Last year, my RRP and I attended three different rallies both in Canada and the US. One of those rallies we had attended several times, and two we had never attended before. I’ve been thinking about this for some time now, and it’s perhaps interesting to compare and contrast these three very different events.
Touratech Rally – Plain, WA
I’ve written a lot about the Touratech Rally, held in Touratech’s home state of Washington. It’s an interesting get-together, as it all takes place in a farmer’s field, including the camping. It happens each year at the end of June (after the first hay is brought in?) and is in the tiny town of Plain, Washington.
I want to be clear that I have enjoyed each year that I’ve attended this rally – 2018, 2019, 2022 and 2023. It’s been a good run, and is easy to get to, and close to the fantastic little town of Leavenworth, WA. I have met many fantastic people that I became friends with for a weekend. However, it is kind of full of bro-dudes. It’s like getting on the YVR-Whistler shuttle and agreeing to go skiing with the gnarliest snowboarders wanting to do the thing. The stories were full of “doooood, it was so epic, we were out, and then I went down, and broke my oil pan and brake lever, and my arm, and we had to drag the bike out, and we made it like 400′ down the trail in the first place. But it ROCKED, it was AMAZEBALLS”.
Seriously, I appreciate that some folks have an amazing skill off-road. I don’t. I understand that some people think that because you have an adventure bike, an adventure must include off-pavement trails – just like many skiers and snowboarders feel that you have to go off the groomed trails to have any sort of fun. There are easy trails, sure, but I did some training their my first year, and rode around in the farmer’s field. Then, on the “easy, end of class ride” we immediately went to the equivalent of a double-black diamond. Well, we did in my mind, and perception is the important piece.
So. Touratech? Lots of camaraderie, and there are easy trails – but they stopped guided routes on the easy trails a while back, catering to their core bro-dude group, and that’s when they lost me a bit. I don’t think I’ll miss not going this year.
Revzilla Get-On Adventure Fest
The Revzilla rally was a very different feel to the Touratech one. At Revzilla, you really felt welcomed, you felt like you were part of a community. People were essentially there saying “wow, cool, you’re doing this thing? Doing this thing we are all doing is awesome. ” They actually had green / blue / black rides mapped out like a ski trail, with groups that would stick together. It was a great community feeling.
There still was the belief that adventure riding has to have off-road components. I disagree, as the best adventure I had there was on some sweeping roads with great corners and switch-backs, roads that went through the rocks, not around them, and ended up at Mt. Rushmore. The riding was great, including the off-road stretch I did.
The word for Revzilla’s GOAF is “welcoming”. That’s what everyone was, and they were supportive in you doing the thing how you wanted to do the thing.
Horizons Unlimited CanWest
If “welcoming” summed up Revzilla, “curiosity” summed up HU’s CanWest. I didn’t know what I was in for when I first attended, but that’s where I cemented my belief that adventure is what you make it. There was no insistence on off-road excursions. Paved road adventures, or 15 mile a day adventures, or ride-to-hike adventures – they were all there, and all welcomed. The excitement of HU was the people you met and the stories you shared, and those weren’t all about breaking the bike and having to press your SOS button.
Horizons Unlimited was about learning. It was about attending lectures, or in-person ride reports. It was about picking your path, in your own time, while you still can swing a leg over the bike. HU might have been the oldest age contingent, but the content of the event, and the information that was provided, was the best of the three. On the whole, I enjoyed this one much more than the other two last year, although I didn’t realize that until much later on.
They are truly three different rallies. All of them have their positives and negatives. All of them were worth doing. Will I do any of them again? Sure, Touratech is close, I’ll do that. But I think maybe next summer, Horizons Unlimited might be in the cards for me again.
