Hi guys; I'm back, but what a week and half it has been. First the happy and good stuff; I left last Wed, 7/25 from the Bay area for Colorado. I caught up with Dan Danielson on his blue (slower) 94 GTS and his girlfriend Linda (riding her FZR600) on Hwy 357 (better known as the alien highway) later that afternoon and stayed in Cedar City that night. The next day we did the scenic route to Montrose thru Zion Park and the Grand Staircase of Escalante. Linda got her first initiation of riding in rain and lighting going thru Escalante as well as cows on the road. Did I mention she is a new rider! Fortunately it cleared up by the Hwy 24 junction at Torrey. Proceeded down 95 thru Lake Powell and Cedar Breaks with only a couple more showers. What awesome scenery! Dan and I rode the rally together and finished 4th, or I should say he finished 4th and I am listed as 8th. I made the mistake of putting the pin we each collected from Joe Cockers Mad Dogs & Englishmen bar in Crawford in my Aerostich pocket rather than my receipt/pictures bag. The problem was, I had my stitch vents opened up because of the heat (it was in the mid 90's) and must have put the pin down my pants leg thru the vent rather than my pocket, because it was nowhere to be found when I got back. There went 219 points, one of the larger bonuses. Oh well! We had a great ride! Now the bad; Jim Davis, 49, retired Army Colonel, experienced rally veteran, entered in this years Iron Butt rally, riding a new 2000 BMW R1150GS with an oversized TourTech (10 gal) tank was reported missing Sat night. The rally started at 5:30 am Sat with the first checkpoint at Moab between 11am - 1pm. The checkpoint worker was new and didn't keep a rider log, but nobody recalls seeing him and we don't think he made it there. The last positive sighting of him was by another rider at a bonus location in Naturita at 7am (near jct of Hwy 145, 141 and 90 east of Montrose). None of his credit cards have been used since he filled up Fri night before the rally. His cell phone also has not been used or is answering. Riders in the past have been known to pull out of rally's, hole up in a hotel or go home, pull a brain fart and not call in, but the police were notified Sat night and all the riders were notified to keep an eye out during the second leg on Sun. By the conclusion of the rally on Sun at 5 pm the concern was real and his emergency contacts and family had not heard from him. There were no reported motorcycle accidents or hospital admissions in Col or any of the surrounding states. Many riders had to depart for jobs and other requirements, but a handful, including Dan and myself volunteered to stay over. We just couldn't see leaving, knowing that he was out there somewhere, badly injured or worse. We rode the Sat route in a Southern direction, which consisted of a loop from Montrose - Durango - Cortez - Bluff - Moab - Cisco - Grand Junction with a big bonus out at Nat bridges (on 95), at a slow pace averaging 35 mph, scanning the roadsides and getting off and walking the edges of the sharper curves to look over more closely, stopping at all the bonus locations and looking around. We made it as far as Blanding Mon night when we reported in and found out about the sighting in Naturita. Theorizing he went after bonuses along 145 and 141 and he had a dual sport bike and because there were bonuses in Olathe and Delta we took a 50 mile dirt rode from Nucla over the mesa to Delta. Oh yea, did I mention it rained on us going over the pass turning the nice gravel road into a slimy, muddy mess and that Linda is a new rider (she was riding 2 up with Dan as a spotter). While we were out, others were checking other roads in cars, vans & bikes. Holly Herman/Daniels put out an appeal to the ld riders list and collected over $10,000 within 24 hrs, which we used to charter a helicopter and plane from a local crop dusting outfit starting on Tues. Rich Daniels (her husband & rally participant) spent over 10 hours in the helicopter Tues as well as most of the day Wed & Thur. I went up in the plane Tues afternoon to check the northern roads to Grand Junction and Cisco. The Civil Air Patrol finally got activated on Wed thru today with 4 planes. All this and nothing - not a trace, not a sighting, nothing. We had a psychic friend of Jim's best friend say to look around the area north of Blanding particularly in some little places called Eastland and Summit Point. We didn't have anything else to go on and it was grasping at straws, but... So Dan and I went out that way on our return home on Thur. Summit Point is nothing but a bunch of shacks 30 miles up a dirt road off 666 in Utah. Did I mention that the GTS doesn't make for a very good off road bike, but I'm starting to get used to it now. When we stopped by to see the sheriff's office in Monticello, they said that area was active with biker gangs and meth labs - great! So now this was taking on a sinister scenario that maybe he met foul play and someone stole his bike to use for drug running - perfect for all the dirt roads in the 4 corners area. We didn't find anything and holed up in Hanksville (Jct of 24 & 95) Thur night with a thunderstorm giving us a light show as we kept driving right into it. It started raining just as we checked into our room and put the covers on the bikes. It was a hot ride Thur, fighting head winds all the way across Nev on Hwy 50 as well as heavy hearts. Not knowing what happened, whether an accident or foul play, the frustration of spending all that time and turning up nothing, made for the name of Hwy 50 "the loneliest highway" truly appropriate as Dan and I droned on in silence feeling very helpless. We arrived Thur night in Lake Tahoe, where we met Linda, who trailered her bike to Tahoe with Holly. I stayed with my sister and her husband, coming home this morning. Dan & Linda were staying at Timber Cove to unwind, as Linda said, for all the stress we put her thru. Turns out Hanksville didn't have any cell signal, no phones in the room (there isn't much there), so we weren't able to call the girls until mid-morning Thur, although we had called into Bill, the search coordinator, after we had cleared out of the bike gangland area. But evidently he forgot with everything else he had going and the girls had heard the same reports of unsavory activity in that area we were searching. So when they didn't hear from us Thur night and couldn't get ahold of either of our cell phones, they were afraid we had met the same suspected fate as Jim by the biker drug runners. So they called the state police to report we were now missing! Anyhow, the unfortunate conclusion, from a private message I received while typing this is that they found Jim's body by his bike down a steep canyon off CO-90 by Paradox. It was a road we didn't put much priority to because there were no bonuses, but it was searched by van and helicopter earlier. The local sheriff's search posse found him. Bill said his death was probably instant as it was a very steep, long drop off. I know that many believe rally's are dangerous, but life is dangerous. We should not stop doing what we enjoy doing because there is the possibility harm could come to us. I enjoy the thrill of riding thru a curve fast, I am continually awed by the scenery this country has to offer, the sense of accomplishment and comradarie of the ld riders after finishing a rally is second to none. But like any endeavor you choose to participate in you need to now what you are getting into and accept the risks. -you and your equipment should be prepared, -you need to be in good shape -and stay within reasonable control while still pushing the envelope. That said, there is a benefit to riding with a buddy and there is much talk now among the rally community about accessing personal locating beacons. regards, -- Dave Biasotti // Fremont, CA > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Date: Wed, 1 Aug 2001 21:11:30 -0700 > From: rkvs <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Subject: Re: Thin Air Ride Report? > > The results aren't published at this time. There is a rider missing from > mandatory check in Saturday night. Dave and Dan Danielson have stayed there > until today to help with the ground search. They're heading home now and > continuing to check some potential roads the rider might have taken. A > private air search was initiated yesterday with the Civil Air Patrol getting > involved today. > > Unfortunately, I'm sure Dave will have quite a story for us when he gets > home. > > Roger > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Michael Cordon" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Sent: Tuesday, July 31, 2001 8:10 AM > Subject: Thin Air Ride Report? > > I know that there were a couple of GTS's in the Colorado long > distance ride over the weekend, including Dave Biasotti. How 'bout a report > when you guys return? >
