain juice from fellow rider Eldon Cannon, and borrow a lawn mower battery (from a kind person in Vernornia) to get him home. Tim Cooksey knocked off two more "first" visits with Oxbow and Owyhee, on the 1st, leaving only three dams left un-visited out of the 20.

At the top of the rankings as of this Monday, April 06, we have Bart Romple with 11 dams, Roger Van Santen with 10 dams, Steve Folkestad and John Snyder with 9 dams each, Dennis York with 8, . . . and on down.

No real dams for us, as Jim and I, and rider Keith Hackett and his son went on a dam scouting trip Sunday, finding a potential dam for next year (thank you Keith). It was a great day for a ride. It only gets better from here... ride on. . . . . .

PS.... My email crapped out on me this weekend, and I think I lost some... so if I missed anyone, please let me know.

Our fourth week of the season and we have 128 dam visits reported, wow! . Unbelievable for a not so pretty winter/spring year. With not even one full month into a 7 month season, we have already had 15 of our 20 dams visited, and that includes two bonus dams. That makes Hyatt Dam the 15th dam to come offf the un-visited list .That is a first for all our seasons. These early riders are sure raising the bar. ...!!!

In the news again this week is Roger Van Santen who took out on a one day(15 hours) 886 mile trip and picked up five dams doing it. A nice little loop of McKay, Scooteney, Dry Falls, Rock Island, and Wapato. Dennis York also made a weekend trip picking up two dams and visiting relatives along the way with 930 miles on his bike. He made a valiant try to get Hyatt and Thompson first for the season, but Bob Dodson, and Eldon Cannon beat him to Hyatt by one day, and although close... Dennis got blocked by thick snow covered roads trying to get to Thompson Reservoir. I heard Jim McQuown and Jack Henderson took their bikes for a ride to McKay on the 28th , and got a "free" bike wash while they were at it. Jim says he thinks he now has web toes.

In spite of the cold, rainy, snowy and windy weather, we had 15 riders out dam hunting, that managed to visit 13 dams, for a total of "28" dam visits this last week. McKay and Hyatt each got 4 visits (the most this week). Still in the lead for most visits is Deschutes, followed closely by Fishhawk Lake. At the bottom is Little Falls, and Upriver with 2 visit each.

Riders, new out of the gate this week, and joining the "ranked" riders were, Bob Dodson, Eldon Cannon, Mike Harman, Tim Allen, and Tim Cooskey.

Way to go . . . . Riders.

This week brought us to some new highs for the season. We now have only six dams of the twenty that have not been visited, and we aren't even a full month into it yet. Bill Mallory picked off Little Falls and Upriver dams, by just hours, ahead of Bart Romple, and our first Bonus Dams of the season were Keswick and O'Shaughnessey snagged by Roger Van Santen. Wow ...!!!

This week we had 3 new sign-ups and 12 of our riders were out snagging dams. Twenty-three dam visits were tallied for the week. And... I hear some had a late night and have more dams to turn in yet.

Just for fun stats in the tables right and below... and a bit more. Forty-three riders have made the rankings list and the top most being "6" dams each for three riders. Bill Mallory, Bart Romple, and Matthew Cook.

Enjoy the Ride.....

In spite of the blustery cool weekend we had over "8" riders visit "8" different dams. And we added three new riders to the list, and our first registered "Pillion" rider. We have had pillion riders before, but we now have one registered. How many dams can she visit while staring at the back of a helmet. We shall see. If we get enough interest in passengers registering, we may have to give them a rankings table of their own, and maybe some special award. Keep watching.

So far this season we have had 73 reported rides to ten of our dams. Deschutes is in the lead with 16 visits, and the least visited of those visited is Toketee at 2 visits so far. Got some great photos this week.

The List this week: …
            Mud Mountain:     4
            Fishhawk ::    3
            Deschutes:   3
            Scooteney:   3
            Wapato:     2
            Rock Island:   2
            Tokette:   2
            McKay:    1

Well, check out Walla Walla, WA.

We have a rider that owns a great eatery and has extended an offer to all DamTour riders that present they Placard/Rider # .

Rider 9092, Bob Parrish is the guy... so stop in and say hi. Grab something to eat and maybe enjoy some great music.

Check out the web site by clicking on the ad, or here. BACKSTAGE- Bistro You wont' regret it. Nice site nd you can check out the menu too.

I'm thinking we may need to make a weekend group ride for a "dam" good time.

Well, Steve picked up the t-shirts today and has gotten all the pre-ordered shirts in the mail as of this afternoon. Steve also sent me photos of the t-shirt so we now have a preview of what our 2009 shirts look like. They can be ordered HERE.

We are considering other options if we have enough interested people. A hooded sweatshirt, and maybe a long sleaved Tee. There is a minimum order of 20 on these options, so can't order them unless we get enough interest.

Drop us a line if you might be interested in these other options.

Date: March 8th      ---   7:00PM
More dam firsts…
            McKay: Dan Stombaugh
            Rock Creek: Dan Stombaugh
            Scooteney: Bill Mallory
            Dry Falls:  Bill Mallory
            Rock Island: Bill Mallory

On this Date:
Feb 28th  -  16 dam visits made.
March 1st  -  9 dam visits
Mar 3rd to Mar 8th  -  26 dam visits

Fifty-one dam visits made by  32 of our 101 dam riders within the first full week (10 days) of the season to ten of our twenty dams.

As of March 8th. 7:00PM  
101  Registered Riders and 60 are new this year.

What a start. On the day of our 2009 season, with temps still not very warm, we had a bunch of enthusiastic riders out in search of the dams. Five dams got knocked off the "yet to be visited" list. Wapato, Deschutes, Fishhawk Lake, Mud Mountain, and Toketee. There were 13 riders reporting for our first day, and one early bird who couldn't wait ( and I don't blame him) on Friday. So here is the count for "Launch Day" listed by time for the first to a dam visit. And then riders in order of arrival at that a dam. Hmm... did that make sense?

1. Wapato - 1st visited: Bill Mallory (2/27), Steve Folkestad, Bart Romple
2. Deschutes - 2nd visited: Lori Magers, Dennis York, Lloyd Gardner, Brian Diver, Charles Katopodis, Jim Misener.
3. Mud Mountian - 3rd visited:Fred Dykins, Charles Katopodis.
4. Fishhawk Lake - 4th visited: Jim Malisch, Keith Hackett, Cheryll Malisch, Lori Magers, Dennis York.
5. Toketee - 5th visited: Michael McNamara

Of the 13 riders that stormed out on the first day, three of them, Lori, Dennis, and Charles picked up two dams each. What a start this year...and as of today (with another sign-up) we have 82 riders ... Wow! And it is only March 1st.

Still waiting to hear from one of the riders at Deschutes Saturday.

Well the time is nearing and we officially start DamTour this coming weekend. I hope you have those bikes tuned up and raring to go. Just wanted to share a quick stat today. I looked back through the records and as of February 22, 2008 we had a total of 13 registered riders. As of today, February 22, 2009, we have 66 riders registered... Wow . . . .

Okay everybody, we are getting ready to go. Advanced sign-ups can now begin by following the links from this page, the home page, or go to the about page to sign-up there either on-line or download the new registration form to mail in. We have added another option this year. You can sign-up only as before for $20.00 or   sign-up and order a T-shirt  for $40.00 plus shipping on either option. You can also order additional T-shirts from the "About DamTour" page.

When you sign-up, it will still show the 2008 logo, but you will be signing up for 2009. The placards will start going out the last week in February, around the 24th or 25th. The T-shirts aren't ready yet, and will be shipped out as soon as we can.

I am still busy with the web site and I hope to have it updated by February 14th(I hope). Jim has been in the garage working on the bikes, mine included... .

So welcome to the new season. Hope you all have the bikes ready to roll cause this is gonna be a great year. Plan ahead for the picnic. Tentative date is set for June 27, 2009. Also in the works is a repeat of our annual get together in the beautiful historic town of Philipsburg, Montana. Which by the way is not far from this years Montana Bonus Dams. We had a blast last year and hope more of you will be able to join us this year. Scheduled to be in July... (TBA). ..

Wow has this ever been a fast paced and exciting season,and DamTour 2008, is officially over, but not all the fun is over. A can't miss event is the 2008 Awards Party at Action Motor Sports in Gresham.

Everyone is "Welcome", grab some "free" eats and talk bike with DamTour riders. Share with others what DamTour is all about. Learn more at the welcome & introduction, and hear a few "Stats" from 2008 and past seasons, join in on the Q & A session and hear some "Open Mike" Interviews. See the long awaited "All Dam Twenty" presentations. Find out where next year's Bonus Dams will be.

Meet and visit NW Motorcycle personalities like: Steve & Eric Folkestad, the founders of Hells Canyon Motorcycle Rally, and Tom Mehren, Sport Bike NW founder, and watch a great slide show "Motorcycling in the Columbia River Gorge".

In the news in our last week, Rich Davis - 8079, made his swoop of five dams to finish all the state dams and earning his WA pin. Last week he earned his OR pin. Congratulations Rich. A nice finish of the season.

On a different note, we had a sad rider that was scheduled to make the grand finish this last weekend, only to have bike troubles.. so sorry to hear Fred Dykins - 8010, had to cancel his planned trip. And . . .I heard from rider Doug Williams (8117), that his DamTour plans had to be scraped after an accident on August 15th, when someone decided there was room for both of them in his lane. Doug says he hasn't' been able to ride since. Best Wishes go out to Doug that it is a full and speedy recovery.

Invitations will be coming out soon, by mail and email. See ya all there. Be there or be square...