Fifteen teams entered Cascade’s fifth of six events in the Saturday Rally Series held on August 2. Rallymasters Bill and Kelly Ferber titled this event When Opportunity Knocks referencing the event’s many OPP instructions. The rally started at Milwaukie Lowe’s and ended in Battle Ground, Washington.

About the rally

The odometer calibration transit traveled north on Interstate 5, crossed over the Columbia River, then headed east on WA 14 to Washougal to end at the Steamboat Landing Park.

The rally route then traveled west, skirting the more urban parts of Clark County, through the Ireland, Fern Prairie, Little Elkhorn, Hockinson, Venersborg, Heisson, Yacolt, and Fargher Lake areas.

Break time at Lucia Falls Park gave folks a chance to stretch their legs and visit the beautiful falls on the East Fork Lewis River.

Congratulate the top finishers

First overall and first in the Equipped Category – Bob Morseburg and Cheri Eddy
Second overall and in the Equipped Category – Paul Eklund and Yulia Smolyansky
Third overall and first in the SOP Class – Alexander Castaneda and Eric Hanson

Other top finishers in their class:

Fourth overall and second in the SOP Class – Bill and Felix Kayser
Fifth overall and third in the Equipped Category – Robert Paxman and Kathy Sacry
Sixth overall and third in the SOP Class – David and JoAnn Gattman

The winning team had a total of 2 points over 16 scored legs. They zeroed 15 legs. Wow. Just wow.

Click here for the complete rundown
Click here for Rally Results
Current Series Standings

Sixteen teams entered Cascade’s fourth of six events in the Saturday Rally Series held on July 19. Rallymaster Bob Morseburg titled this event It’s Just 8th Grade Math reflecting the event’s challenges. The rally started in northwest Portland and ended in Sandy.

About the rally

The odometer calibration transit traveled north on Interstate 5 to the Jantzen Beach area, and then headed east on Marine Drive to Troutdale, to end at the Lewis and Clark park on the Historic Columbia River Highway – a lovely twenty-mile drive for an odo.

The route traveled along the Sandy River, and then through the Springdale, Oxbow, Aims, Dodge Park, and Bull Run areas. The plan was to travel along the old historic highway, past the Vista House on Crown Point, and take a break at the Guy Talbot Park at Latourell Falls, but fate was not on our side. The road to the park was open during event development and on the day of the rally checkout, two weeks before the rally.

However, when some changes were made during the checkout, resulting in rally officials deciding to run though the course one more time just to make sure the changes worked, the road closure was discovered. The portion of the Historic Columbia River Highway that leads to the Vista House and the park was closed and would remain closed into September.  Some last-minute rerouting, remeasuring, and recalculating just days before the scheduled rally saved the day. Corbett became the break location, with folks directed to the Corbett Country Market for refreshments and relief. Teams regrouped at the high school to start the remainder of the rally leading to Sandy.

Whew! And we thought the planned challenges were the only hard part of this event.

A couple of things made this event a bit different from previous Saturday Series rallies.  This rally had many more timed (aka scored) legs – 27.  The last 11 checkpoints were not included in the instructions, so no clue where or how many.  And the final five legs were a mile or less apart, creating a gauntlet-like run to the end of the rally.

Challenges

The July rally route was very easy to follow. Most directional instructions included mileage. There were no main road or other navigational rally challenges. Most of the challenges in this event involved solving math problems or accurately measuring time and/or distance.

For example, an instruction directed you to change your speed to zero for 15 seconds, then change your speed to 35. All you needed to do was pause for 15 seconds and then continue at 35mph.

Another instruction directed you to change your speed to 20 for one minute. A mileage was provided but no other hint as to where this speed change was to occur. And, just how far do you go in one minute at 20mph? At 20mph it takes 3 minutes to go one mile (60/20), so you travel 0.33 miles in one minute at 20mph. But the instruction doesn’t say what speed to go after you’ve completed it. Cascade’s Road Rally Rules to the rescue!

RRR 4.8 states, “When a speed change is to be maintained for a specified time or distance, revert to the previous speed after the specified time or distance.”

This instruction provided both a mileage and a reference, but still required some focus to achieve:

OM 12.28 NRI 54. At “SPEED LIMIT” CAST 10 for 60 seconds, then CAST 30.

Unlike the previous example, this instruction at least told you what speed to go after you complete the 60 seconds at 10mph. But just how far do you go in one minute at 10mph? Not far – at 10mph it takes 6 minutes to go one mile (60/10), so you travel just 0.16 miles in one minute at 10mph. Have you ever tried to drive that slowly? It’s harder than you think.

Here’s the first of two instructions that really challenged some folks recall of 8th grade math:

OM 3.86 NRI 59. L on HUDSON. CAST 20 for half the distance to the next NRI, then CAST 30.

Mileage is provided for this instruction, but not the next, so you have no idea what the distance is to the next instruction. How do you solve this problem? Some folks took the easy way and just averaged the two speeds together and traveled 25mph to the next instruction. They were close, but not exact. The correct average speed over the whole distance calculates to be 24mph. Do the math.

The other challenging instruction along the same lines, but different:

OM 11.82 NRI 67. L on BROOKS. CAST 20 for half the time to reach the next NRI, then CAST 30.

This time, mileage is provided for this as well as the next instruction, but that doesn’t help much since you still need to calculate how long to travel at each speed so that the time at each speed is equal. Some folks tried driving one minute at one speed, then the next minute at the other speed, alternately, but that was an inexact approach. Applying 8th grade math skills resulted in an average speed over the whole distance of 25mph.

Congratulate the top finishers

First overall and first in the Equipped Category – Paul Eklund and Yulia Smolyansky
Second overall and first in the SOP Class – Alexander Castaneda and Eric Hanson
Third overall and second in the SOP Class – Bill and Kelly Ferber

Other top finishers in their class:

Fourth overall and third in the SOP Class – David and JoAnn Gattman
Fifth overall and first in the Equipped Category – Robert Paxman and Kathy Sacry

The winning team of Eklund and Smolyansky had a total score of 20 points over 27 scored legs, and they zeroed 20 legs. That means they had 20 seconds of error over a three-hour road rally, and they had 20 perfect on-time leg scores. Very impressive!

Click here for the complete rundown
Click here for Rally Results
Current Series Standings

Twelve teams entered Cascade’s third of six events in the Saturday Rally Series held on June 7. Apparently, the Portland Rose Festival kept many of our “regular” rallyists away on this busy weekend.

Russ and Katy Kraushaar titled this event Lucky #41 commemorating their forty-first rally as Rallymasters. They provided a challenging event from Milwaukie Lowe's to Ridgefield, Washington.

About the rally

This rally intentionally provided fewer official mileage (OM) references than usual (compared to recent Saturday Series events). Also the reference to some checkpoints (CP) was intentionally omitted from the route instructions, so the placement of checkpoints was harder to predict. There were fewer checkpoints than the average Saturday Series event, and leg times were on average longer.

Variety is the spice of life!

The June rally was slightly longer than the average Saturday Series Rally, with a 110-mile course that took just under three and a half hours to complete. The 35-mile one-hour odometer calibration transit went north on Interstate 205, merged onto Interstate 5, and ended at Daybreak Park (CP3 on map).

A quick transit with a short break at the Cedar Creek Grist Mill (CP8) was followed by a longer stop at a service station/convenience store on Interstate 5 east of La Center (CP13).

The break ended with a free zone to escape the traffic of the area and continue in the rural  countryside west of the freeway (CP14).

Challenges

As always, it is helpful to be familiar with Cascade’s Road Rally Rules when participating in one of our events. Like most competitions, TSD road rally is a rules-based game. This rally specifically mentioned in the Rallymasters’ Notes accompanying the Rally Route Instructions, “To be most successful in this rally, it will be helpful to be familiar with Main Road Determinants (RRR 3).” That was true in spades for this event.

The June rally included four main road traps (two based on ONTO and two on Protection). Another four traps offered a deviation where there was no intersection (where one of the two route possibilities was a dead end). One trap was an OR instruction where the half of the OR to be executed was based on which half was referenced first.

All together the rally included nine instructions containing ITIS (if there is such) which means the instruction can be skipped if it cannot be executed prior to the next numbered route instruction. The Rallymaster noted that he had a friend that simply skipped all the ITIS instructions, and he said it always worked. In this rally, not all the ITIS instructions were skipped; a couple were on course and should have been executed.

In addition to the OR instruction mentioned above, there were two more OR instructions required to support the two routes that resulted from a tricky triangle protection trap. You are looking for an S first OPP and this is it! If you go straight and then just keep on going, then you have missed the back-facing stop sign on the road leaving the triangle. The back-facing stop sign is hard to see in this photo, but when you actually drive up to it, it is plain as day. Since this triangle is actually three separate intersections, after you take the straight, the on course route immediately follows the main road to the left on the far side of the triangle. Then continues straight (the same way you would have gone if you didn’t have the S first OPP). Off course teams who went straight past the back-facing stop sign took a different route, using the OR instructions, to rejoin the on course route a few instructions later.

And that’s not all! The locations at which to execute three instructions containing speed changes were determined by a stated distance API (after previous instruction). Sounds straight forward, but sometimes it wasn’t so clear. For example, when an API followed an ITIS instruction, did you execute the ITIS or skip it? Where does the API mileage start? Oh, what fun!

Although there were many challenges, none were very hurtful to your score. If executed incorrectly, most of these challenges resulted in few penalty points.

What the rallymasters said

Katy and I have been writing rallies together for about 40 years now. However, we’ve not written one since 2018 so this event is probably a little “old school” and not exactly what you’re used to of late. Personally, I prefer twisty roads, brisk speeds and confusing traps that make you think. Then you’re late and get to drive fast. Hopefully you were successful and had a fun drive.

We want to especially thank a few folks for their help. We had Torm Kelsey-Green and Kasey Klaus help with the guinea pig. They provided great input and, now that I think about it, made up quite a bit of time after an off-course excursion but still got to the finish on time. My kind of ralliers!

Jamie Anderson developed the artwork and created dash-plaques for the event. I like what she did with our old squids in the Bugeye Sprite. The Bugeye, by the way, was originally drawn by my dad, Dean Kokko probably sixty some years ago. It was his first car and became my first car. Thanks, Dad! And thanks, Jamie!

It’s fair to say that Monte and Victoria Saager are making this series happen. They measured the event and dealt with Richta for us. They guinea pigged the event and then ran it again after the resulting modifications. We can’t thank them enough!

Hope you enjoyed yourselves. It was more work than we remembered and put us behind on our Spring yard work. Such is life. If you give nothing, you get nothing. We try to be helpful now and then, and again thank all our helpers!

Congratulate the top finishers

First overall and first in the SOP Class – Alexander Castaneda and Eric Hanson
Second overall and second in the SOP Class – David and JoAnn Gattman
Third overall and third in the SOP Class – Bill Kayser and Bjorn Freeman-Benson

Other top finishers in their class:
Fourth overall and fourth in the SOP Class – Andrew Brewer and Kat Iverson
Fifth overall and first in the Equipped Category – Robert Paxman and Kathy Sacry

Click here for the complete rundown
Click here for Rally Results
Current Series Standings

Sixteen teams entered Cascade’s second of six events in the Saturday Rally Series. Rallymasters Torm Kelsey-Green and Kasey Klaus provided a fun rally romp from Milwaukie Lowe's to Woodland, Washington.

The rally route and the weather cooperated to deliver the scenic views promised by the rally title, I Can See for Miles & Miles & Miles. Mount St. Helens was visible several times.

About the rally

The April rally was a bit longer than the average Saturday Series Rally, with a 120-mile course that took just under four hours to complete. The tour-style rally moved along at a steady pace so you always felt you were on your way to...well, somewhere. Despite the course doubling back and retracing routes used earlier in the rally and even running some of the same roads backwards. Seamless.

A break to transit through Hockinson and stop at the vintage market or the gas station convenience store was followed by the featured stop on this road rally, a visit to Lucia Falls Park. There were no navigational or time-keeping challenges, other than those created by the rallyists themselves or their equipment. Well, there was one ITIS (if there is such) route instruction that directed a 0.1-minute pause at a STOP. You came to a railroad crossing that has a stop sign. If you decided to execute that instruction at the railroad crossing, then you gave yourself a 10-point penalty.

The correct action was to skip the ITIS instruction (and its penalty pause) because the railroad crossing does not meet the definition of a STOP in the Road Rally Rules which says a STOP is an intersection of rally roads controlled by a stop sign at which you must stop. Since the railroad crossing is not an intersection, you cannot use the instruction there.

There was one team that fell behind the pack almost immediately after leaving the end of the odometer calibration section. They came back to the end of the odo and restarted twice. Turns out they were struggling with a rally equipment malfunction. They eventually caught up and joined us at the restaurant.

Congratulate the top finishers

First overall and first in the Equipped Category – Bob Morseburg and Cheri Eddy
Second overall and first in the SOP Class – Alexander Castaneda and Eric Hanson
Third overall and first in the Novice Class – Travis Cothren and Billy Cundiff

Other top finishers in their class:

Second Equipped – Robert Paxman and Kathy Sacry
Second SOP – David and JoAnn Gattman
Third SOP – Bill Kayser and Felix Kayser
Second Novice – Jason Love and Alenna Merrihew
Third Novice – William Kaplan and Judy Kraut

Click here for the complete rundown
Click here for Rally Results
Current Series Standings

Rallymasters David and JoAnn Gattman’s March 1 rally kicked off Cascade’s 2025 Rally Series with an event titled Celebration Day! And it was a celebration – a “leapling” birthday party for our rallymaster JoAnn. Her Feb. 29 birthday was celebrated by all present at the end of the rally. Dash plaques commemorating the event were distributed to all. Happy Leapling Birthday, JoAnn!

About the rally

Thank you to Jamie Anderson for producing rally dash plaques The 95-mile course took three hours to complete, included a break at the Historic Butteville Store, and ended in Mt. Angel. The route went south on I205 from Milwaukie Lowe’s, then south on I5 to end the odometer calibration in Wilsonville.

The rally then continued south into the Champoeg area before heading north almost to Aurora, then traveled through Hubbard and the outskirts of Woodburn, before veering even farther to the northeast, eventually arriving in Mt. Angel.

Challenges

The first challenge offered an instruction to go right at an intersection at a stop ITIS (if there is such) with a pause. You’re at a T intersection and you’ve learned that the main road usually goes left at a T. However, there is a back-facing stop sign on the left and no back-facing sign on the right, so at this T intersection the main road goes right. You cannot execute the instruction to go right – at least not at this intersection. The correct action is to follow the main road to the right and continue looking for an opportunity to execute the ITIS instruction. You don’t find it before the next NRI, so you skip the ITIS and its penalty pause.

If you decided to use the ITIS instruction, you’re okay. You went the correct way. However, it was for the wrong reason so you earned points for being late because you used the ITIS pause.

Next were two ONTO instructions. It started when an instruction directed you to go L ONTO CHAMPOEG. The next instruction was L at STOP with a pause and an ITIS. The correct action was to go left to stay onto Champoeg and hold the ITIS still looking, but you don’t find, so you skip this ITIS. That was followed by L at “CASE” with a pause and an ITIS. Getting the picture? Another left to stay onto Champoeg.

If you decided to use both ITIS instructions, you went the correct way. However, for the wrong reasons. You were onto Champoeg and both ITIS instructions followed Champoeg. So you earned penalty points for using the ITIS instructions.

The next challenge involved the definition of STOP. According to our Road Rally Rules, STOP is an intersection controlled by legal traffic stop signs at which the contestant is legally required to stop. The instruction directs you to pause at a STOP. However, the only opportunity that occurs prior to the next numbered route instruction is a stop sign at a railroad crossing. Since there is no intersection of rally roads at the railroad crossing, this stop sign does not meet the definition of and therefore cannot be a STOP. The instruction contains an ITIS, so on course teams skipped it. Off course teams added to their score by pausing at this non-STOP.

The next challenge was another ONTO, this time ONTO Boones Ferry where you are expected to stay on Boones Ferry without using the first half of an OR instruction directing L on Boones Ferry, but instead using the second half of the OR instruction to pause at a sign you see after you’ve correctly followed Boones Ferry.

Next was another ITIS pause at a STOP on the railroad tracks, Followed by the final main road trap of the rally, an L at T.

The instruction read: L at E COLLEGE. PAUSE 15 seconds. ITIS.

Since you’re at a T and the rally started with an unusual T main road, you decide to look at this one very carefully. You go through the Main Road Determinant list, top to bottom, until you find one that identifies a single road leaving the intersection. Start at the top. You are not ONTO or TOWARD. There are no back-facing stop or yield signs on the roads to the left or the right, so protection does not identify the main road. You go on.

Next is straight – nope. Last is leftmost, or more commonly known as L at T. So the main road here goes left. Since you can’t execute an instruction to go the same way as the main road, you cannot use the route instruction at this intersection. So you go to the left to stay on the main road and continue looking for an opportunity to go left on E College. You encounter the checkpoint and the next route instruction without finding an opportunity to execute this route instruction, so you skip it and consider it completed.

Congratulate the top finishers

First overall and first in the Equipped Category is the team of Bob Morseburg and Cheri Eddy in Car #20 with a total of 16 points over 15 scored legs. They zeroed six legs, got one point on each of five legs, two twos, a three and a four. We’ve come to expect no less, but still it’s amazing.

Second overall and second in the Equipped Category is the team of Paul Eklund and Yulia Smolyansky in Car #17 with a score of 55 points. They zeroed three legs, got single-digit scores on eleven legs, plus a ten. Nice to see this team rallying with Cascade again.

Third overall and first in the SOP Class is the team of Alexander Castaneda and Eric Hanson in Car #4 with a score of 60. Wow! They came close to matching second place Equipped. Nice job, guys!

Other top finishers in their class:

Third GPS --- Car #14 Robert Paxman and Kathy Sacry
Second SOP – Car #11 Bill Kayser and Felix Kayser
Third SOP – Car #16 Edmund Frank and Jo Su
First Novice – Car #15 Travis Cothren and Billy Cundiff
Second Novice – Car #5 John Livingston and Kristy Knoll
Third Novice – Car #6 Douglas Arnall and Damien Csergei

Congratulations to all!

Click here for the complete rundown

Click here for Rally Results

Current Series Standings