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Gillette Preview

redclfco

New member
Gillette Picture Preview

Greetings!

Curiosity finally got to me, so on my way home from Colorado I decided to give Gillette a whirl coming up from the south on I-25. I took off from Ft. Collins at 6:00 am. The highs that morning was 59 in BOTH Gillette and FC, and got up to 75 by evening in Gillette. So much for mind blowing heat! It's just like home, some good days, some bad days...whatta ya want here?

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County road 59 leading into Gillette was uneventful, other than an abundance of smashed JACK (not your typical bunnies) Rabbits and antelopes. No joke, they could be a hazard! Some could of been Jackalopes, but they had been smashed by too many tires to tell.

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I arrived early after noon at Cam Plex, and found the roads to and from easy to get around on and the facility easy to find. Gillette is not a Ho Dunk type of town, but a busy metropolis with what appears to be a thriving economy.

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Barb, the administrator of Cam Plex event Center met me at the main building, and provided free camping overnight while I took a few pics. The overall facility was twice as big as West Bend, and is set up to accommodate anything like our group to a full blown extravaganza.

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Cam Plex was hosting a county fair and getting ready for a regional Rodeo over the next few days. Barb set me up in the "Box Elder Campground" which she was under the impression from MOA that we would not be interested in...wellll I don't know about that! Box Elder may work perfect for the Quiet types and RVs who want electric. There were full blown mobile home shower/sinks/bathroom arrangements throughout the campground, and obviously could/would add to the expense. The area had nice green grass, but was about as far away from the action as the further most tent area in West Bend. I liked it!

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Potential Beer Garden? Or Stage area? They had a stage of the same size as West Bend in this tent.


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Lots of paved parking and a neat apperance

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This area was in the front, and sort of reminded me of where all the vendors set up in West Bend.

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There also was several LARGE (this is Wyoming) places indoor under the grandstands that could work as food or vendor areas, education areas- more secure than outside...

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the main building was in use as a fair and was sort what you see is what you get; a great big %$%^& building with good lighting and multiple uses... If it rained, yo could bring the whole shebang inside if you wanted1 it was that big!

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the facility had several LARGE tents which I must assume were permenent fixtures however I'm not SURE. At least the same configuration could be used for the MOA.

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One interesting note, they have a full blown dirt race track set up around the main grandstands. Listen up Powers of MOA: Think flat track racing! What a kick to draw them in as putting on a flat track race! The facility is big enough and well designed enough to seperate out the grandstand from the majority of the facility, allowing for day/pay customers to come in for the race and to view the "historical Beemers" in the secure area under the grand stand! Just an idea in case on of yaall are actually reading this post! Think amature race! Could be fun! Think Antique race! Just puttin in my 2 cents here!

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My new friends...don't tell my wife...

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the sun went down on that first day, I went and ate at a Applebees

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Day 2 Gillette Preview

Day 2, time to ride. since I had only one day to explore, I decided to head west west on I-90, destination 10 sleep.
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35 miles out of Gillette EXACTLY, (might right this down, kids) I pulled off the interstate that led me to a county road that was marked "county road, please stay on roadway and off private property".

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This road does not show well with my little camera, but parts were steep, twisty, dirt DID I say DIRT? and I had about six miles of absolute FUN tearing up this road before I came back to my senses, realising nobody was on this road, and nobody knew where I was, and my cell phone was out-of-range So I turned around...

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Seventy miles out, I reached the town of Buffalo. Although I didn't stop, it had lots of local eateries, and since it was also near Sturgis, the town was full of Harley backfires and frilly leathers and girls wearing no braziers! I was anxious to tear up the foothills I could see to the west, so I passed them all by..:bikes



Steep and Twisty
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A fun road heading to Ten Sleep!

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At mile 100 from Gillette, I slowed the GS to to read a itty bitty forest service sign and it didn't say come in, but it didn't say stay out, so being the law abiding person I was, I thought I would check out a little high country GS dirt riding across this big meadow surrounded with trees!

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This went on, once again too long, it was getting dark, no phone, no body knew where I was, I was 10 miles into it, and it showed no end. I turned around at the fork in the road!

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Having gone only one direction, and had this much fun I put 300 miles on the bike that day. If you consider that if you went a bit further north to Sheridan, you could ride the mountains all-day-long! If you went 60 miles to the Black Hills you could ride all-day-long! If you went to Devils Tower 40mile? you could ride all-day-long?

Lets go to Gillette!


Thanks for reading my post!

Red
 
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Thans for posting

Thank you! Great pics, some good ideas for facility use, local rides etc. Looks good.

Holly
 
Darn

Wish you could edit titles. One of these years I'll learn to spell check it before I hit submit. :doh

Holly
 
Way to go Red. Now people will have stuff to complain about in Gillette.

Wait...........too late, never mind. I hope you had a nice trip and I was planning on going to Gillette anyways. Nice pictures. Worth thousands of words.
 
location, location location

No yellow flagging for me. I just get there, locate the tye die flag flapping in the Wyoming wind, and set up my tent. Why mess with a good thing?:)
 
I am not sure if Pete will be there.:laugh
That could have been one time thing.
Usually, you hear the group before you see them.
 
Good report!

Thanks for sharing. Your photos and comments make the Cam-Plex look more desirable as a rally site than does the Cam-Plex web site.

That place looks pretty huge, all right.

No complaining from me, I'm already formulating my plans for next summer.
 
Good Report!

:clap Thanks for an honest and objective report of Gillette from a Wyoming Native! I have not ever attended a major BMW rally to date and was looking forward to going to Gillette this next year as my first. Then I read all the whys, who ever thought of, and man what a dumb place posts and was afraid to even show up in my Cowboys T-shirt! We don't have it all, no large traffic snarls, no metroplitan sky lines and no overcrowding, but WE (Wyomingites) like it. Yes we have wind, believe me it will be a god send if it does get hot, and yes it can get hot in Gillette in the middle of July (it is summer isn't it). As noted there are plenty of places to ride both paved and dirt. Please come to Wyoming for the rally and enjoy yourselves, ride where ever you want and see the sites, enjoy the rally and oh yeah when it it is over go home :wave (we like the wide open spaces and very little crowding!) Looking forward to next year!
 
Gillette

Red:

Thanks for posting this. It gives me a positive image of the rally site compared to the grim one I imagined after reading the "You have got to be kidding" thread.

Rinty
 
Now, your've done it....

With all the bitching about Gillette, I was excited that I was going to have the pick of all the campsites, no waiting for a cold one at the Bier Garten, and a better shot at all the rally door prizes...Now there are going to be all these BMW riders in Gillette next July, having a good time and enjoying some great riding and comraderie.....Way to go, Red. :)
 
Looks great, thanks for posting pics!

There was flat track racing next to the 49er rally in Northern California this year, it was very well attended by rally-goers. Let's see, also the RA rally last year, I think, or...somewhere..oh hell, memory fails. Anyway, great idea, and timely, as there's a new BMW flat tracker based on the F800:

http://www.boxercup.com/etc/utils.jsp?t=news&idx=0&newscat=general

Doncha think BMW would like to take this opportunity to showoff their stuff? :)

Love the combination of open spaces and nearby twisty roads. Maybe those wide open space spook the folks from the big cities, to me they look like a breath of fresh air.
 
Nice job on the preview pictures. I think your phot report did a better job of quieting down all the 'Mr. Buzzkills' who were creating so much negative press about this 2008 choice than words ever could acomplish. I can't wait and it looks like some great GS roads await to play with too. Everyone should see these pictures,
 
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