2023 10th Annual NW Starfest Official Thread!

[Tykes_Place]

When: July 13-16th. Arrive on Thursday 13th. Rides on Friday 14th and Saturday 15th. Depart on Sunday 16th. We usually meet for breakfast before leaving.

Where: Belfair WA

Lodging: Belfair Motel
23322 WA-3 Belfair, WA 98528

Call 360-275-4485 to book your room. Mention you’re with Northwest Starfest organized by Steve Shores.
3 night single room is $330. Double is $370.

Tentative ridese:
1. Belfair counterclockwise around the Hood Canal, catch the 1 hour lunch ferry to Seattle, 15 minute ride out of town and then down south to Steve's house in Puyallup for salmon dinner.
2. Back roads from Belfair to Johnson Ridge Observatory at Mount St Helens.
3. Back roads from Belfair to Astoria for lunch at the Big O Tavern south of Olny OR.


Who:
1. Shores
2. MikeyC and Janetta
3. Tykes_Place
4. Anan
5. Jaybo and maybe Judy
6. YamaDave
7. Mark Johnson
8. AHodge75
9. Lyndon
10. Mark Lindell
11. Duke
12. JD
13. Christine
14. Brad and Delfuza
15. Any hooligans that tag along with MikeyC or Jaybo.
16.


Comment on this first post if you’re attending and I’ll add you to the list.

[Ananthc]

Anan - in for - Sat and Sun.

[Shores]

Thursday is the 13th. I was in the process of checking out lodging options in my area. Having a hard time though because the reasonably priced ones are full of tweakers and the nice ones are $175 and up per night. I'd sure like to go to Orofino, Idaho or Spray, Oregon again.

https://www.roadstarclinic.com/forum/rides-meets-amp-events/151795-2023-pnw-starfest

[MikeyC]

We can still move it to where ever you would like You mentioned a place on the phone that sounded neat.

[Ahodge75]

I’m in for July 14th-16th……

Darrel has been drinking or because we haven’t 100% chose yet he just copied last years and will make corrections…..

I’m not 100% sold on the suggested location but I’ve never rode any those areas so it would be new to me and that’s always a positive….

[Tykes_Place]

Lol. I copied from last year. Made some changes but it didn’t save. It’s updated.

[Shores]

I'll be physically checking out some motels today and talking to managers.

[Shores]

Well I'm striking out on finding a motel or other lodging in the area that is reasonably priced, has adequate number of rooms and has an outdoor patio or other gathering place. I drove this morning to check several out and was totally depressed at the condition and the management. I need people's opinions. Last time I held it in Puyallup, WA, it was only a two-day event and people just booked a local hotel for two nights and then we hung out at my house. We could do the same this year and Sara and I are totally fine with a ton of folks parking and hanging out at our place. But for a decent hotel that doesn't have bad reviews or tweakers, it would be about 175-200 per night. There are a number of these nice hotels in town. I think we've been spoiled with the remoteness and low budget of Spray Oregon, Orofino Idaho and Ione Washington. There are some awesome rides in this area. Please provide some input.

[Tykes_Place]

I’m fine with a different location. $600 for lodging is a lot.

[Shores]

There are several places below $100 per night, but they don't get very good reviews. You just might have to pack some heat!

[Ahodge75]

I pack the Heat….but I would prefer not to have put down a couple tweakers for touching my bike…..

[Ahodge75]

I’m fine with a different location as well. Everyone always brings up Orifino, I wasn’t able to do that one, so I didn’t get to enjoy what everyone loved about it. But doing something new is good too……being that it’s the 10th annual event I think everyone just wants it to be Special.

[Shores]

I'm very disappointed because the couple rides I had in mind would be fantastic! I would have a couple rooms available at my house and lots of camping space. Maybe I'm being too anal about finding motels that have excellent reviews. We stayed in a few sketchy places before and were just fine. Again, I think we are spoiled by having places where we can all hang out and get noisy at night. But that could easily be my house. Maybe we just need someone else's opinion on what they think about the motels they find on priceline.com for Puyallup.

[MidnightRide]

I'm very disappointed because the couple rides I had in mind would be fantastic! I would have a couple rooms available at my house and lots of camping space. Maybe I'm being too anal about finding motels that have excellent reviews. We stayed in a few sketchy places before and were just fine. Again, I think we are spoiled by having places where we can all hang out and get noisy at night. But that could easily be my house. Maybe we just need someone else's opinion on what they think about the motels they find on priceline.com for Puyallup.

Steve what if sleeping HQ was just moved east to North Bend, or any other direction, but we keep the same generally planned rides? Could still hangout at your place in some way if desired. Bummer about the high prices though.

As a side plan, I did outline a fantastic ride(s) in Northern Idaho/Western Montana, IIRC. We could base it out of Challis and crash Duke 's brother's place for a while. I'm sure he'll invite us.. At least Duke would have a place to stay!

Not that it needs to be repeated, but I could put together a few more routes out of Ione, if interested. Could also base one out of Republic and cover some new area up there.

I'd posted in the other thread that Western Washington sunshine peaks around August 1st. Mid-July to mid-August. I grew up over there as well.

Oh, and I didn't get to make my planned Lolo Pass ride last fall. I had an awesome loop planned and hope to get that in once the weather cheers up.

[Shores]

I have checked tons of motels north and south of Puyallup but haven't gone as far north as North Bend. All of them are very similar, even in the podunk towns south of here where they are 150 to 200 per night. North Bend is too close to Seattle to have reasonable prices.

[Duke]

Checked on the going Motel rates in Challis, and found that they're going for around $85.00 a night.
The rides in and out of Challis are beautiful, but there isn't any road loops, and the rides would be going then coming back on the same route.

[MidnightRide]

Duke , I actually posted this link last summer, regarding two rides out of Challis. Posting them in a post below.

[Ananthc]

I went thru (online) few hotels in and around Puyallup and concur with Steven's finding. decent ones trend to be close to $200 a night!
My vote is leaning towards remote locations like Ione or Baker city -> quiet town with mazing riding opportunities !

[MidnightRide]

Well the idea of Steve's place was that he originated StarFest so wanted to bring it back home, a practical choice for celebration (ten years).

What other way can we commemorate the 10th anniversary?

Select the best of the ten and return to that location?
Do something really wild and off the chart from the norm?
Head down to Laguna Seca or Sonoma and do some track days?
Find a good motel and drink and party for three days straight, never hopping on the bikes?
Pick up three separate locations in three days?
Roll out to the Midwest and give Lug Nut a hard time?

Chip in for a huge tent, inflatable beds, and a bank of porta-potties for Steve's place?

Anyone?

[Shores]

I got it all figured out! Y'all can just double or quadruple up in a single room, share a bed, etc. That will keep the expense down!

[MidnightRide]

I got it all figured out! Y'all can just double or quadruple up in a single room, share a bed, etc. That will keep the expense down!

Thinking about it, though, what did each of us spend up in Ione for motels and the like? Probably $300-400 each. I'm assuming you have enough room for a bunch of tents out there on your property somewhere, not that I think everyone would be a fan of camping. But the real downside to camping is for everyone to try to haul all of their gear to the site. Not practical for most.

But for $300-400 x 15+ ($4500-6000+), we all could buy tents, air mattresses, lawn chairs, sleeping bags, and even kerosene heaters and still have change left over. Maybe even some tarps for the bikes for nightly dew or rain. Rain would be the only bummer. No luxury showers, a problem for some, and surely some porta-potties would be needed, as well as some kind of wash facilities for basic hygiene, but we'd be our own little caravan of nomads doing a camp-fest for a weekend. Anne and I would probably climb on board for that, and we'd still be honoring Steve's desire to bring it home for the 10th. If we buy this stuff in bulk we can probably get some deals.

We could tow the bike (and gear) over early and help setup camp for the tribe, as well as help plan food, cooking, and the like. Plus we'd have all of this stuff for future use, should that present itself, that could be hauled to the next location. I know we'd have enough room up at our place in Metaline Falls for this encampment, plus we could likely do it elsewhere (Sturgis?).

I'm really just stoking the coals a bit to see if this is a feasible idea. I think it would be fun. We used to help host our waterski camps for our church youth groups years ago, cooking everything on a couple of those tall propane gas camp stoves, for more than 40 people each time, not to mention hauling our boats and the like to some remote lake in California. It was a blast.

Steve? Doable? You have the space, rain or shine? We have plenty of lawn chairs, portable tables, and the like, ourselves.

Unless I'm really overlooking something, I'd give this a thumbs up.

[Shores]

I've got room for 6 or 8 tents depending on the size of the tent. Three bathrooms with three toilets, one shower and one tub shower. My wife Sarah is a master of cooking for large groups. I would have no place to store or no way to transport tents and gear in the future. That's a wild idea Ron!

[LUV4RS]

I want to hear about these rides you’ve got planned Definitely in for a ride on either day if not both.

[Shores]

Great to hear from you Mike! Where have you been?

[MikeyC]

Count me and Jenetta in!

[MikeyC]

You know, there is Morton, Wa.

[MidnightRide]

I think we can make a lot of things work, but I think we'd need about double the space that Shores has if we were going to do the camping thing, unless there's an actual campground nearby? How about kicking down a neighbor's fence and replacing it after the event?

Duke , regarding the Challis ride, there are a couple of ways to run the loops, while one does a bit of overlapping but through a glorious mountainous area.

I posted this after Starfest 2022 in that thread, so I'll do a copy-and-paste here.

-------------------

(Posted last summer)

I was teasing Duke that since he has family in Challis, Idaho, being the amazing piece of God's Green Earth that it is, that we should base a Starfest out of Challis one year and make it happen. I rode that area during the eclipse a few years back and it is absolutely unbelievable. The runs along the Salmon River are awe-inspiring.

Freedom ride all the way.

The Day 1 ride below is the exact ride I took during the eclipse, with me coming up from Arco. It passes through the Sun Valley, ID, ski resort, out of Ketchum. I'd ride that once a month if I had the opportunity. I've also driven most of the Day 2 ride, with some exception. I'd want to run it again to check it all out.

Not sure what traffic's like during the summer months.

Impossible not to love both of these routes, and we may be able to improve on them. Food for thought for the coming years.

Day 1:

https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Challis,+ID+83226/Stanley,+ID/Ketchum,+Idaho/Arco,+ID/Challis,+ID/@43.8794448,-114.5197772,145951m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m32!4m31!1m5!1m1!1s0x54a81f9a01671c b1:0x3813c122fab09a1e!2m2!1d-114.2317308!2d44.5046445!1m5!1m1!1s0x54a8f65559fd6 39b:0xb9c8c4a2fb0a918b!2m2!1d-114.9351998!2d44.2155392!1m5!1m1!1s0x54a982a92d1e8 66d:0x4464d56f1c84f5c2!2m2!1d-114.3636619!2d43.6807402!1m5!1m1!1s0x5355f98b91dc5 3dd:0x8b10aa6044ec2c49!2m2!1d-113.3002844!2d43.6365693!1m5!1m1!1s0x54a81f9a01671 cb1:0x3813c122fab09a1e!2m2!1d-114.2317308!2d44.5046445!3e0

Day 2:

https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Challis,+ID+83226/Wisdom,+MT/Jackson,+MT/Leadore,+ID/Challis,+ID/@44.7730984,-115.0312165,287488m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m32!4m31!1m5!1m1!1s0x54a81f9a01671c b1:0x3813c122fab09a1e!2m2!1d-114.2317308!2d44.5046445!1m5!1m1!1s0x53597806ba8be af1:0xb4fa225a532b3c51!2m2!1d-113.4508925!2d45.6179788!1m5!1m1!1s0x5359943832fac 791:0x79cdbb266d8b4ad5!2m2!1d-113.4095162!2d45.3685929!1m5!1m1!1s0x53570aac0fd1b d43:0x3f5aae776524aecf!2m2!1d-113.358091!2d44.6802005!1m5!1m1!1s0x54a81f9a01671c b1:0x3813c122fab09a1e!2m2!1d-114.2317308!2d44.5046445!3e0

MikeyC , I haven't been through Morton for a couple of decades, IIRC. I'll have a look.

We could probably do a camping thing in Challis if we wanted to entertain that, but $85 is pretty manageable for most, I think.

Shores , I'm sure we could rent a dozer and clear that area out a bit to allow for a few more tents?

[MidnightRide]

Shores and MikeyC , Morton looks like a nice base as well, and mostly out of the urban congestion. Motel prices, or camping? FYI we have plenty of storage space for camping gear in our warehouse, for the next few years at least.

Could still add a Mt. Rainier loop or something close to that, as well as an ocean run out to Westport and the like. I mention Westport because we commercial fished for salmon out of there during my high school summers, and I haven't been back since then. Total fishing town.

Here's a map of the general overview:

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Morton,+WA+98356/@46.7050066,-122.3992821,138855m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x5496b5078b433a67:0xdf57fe6cc06cdc77!8m2!3d46.5584421!4d-122.2751046

[MidnightRide]

Westport:

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Westport,+WA+98595/@46.8905731,-124.0972493,8649m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x54924505ccae2a2f:0x51a1814a0ee953a6!8m2!3d46.8900903!4d-124.1040613