My passion for roadbooks and sharing routes has been developing for many years. My first dual sport, self supported, camp off the bike trip was a loop around the Olympics on the GripTwister Tour in 2009. I loved it and was hooked. I have since paid for the route and ridden it 3 more times. In 2013, inspired by ride reports I read on ADVrider, I led a couple of friends on a week long trip into the unknown on a big DS loop of South Eastern Oregon and Northern Nevada. We went back and explored more of NV, ID, UT, and Oregon over the course of several years on many week DS long trips. Every year our ride was filled with amazing unexpected experiences, tough challenges we overcame, animals (everything from wild horses to mountain lions, eagles to badgers, antelope to moose) and beautiful sights as we crossed deserts, dry lake beds, and 10,000 foot high passes.

I had always wondered what all that equipment was for on the bikes racing in the Dakar Rally since watching it as a kid. On ADVrider, I found out more about the equipment and was able to get my hands on some of it. I began riding in non-competitive rally non-events all over the Western USA in 2016 along with a couple riding buddies and my son (who started doing rally roadbooks at 12 yo on his KLX140). Since then, I have followed roadbooks in many states including CA, UT, WY, CO and WA. In the beginning, I was using an iPad Mini for my rollchart and an iPhone 4S for my tripmeter. I scored a used f2r rollchart holder and continued to use the iPhone for my tripmeter until I acquired an ICO Rally Max G from a friend. I always dreamed of putting on a non-event up in WA and wrote many roadbooks in various areas of the state but I never had time to get one organized. These routes are sure to be some of the ones we offer in the coming riding seasons.

In 2014 I became a member of the Stumpjumpers and quickly became involved in supporting the Adventure / Dual Sport Poker Run which is part of the Stumpjumpers Desert 100 weekend of events. I helped find more terrain to ride, build new trails, design the route and wrote the roadbooks for several years. In ‘18 and ‘19, I became the Co-Chairman for the Stumpjumpers Desert 100 which brought on different responsibilities away from the ADV/DS Poker Run. Then in ‘20, ‘21 and ‘22, I was the Race Chairman for the Stumpjumpers Desert 100. I feel honored to have had this opportunity to lead the fabulous group of volunteers who put on such a legendary event. It is truly amazing what we all did together to build a city (with a larger population than all the other cities in Lincoln County combined) in a cow pasture with the infrastructure needed to support all those people plus create a 50 mile race course. We did so much to support the weekend, it is impossible to do it justice here. And we do it every year! Being involved in putting on the Desert 100 is definitely one of the greatest achievements of my life. I learned more than I ever could have imagined from being at the helm of the historic event. It is truly an epic event and if you have not been there to experience it, you have to go to it this year.

In ‘22, I was preparing to ride in the Cotah Rally with my son. I ordered a new copy of the GripTwister Olympic Tour so we could ride the loop and camp off our bikes as he had not experienced that yet. At the Cotah Rally, each participant has to live “malle moto” (out of a box and without outside assistance). We would be camping every night with what we could fit in a plastic box the organization would transport for us from “bivouac” (overnight camp spot) to “bivoauc”. After I had the GT tour in my hands, I realized I could create a roadbook for it pretty easily to help us get some navigation practice in on our camping ride. I talked to GT and they gave me the go ahead. So I created roadbooks and we used them to do the loop. At one point, I dropped my bike and broke my f2r rollchart holder. I had to follow the GPS for the rest of the day and it really drove home how much more fun it was to follow the rollchart. My son left me in the dust as I had a difficult time reading my old Garmin Montana and he continued to navigate using his rollchart. This experience is one of the things that has really led me to offer rides to you in the roadbook format. It is that much better!

TerraPirata is an all in one app which makes it really easy for you to get started. Just load up the TerraPirata app on your phone or tablet, get it mounted on your bike and get started navigating. I don’t think it will take you long to figure out it is way more fun than trying to follow that tiny line on your GPS. Have a great ride!

Mike Clough - NW Roadbooks