As a street rider, I normally stay away from any event with "Soggy Bottom" in its name. But other club members assured me that the street riding was top notch and there would be routes with 100% pavement under my tires. So, I signed up and rolled into the rally site at Port Matilda, PA on my F900XR. I arrived on Thursday, registered, and set up camp. Campers had the option of tenting under the trees or in the large grassy fields surrounded by RVs. I chose the woods.
Unlike most rallies, attendees received a large sticker for the motorcycle with an ID number on it. Since so many riders would be traveling through challenging forest trails and rough terrain, organizers wanted to be able to identify missing or fallen riders.
The first day of riding was Friday. The organizers held a riders' briefing after the catered breakfast. They gave the critical information that lunch would be at the end of four miles of gravel road, but they would set up an alternate lunch spot at the beginning of the road for those who like traction when they lean the bike over.
Following the tracks was easy. On my Garmin XT2, I made a collection in the Tread app for the Soggy Bottom rally. That is where I loaded the four GPX files containing the street tracks. I set each track to be extra wide when displayed. In order to get turn-by-turn directions, I converted each track into a route (trip). To make sure the routes and the tracks lined up, I set the map layers to display the Soggy Bottom Tread collection. The display clearly showed the bright green of the wide track line showing along the narrower purple route line layered over it. This was the first time I used this method, and it worked very well.
The roads were scenic with very few cars. Smoothly paved curves flowed up and over the Pennsylvania hills. Occasionally, groups of dirty bikers would turn onto our route for a few miles and then peel off onto a dirt path. These were the Adventure and Dual Sport groups whose dirt tracks and gravel roads had to be connected with a few miles of pavement. I imagine it was a relaxing respite from the off-road challenges. At least, nobody complained that the Adventure and Dual Sport routes were easy, quite the opposite.
After the ride I had a rest before dinner and found out that the beer was included in the price of the rally. Bent Run Brewing Company of Warren, PA had more than a half-dozen beers to sample. I tried the Peanut Butter Chocolate Porter and the Blueberry Blonde. Both were good but I prefer unflavored beers like their Red, White & Bent pale ale.
Dinner was pulled pork, always a favorite.
After dinner, the GS Adventure Challenge entertained us. Riders practiced on this course and the best qualified competed for the crowd. Shawn Thomas and Louise Powers emceed and provided color commentary for the competition. Shawn and Louise travel to so many rallies representing BMW Motorrad and the BMW Training Center that most of the attendees recognized them. The course was a diabolical combination of used tires, mud pit, logs embedded in the ground, tight U-turns, weaves between tall solid poles and a dirt mound with stairs and steep slopes. There was a class for light, single-cylinder dual-sport bikes and the big twin-cylinder adventure tourers.
First on the course were two instructors from the BMW U.S. Rider Academy. Nobody who followed them did as well but still they impressed the crowd with skill and courage.
Saturday's ride was as scenic and challenging as Friday's ride. While the entire weekend was dry, water remained on the dirt tracks from rain earlier in the week. Our entertainment at the lunch stop was watching the dirt people pour water out of their boots. I literally mean that water dripped out after they removed their boots and inverted them. This demonstrated that waterproof boots become watertight buckets when the creek is deep enough.
Six hundred people lined up for dinner. The Country Café in Houtzdale catered dinner and they were quite good. Beef with mashed potatoes and gravy, turkey and stuffing with chicken gravy, green beans, and cake. I added a free beer from the Bend Brewery to make it gourmet.
The Soggy Bottom Motofest rally master, Josh Nolten; Wailing Wayne rally master, Chad Warner; and April Fool's Appalachian ADV rally master, Kane Wagner held a round table discussion about the challenges of putting on ADV rallies. Not surprisingly, insurance is difficult to get.
There was a slow race with a twist. Contestants started on the gravel slope and then had to slalom through the cones to the end. The Three or four riders completed together with the winner progressing to the next heat.
Topping off the evening was an unannounced surprise: fireworks.
I stretched the ride home to Lewisburg to a four-hour ramble. The Soggy Bottom Motofest is a great rally for street riders as well as people who play in the mud. It is difficult to sign up for it because they have a hard limit of 600 attendees, 300 for the Dual-Sport track, 200 for the Adventure Bike track, and 100 sport touring road riders. Surprisingly the road-only tickets are the last to sell out. These numbers are set by an agreement between PA DCNR and SBMotofest LLC so you cannot sign up for one and ride another. Tickets go on sale shortly after New Year's Day and sell out by February.
I'll see you there next year!