Mountains to the Sea Bonus Rally Weekend – Sept. 21-22
Cascade’s 59th anniversary running of the Mountains to the Sea Road Rally on Saturday, Sept. 21, was a scenic tour-style rally (no traps) consisting of about 40 timed legs. The route was about 170 miles long, and it was designed to take about six and a half hours to complete. It took longer, but more on that later.

Rallymasters Torm Kelsey-Green and Kasey Klaus provided a fun-to-drive rally titled The Long and Winding Road that started in Portland Saturday morning and traveled down the valley and over the Coast Range, following roads less traveled, to end in Seaside.

Dear Diary – (Kasey’s Journal)

Monday, 23 September

Wow, what an adventure! The opportunity to build this event was such an honor.  We began in November, searching out a path through the mountains, settling upon the Nestucca River – a really fun drive from Carlton to Beaver. Our first foray was met with snow. Pressing “Pause,” we spent the rest of the winter scouting possible routes to Carlton
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This rally – to us – was actually 4 phases ... (simplified)

Phase 1 - The ODO Check

Phase 2 – To Carlton

Phase 3 – Through the Mountains

Phase 4 – To the Bonfire

Early questions – So MANY questions – Where to start? Where to end the Odo Check? How do we get there?  How do we get from there to Carlton? Our original plan was very ambitious, and did not survive scrutiny. Let’s just say we needed to make some adjustments.

Finally, a plan took shape, winter loosened its grip on the mountains, and we were ready to test the plan ... and get to working out the final phase – choose a place to end the day.  Off we went – through the valley, over the mountains, to the beautiful sea! Then back into the mountains – just for fun! And finally - back to the sea! We had a wonderful day, but we totally had more rally than we had time.

Sounds great, right? Just cut a bit, here and there, and presto, it’s a RALLY!!! Yeah, beware complacency – off we go, to finalize the route ... which was going just great, right up until we came ‘round a curve and found a HUGE tree – lying across the entire road ... and back home we went to make some calls (the tree is on BLM land, and there is apparently no rush to get it cleared) ... so we study the maps, and find a “go-around” – resulting in some additional time issues ... after several cut and paste sessions, and many, many TEST-RUNS – we definitely had a RALLY – And then, the various counties conspired against us – road work – road closures – road opening - requiring yet more adjustments ... FINALLY ... it’s ready to run!

But, after all is said and done, this has been quite an adventure ... resulting in the fun that was shared on Saturday, the 21st ... YIPPEE!!!!

The Mountains to the Sea Rally was a tour-style rally, so no traps, right? Right. The route instructions were very clear; there were no timing challenges other than to maintain a brisk speed on some twisty fun-to-drive roads.  But sometimes challenges emerge out of the unexpected.

Leg 40 of the rally included a 30-minute transit through Tillamook and into Bay City. Since no restart time was specified at the end of this transit, it was expected that rally teams would keep track of their time. It wasn’t a trap, but apparently it was a challenge. Only one rally team was successful at ending the transit exactly 30 minutes after it began. Since only 6 seconds separated the top three finishers of the rally, that 30-point max may have determined the outcome.

The last leg of the rally was a Monte Carlo leg. The route instructions specified how to reach the final checkpoint location and even the exact minute you needed to arrive there to get a perfect zero score. A great deal of the route followed 101 North. Unfortunately, the Oregon Department of Transportation unexpectedly closed a bridge on 101 North, thereby cutting off the Monte Carlo route. Rally officials became aware of this closure in time to issue an emergency broadcast on the Richta GPS Checkpoints app, providing directions to follow an alternate route to the final checkpoint. Ultimately the Monte Carlo leg was not scored because the alternate route took longer for some than others due to all the extra detoured traffic.

First overall and first in the SOP Class with 135 points – Alexander Castaneda and Eric Hanson

Second overall and first in the Novice Class with 140 points – Bill Kayser and Bjorn Freeman-Benson

Third overall and second in the SOP Class with 141 points – David and JoAnn Gattman

Third in the SOP class with 165 points – Lee Nielsen and Chuck Winkler

First in the Equipped Category with 206 points – Judy and Andy Stocker

Second in the Equipped Category with 212 points – Andy and Mercedes Lilienthal

Second in the Novice Class – Adam Gerken and Chris Linn

Third in the Novice Class – Anthony and Rachelle Ashley

Thank you to the rallymasters – Torm Kelsey-Green and Kasey Klaus. And thank you to Saturday evening’s firemaster at the s’mores beach bonfire – Kat Iverson.

On Sunday, Sept. 22, Rallymasters Monte and Victoria Saager provided a rally to get teams part-way home. The ending location in Rainier was about an hour’s drive from Centralia and about an hour from Portland.

From the start in Seaside to the finish in Rainier, this rally consisted of about 20 timed legs. The route was about 90 miles long, and it took about three and a half hours to complete. The route included a break at the city park in Clatskanie, with cold beverages provided by the rallymasters.

First place in the Equipped Category – Judy and Andy Stocker

First place in the SOP Class – Lee Nielsen and Chuck Winkler

First place in the Novice Class – Anthony and Rachelle Ashley

The winners enjoyed fame and glory and candy bars. The taste of victory is always sweet. And lunch was very tasty as well. Lunch was provided to all present at the finish by the rallymasters. Enjoy!