Ride Review of the 2009 Rite Aid Run

We just had a few days notice that this event was happening and I was not even going to go on this run. But some plans changed and I found the free time to go.  I am glad I did because not only was it a fun run, I even won a bit of Rite Aid credit! All the money collected for this run was donated to Doernbecher Children’s Hospital in Portland, Oregon.

The run started at the distribution center for Rite Aid in Wilsonville, Oregon.  I arrived promptly at 8am because the info I had did not have a starting time and I figured that it would start about then because of the distance quoted on the flyer. When I got there, there was only 1 other motorcycle and a sign that said “Porker Run.” I thought to myself, either I was very late or way too early for the ride. Luckily I was early and soon enough some bikers showed up.

Seeing the sun out and knowing it was going to be a nice day, I thought I would just enjoy the day hanging out with the first batch of bikers that showed up. Later on I would be glad that I went with the first group of bikers to take off but more on that later…

This year’s Rite Aid Run did a loop around Clackamas and Marion County and Table Rock Wilderness.  From Wilsonville we took Highway 211 to 224 for the first half of the route. Stopping in Detroit, Oregon was about the halfway point for the run and is always a favored stop of mine. I always love to stop by the Cedars Restaurant and have a talk with Lee.

If you don’t remember Cedars and Lee, you might remember the Lazy Lizard Labor Run she hosts every year. Bikers take over Detroit for a whole three day weekend and throw one heck of a party. Check out our pictures and reviews of that sometime for a better idea!

We deviated from the planned route to add some miles and twisty roads to our route after leaving Detroit, Oregon. In Gates, Oregon there is a little underused road that is choked full of twisty riding with some twistbacks.  Unfortunely for you, I was not able to get alot of pictures along this road because I had my hands full of staying on the road and enjoying the challenge of it.

After hitting the high spots of Gates, we curved our way past the Elkhorn day park and started to head back to Wilsonville through as many back roads as we could find to Silverton.

One of the only problems of much of this route is that the roads are in poor shape. While they have alot to offer, you have to watch the road all the time to avoid sudden depressions and potholes. I reminded people to just choose the path of least potholes and they thought I was kidding until they realized after the ride that I was right.

This run was in some ways more enjoyable than the ride I did yesterday, the 1st Annual Hog Wild Poker Run. The view afforded of the river as you ride next to it was breathtaking and full of greenness that the Hog Run did not have. But the Hog Run did have much better roads along the route. While it was a longer route, most  bikers would be able to ride this route with little or no problem at the posted speeds. The Hog Run had many places where inexperienced bikers might have problems and probaly not enjoy it as much as this run.

What tipped it for me though was the group of riders that I was able to ride with. I went along with six other bikers that were all friends and had decided to make it a getaway for them. For some of them it was their first time going on a poker run and for one, it was his first major ride on a motorcycle. I cannot remember all their names but I certainly can say that I really enjoyed their company that day, their bantering was alot of fun made the ride more enjoyable when we did stop. I hope to meet up with them again soon on another biker event this summer if they can all find the time to go riding. Hanging out with them helped making the Rite Aid Run a perfect day for me, good riding, good weather and good bikers to hang out with will always be a perfect day for me.

When we finally made it back to Wilsonville, we only had 10 minutes before the cutoff of 4pm and I think we all were glad that we had made it. Leaving just around 8:30am and with small stops except for lunch we should have finished the route easily by 2pm. But with our little diversion, we added several hours to the route.

I will say that I liked that they gave us the whole route and I was able to program my GPS  with ti. It allowed me to make  sure that we arrived on time for the deadline, it was constantly telling me how much time we had left on the run and we always knew how to get back to Wilsonville by the deadline.

Unfortunely for some bikers that did not plan as well as us, they missed the deadline and arrived after all the prizes had been given away. What was really bad for them, is one of their riders had a better hand than the one that took first place(which was my hand and it was a straight.)

Here is a breakdown of the prizes:

1st place $100 Rite Aid Gift Certificate
2nd Place $75 Rite Aid Gift Certificate
3rd Place $50 Rite Aid Gift Certificate
Last Place $25 Rite Aid Gift Certificate

There were also various raffle prizes and some of them were very good too but certainly 1st place was the best thing to win. For the twenty dollars I spent on the poker hand and raffle tickets, $100 was a good return.

Everything was well organized even though the turnout was less than 20 motorcycles. The only faults I find about this run is maybe they should advertise alot more to get more people going on the ride and give a little more time. Even though we had plenty of time, the bikers that missed the deadline just missed it by about 20 minutes. I talked with the bikers that missed the deadline and they did admit that they started the run after the 10AM last bike out and so had to really cut it close to make it. But with a little bit more time, we could have stopped more places and enjoyed some of the beautiful scenes we rode by or maybe had time for a beer at one of the other stops.

Check out the photos in our photo section for this run!