I recently traveled to Oregon for the BMW MOA rally in Redmond. Afterwards I was invited to join Jim Hyde and the Rawhyde crew on their Continental Divide off-road motorcycle ride. I had not planned for this but decided to jump at the opportunity anyway. Jim hosts a week long ride for his customers. The route generally follows the continental divide and is mostly off-road and very, very scenic. I went along to take pictures and shoot some video. This was quite a workout for me. My job was to race to the front of the pack, jump off, grab my camera, quickly set up and shoot riders as they went past. Because of the dust they would spread out for about 3 miles. At the end I would load my bike, jump on it and then race at high speeds on dirt and gravel roads, pass everyone in the pack while eating their dust, and do it all again. I was on Metzler Tourance tires so it was a bit dicey at times running 80 mph+ down dirt and gravel roads – especially since I had to ride in the loose stuff on the side of the roads to get around the others. It was fun but a lot of work. We had great camping and some cool guys to ride with.
Below is a slide show of unedited images from the trip.
2010 Rawhyde Continental Divide Ride – Images by James Pratt
