The rally pack for Leg #2 is 27 pages, and gives the riders 7,000 points for arriving at the Sheraton in Colorado Springs before 1700 hours on Wednesday, 16-Aug-2006. If they arrive after 1500 hours, however, they get charged a 150 point-per-minute penaly.

That means being 46 minutes late pretty much wipes out the 7,000 arrival bonus, and being an hour and 59 minutes late results in a whopping 17,850 point penalty. Not being late is a Very Good Thing™. Remember, the combined Leg 1 and 2 scores need to total 60,000 points or more for the riders to be considered finishers. Just showing up on time isn't enough.

The Canyonlands bonus suite

There are several "rallies within a rally" this year. One is the "Canyonlands Suite" — George selected 7 overlooks in or near Canyonlands N.P. and added a 8th bonus worth 10,000 points if all 7 were claimed. Almost all of these are daylight only bonuses, which makes it tougher:

1. Upheaval Dome Trail (5,230 points)
2. Grandview Point Overlook (3,959 points)
3. Needles Overlook (2,173 points)
4. Big Spring Canyon Overlook (3,167)
5. Anticline Overlook (1 point)
6. Dead Horse Point Overlook (2,069 points)
7. Jug Handle Arch (1,995 points)
8. Combo (all 5 above) (10,000 points)

Here they are:

That's a total of 28,594 points. The Anticline Overlook bonus is a tough one at the end of a narrow, single-lane 26 mile dirt road. George gave it just one point, so nobody would normally even attempt it (too few points-per-mile or points-per-hour) but in this case, in order to claim the combo bonus, you have to do it.

Rally HQ believes Jim Owen is the only competitor attempting the Canyonlands combo.

Tragic news

Monday morning, at about 1045 hours on US-285 just south of Roswell, NM, Uncle Bud rear-ended a truck and was killed instantly. We couldn't include this horrific news in yesterday's report because as of last night, Bud's wife still didn't know.

Here is the rallymaster's brief message sent to various mailing lists and online forums: