The 20th annual Black Dog Dualsport Rally was held June 4th & 5th, staging out of the Hood River County Fairgrounds in Odell. About a half dozen sidecars competed in a field of over 300 motorcycles. Adventure Sidecar was there, passing out free coffee in the morning and collecting donations for the Hood River Warming Shelter.

We set up the Tipi Friday night and cooked dinner in dutch ovens on the back of the truck

Saturday dawned clear and beautiful. We were up bright and early.

Andy helped me get the coffee going before he signed in and got his roll chart for the day.

Hood River Coffee Company donated coffee, NW Tour and Trail provided the cups and sugar and Adventure Sidecar set up and manned the booth. All donations went to the Hood River Warming Shelter.

The lines to sign in and get the rollchart moved quickly. Tom Niemela and his crew of volunteers did a superb job of organizing the mob of riders. This was the 20th year for the Black Dog Rally and Tom has got it down to a T!

The Riders Meeting was at 7:30 with bikes leaving the fairgrounds afterwards

Tara and Jay of DMC Sidecars spent the weekend with us, helping to man the coffee booth and answering questions about the sidecars Jay’s company offers

Andy setting up his roll chart. The sidecars have an advantage over the solo bikes because the passenger can do the navigating…

Andy’s oldest boy, Jon, did the navigating for him. Saturday morning father and son both had their race face on

Bob took the Adventure Sidecar Novice S/TEP course last year with his brand new KLR andDMC Enduro Sidecar. Here he is at the start of this year’s BlackDog Rally with his sidecar set up to carry his three boys! They ran the entire rally 4 up and the boys took 3rd overall in the sidecar class!

I decided to save my bikes for the Adventure Sidecar S/TEP Class coming up June 17-19, so for the first time in many years, I did not compete in the Black Dog. It seemed kind of strange and a little poignant to be staying in camp and watching the 300+ bikes roll out without me

I consoled myself with a breakfast of fried asparagus and morels while the riders were leaving

Saturday’s roll chart took the competitors through Friend and Wamic then back across the Southern flanks of Mt.Hood, with bonus legs along the old Barlow Wagon Road

Each rider was given a garbage bag and points were awarded for picking up trash. Over three hundred riders scoured the forest clean along the route!

back in camp after a successful campaign Andy works on his bike while Jon relaxes. In the background charcoal smoulders in preparation for dinner.

Saturday evening I fired up two dutch ovens and made corn bread & chili

Road Rash is justly famous for his “teapot”

Mr.Cob enjoying a libation

Story Time in the Tipi

Road Rash stopped by with a bottle of Fugawe Juice

“Early to bed, early to rise…”

5:30 Sunday morning and riders were already lined up waiting for the doors to open so they could get their rollcharts

serving coffee to the throng

Sunday morning Rider’s Meeting

The start featured an obstacle course

“A” riders had to traverse a teeter totter

and climb a trials style log stack

…then over a jump

“B” riders did the limbo and rode the board

“C” course riders and sidecars had a tight slalom after the limbo

and everyone got to start the morning by spanking the monkey!

The Sunday ride crossed the Columbia River into Washington state and the Gifford Pinchot National Forest

Back at the fairgrounds, the returning riders faced one more challenge: a slow race for the solo bikes and a slow slalom for the sidecars.

points were awarded again on Sunday for trash collection. This rider brought in an old tire!

he carried it with him in the slow race!

this is just a portion of the trash Black Dog riders collected Sunday and hauled out of the National Forest!

turning in the scorecard

happy faces!

Head Honcho,Tawm Niemela, kicking off the awards ceremony

Andy placed first in the sidecar class and won the random drawing for four hundred dollars!

Mac Lee took first overall in the Sunday Only Riders class on a Ural Patrol. Mac completed the Adventure Sidecar Novice S/TEP course just last month. Sam and Mac Lee stopped by later to pick up their trophy

A big thanks is due to Tom Niemela and all the volunteers for yet another fantastic Black Dog Rally!

We had a great time at the BlackDog. It was fun to see old friends and gratifying to see how many Adventure Sidecar graduates were at the rally. A big thanks to Hood River Coffee Company and all the rally goers who donated so generously to the Hood River Warming Shelter. See you next year!